“Making you go with me.”
“Milayna, you probably just saved my life. Here I thought the group was trying to keep you alive, and you just saved that woman’s life and probably mine too. Thank you.”
She reached out, grabbed my hand, and held it a little too tight considering I’d just had half a plate glass window pulled out of it by the EMTs, but I held on to her just as tightly.
We were one bullet away from possibly losing one another. Demons, Azazel, now freakin’ bullets flying around. It’s too much. Too many things threatening the people I love and I don’t know how to protect them from it all.
“It was nothing. All in a day’s work.” I smiled. Muriel squeezed my hand before letting go. She didn’t smile back.
We called our parents and told them what happened. Then we spent the next four hours of our life looking through picture after picture of criminals along with the store clerk.
“I couldn’t believe how many there were,” I said as Muriel and I walked out of the police station. Goose bumps broke out on my skin thinking about it.
“I know, right?” Muriel muttered. “It would have been nice if the surveillance cameras,” Muriel made air quotes around the words surveillance cameras, “were actual working cameras and not just empty boxes put up to deter crime. ‘Cuz, guess what? It didn’t work.”
My lips twitched. “Yes, that would have definitely been helpful.” Muriel had been bitching about the cameras since the store clerk told the police they weren’t real working cameras. She’d bitched to me, the police, and the store clerk, who really got a dose. “I just wish I could have given them something useful to work with. But I didn’t see the guy long enough… Anyway, that’s four hours of our life we won’t get back.” I sighed.
“Yeah. I’m just happy we had four hours of life left.” Muriel unlocked the car, and we climbed in to go home.
***
My dad met us at the car when Muriel pulled into her driveway. “Are you okay?” His face was pinched with worry.
“Yeah.”
We walked across the street to my house. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled him. He waited in the foyer, his hair mussed from running his hand through it. My heart lurched when I saw him, and I reminded it we were supposed to be mad at him for the idiotic thing he said. But somehow, it didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. And I didn’t want to spend my life choosing to be angry.
He walked to me, cupped my face in his hands, and kissed me hard and deep. My father cleared his throat. Chay kept kissing me, and I kept kissing him back. I wrapped one arm around his waist, the other around his neck, and cradled the side of his head. I held him tight against me, until not even a whisper could fit between us. And still he was too far away. I felt so safe in his arms that my heart hurt. I didn’t realize I was crying until I tasted my salty tears on our lips.
“Okay then. Ignore the father.” My dad walked away.
“I’m sorry about what I said, Milayna. It came out all wrong—” He wiped my tears away, kissing each spot. “Don’t cry. I can’t stand to see you cry.”
I waved off his words and shook my head. “It’s okay.”
“Your hands. What happened to your hands?” He looked at the bandages the EMTs had applied.
“Just some glass. It’s nothing.”
He kissed me again. It was a slow, make-your-toes-curl-and-insides-swirl kiss, and my heart drummed against my chest. I leaned into him, urging him to take the kiss deeper.
“Chay, would you like to stay for dinner?” my mother called.
He lifted his head and grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And that’s how you get their attention.” I heard my mom tell my dad in the kitchen.
I giggled and walked toward the smell of food. I was starving. When I walked into the kitchen, I froze. The large window behind the kitchen table was right in front of me. Through that, I could see my goblin buddies waiting for me in the backyard.
“Oh, yeah, I meant to tell you. You have some little red visitors.” My dad dished up some of the casserole my mom sat on the table in front of him.
I watched them run through the yard. “How long have they been here?” A weight fell onto my shoulders and pushed the air out of my lungs. I closed my eyes briefly and covered my face with my hands.
“About five hours.”
I let my hands fall slowly from my face. “About when the robbery happened,” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go out and see what they want so they’ll go.”
“Eat first, before it gets cold. They’ve waited this long. They can wait until after dinner.” My mom sat down at the table and patted the chair next to her.