Page 74 of Stand

They found a diner around midnight, ordered breakfast, and used the bathrooms. Sam used the excuse of safety in numbers to grab Ty while she walked Cairo. The kids, two bundles of sweatshirts and messy hair, stayed to eat their pancakes.

“So what is it?” she said almost before the door had swung closed.

Chapter 21

Ty sighed and scrubbed his hand down his face. “They bailed her out again. Said she knew she needed help and they were taking her to a hospital. Instead, they took her home, and her parents let her leave again. They’ve lost track of her.”

“Jesus, Ty.”

He shook his head. “Amazing how you can just lose someone in this age of technology.”

“Does she know where we’re going?”

He shrugged. “She might guess. Julia visited my mom first, but she’d never say.”

“So she might not even know you left town. Your car is still in the driveway.”

“You forget those private investigators she set on us.”

Sam stopped dead. “Shit. I did forget. They didn’t follow us though, did they?”

“But she can find out whereyoulive. And she might guess that we’re going to Noah if we left with you. They only have to do a quick internet search to find you, right?”

They were under a streetlight. The air smelled of gasoline from the gas station across the street. It seemed to be an omen, somehow, of the danger close by.

“Sam,” he said. “Don’t go home yet. Not until we know where she is.”

“I have to,” she said at once. “I have work on Monday, and I have to get my stuff together and move back to my trailer.”

“Indy,” he said.

“No. You should come tomyhouse. She’s expecting you to go to your friend. You can come to mine and bypass her altogether. If she shows up at Noah’s, he can have her arrested.”

“Indy,” he repeated and put out a hand. He stroked her arm. “If anything were to happen to you because of me, I couldn’t stand it.”

Sam caught her breath. “I’ll be fine. She’s too chicken to fight a woman.” And she tried to smile.

Ty sighed again. “Fine. I don’t know where she’ll be, so let’s just get the kids to Noah’s. They know now not to trust her, so even if I have to go back to Massachusetts, they’ll be safe with him.”

“Okay.” She hated not knowing the right answer. She hated thatTydidn’t know the right answer and had to make do with the one they had. “Come here.”

She wrapped her arms around him. Not to kiss him. But she couldn’t do nothing when he was standing there looking more alone than ever. She’d brought him all this way only to have Julia loom as large as ever over their heads.

This time Ty dropped his head to her shoulder. “Sam,” he said.

“Uh-oh,” she joked. “When you don’t call me Indy, things are serious.”

He laughed, which was all she wanted. “Do you mind?”

“I got used to it. Yeah, kinda like it. Damn you.”

He adjusted his position so he could hold her more tightly. “Sam,” he said again.

She couldn’t see his face, but she could feel his thoughts. “I’m right here,” she murmured. “I’m right here.”

“I know. You’ve been right here for us all week.”

“And I always will be. Whatever happens.”