Page 5

I wasn’t going back. Not this time.

‘Brooke,’ I said, stumbling across the room to urgently shake her awake. ‘We have to go. Get up.’

‘What the hell?’ she grumbled.

‘The police are outside.’

‘Police?’ She sounded more alert now.

‘Yeah. We have to go. Right now.’

‘Shit,’ she groaned.

She sat up quickly then, and I pulled on a sweater and my sneakers while shoving everything else into my backpack. I was shaking and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It took three attempts for me to tie my shoelaces. My fingers kept slipping.

‘Where’s the room key?’ I asked in a panic.

I turned around and noticed Brooke had put her jeans on over the top of her pajama shorts.

‘Just leave it.’

‘Leave it here?’

‘Yeah, housekeeping will find it when they come by later,’ she replied.

Not having to check out with the front desk would cut down on how long it would take to get out of here, which was fine by me. I swung my backpack onto my shoulder and took a few quick steps toward the door.

‘You’re sure they’re here for us, Mouse?’ she asked, and I nodded frantically.

‘There are two cars, both with police officers and what look like child protection social workers. We have to leavenow, unless you want a police escort home.’ I forced myself to unclench my jaw. ‘But I might be wrong. Do you want to hang around and find out?’

She stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Let’s go.’

We left the room as quietly as possible and tried to act casual, like regular people who had decided,Hey, let’s get up super early and leave, rather than waiting for the free breakfast buffet.

‘There’s a back staircase. I noticed it last night,’ Brooke said. ‘It goes straight down to the parking lot.’

‘Let’s do that,’ I said, my words coming out more blunt than I intended. I just wanted to be out of here, away from the two police cars that were such a threat.

It would take a moment, I was sure, for the officers to get the information they needed from the front desk and then find our room. What I was more worried about was Brooke’s incredibly ostentatious car. If someone decided togo poking around the parking lot, it wouldn’t take them long to find it. At least Brooke had insisted on parking at the back of the motel, out of sight of the road. That would buy us a few more minutes.

We scrambled down the narrow staircase and then fell into step alongside each other as we crossed the lot to the car. I didn’t dare say anything as Brooke got into the driver’s side and turned the engine on. I slid into the seat next to her and fixed my eyes firmly on the windshield.

‘Can you see anyone?’ she asked.

I swallowed hard and forced myself to look around. ‘No. We’re good.’

‘You better be fucking sure about this,’ she muttered, and followed the signs for the exit.

There was a single officer left in one of the police cars – the others must have joined the first at the front desk – and she barely looked up as we pulled around the building and onto the highway.

I looked down at my hands, surprised to see that they were still shaking, then flicked my eyes to the rearview mirror, watching for when the police cars would surely appear. Meanwhile, Brooke put distance between us and the motel.

I was breathing too hard, but I couldn’t slow down my rapid-fire heartbeat. I wasn’t going to get away with this. Someone was going to catch me, and then I’d go on trial for murder, and, worst of all, I was dragging Brooke into all of this too.

Brooke reached across me and fumbled for the glove box.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked.