Twenty-Four

Trey

Winnie not being at school again can only mean one thing; she’s quitting. I know because that’s how it went for me when I wanted to drop out.

My teachers told me that, if I applied myself, I’d go places. All that wasted potential really pissed them off. But they didn’t know what it was like to have parents who were too busy cheating on one another and partying to pay attention to their kid. They didn’t show up at my high school graduation, so they sure as hell weren’t saving their pennies for my college education.

From a young age, I knew I was on my own, and maybe that’s why I’m so hell-bent on making sure Winnie doesn’t fall into the same trap I did—working late hours, doing shady business with people she has no business being around. I want to give her the world—not because she was let down by her own parents, but because she deserves it. She deserves everything.

She’s sitting on the couch, waiting for me, when I get to the trailer. I had the windows replaced late last night. A guy owed me some money and a favor, so he did it without a dime from my pocket.

“Thanks for coming,” she says. “I needed to see you.”

I toss my helmet on the table, and she stands up and bats those long, dark lashes at me. Her eyes are my weakness. They’re the kind of eyes that make you do stupid shit.

“I see that. What’s up?”

“Well, there’s something I need to tell you.” She fidgets and pulls at the hem of her shirt.

I check to see if it’s something new I’m supposed to notice, but I don’t think so. “You look beautiful, Winn. Stand still, and talk to me.”

A nervous glance at what she’s wearing, and then those stormy eyes are on me again, right where they belong. “I wore almost the same thing yesterday, just a different color,” she says.

“Doesn’t matter,” I tell her. “You’ve got my attention.”

She should have a closet full of name-brand clothes. Winnie deserves to be spoiled and taken care of, but I can’t do any of those things until she’s old enough to take my gifts without having to hide them or lie about where they came from.

I have her attention, too, because she takes a couple of steps toward me, still twisting her fingers around the cotton.

“Kiss me?” she whispers.

“Are you asking or telling me?”

I should find out why she’s here first before we get carried away, but I always lose my head when she’s this close. All I want to do is touch her. Winnie thinks I have all the power, but that’s not true at all. She’s the one in control.

“I’m doing both, I guess. I want you to kiss me, if you want to.”

I always want to kiss her. “Tell me your plans first.”

“Plans?” she questions. “I don’t have any yet. We can make them together. I packed a bag. That’s all I really have.”

One measly duffel bag is all this girl has to her name. Thank fuck she has me—well, almost. That’s the problem, the one part of this arrangement that could crash and burn. She’s mine, but if she stays here, they’ll track her down in no time. We’re right across the street from her last address.

“Winn, you can’t stay here. I don’t even want to stay here.”

“If this is about school, I’m old enough to drop out. You only have to be sixteen, so it’s my call, and I’m not going back.” She says it so fast, her chest is heaving.

“Winn, I’m on your side. I’m just saying, you need to be eighteen to live on your own. Nobody’ll give you a lease yet. Plus, you don’t have any credit established. There are rules and policies and—”

She cuts me off and says, “I have no money. I have nothing. But I’m not going back to Sunshine Place. I’ll live in a box on the corner if I have to. Anything is better than going back to that school with those people.”

“My girl’s not living in a box. If your house parents find you though, they’ll want you back. I’m sure they’re already looking.”

She shakes her head. “No, Cindy saw me leave. Today was my second strike though. She already warned me, if I got another, I’d be out. So, I left before she had a chance to call for a new placement.”

“How do you know she would have forced you out? Did you explain yourself and tell her you deserved to stay?”

I’m guessing whatever happened wasn’t her fault. It never is. Her problems are an unfortunate consequence of her surroundings.

“How do you know I deserve to be there? Cindy watched me pack, and she’d said what she said after I messed up the first time. Her rules were loud and clear, and I broke them again.”

“And?”

“And? That’s it. Maybe she tried to get me to stay, but—”

“No buts, Winn. If she tried to get you to stay, then she wanted you to stay. You need to go back. Apologize for running, accept your room back, and wait it out like you were doing. You’re so close to your birthday.”

Tears well in her eyes, and I want to kiss them away before they fall down her cheeks. Then, her lip quivers, and I have to get rid of the remaining space between us.

“C’mere, Winn.”

She’s in my arms before the first tear falls, and I wrap them around her trembling shoulders. Her frame’s smaller than it was before she got shot. The weight that she gained in the hospital once she started eating real food is slowly coming off again.

“Breathe,” I whisper. “Just breathe.”

Her tiny hands latch on to fistfuls of my leather jacket, and I guide her to the couch and sit down. She curls up in my lap and rests her head on my shoulder. I swear, she was made for me because she fits perfectly against my body.

“What are you thinking?” I ask her.

She turns the ring on her thumb around a couple of times, and her fear’s as loud as it’s been since she woke up in the hospital with a nightmare about the night Tess shot her. I wasn’t there to see it, but it was so bad, Jasper called me. A psychologist spent the rest of the night with her, just in case the flashbacks got too bad. It killed me that someone else got to hold her when I could have taken away her pain.

“That I don’t want to leave here unless you’re with me.”

“I want you with me, Winn. The last thing I want to do is make you go someplace else. But we’re not legal. I’ll go to jail, and they’ll put you back in foster care, probably someplace as far away from me as they can find. You don’t want that, do you?”

She looks at me through her long lashes and then climbs out of my lap and starts pacing in front of the couch. My arms are empty without her.

“Of course not,” she says. “But I can’t go back, Trey. When I left, I meant it. I have to figure something else out.”

I’ve spent a lot of late nights and early mornings trying to figure out how to keep her safe. I’ve almost worn a hole in the shitty carpet, pacing back and forth like she is. Night after night, I walk until I get my head on straight because there really isn’t a single thing I can do that I want to, like being with Winnie.

Even the first night I lived here, I was helpless. Tess was lying in the street, high as a damn kite, and all I could do was run across, covered in leather with a helmet on my head, to help her. I wanted to rip it off and show Winnie that I was there for her. Had Tess woken up, she wouldn’t have remembered by morning anyway, but I didn’t know where Jax was or who else was around. I stayed hidden and then pressed pieces of paper against the window to talk to her.

I probably looked like some sick fuck, trying to communicate with a teenager through a window instead of talking like a normal human being. But, like now, I’d do anything to make sure Winnie was okay. She’s the only person left on this planet I care about, and I’m forced to stay away because she’s three weeks shy of a number deemed acceptable by society.

Life is so fucking unfair.

“I don’t know what to do, Winn. I can’t even set you up someplace. The social workers are gonna look for you, and then once the cops find you, they’ll trace the place right back to me. It’d be no better than letting you stay here.”

“There has to be somewhere safe. Don’t you know people who can pull some strings or let me stay with them? Your boss can make anything happen. You’ve said so yourself.”

I’m off the couch before she sees me coming, and my hands are around her waist. “My boss is out of the question.”

“I don’t even know who he is, Trey.”

“And that’s how it’s staying.”

The thought of him getting his hands on her and putting her to work makes me nauseous. He’s the boss for a reason. He doesn’t do favors or accept bribes. He puts you to work. Winnie would end up on a corner or used as bait to get money owed to him. I’ve seen girls die on his watch, trying to get a thousand bucks from guys who didn’t have ten.

“Do you hear me?” I ask her.

“Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she says.

And I realize I’m gripping her arms pretty damn hard.

“I’m sorry. Jesus. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Winn.”

That’s what the thought of her getting caught up in my world does to me, and I know I have to shut this down, no matter how mad it makes her. We can’t run, and she can’t hide. Not yet.

“It’s okay. You didn’t mean it.”

She’s always given me the benefit of the doubt. While I love her for it, it also scares the shit out of me. Because her heart’s too good sometimes. She’s not tough enough to make it on her own yet. What seventeen-year-old girl is? She’s experienced more than most, but nobody’s ever prepared for the real world when it comes at them sooner and faster than they were expecting.

She’s not going to like this, but I say it anyway, “I need you to go back to Sunshine Place, Winn. That’s the only way you’ll be safe.” It’s the right move to make right now.

With a deep breath and blink of her eyes, the strap of her duffel bag is over her arm, and she’s headed for the door. “I’ll figure it out,” she says. “Don’t worry about me.”

I run after her before she can get outside. The last thing we need is an argument in the middle of the afternoon when she’s supposed to be at school.

“Where are you going?”

A moody little shrug of her shoulders is all I get. She’s hurt. I get it.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Do you have your phone?”

“Yeah, but considering Jasper was paying the bill, I don’t think I’ll have service much longer.”

“Shit.” I didn’t think of that.

After the stunt he pulled here, I’d be surprised if the thing still worked. He was so angry when I got outside, his chest was heaving, and he looked like he’d already gone a couple of rounds with someone twice his size. But he still stood up to me when I went after him, and if he hadn’t said Winnie’s name mid-punch, I’d have done worse than blacken his eye and twist his arm behind his back.

“I’ll call you from a burner phone in an hour, so my call can’t be traced. Chances are, Jasper won’t do anything about the phone until school’s out anyway.”

“Okay.”

“If you go back to Sunshine Place, call me right away, so I know you’re safe.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not going back?”

I don’t care how mad she is right now. I grab her hand and pull her against my chest. The bag falls from her shoulder and lands on the floor next to her.

“Don’t get smart with me, Winn. The thought of you wandering around out there is already killing me. A fight won’t help.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re scared. But I am, too. Think about going back, and if you really can’t do it, then go to the playground, hide in a slide, and wait for me to call you.”

She blinks a couple of times and tries not to smile. “You knew I hid in the slides?”

“I told you, I was always watching.”

“You’re such a freak,” she says with a laugh.

“You like it,” I tell her.

“Yeah, I know.” And then she hoists her bag onto her shoulder and presses her lips against mine. The kiss isn’t long enough, but it’s pretty close to perfect. “I’ve gotta go,” she says in a rush. Then, she’s pushing her way through the door.

“The playground. Don’t forget.”

“There’s something I have to do before that. But don’t worry; I’ll be okay.”

“Don’t worry.”

I’ll never stop worrying about her. Not until we’re far away from Carillon.