Read Online The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) by Donna Augustine - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Donna Augustine
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the meeting tomorrow, he proved he was honest. Only honest people take you at your word. Liars and thieves expect the same in return. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t have a problem lying when it came to saving my own ass.
I went inside, opened up my laptop and typed a quick email to my professors. I wrote that there had been a death in the family. I’d dummy up the documents if it meant they’d let me finish my course at a later time. Either way, a degree wasn’t worth my life. Whatever was going on, I didn’t know, but the visit from Vitor had just tipped my hand. I needed to get out of here and I needed to do it now.
Hawking wasn’t someone I was ready to go against, and I wasn’t letting anyone pull me into a fight with him. I’d take on Hawking when I was prepared to, not because I was being forced to. I wasn’t prepared to willingly go to him for help either. That would constitute choosing sides. Me, myself, and I didn’t leave room for sides. One thing I knew for sure, if I didn’t choose, I wasn’t ready for the hell that was about to come my way if I stuck around.
I packed everything I cou ld get into a duffle bag and waited. And waited. Finally, at three forty-five a.m., I made my move. I crawled out the back window of my trailer and made a slightly undignified thump on the ground. I stayed low and in between the trailers until I made my way out through the back of the development.
Constantly c hecking every shadow, I was pretty sure I’d made a clean break. I ducked into the twenty-four hour Seven Eleven, and bribed the clerk with a five to use his phone. Using my cell phone was out of the question. I wouldn’t put it past Cormac to have it bugged, so it was turned off, lying useless in my bag. Hawking had plenty of money, and Vitor didn’t look like a slouch in that department, either, if the Rolex he’d been wearing tonight was any indication. Money usually meant plenty of connections. Who knew what either of them might be able to gain access to when they tried.
I had the cab pick me up a block away, not wanting any witness to the taxi company I used. I thought it would be better not to take the cab too far out of the area either, more traceable that way, but there wasn’t a bus that ran along this line this time at night.
I hopped into the shabby interior of the cab. “Take me to the nearest major bus depot.”
“That’s about half hour away, miss.”
“I know.”
He eyed my dingy t-shirt and ripped jeans with a fresh dirt mark skeptically. “As long as you can pay,” he stated in broken English, and stared at me in the review mirror. “We prosecute non-payers.”
“Go,” I said glaring at him.
We took off, passing the entrance of what was my home. It wasn’t fancy or new, but it had been mine. The only real home I’d ever had, and I felt like I’d been hit in the gut with a baseball bat. I’d been hysterical too many times in the last few days, I wasn’t going to cry anymore. I couldn’t afford to. I had no one but myself, and no one wanted to rely on a hysterical woman, including me.
Chapter Nine
I hadn’t meant to, but I’d fallen as leep waiting for my bus, as I sat on the ground alongside the building. In my hand was a ticket to L.A. It was a city with enough people to get lost, at least for now. The ticket was still firmly in my grasp as I awoke to a shoe nudging my side.
“Where are you going?”
I knew the voice insta ntly, and I cursed in my head. I looked up, and expected to see his men with him, but he was alone.
“How much do you weigh?”
He looked taken aback by the question but answered, “Two hundred and forty lbs.”
Yep, no shot. “I think you just answered your own question. ”
He had the nerve to laugh. “Come on. We’ll talk on the way back,” he said.
It was still early enough that the bus depot was empty, and I weighed my options. I knew I couldn’t take him, but would going with him willingly be the height of stupidity?
I went inside, opened up my laptop and typed a quick email to my professors. I wrote that there had been a death in the family. I’d dummy up the documents if it meant they’d let me finish my course at a later time. Either way, a degree wasn’t worth my life. Whatever was going on, I didn’t know, but the visit from Vitor had just tipped my hand. I needed to get out of here and I needed to do it now.
Hawking wasn’t someone I was ready to go against, and I wasn’t letting anyone pull me into a fight with him. I’d take on Hawking when I was prepared to, not because I was being forced to. I wasn’t prepared to willingly go to him for help either. That would constitute choosing sides. Me, myself, and I didn’t leave room for sides. One thing I knew for sure, if I didn’t choose, I wasn’t ready for the hell that was about to come my way if I stuck around.
I packed everything I cou ld get into a duffle bag and waited. And waited. Finally, at three forty-five a.m., I made my move. I crawled out the back window of my trailer and made a slightly undignified thump on the ground. I stayed low and in between the trailers until I made my way out through the back of the development.
Constantly c hecking every shadow, I was pretty sure I’d made a clean break. I ducked into the twenty-four hour Seven Eleven, and bribed the clerk with a five to use his phone. Using my cell phone was out of the question. I wouldn’t put it past Cormac to have it bugged, so it was turned off, lying useless in my bag. Hawking had plenty of money, and Vitor didn’t look like a slouch in that department, either, if the Rolex he’d been wearing tonight was any indication. Money usually meant plenty of connections. Who knew what either of them might be able to gain access to when they tried.
I had the cab pick me up a block away, not wanting any witness to the taxi company I used. I thought it would be better not to take the cab too far out of the area either, more traceable that way, but there wasn’t a bus that ran along this line this time at night.
I hopped into the shabby interior of the cab. “Take me to the nearest major bus depot.”
“That’s about half hour away, miss.”
“I know.”
He eyed my dingy t-shirt and ripped jeans with a fresh dirt mark skeptically. “As long as you can pay,” he stated in broken English, and stared at me in the review mirror. “We prosecute non-payers.”
“Go,” I said glaring at him.
We took off, passing the entrance of what was my home. It wasn’t fancy or new, but it had been mine. The only real home I’d ever had, and I felt like I’d been hit in the gut with a baseball bat. I’d been hysterical too many times in the last few days, I wasn’t going to cry anymore. I couldn’t afford to. I had no one but myself, and no one wanted to rely on a hysterical woman, including me.
Chapter Nine
I hadn’t meant to, but I’d fallen as leep waiting for my bus, as I sat on the ground alongside the building. In my hand was a ticket to L.A. It was a city with enough people to get lost, at least for now. The ticket was still firmly in my grasp as I awoke to a shoe nudging my side.
“Where are you going?”
I knew the voice insta ntly, and I cursed in my head. I looked up, and expected to see his men with him, but he was alone.
“How much do you weigh?”
He looked taken aback by the question but answered, “Two hundred and forty lbs.”
Yep, no shot. “I think you just answered your own question. ”
He had the nerve to laugh. “Come on. We’ll talk on the way back,” he said.
It was still early enough that the bus depot was empty, and I weighed my options. I knew I couldn’t take him, but would going with him willingly be the height of stupidity?
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