Page 15 of Porter's Angel
Oh yikes, that was small. The speed limit dropped from fifty-five miles an hour to twenty-five. As she slowed down, she saw that the road was surrounded by dirt shoulders and woods. This was where heroines met their end in slashers. She straightened.
She wasn’t in a slasher.
It sure felt like it.
An oversized neon sign read M-lo’s, with the L flickering in the darkness and one letter burnt out. As she came closer, she noticed Milo’s Auto Mechanic written in red across the front of a block cement building. There were four pumps in front. Thank goodness! She was running on fumes.
Cadence drove into the lot, her low-riding Cavalier scraping against the deep crater in the pavement. She gasped out, trying not to do any more damage to her car as she worked her way past the broken driveway to park near the pump.
The stupid gas was getting expensive! She gaped when she saw the cost of unleaded. This small community had also been hit hard with the country’s inflated gas prices.
She dug in her purse to find her wallet and, with growing confusion, recognized absolutely nothing inside. These keys weren’t hers, not these sunglasses, not these pens or this… music penned into this notebook.
Oh no! She had Emily’s purse! They both had matching Bartonia bags. Cadence must’ve snatched her friend’s in her hurry to get out of Lacy’s place after the scream of “fire.” Cadence picked up her phone. At least she’d had the sense to keep that with her. Before she could text her friend, she saw all the texts and missed calls from Lacy.
“Where did you go?”
“Are you okay?”
A missed call.
“Why aren’t you answering? Cadence, we need to talk now.”
Another missed call.
“What’s your problem? Pick up.”
“I’m sorry I got angry. I blame myself for everything. Darla always comes on strong, and this time she got carried away. She grabbed me! It isn’t what you think. I’ve never cheated on you, and I promise I won’t do anything so stupid as being alone with her again. I’ve cut off all ties with Darla.”
“Honey, I miss you. Can you please talk to me? I don’t want this to ruin what we have. I know that you’re feeling very alone right now. I’m here for you.”
Another missed call.
“Okay, if you’re not going to pick up, I just want you to know that I love you.”
“Let’s head on down to the Riviera. We’ll make it romantic, just the two of us. We’ll figure this out. We’re a team, right? No one will ever come between us again.”
“I know. I know. You want your space. I get it. We’ll talk on Monday. I love you very, very much.”
“Hon, pick up. Please? I just want to hold you in my arms. I am in agony. I don’t want to lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re my angel.”
She choked when she read the flattery. The familiar words worked so well on her before this, and even now she felt a twinge of regret. Why had she been so hasty to leave like that? Were things really that bad?
Yes, yes, they really are.
Lacy was so good at being a salesman; that was his job, and he convinced people to spend billions on him. Only this evening, she had been in the palm of his hand too.
She wouldn’t invest another minute of her life with him, not when he had the power to send her down a spiral of pain. It was so tempting to try to ease it with the balm of his sweet nothings. He’d break her heart then love bomb her again and again until he really grew tired of her, not to mention that he didn’t want anything to do with “it.”
Her baby was not an “it.” She had to stop the cycle of pain now. Taking one last lingering look at his texts, and seeing the dot dot dot of an incoming message as he typed, she blocked his number and stopped him from having the ability to talk his way out of this.
Lacy was good at what he did, and he might succeed after he wore her down. She couldn’t let him do that. Her baby’s survival depended on her being smart. She needed time to let her feelings for him die down, until she could hear his name without her heart twisting around itself like a balloon animal.
She glanced down at the keys in her hands. These were Emily’s. Cadence remembered that Emily had mentioned that her apartment was in some soap store called… Sudz, was it? She typed the name of the business into her maps and saw that it was only about five minutes away.
Somehow all of this felt very providential.
Maybe Cadencecouldstay here tonight. Emily had invited her, after all. Goodness, Cadence could stay longer than the night if she needed. Emily had invited her to stay the whole time that she was gone in Nashville. What generosity! It was like Emily had been inspired to extend the invitation.