The Runaways

Chapter 17

And then I heard her.

Softer than a whisper at first, but I heard her crying no more than a few feet away from me. I never thought I’d find any comfort in hearing a girl cry ‘til then.

I followed the sound ‘til my hands found their way to hers. She wrapped her willowy arms around me the second she could. I pulled her up into my lap, like she was a broken bird, and let her cry.

No one should cry the way she did in front of me—with so much hurt I felt all of it but couldn’t do much to take it away. Could’ve been wrong, but for a spilt second she gave me the same blind trust she had when I met her at the train station.

She didn’t push me away or fight me, just let me hold her like she was the most fragile thing in the world.

But I had to break her. I’d pulled her too far into trouble to keep holding out on the truth. She probably thought the police had come to save, but they were only gunning to send her into a six-foot grave.

        “You okay?” I asked.

      “No,” she said, her voice raspier than a smoker’s. I cupped the side of her face in my hand to keep her calm. She started a little, but eased up once she knew I didn’t mean any harm.

      “That makes two of us. Liam and the cops are a good couple feet above us, it’ll be a minute before anybody finds us down here.”

Her shoulders tensed up at the sound of his name.

        “He’s dead—Liam’s dead isn’t he?”

        “Hailey, I don’t know.”

       “He could’ve killed me, Caleb. You saw it right? They all saw it. They had to have seen it. He shot at a hostage so they’d shoot him for that wouldn’t they?”

        “I don’t think they’re planning to.”

Her eyes got wide enough to take in the whole world. She didn’t understand what I’d said. Couldn’t blame her. She still believed in fairytales. She still believed that shiny badges turned dirty cops into superheroes, and that the guys upstairs came in guns blazing to take her home.

Would’ve made a good headline, but headlines never tell the truth. Not a single cop up there stopped Liam from taking that shot at her. Not a single one of them wanted to.

Better him take out their target than a badge. Good cops wouldn’t shoot the doors off a place with a hostage inside. I probably was the only person in this house who would’ve taken a bullet for her.

Those guys were only looking for a clean shot and a quiet kill. Hailey had a price on her head, and they would’ve buried a bullet in her skull before she could ask why.

        “My Dad’s got friends in the bureau, the CIA, the police, Caleb. They’d kill anyone he asked them to.”

        “Even you.”

She slapped me so hard I had to blink away the sting. There wasn’t any right way to do this, except to tell her straight. I didn’t have to see her face to know how she was looking at me.

        “What did you say?” She asked.

She’d found her voice again and it slipped out from her lips sharper than barbed wire.

        “Before you go off on me, just try to listen for a minute, things are messier than you think.“

       “Why would I listen to you? Do you really think I’m gonna sit here and take notes on your little conspiracy theory? All I have to do is scream and my dad’s guys will be down here so fast you won’t even have a chance to run.”