Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I watched him until he disappeared fully from sight, then switched over to the gate to watch him disappear from there, too.
Only when I couldn’t even make his taillight out did I close the app on my phone and shove it into my pocket. “Let’s go to the store and stock up on essentials.”
The bad thing was, everything I’d just bought last week was still at home in my fridge.
I’d thought about taking a small cooler, but the cat and the cat box had won out—even though I’d begged JP desperately to leave the cat there. He was used to being outside, and someone would eventually come over and find him.
But last year, JP had rescued him from the vet that I’d volunteered at, and from then on, I’d known that we would be hauling him all over the country if we needed to leave.
Which we had.
We got out to the newly acquired car—a white Wagoneer again; thanks again to the rescue operation of that little boy for showing me what I wanted—and headed to the local store.
It wasn’t even what I would consider a store.
More like it was a convenience store that also happened to have some grocery items.
“What do you do if I’m ever hurt or you see anyone take me?” I asked.
I could tell this was the last thing she wanted to go over. But at least once a week, we went over escape plans and what to do if shit hit the fan.
Now that we were in a new place—thank you last-second flight over to Utah to let me know where I wanted to go—we would be drilling this every chance we got until she had it down without having to think about it.
Because if she had to think about it at all, that meant that I was either dying, dead, or in a bind that meant I wouldn’t be making it out on my own.
“I go to your emergency phone that you stashed in my backpack, I call the first person in the contact, and I tell them that you’ve been hurt really bad and I need to be picked up,” she murmured.
I nodded, feeling my stomach loosen. “What about if you can’t get to your phone?”
“Then I call this number.” She recited it to me. “And find the first mom with kids, tell her my name is Julia Sano, and tell her I was abducted from my father, Kobe Sano.”
I nodded, feeling that knot continue to loosen.
I wasn’t sure why I’d chosen to make Kobe her pseudo dad.
Maybe it was because I knew he would take care of her. Maybe it was because I’d been amazed at his dedication to saving children’s lives—or finding justice for those he couldn’t save—for years and years. I didn’t know. But I knew, deep in my heart, she would be safe with Kobe if anything ever happened to me.
I also had another plan. One that included letting Kobe figure it out. All of it. Every last little bit of it out. Every skeleton in my closet, I would reveal to him.
I planned to start tonight. Tonight, when JP was in bed, and I could really sink my teeth into the game we were about to play.
“Can we get ramen?”
I looked over at JP, who was staring at the convenience slash grocery store with skepticism.
“Um,” I hesitated, too. But not for why I would usually hesitate. I had to be extremely careful about what JP ate. From the day she first started trying out solid foods, I had to limit how much and what she was allowed to eat. JP had an allergy to red dye. Knowing about the allergy from that point on, I became very restrictive with her. But that wasn’t the case today. Today, it was just the lack of selection I bet the store had. “If we can find it.”
“I knew I should’ve brought my stash from the old house,” she grumbled, upset that she didn’t get her ramen hit for the week.
Smiling at her, a van caught my eye in the very corner of the lot.
Normally, any van would have my radar pinging wildly.
But that van had a sign on the side that I was very familiar with.
Singh Circus.
It was a household name all across America because the circus traveled far and wide, even to the very itty-bitty and small towns.
Also, that had been one of the attractions that’d popped up in my search of the area—that the circus was in town.
“Oh, look.” I pointed to the van that was in the parking lot. “A circus is in town. Would you like to go?”
JP looked to be contemplating it as we walked in the door, but the moment that we breached the doors, all the air left her little body.
That was because of what stood in front of us.