CHAPTER TWO
Allison
“Are you sure about this?” he asked, his tone held only a tinge of concern. “I can put you up in a safe house.”
“I know,” I sighed out. And I did know, because we’d been at this for months waiting for this exact moment to present itself. Every single time, he told me he could arrange for me to stay at a safe house, and every time I turned him down. “I’ve been a prisoner for the last seven years, I’m not trading my cage for another one.”
Burke nodded like he understood completely.
Don’t get me wrong, it was possibly the stupidest move ever. And once I was gone I was basically on my own. Also, I was under no sugar-coated illusion that I would be safe in any kind of way. The plan we’d come up with was decent as far as plans went. It was smart but far from safe. If he ever caught me…well that was something I couldn’t think about.
“Go,” he said, tossing a tote at me full of what I would need. “There are a few things in the trunk, but not much. Follow everything to the T. Don’t deviate for anything.”
I gave a firm nod then bent down and scooped up my son.
“Thank you,” I said, rising up on my toes to place a kiss on his cheek.
He gave no reaction as I pulled away. But then again, this was what he did. This was his job, to help pathetic, desperate people like me. Okay, that might have been a bit harsh, but I certainly felt pathetic right then. That was the way I had felt for the last seven years. I’d stayed because I was too scared to try to find a way to escape and I’d put up with everything he dished out because fear was a real thing. I took every single painful and humiliating punishment he thought I deserved as it cut a tiny piece of my soul away each time.
What was different right then, one would wonder? Well, it wasn’t only about me. I had a little one to think of now. And I knew that if I stayed, the monster would either kill me or my son. Or worse, turn my little boy into a devil like his father. I wouldn’t let that happen.
But I also had to be honest, if it wasn’t for the man standing in front of me, none of this would have been possible.
I dashed out the back door, hidden in the darkness of the night, my feet carrying me as fast as they were able to the fence line. Without so much as a glance back, I slipped through the hole in the fence that he’d made for me.
Just a few feet ahead there sat a car as promised, with a car seat and a fully stocked diaper bag. I made quick work settling Neiryn in his seat and making sure he was strapped in tight. I wrapped his favorite blanket around him and placed his stuffed elephant right beside him.
Then I hopped in the driver’s seat, praying that I still remembered how to drive. It couldn’t have been all that hard, right? I had spent nearly two years doing it before I’d been taken. It wasn’t like it was something one would easily forget.
I turned over the ignition and with much hesitation, set on my way to freedom. Well, sort of. I’d never truly be free until that man was no longer breathing. But seeing as I didn’t have it in me to even try and kill him, this would have to do.
I imagined traveling with an eighteen-month-old wouldn’t have been easy. After all, he was still in diapers and that required several changes a day. Plus, when he got bored or needed attention he wailed like I’d never heard before.
I did my best to follow the laid out path and plan. I pushed stopping as long as I could each time. It wasn’t ideal but I knew we’d be settled somewhere soon. I was only spending about two and a half days on the road.
I had a burner phone that Burke had given me for emergencies. It was currently turned off and tucked in the bottom of the go-bag that he’d made me. A bag that included everything for me to leave a false trail. To send my captor sniffing in the other direction. But to do that, I was going to have to actually go in that direction for a bit.
I would eventually turn around and head for the town Burke told me to settle in. As he explained the reasons for it, I totally understood his thinking. That didn’t mean that it would be completely safe for me there, though. I just had to keep my head down and try to blend in as much as possible. However, something told me it wasn’t going to be that easy.
The night turned into day, and the day wore on in a blur of driving back country roads and quick stops at small gas stations. I was doing my best to stay on the outskirts of the radar, using a card that had his name on it, leaving little breadcrumbs every place I went.
Night came and I found the motel that Burke instructed me to stop at. I rented a room, not even getting out to go in, and then drove off.
Circling the block once, I stopped directly across the street from the motel I was supposedly staying at. Burke knew what he was doing when he set this all up, it was obvious he’d done this before. I checked in at the new motel, paying with cash this time. My room had a view of the two-lane highway that split the distance between the two motels.
I should have slept, but even if I was one hundred percent positive he wasn’t going to find me, I still wouldn’t have been able to. I paced, while my little boy slept peacefully in the middle of the bed. I kept a discrete eye peeking out the window, watching for the thing that I feared the most.
I had a feeling the rest of my life was going to be like this, a lot of sleepless nights and the constant need to look over my shoulder. But if it kept my son safe, then it was all worth it.