“No buts. There’s a treadmill in the gym. You don’t need to leave for anything.”
Except my sanity. “She won’t recognize me. I cut and dyed my hair.”
He shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re up against here. You will not step foot out of this house. Do I make myselfclear?” His voice was so icy. He hadn’t been this angry with me since before Christmas. Before I started playing nice.
I swallowed hard. “Yes.” He’d made himself perfectly clear. My cage had just gotten significantly smaller.
“Look at me.”
I hadn’t even realized my eyes had gravitated to the floor. I looked back up at him.
“And if I ever see something like I saw this afternoon between the two of you again? We will be having a seriousdiscussion.”
But he didn’t say the word discussion normally. He’d basically just confessed that he’d murder Miller if he saw him touching me again. I clenched my hands into fists and glared at him. God, what I would give to be able to punch him square in the nose.
“I don’t have time to stay today. I just needed to make sure you were both briefed on the situation.” He pulled out his wallet and handed me a credit card. “Buy yourself a new pair of sneakers. And anything else at all you need.”
I looked down at the credit card. It wasn’t my name. I looked back up at him.
“It’s untraceable.”
Untraceable.To everyone? I wondered if that meant including him. I had an idea running through my head. Isabella was insane. I knew that. We weren’t safe here. But not because of Isabella. Because of my dad.
Miller hadn’t followed my father’s rules. Because I hadn’t let him. I climbed into his bed almost every night. I made him feel obligated to hug me and hold me, even though my heart was confused. I was going to get him killed.
I needed to get us out of here. I needed to fix this. “Thanks,” I said and gripped the credit card a little tighter. I was pretty sure I’d just found our out.
Runaway - Chapter 20
2 Months Later - Monday
My hands were shaking as I walked into the kitchen. Miller was cooking us dinner tonight. He’d actually gotten really good at it over the last few months.
“Miller?”
He turned toward me, the smile on his face faltering. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t be mad.”
He left his post at the stove. “What’s going on? Did Little Dicky call?”
I wanted to laugh. We’d started referring to my dad as Little Dicky. The fact that lots of Richards went by the nickname Dick was strange enough on its own. But then we’d started laughing one night agreeing to call him Dick from now on. And it somehow tumbled into Little Dicky. It made thinking about my father a lot easier when I referred to him that way. And for some reason we both found it hilarious. We’d needed more lighthearted moments these past couple months when we weren’t allowed to step foot outside. “No. I mean, yes, he did. But it’s not about that.”
I handed him the envelope. “I did something. You’re probably not going to like it. But just…give me a chance to explain, okay?” He’d been incredibly patient with me. I went from snuggling him in the ocean one minute to barely talking to him the next. I lovedhim. And I hated myself. I was just so freaking confused. All I knew was that we couldn’t stay here. Neither of us. “Open it.”
He pulled out the passport with a fake name. A debit card linked to a bank account with the same name on it. And a set of keys.
“What is this?”
“Remember that credit card my dad got me a few months ago? I’ve been working with someone online to pull money into a secure account. For you. For your fresh start.”
He lowered his eyebrows.
“You told me you preferred lakes over oceans.” I pointed to the keys. “There’s a cute little place right by a lake that you own now. It’s…it’s perfectly you. You’ll be happy there. And no one will find you…”
“Are you crazy? Brooklyn, we can’t leave.”
I pressed my lips together. There wasn’t awein this. “You said my dad was coming down this weekend. That gives you a whole week to get a head start.”
