“Ssh, it’s okay, Penny. Everything is going to be okay.”
“How can you say that? Frannie is close and I’m going to have to run again. Claire, I mean” I take a deep breath and remind myself to call my daughter Chloe. I can’t get in the habit of saying Claire or I might slip. “Chloe is established here and I’m going to have to take her away from her friends.”
“That’s not going to happen. None of us will let that happen.”
“Penny,” Cara says my name to get my attention. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I have to tell you that I have a team of agents arriving very shortly. We want to use you to draw Frannie here so we can arrest her.”
I shake my head vehemently. “No way. I can’t put Chloe in harm’s way.”
“She won’t be, I promise,” Cara states. But she can’t protect us. No one can. I have to disappear again. I have to run, change our names, and find another place to hide. I can’t let Frannie find us because if she does, he’ll be right behind her. He’ll win and I’ll never let him have my baby. I don’t care if he’s in jail. He has people on the outside working for him.
I see the look of determination on their faces and realize that they’re not going to listen to me.
“Look, I understand that you think I’m missing, but I’m not. You can see me standing here, but my life as Penelope McCoy, it’s over. Cla— Chloe and I, we have a good life and you being here is disrupting it. I need to get back to my family.”
I bypass Cara and avoid Ryley’s outstretched hand. By tomorrow my daughter and I will be gone and poor Ray will be come home thinking everything is okay until we don’t return from the grocery store. If I could fake my death I would.
“Penny, please don’t go, I have something to tell you.” Ryley’s voice is full of desperation.
I shake my head as I turn the doorknob, and find myself eye-to-eye with a chest. I look up slowly and gasp, trying to catch my breath. My hand covers my mouth and tears cloud my vision. I feel hands on me before everything turns black.
WITH TODAY’S LACK OF security measures in place, it’s a shock that there aren’t more attacks happening on trains and buses. Buying the train ticket was easy. I was even thanked for my service now that I’m dressed in some Army issued fatigues. There’s no way in hell I’ll ever be caught dead walking around in the blueberry Navy working uniform. Besides, I think Frannie would expect that, and as much as I’d love to run into her out on the street, I need to get my ass to Boston.
As soon as Cara said the words, “I found her,” everything stopped, including myself. Breathing didn’t exist. The lights and sounds of New York City came to a halt and it was if they were no longer functioning. The streets were deserted; the people of Times Square were gone. And so was Cara because my phone died as soon as she said those three words.
I frantically looked around for help, but there wasn’t anyone I could ask. Every store I stopped at that morning didn’t have what I needed and pay phones are non-existent these days. Not that I would’ve been able to call her since her number was stored in my phone and I didn’t have it memorized like she asked me to do. The smart thing would’ve been for me to write her number down just in case. But I didn’t.
All I knew was that Penny had been found, and by the tone of Cara’s voice, she sounded happy. Which to me means Penny is alive and well. My next move was to get the train. I had to get to Boston to meet my friends.
I don’t know how long I stood on the street corner—with my mouth hanging open and a dead cell phone in my hand—until my brain could tell my legs to move, and once they did it was like I couldn’t stop.
The first thing I did was ask directions to the nearest Army Navy store. I still needed some clothes I’d be comfortable in and that was the only place to provide them. When I walked in, I felt at home. A weird sense of calm washed over me. It could’ve been because this wasn’t an ordinary AN store, this was a store run by an arms dealer. The militia runs it. I was with my kind, or at least people who understood my desire to outfit myself. The first thing I found was an Ontario MKIII Navy knife, followed by my boots and the rest of my purchases were gravy: box cutter, Leatherman, zip ties, and a couple of rounds for my gun. I was going to be prepared in the event Frannie is on my train.
Once I arrived at the train station I was able to calm down. I stood in the corner, waiting for my train to flash on the screen and bolted to the door. The last thing I wanted to do was share a seat with someone—I wanted people to be scared to sit with me. It should be easy. I’m a master at looking pissed off. Hell, I’ve only been doing it continuously for the past six months.