“I know it was.” I smoothe my hand over his head, remembering how I’d noticed how different, how much more burden he looked after he started working for Frankie. “I saw that it was.” I sit there smoothing my hand his head for what feels like hours, while he breaths in and out, in and out.
Finally he pulls away and looks at me again. His eyes are a little watery, like he’s been crying. “Run away with me.” There’s desperation in his eyes, a silent plea.
I bite down on my lip. “What?”
He sits up and traps my face between his hands. “Run away with me, Lolita. We can start over and I’ll keep you safe. Please tell me you trust me enough to run away with me, like you said to me when we were fourteen. God I wish I would have just done it… Things would have been so different if I just done it back then.” He pulls me against him again, embracing me tightly.
I remember the day my mom died, right before I found her in my dad’s arms in the driveway, I’d suggested to Layton that we run away. I’d never liked the world I grew up in and leaving seemed like such a great idea—still does. I just wish I could permanently leave it all behind.
“Where would we go?” I ask with my face tucked against his chest where I can hear his heart thudding almost violently. I think about Dannie and Mary Lou and how I’m just going to disappear, leaving them to wonder what happened to me.. Then there’s Nyjah. I don’t know whether he was with Reagan on blackmailing me or not, but I still wish I could say good-bye. I feel guilty about it, but know in my heart that I can’t go back to Glensdale. Maybe one day, if this all ever settles down. One day. I hope. I hope. I hope.
Layton swiftly slants back, looking flabbergasted. “You’re seriously considering it? After everything?”
“You know I’m crazy enough.” I try to make a joke but miss the mark badly—it’s been a long time. Not knowing what else to say, I shrug. “I have to run anyway. Might as well be with someone.” I give him the best smile I can summon, but there’s too much darkness in me at the moment to be happy.
He smiles back, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know, but I want to make sure.”
I think I’m sure. The last thing I want to do is leave Layton when I just got him back. “Layton, can I ask you a question?”
He nods, this time with confidence. “You can ask me anything.”
I suck in a breath. “Do you know who killed my mother?” Usually when I say something like this, he would always say that my mother died from natural causes, so I don’t expect much from him.
“I honestly don’t know.” He touches my face, a soft brush of his hand, then moves his fingers to my lips and traces them. “I know that it was someone there that day… I heard my dad saying something about it once. But he never said the specifics.”
“So it could be any of them?” I ask, rage flaring in my chest. I’d always had my suspicions about her death and know I find out I’m right. It makes me angry. Makes me want to go back to Boston and find out who it is. “One of the Dellefontes, or the Catherlson’s. Or your father or mine. One of them did something to her.” The last two hurt.
He nods, appearing in agony too. “I don’t know what you know about your mother… but I heard a lot of stuff about her… about messing around with the wrong people.”
“Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me. Not after everything… God, I can’t believe she let her own daughter go to that kind of place.” I’d thought my life had been bad but Solana’s was so much worse. To be raised to be a killer… the things she must have went through and knowing that one of her parent’s sent her there.
“I think I should talk to her,” I tell Layton, climbing off his lap.
“I think you should too.” He stands up with me and picks up his gun. “But it’s going to have to be quick. If we’re going to go we’ve got to go soon… Solana… well she’s been hired to kill you and she can’t stall for much longer.”
I should be more shocked than I am, but at this point shock has lost it’s full effect. “I definitely need to talk to her.” I start for the door, but Layton calls out to me.
“Lola, wait,” he says and when I turn around, he tosses me my 9mm. “Just to make sure your protected. I feel better when you are.”
I nod then take a deep breath, stepping up the stairway to go talk to the sister I’ve never known.
Chapter 13
Layton
I can’t believe she agreed to go with me after I told her about my family wanting to kill her, that they might have had something to do with her mother’s death, and of course about the shameful business connected to the Everett’s name. But I’m not going to question it. I have bigger things to worry about, like getting Lola to somewhere safe until we can figure out why the three families want her dead. Plus, I have to keep myself dead while I do it.
As soon as she goes up to talk to Solana, I start throwing supplies in a bag. We’re going to have to live on the road for a while but are going to have to ditch the car eventually, since the Catherlson I’m sure have the plate number by now. We can drive to the next state and then maybe leave the country, if Lola has her passport.
I’m zipping up the bag when Lola comes back down the stairs, looking baffled. “She’s gone.”
I tuck my gun in the back of my jeans. “Solana?”
She nods, her 9mm still in her hand, her dark hair a scattered mess, and there’s dirt on the bottom of her pants and on her boots. “I searched around, check the car and then walked around the woods a little bit, calling out to her, but she didn’t answer.”
I pick up a hoodie from a small stack on the shelf and put it on. “I’d say I’m surprised, but honestly I’m not. It seems like something she’d do.” I could tell when I was talking to her while Lola was still out that she was going to bail soon. She’s been getting text from someone—I’m sure whoever hired her—and was getting antsy.
“But where would she go?” she asks, coming over to the shelf and grabbing a hoodie as well. “We’re out in the middle of the friggin’ woods for crying out loud.”
“She’s more than capable of taking care of herself.” I zip of the hoodie and pick up the bag. “She’s been trained to be the best at survival.”