I nod. “About not coming? Yes. But you came anyway. Thank you.”
There’s a panicked look on his face. “No, not that message. The one after.”
I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. There’s one final message from Harry on the screen, which I never saw before I left the house:
Leave your phone behind.
Harry’s face falls. “You’ve got your phone.”
“I had to bring it. So I could be in contact with you…”
He tugs on the collar of his shirt. “But he can track you through your phone. That’s the only reason he ever let you have it in the first place.”
I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Oh…”
“It’ll be okay.” His Adam’s apple bobs. “But we need to get out of here right now. We’ll ditch your phone.”
“He may not have even noticed I’m gone yet…”
“I think he has.” Harry shakes his head. “I think he gets an alert if you leave the house. But we’ve got a head start. And you took his car. But we have to go right now.”
Harry leads me to the exit of the McDonald’s. We’ve got time. Even if we just have ten minutes, we can take off in Harry’s car and he’ll never know where we went. This will be fine.
Except the second we get out of McDonald’s, I see him. Graham. Standing there, a dark look in his eyes.
And in the distance, I can hear the police sirens.
Chapter 37
“Harrison Finch.”
Graham has his arms folded across his chest. There’s a smile curling his lips, and I want to punch him in his smug face. He thinks I’m going to come with him, but I’m not. No way. He can’t make me. Not while Harry is here.
“That was a beautiful kiss you gave my wife,” Graham continues. “Very passionate. I enjoyed watching that. Thank you.” He adds, “It’ll give you something to remember when you’re sitting in prison, Harry.”
I look up at Harry, who has turned pale. I try to reach for his hand, but he won’t take it.
“He’s not going to prison,” I speak up. “I came here willingly. And I want to go with him.”
Graham scoffs. “Right. I’m sure you do. But here’s the thing, Tess. It’s not up to you. You have severe cognitive deficits. I am your guardian. And Harry here is breaking the law. Aren’t you, Harry?”
“No, he’s not,” I shoot back. I look over at Harry, who still has not said a word. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“He did plenty wrong.” Graham bares his teeth like a feral animal. “First off, he cheated on you with your best friend—”
“That’s total bullshit!” Harry breaks his silence to shout. “You and Lucy set me up, you asshole! You made her believe—”
“The truth,” Graham finishes. “And she doesn’t know the truth now either, does she?” He lifts an eyebrow. “Do you want to tell her, Harry, or should I?”
The sirens are getting louder. Harry looks like he’s going to be sick.
“It’s not what you think, Tess.” His brown eyes are darting around the parking lot. “I swear. I didn’t—”
“Tess, you have a restraining order against Mr. Finch here.” Graham folds his arms across his chest. “Because he wouldn’t leave you alone, even when we told him he was harassing you. He was putting all these crazy ideas in your head and taking advantage of the fact that you have memory problems. I had to go to court.” Graham flashes Harry a seething look. “And the court saw it my way.”
My jaw drops open. “Harry? Is that true?”
He opens his mouth, but before he can get out any words, a police car pulls into the McDonald’s parking lot. An officer comes out of the vehicle, and Graham waves him over. I can’t believe this is happening. I want to tell Harry to run for it, but it’s probably not a good idea.
The officer approaches Harry, a stern expression on his face. “Harrison Finch?”
Harry nods, his eyes on the ground.
“Mr. Finch, you’re under arrest for a violation of a restraining order.”
Harry doesn’t protest as the officer handcuffs him and leads him to his police car. Graham watches the whole thing with barely disguised glee. I can’t believe it. There was a restraining order against Harry. No wonder he didn’t want to come here and meet me. But he came anyway.
God, I don’t know what to think anymore.
“Good riddance,” Graham says to me as the police car speeds off to take Harry to jail. His eyes soften as he turns to face me. “I’m sorry he tricked you that way. I didn’t want you to know he’d been harassing you.”
“He wasn’t harassing me,” I mumble.
He shakes his head. “All you know is what he did today. I had to take him to court, Tess. He was stalking you. It was scary and very inappropriate. But now you’re safe.”
Except somehow, I don’t feel safe.
Graham holds out his hand and waggles his fingers. “Give me my keys.”
For a moment, I consider refusing. But what good would that do me? There’s no chance of me making a run for it to the car and taking off. He would catch me in half a second. So I fish the keys out of my pocket and hand them over to him.
“Where’s my car?” he asks. “I hope it’s still in one piece. You weren’t a great driver, even before.”
I point to the far end of the parking lot. I tried to park in the corner so nobody would see it. An expensive car stands out like a sore thumb.
We trudge back to the car. Ziggy sees us when we’re about ten feet away and starts barking like crazy. Graham stops short and glares at me. “Are you serious, Tess? You put that mutt in my car? On my leather upholstery?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. You sit in the back with the dog. He better not chew up my car or I’m going to be really pissed.”
Ziggy growls at Graham when he gets into the car, but I stroke his fur until he calms down. As we start driving back home, he rests his head on my lap. He looks as dejected as I feel. I didn’t think I would ever be going back to that house. Certainly not within half an hour of leaving.
I had a chance to escape and I blew it.
“I know you’re feeling upset about this whole thing,” Graham tells me as he halts at a red light. “But try not to think about it.”