I gave my best friend a sad look. She was probably right. She was totally hot. With this confident vibe that made gay girls flock to her and straight girls question their sexuality. And the girls she hooked up with never wanted to leave. "I wish I did. I really do. Because I've had enough of fucking men right now."
Without a word, Sammy closed the space between us and gave me another hug. I wrapped my arms around her, inhaling her smell that I loved so much. Some lotion she'd used ever since I could remember. "I love you, V," she told me. "But, girl, you stink like you've been walking the streets all day. Get your fine ass in the shower and then we'll stuff ourselves with greasy food and you can tell me all about this boy who broke your heart."
Boy. Luca was far from a boy. But I didn't bother to correct her. She'd find out soon enough. Pulling away, I grabbed some clean clothes out of my suitcase while she went to order food.
Two hours later, we were sitting on the couch. The coffee table was littered with empty takeout containers, two shot glasses, tissues, and a half empty bottle of pineapple vodka, and Sammy was looking at me like she'd never met me before. I'd told her everything, only leaving out things that might pull her into my mess. Like names or locations.
I finger-combed my hair away from my eyes. "What?" I asked her.
"V, don't take this the wrong way, but maybe you should do what he told you to do. Maybe you should run."
I shrugged one shoulder. "I did. I came here. He doesn't know anything about you."
She barked out a laugh. "If you believe that, you're almost as stupid as your sister." Immediately after she said it, she slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, shit. Fuck. I'm sorry. I forgot for a second."
I pulled her hand away from her mouth and held it in mine. "It's okay. She was a bitch. But she was my sister and now she's dead. It takes a minute to get used to."
Squeezing my hand, she let it go and leaned back against the couch cushions. She was quiet for a long time as she stared at the blank screen on the television. "V, what if he finds you here? Or worse, his crazy-ass brother. What was his name?" She stared off into the distance, like she was trying to remember.
"I didn't say," I whispered. "And stop trying to trick me." I didn't even tell her the worst parts about him yet. I didn't show her the carving on my chest or go into too much detail about my time spent with him. That was a conversation for another time. "He won't find me. I made the guy who took me out of there think I was getting on a bus. And I don't have a cell phone, so there's no way to track me. I'll go out tomorrow, though, and pick up one of those pay-as-you-go phones."
Sammy got up and started pacing back and forth on the other side of the coffee table. "Veda, I don't think you get it. You're in some really deep shit here. You need to get out of the city."
"I understand better than you think," I told her. "But I can't go anywhere until I can get my parents somewhere safe, and I was hoping you could help me."
She frowned at me. "How the hell am I supposed to help you? I'm a broke college student."
"I don't need your money. Just a place to crash until I can make sure they're safe and get out of town. And maybe your credit card to buy plane tickets." The one upside of not having a life of my own while I worked for Nicole was that I'd managed to build up a good savings account. Now that I'd cried myself out, at least temporarily, my mind was spinning. I couldn't transfer money into Sammy's account or her PayPal because they'd be able to track it. I'd have to just pull out the cash and give it to her. But I couldn't do that until the last minute, so if the transaction was tracked here to Austin, we'd all be well on our way somewhere else. I shook my head. No, that wouldn't work either. Our names would have to be on the tickets. They'd still track us...
I sat up and put my head in my hands. "Fuck. No. That won't work either. They check everything with IDs. There's no way I could sneak them out of here on a plane and my mother wouldn't step one foot onto a bus. It'll have to be a car." I looked up and found she'd stopped pacing and was standing over by the window, peering down at the street in front of the building. "If I give you cash, can you buy a car for me?"
She turned around. "I can do that."
"Thanks," I mumbled, my mind still going over all of the ways I could possibly escape the city. "I can't put anything in my parents' name, or the people looking for me might think I'm with them. I'm not worried about him." I didn't have to say which "him" I was talking about. "He wouldn't hurt my parents..."
"Are you sure about that?"
I looked up to find her eyes on me, one perfectly waxed eyebrow lifted in disbelief. "I am," I told her. "It's not him, but his brother I'm worried about. The only one he would be after is me. But his brother?" I didn't even want to think about it. "Who knows what the hell he'd do if he found out I was gone. The guy is literally crazy, Sammy."
She started pacing again. I watched her wear a path on the living room carpet, stopping only to grab the bottle of vodka and take a swig.
What the hell was I even doing here? I could be putting her life in danger. "Look, if you don't want me to stay, I get it. It's okay. It was stupid of me to come here. It's just that you're my person, Sammy. And I just need a little time to figure things out. And call my parents." I looked down at my lap and played with the hem of my shorts. "God, they don't even know about Nicole."
Sammy stopped pacing and turned to face me, the bottle hanging loosely from her hand. Her expression was sympathetic, but worried. "What are you gonna tell them?"
I lifted my head. "The truth. Kind of. I'm going to tell them Nicole got mixed up with some bad people and was killed in Mexico. And that I've been in hiding because they were worried whoever went after her will come after me, being that I look so much like her." I chewed on my thumbnail. "I'm just not going to tell them who 'they' are."
"I don't like this, V. You need to go to the cops. Hell, the FBI! Let them put you in protective custody for real."
But I shook my head. "No. I can't do that. I won't do that. They'll just want to use me for info on him." I tried to make her understand. "I know what he is, Sammy. But I'm not turning him in. I can't. I'll cut off my hair. Change my name. Make myself unrecognizable. It'll be okay."
"Are you sure about that?"
I didn't answer.
"Veda..."
"No." I stood up and started picking up our trash. "It'll be fine. It will." I stopped on my way to the kitchen and turned around. "I won't stay long. I promise. And I'm sorry for bringing you into this. Honestly, I didn't even think about it when I came here, Sam. I just needed you. Needed to get my head on straight before I went to see my parents. But if it's too much, I can go to a hotel. It's not an issue. Really."
Sammy scrubbed her face with her hands, then dropped them to her sides and gave me "the stare." The one she gave me when she thought whatever I was about to do was the worst idea she'd ever heard, but she was gonna support me anyway because she was my ride or die and that's what we did. "You can stay as long as you want. I love you. You know that. I can't just throw you out there to the wolves."
No. She would never do that. Not like he did. I gave her a small smile. "Thanks. And I love you, too."
"But I'm putting you on the chore list," she called out as she plopped back down onto the couch. "And you're chipping in for groceries."
"I'll even pay you for the water and electricity I use," I told her as I came back for the last of our takeout containers. "As soon as I can pull out my money."
But Sammy waved away the suggestion. "I'm just fucking with you. I'll loan you a little to get a phone. You can call your parents and whatever else you need to do. Then we'll worry about everything else."
Walking over to her, I bent over and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm lucky to have you."
"Yeah, yeah. I know."
I smiled as she picked up the remote to find us something to watch. Even though tomorrow, neither one of us would remember what it was.