Rachel smiled back. “It’s only fun when you chase me.”
“You might regret saying that.”
“I hope so.” Had she made the right decision? It felt like she had. “What are your plans?”
A raise of his eyebrows. “They involve us getting the hell out of here.”
Rachel bit her lip. “I don’t want to leave. I like it here.” She was aware she sounded like a whining child, but she also knew they had to go.
“It’s not safe.” Murphy swung his legs from the bed and pulled his jeans on, standing up and jumping slightly to pull the waistband around his hips. “David knows where you are now.”
Rachel remained on the bed, watching the muscles in Murphy’s back flex against his skin as he bent down and picked up his t-shirt. She started to pick at the flesh around her nails, wondering where the hell she would end up this time.
“I don’t know where to go. I have no money, and I won’t have a job.” A bead of blood emerged from her finger. “Christ, I may as well go back to Boston. At least I’ll get a healthy divorce settlement.”
He whipped around, his face contorted in anger. “You want me to take you back?”
Rachel felt like she’d been slapped in the face, hot tears pooling in her eyes. Her nakedness bothered her suddenly, and she reached across and snatched the t-shirt out of Murphy’s hands and pulled it over her own head. She couldn’t trust him. She couldn’t trust anybody, least of all herself.
“Why wouldn’t you?” The tremors in her voice vibrated through the air. “You owe him money.” No matter how many times he told her she wasn’t going back, she still needed to hear it some more. She was like a dog biting at stitches, opening up old wounds, making them bleed.
He stared at her for a moment, his mouth slightly open as if he was going to continue shouting. Then he took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair.
“I’m not taking you back there.” He sounded angry, like she’d really pissed him off.
“What do you think he’ll do to you? He’ll be fucking apoplectic if you don’t take me back.”
“You ask a lot of questions.” He tipped his head to the side and looked at her.
She bit her lip, wondering where this was going. “Well, I’m still waiting for the answers.”
“Maybe I don’t have them.”
She reached out to touch his arm. “I need to know I can trust you. Tell me why you’re not taking me back.”
Murphy stared at her, his torso taut with muscle, the belt on his jeans hanging loose. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. “I don’t work for wife-abusers.” The pain in his eyes made Rachel’s eyes sting.
“But your debt …”
“I’ll work it out.” He pulled his sweater on over his bare chest, allowing Rachel to keep his t-shirt. “Let’s get out of here, okay?”
“Where will we go?” Rachel glanced down at the carpet, her eyes following the brown patterned swirls that crossed the beige.
He ignored her question. “Go get your clothes on and pack a few things. Keep it light, and make it fast. I need to make a couple of calls.”
She watched him leave the room, hearing his feet thud against the stairs as he descended. He was a man in a hurry, ready to get the hell out of Dodge and back on the road to God knew where. Rachel crossed the room, stopping to look at herself in the mirror, somehow liking the pink-skinned woman who was staring back. She’d come so far in the past year and wondered if she was ready to leave this place and put her faith in somebody else.
For the first time, she thought maybe she was.
Getting down on her knees, she pulled a bag from under her bed and started to fill it with panties and bras, tops and jeans, and whatever cosmetics she could get her hands on. She was a little giddy, like a child on Christmas Eve.
She kept his t-shirt on, liking the way it smelled like him, and pulled on her jeans and sneakers. For some reason she felt the need to make the bed, pulling the wrinkled sheets taut across the mattress, smoothing the garish coverlet over the top. She knew by the time Buddy got here she’d be gone, and she didn’t want to cause him any extra work. It was the least she could do.
When she walked out of her bedroom, Rachel could hear Murphy talking into the phone.
“Yeah, I told you I had her. We got delayed by a snowstorm is all. It’s gonna take a day to drive back, so we’ll get there sometime early tomorrow.”
Her legs started to shake. Oh God, was he talking to David?