Payback by Melinda Metz - Fingerprints - 7 Read Free Book Online Page B

motion, then final y left the window. Anthony stepped up and slapped a photo of Yana that he’d gotten from Rae down on the counter. “You seen that girl around? The blond, not the one with the curly hair?” he as ked.
    The clerk studied the picture for a second, then nodded. Anthony felt a surge of adrenaline, and he leaned in close to hear what she had to say. “She was sleeping on that bench over there when I got on shift at midnight last night,” the woman said, gesturing to a nearby wooden bench. “I almost went over and woke her up. It’s not a safe place for any woman to sleep. And someone as young as her? Forget about it.”
    “So what happened to her?” Anthony asked, unable to keep the urgency from his voice. “Did she just leave or what?” He felt like yel ing, but if he did, the woman probably wouldn’t be in the mood to help him, so he tried to sound concerned about Yana, in a big brother kind of way.
    “Nope. She bought a ticket from me this morning, when I was about to get off.”
    “To where? Do you remember?” Anthony asked.
    “Atlanta. Like half the people I sel tickets to,” the woman answered. She popped a stick of Big Red gum in her mouth.
    “So she’s there already?” Anthony gripped the counter with both hands.
    “Yeah,” the woman answered, chomping away. “She’d have gotten in hours ago.”
    Crap. Crap. Yana’s there. I’m here. Rae’s got no one to protect her.
    Rae tiptoed across the front lawn, the dewy grass slick and cool under her feet. Before she’d made it halfway to the sidewalk, Anthony was out of his car. He raced toward her like she was the goalpost on a footbal field. “What happened?” he demanded, his voice low and intense.
    “Nothing. Nothing bad,” Rae answered quickly. “It’s just that if you’re going to keep watch on me al night, you might as wel co me in. Your back’s going to kil you in the morning if you don’t. The coach wil be real y pissed.”
    Rae didn’t care about the coach. But she didn’t want to just say, “Hey, Anthony, you want to come in and spend the night in my bedroom?”
    “What about your dad?” Anthony asked, squinting.
    Rae inched her wet feet onto the tops of his dry sneakers and wrapped her arms around his waist for balance. “He’s asleep, and he sleeps like a rock. I’l set the alarm and make sure you’re up and out before he gets up. Okay?”
    “Okay.” Anthony started toward the house. Rae rode on his feet al the way to her bedroom.
    “I’l make you a bed on the floor,” she volunteered. Although God, how nice would it be to sleep al wrapped up in Anthony’s arms. Except that if she was al wrapped up in his arms, there was no way she’d ever be able to go to sleep. Rae got a flash of an up-al -night kind of night with Anthony. She wanted that. Someday. Someday when they wouldn’t have to worry about Yana hur ling herself through the window and trying to kil them both.
    Rae grabbed one of her pil ows and tossed it onto the floor. “There are some extra blankets in the closet,” she told Anthony.
    “Sorry I don’t have a sleeping bag. My dad and I, we’re not exactly outdoor types.”
    Anthony stood rooted to the floor, looking at her, and Rae was pretty sure he was thinking almost the same thing she’d been thinking a few seconds before. The realization made her feel like she’d chugged a pot of steaming tea. Heat flooded her entire body. “Closet. Right.” Anthony jerked around and retrieved a couple of blankets from her top shelf.
    “Sorry I don’t have anything you can sleep in,” Rae said. She ran her hands down the oversized T-shirt she wore to bed. “I have lots of these, but they wouldn’t exactly fit you. Wel , they’d fit you.
    But they’d be tight. Like the T-shirt you already have on. So it wouldn’t-” Stop the babbling, she ordered herself. “It wouldn’t ma ke sense,” she finished.
    “I’m… what I have on is fine,” Anthony told her. He knelt down on the floor,