Page 30 of Run Away With Me

‘Give me a second,’ I murmured.

My heart was pounding again as I watched the blonde lady pick up her coffee and go back to the front of the store. Instead of leaving, she sat on one of the tall bar stools that ran along the front window and pulled out her phone.

She was blocking our exit.

I wished we’d already bought the phones. All I wanted to do was silently text Brooke with the details rather than tell her out loud and have someone overhear. I had to tell her,though. I’d wanted to protect her from that uncomfortable, sick feeling that came with knowing Chris had come back for us last night, and the questions I knew she would have. Questions that I really didn’t have answers to.

I drummed my fingers on the table for a moment, then grabbed the newspaper and spun it around to point at a random paragraph.

‘Don’t look up,’ I said to Brooke as soon as her attention was focused on the paper.

‘Okay.’

‘I’m serious. Don’t look up until I tell you. There’s a woman sitting in the window: blonde, white shirt, blue jeans, black heels. Pointy nose. Look now.’

Brooke scanned the front of the store, then nodded and looked back at me. I turned the page and pointed at something else.

‘What about her?’ Brooke asked.

‘Last night, she was with Chris. They tried to get into our room.’

She looked up at me, startled. ‘What?’

‘Last night,’ I repeated, pointing emphatically at the paper to direct her attention. ‘When you were asleep. They tried the key card Chris pickpocketed from you to get into the room.’

‘You should’ve woken me up,’ Brooke hissed.

‘Why? They didn’t get in and they left after. I didn’t think –’

‘That they’d follow us here?’

‘It might just be a coincidence.’

Brooke muttered something under her breath that I couldn’t quite catch. She put her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, subtly angling herself toward the door.

‘How are we going to get out?’ she murmured.

‘She doesn’t know that I recognize her,’ I said, then sipped my coffee again. ‘And they don’t know that I caught them trying to get in last night.’

‘Okay,’ Brooke said.

‘But if we walk right past her, she’s only going to follow us.’

‘There’s only one door in and out, Mouse.’

I shook my head. ‘No way. There will be another door somewhere, for emergencies.’

‘Will it set off an alarm?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Shit.’

We waited in silence for another minute, watching to see if the woman would look up at us or make a move. But she didn’t. She drank her coffee and scrolled on her phone, like she was waiting. Like she had all the time in the world for us to move first.

Brooke kept drumming her fingers against the table in a nervous rhythm. I reached out and covered her hand with mine, squeezing it briefly. Brooke looked at me, a little desperate, and my breath caught in my throat.

‘It’s okay. Stay here,’ I said to her, standing up.