Page 16 of Angels & Whiskey

“What?” she shouted, the people around us turning their heads to look at us.

“Please. Not here.” I looked down at my coffee cup, tears pricking my eyes as I avoided her judging scrutiny.

“Fine. Let’s go to my place.”

I exhaled. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Today I’m only allowed to meet you for coffee.”

“Are you listening to yourself right now?”

“Just … Please.” I fidgeted with the brown coffee sleeve that was wrapped around the paper cup. I couldn’t look up at her. She had no idea what I’d been through—no one did.

“You need to leave him,” she urged, lowering her voice.

“I can’t.”

“Why—”

I finally lifted my eyes to hers. “He has people. It’s not good, B.”

“Go to the cops.”

I took a sip of my cooling coffee. “Yeah … he has people there, too.”

“Of course he does,” she muttered.

“I promise I’ll let you help me, but we need to come up with a smart plan. That’s why I decided to tell you. I’m ready—I’ve hadenough.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

“Dammit, Autumn.” She stood and reached for my hand, pulling me out of the chair and wrapping her arms around me. “You know it’s going to kill me letting you go back there.”

I wiped my tears from my cheeks. “I know. I’ll be okay. I promise.”

We sat back down and I glanced at my phone. “Shit. I gotta go or I’ll be late. Rich always calls me on the house phone while he eats his lunch at two.”

“To make sure you’re home?”

Rich went into work around ten and was home by eight unless there was aproblemhe needed to handle. Every day I was allowed to go to the gym and get coffee on my way home, but I had to make sure to be home by two for the call from him. I’m sure he checked our security cameras too to make sure I had no visitors that he didn’t know about and to see what I did throughout the day.

“It will be okay. I’ve dealt with this for almost three years. What’s a few more months?”

“Months?” she shrieked, raising her voice again.

“Maybe sooner. The plan really needs to be solid and I need to somehow put money away. I don’t use cash and I’m not sure my name is on our bank accounts.”

“I hate this,” she muttered, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest.

I gave a weak smile. “Me, too. We’ll talk about this next week. We’ll have coffee in your car.”

We stood, throwing our empty cups in the trash. I opened the door and walked right into a hard body, face first. “Oh my God. I’m so …”

I couldn’t finish my sentence.

The most intoxicating green eyes looked down at me as he held my elbows to steady me.

“It’s okay. My mistake.” He smiled, still holding me up. “Are you okay?”