“Hardly,” she said, “unless they had orders that didn’t get picked up, or they just make it all way ahead. Wait—is this the place at the corner?”
He nodded.
“Then they are leftovers,” she said grudgingly. “They have a buffet open until one o’clock.”
“So there,” he said. “Eat.” She looked at him, her mouth open, until he reached across and gently pushed her jaw closed. “Now,” he said, “eat.” And he walked into the kitchen and searched for plates. He pulled out two and handed her one. He saw she was getting angry, but, at the same time, she wanted the food. He grabbed a large spoon and served up two plates. “There’s so much food here that we can’t even try it all. You’ll have enough for leftovers.”
And they settled down at the table and ate. He sat across from her and started working on his. Now that he was here, and she was beside him, he felt more settled again. He shook his head. “This is a really bad idea.”
“Pretty sure I just said that,” she muttered around her food.
“Maybe,” he said, “but I couldn’tnotcome.” He looked up to see her staring at him in shock. He shrugged. “Now I feel like I’m constantly waiting for you to contact me.”
“I shouldn’t have been contacting you at all,” she said.
“Maybe so,” he said, “but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m here, and now I’m not leaving until I’ve eaten.”
*
“Oh my God,oh my God.” He couldn’t stop the litany going through his head. What if the cop had seen his face? His truck? What if she knew who he was now? He had to disappear. He had to do something. Somehow he had to get out of this. He hadn’t been this close to getting caught since forever—well, since he did get caught.
And no way he could afford to go to jail again. His sister would disown him. She’d already told him once, if he ever got caught again, that was it, and he would be dead to her. That wasn’t fair; it wasn’t fair at all. He could drive home but he didn’t dare. He bolted toward his sister’s house, even though it was across the river and clear on the other side of town.
He drove carefully, making sure he didn’t attract any undue attention. The last thing he needed was to be pulled over right now. His hands were still shaking, but he didn’t know how to determine if the cop had gotten a good look at his truck. If she got his license plate, what was he supposed to do now?Should I call it in as stolen?
Without giving himself a chance to think, he pulled off to the side of the road and quickly called in the fact that his truck was stolen. That he hadn’t seen it since the previous day. With that done and promising to come in and to fill out a statement, he continued on toward his sister’s place. He double-checked the GPS, swearing, as he drove through one massive mansion after another. Surely he was in the wrong area, right?
He kept driving until he got to the address, then stopped and stared.It couldn’t be, his mind screamed at him. He knew his sister was doing okay, but he hadn’t realized she was still living like they used to live. He was barely scraping by in a run-down little flat, but this? This was like a twelve-bedroom mansion. Brick and ivy, a gated driveway, and a grand front entrance.
He pulled his phone toward him, and, with a shaky hand, he dialed his sister. When she answered, he asked, “Are you really living in that goddamned mansion?”
After a pause on the other end, she said in a curious tone, “Well, I haven’t moved, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He tried to regroup his brain cells into some coherence, so he could actually talk to her, but this was just too flabbergasting. “I’m outside,” he said abruptly.
“What?” she said, her tone coming alive, with a fury that he recognized. He winced. “We had an agreement,” she snapped.
“I know. I know. I know,” he said, sounding whiny, even though it’s the opposite of what he wanted. “It’s just been a really bad day,” he said. And, as much as he tried, he couldn’t hide the trembling in his voice.
“What happened?” she snapped.
“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing really. It’s okay. I’m fine.”
“Are you though?” she asked. “Then why are you scared? You sound terrified, as a matter of fact.”
He gave a laugh. “But you aren’t worried about me though, are you? You’re just worried in case it comes back on you.”
“It won’t come back on me,” she said. “And what the hell are you doing outside my house?”
He looked to see if she was looking out a window, but even that was too much effort for her, so of course she wasn’t. “I needed to reach out,” he said.
“Well, reaching out is making a phone call, not sitting outside my house. That is stalking.”
“You’re my sister,” he said, with outrage.
“Go home then,” she said, her tone filled with a banked rage.
He’d used his rage and had let it boil over, while she kept hers contained. He knew that meant she was just a time bomb waiting to blow because she had done nothing to dispel the fury inside her.