Run With Me (Fight For You Book 1) (9 page)

Unless…

I reach where I parked my car, but don’t open the door to get inside. Instead, I pull out my phone and stare at Danny’s number, wondering if maybe I don’t have to leave all of the good things behind, after all.

Maybe I’ve been looking at this the wrong way, and I don’t have to run off and carry this load alone for the rest of my life. Maybe Danny and I can run away together and leave all of the ugliness behind.

I just have to decide how far I’m willing to go to keep the one person who matters by my side.

Chapter Nine

Present Day

Samantha

“The great object of life is sensation—

to feel that we exist, even though in pain.”

-Lord Byron

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone moaning, and for a terrifying moment I have no idea where I am.

I freeze in bed, hands clutching the scratchy wool blanket and pulling it up to my neck, instinctively moving to conceal myself though I know hiding under the covers won’t do any good if someone’s broken in.

The moan comes again, a long, low, miserable sound from the opposite side of the room. I’m about to ask who’s there when my eyes adjust to the darkness and I make out the silhouettes of the other bunk beds filling the space and my mind catches up with my body.

I remember that I’m in the girls’ dorm at the hostel and that the man at the desk said there would be a full house tonight. Twelve girls in the beds and another girl bunking on the floor in the corner—even though that’s technically against the law. But the guy with the beads threaded into his beard on duty tonight said he couldn’t stand to turn a girl out to sleep on the streets. He was willing to risk a fire code violation if we were all willing to make room for one more.

Eight of the girls in the room are on a mission trip to help build homes for the needy and the rest of us came close enough to not having a place to sleep that we could empathize. We even helped move the beds around to give our thirteenth—a tiny girl with dreads who’s on her way to work on a communal farm—room to crash.

Everyone at the hostel has been very nice, and done their best to make Danny and me feel welcome, but even all that niceness can’t banish the memory of that kid’s knife at my throat, or the way it felt to be pressed so tight against a stranger’s body. For a few minutes, I’d been transported back to New Year’s Eve.

I’d relived it all in fast motion, images and sense memories racing through my head so fast the world started to spin. But for the first time, the memories didn’t make me feel scared. I’d been enraged, so furious I’d fought back without thinking about the consequences, and I don’t regret it. I would rather die than be a victim. I’m not going to let anyone hold me down, not ever again.

The moan comes again, higher pitched this time with a plaintive whimper at the end that makes me worry this girl is in serious pain.

“Are you okay?” I hiss into the darkness. “Can I get you anything? Tylenol or something?”

“It’s just Sheila,” an unfamiliar voice answers. “She’ll moan all night, and not remember what she was dreaming about in the morning. I think Percy has some extra earplugs in her bag. I can try to find them for you if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” I whisper. “I’ve got headphones if I need them.”

“Okay. Good night.”

“Good night,” I say, and do my best to relax into the mattress, but it feels like I’m sleeping on a marble slab. I hadn’t noticed how hard the bed was when I lay down—I was so desperate to close my eyes I could have passed out leaning against a wall—but now I’ve had enough rest to notice how uncomfortable I am.

Since I threw away my phone and haven’t had time to buy a watch, I have no idea what time it is, but I feel refreshed and strangely keyed up. Last night, I’d been freaked out by the taste of that kid’s shirt in my mouth and the sight of Danny unleashing his violent side in a way I haven’t seen in forever, but now the memory of how we took care of the threat to our safety makes me feel proud and…hopeful. Danny and I are a good team. Life threw a lot of shit at us yesterday, but we dealt with it and made the best of every bad situation.

I know we have miles to go and many bridges to cross before I can call this escape a success, but right now, I feel confident that we’ll get there. Together.

I try to sleep for a little longer, but when Sheila the moaner starts up again, I don’t reach for my headphones. Instead, I grab my purse and my tennis shoes and slip quietly out of the room into the dimly lit hallway. For a moment, I think about peeking into the men’s dorm to see if Danny is awake, but decide against it. He needs his sleep, and I can kill a couple of hours alone at the coffee shop downstairs. It will probably be good for me, give me time to think through the rest of the plan again with a clearer head.

I tug on my shoes and run my fingers through my hair, but I don’t head into the bathroom to make sure I’m presentable before I head downstairs. Running a coffee shop next to a youth hostel, the waitresses must be used to rumpled kids rolling in at all hours. And I went to sleep in my black track pants and a white long-sleeved tee shirt, so I look more like I’m headed out for a run than rolling out of bed.

For a second, I contemplate a run—nothing helps me organize my thoughts like pounding pavement—but I dismiss the idea almost immediately. This neighborhood is rough, and I don’t want to risk running into trouble alone. Like it or not, the world isn’t safe for a woman by herself, or even with someone, if that someone is an asshole like my stepbrother.

Alec’s face floats through my mind as I pad down the stairs, through the common room where the clock on the wall proclaims the time to be four forty-five a.m., and out the front door of the hostel. But by the time I push inside the twenty-four hour coffee shop next door, I’m not thinking of anything but how good coffee sounds, and whether or not I’ll order breakfast alone or wait for Danny to come down later.

With every passing moment, I’m getting better at letting go of the past. At this rate, by the time Danny and I reach our last scheduled stop, I will be that new Sammy I’ve been dreaming about, the kind of carefree girl who can convince her boyfriend to stay in New Zealand without making him wonder if she’s completely lost her mind.

I’m smiling as I follow the waitress in the plaid pants and bright yellow sweater to my booth. When I see the man seated at the next booth, my smile becomes a laugh. Seeing him here, looking adorably rumpled with his cheeks covered in golden stubble and his hair hanging in slightly tangled waves around his shoulders, feels like a sign of good things to come.

“Hello, stranger,” I say, leaning a hip against Danny’s booth. “Is this seat taken?”

He looks up with a grin. “It is now. Sit down, woman. I’ve got enough food coming for five people.”

“Good, I’m starved.” I slide into the booth and wave away the menu the waitress tries to give me. “That’s okay. I’ll just take coffee and steal half of whatever he’s having.”

“I’ll be right back with coffee and water,” she says, hustling back to the front of the restaurant with a spring in her step.

“You couldn’t sleep, either?” Danny asks.

“No, there was a moaner in my room,” I say with a shrug. “But it’s okay. I feel rested. I feel great actually. How about you? How are your knuckles?”

Danny studies me for a beat before nodding. “They’re okay, and I feel good. I slept hard until about twenty minutes ago.” He pauses, but I can tell he’s left something unsaid.

“What’s up?” I ask. “You still stressed about last night?”

His tips his chin to the side, the way he does when he’s not sure what to say, before shaking his head. “No, not stressed, just…”

“Just what?” I push, feeling bolder than I have since Danny and I got on the plane. “Spit it out. I can take it. Are you still upset with me for not picking up the phone last week?”

“No.” He tucks his hair behind his ears and studies his own mug of creamy coffee. “I don’t know. Maybe. A little. Something still feels off kilter. Ever since—”

“Okay, I’ve got coffee, water, and a share plate for the lady,” the waitress says, returning with a tray balanced on one arm. “And scrambled eggs with cooked tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and a side of beans, an order of banana pancakes, and a side of bacon for the gentleman.”

She finishes setting the steaming plates of food on the table and stands beaming down at us. “Anything else I can get for you two?”

“No, this is great,” I say. “Thanks so much.”

As she promises to check back in a few minutes with a coffee refill and hurries away, I turn back to Danny with my most determined smile. “Yesterday was a weird day all around, so I think that explains that, but as far as before…”

I take a bracing breath, launching into my next lie with hardly a flicker of guilt in my chest. “I’ve decided to leave school. I dropped out after finals.”

“What?” Danny shakes his head. “But why? I thought you loved the program. And you’ve been doing so great. Like, straight As and everything.”

“I know, and I did like it, but there are a lot of things I don’t love about L.A. and it’s so hard being away from you for so much of the year…” I take a sip of coffee to cover my moment of hesitation while I think of how best to spin this. “I’ve been thinking all semester about what I really want to do with my life and I decided last week that finishing school isn’t it. I want to get started on the future. I’m tired of waiting. I can’t make it through the rest of undergrad, let alone the two years of grad school it would take to get a really good job.”

I add more cream to my coffee and stir it in slow circles to avoid making eye contact. “I would have told you what was happening, but my parents were already riding my ass. Even Mom and you know how easily distracted she is. I was just afraid you’d try to talk me out of it, too.”

Danny blows a long breath out through pursed lips. “I would have. I mean, you’ve worked so hard and you always said management consulting was the perfect career for someone who loves to travel.”

“But so is teaching surf lessons,” I say, looking up from my coffee. “I’m not my dad or Penny. I’ve been buying into the fear they’ve been selling for years, but I don’t need to drive a hundred thousand dollar car or own a mansion on Maui to be happy. All I need is enough to get by…and you.”

He reaches across the table, taking my hand in his, sending a tingling feeling racing up my arm. “You have me, and I have enough to cover all the basics for both of us. I just don’t want you to look back and regret this, or resent me for being the reason you gave up on a dream.”

“Business management consulting was never my dream,” I say, threading my fingers through his, this man who can still make me tingle after all the hell of the past few months.

This conversation started with a lie, but it’s going to end with the truth. “You’re my dream, Danny Cooney. Don’t you know that by now?”

“You’re my dream, too,” he says, lifting my hand to press a kiss to my knuckles.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” I smile even though my eyes are starting to sting. “This trip is going to be amazing. The bad luck is behind us now. I feel it in my gut.”

A smile creeps across his face. “At least we know the chances we’ll get mugged in the car on the way to the river are pretty low.”

I laugh and sniff away the tears. I don’t want to cry, not now, when the future is finally starting to look bright. “I would kiss you, but I didn’t brush my teeth before I came down.”

“I don’t give a shit,” he says, leaning in to kiss me, softly, but not so sweetly, across the plates of food covering the table. “I can’t wait to be alone with you tonight.”

I shiver but refuse to get nervous.

Tonight will take care of tonight. From now on, I’m all about living in the moment.

I smile as Danny sits back in his seat. We spend the next hour guzzling coffee and eating until we feel like we’re going to explode.

And then I slide into the booth beside him and we spend another hour drinking more coffee while paging through my guidebook, marking all the places we want to visit and watching the morning sun fill the diner with warm, hopeful light.

Chapter Ten

Danny

“All who joy would win.

Must share it—Happiness was born a twin.”

-Lord Byron

New Zealand is insanely beautiful, Sam is back to her old self again, and other than the fact that her family is threatening to disown her for dropping out of school, all is right with the world.

We head out of Auckland a little after ten o’clock, and by eleven, we’re in the middle of the most amazing fall color I’ve ever seen. Explosions of orange and red line the road by the highway, while in the distance snow-capped mountains warn that winter is on its way in and all this wild color will only be here for a little longer. But looking out the window at the crystal clear river winding beside the road, I can imagine how beautiful the north island is going to be with bare branches haunting the landscape.

I start thinking maybe I can make an extended trip, like Sam was talking about at breakfast, work after all.

“I think we should stay until December,” I say when Sam and I pull off at a roadside fruit stand to grab lunch halfway to Lake Taupo.