Smash Into You by Shelly Crane Read Free Book Online Page B

Jude. You're on the run in your heart and nothing I say or do can change that."
                  I almost scoffed. Almost.
                  "Eat your beans, Marley." I smiled slowly and shook my head. "We need to get going."
                  She smiled, too. A little shy smile that said she didn't know why I was smiling, but she just couldn't help but answer it. She ate her entire plate, every bit, and never touched her fork. Those green beans were my nemesis and as I watched her, and yes, I watched, she was completely oblivious.
                  When we were done, I paid and Marley didn't put up a fight like I thought she would. I wondered how much after tuition would she even have left over. I couldn't imagine it would be much. The one class I took cost a small fortune on its own.
                  I checked around and then towed her to the truck swiftly. I hoisted her inside and ran to my side. My arm was throbbing, even after taking the pills. I was trying to hide it because if I told her how much it hurt, she wouldn't leave and I was unable to make her.
                  I drove carefully, my hat pulled low over my forehead. The key wasn't to keep turning your head in looking, that was suspicious, it was to face forward and let your eyes wander. When we made it back to the bar, I was a little worried. My white knuckles ached from their steering wheel grip as we passed the tree line and saw the demolished bar. Marley gasped and glued herself to her window to get the best look. I shook my head. Biloxi cared for no one or nothing. I was going to find out one day what he wanted from me. What was so daggum important that he'd risk killing people for it? For me?
                  And then I saw him. The cops and fireman walked around under the whirring lights of all colors, but it was the man digging through Marley's car that had my attention.
                  Biloxi.
                  "Hell," I spouted in an angry whisper.
                  "What? Wha-" She saw him and stopped. "Why are they looking through my car?" She looked at me and she believed now. "Is that the guy?"
                  "Yes."
                  "But why..."
                  "Because I took you with me?" I wondered aloud. "God, Marley..." What had I done? It was too late to save her. "I'm so sorry. I thought I was keeping you safe by taking you with me, but I was wrong. Now he thinks he can get to me through you. He knows who you are now."             
                  "It's not like I have an address he can find me at, Jude."
                  "What address did you give the bar when you applied?"
                  She looked sheepish and tucked her hair behind her ear. "This little abandoned house on Oxford. But it's all locked up. I've never slept there or anything."
                  Biloxi slammed the door to her car in anger and then jumped in the front. In no time, he had it hotwired, unbeknownst to the cops who were preoccupied, and was spinning in the gravel heading out the back entrance.
                  It clicked. I had an idea where the bastard was going and so, I followed him slowly. When we came to Oxford Street, I slowed even more. Biloxi was there, out of the car already, and I waited for him to go knock and interrogate Marley, because he figured either she was there or we were hiding there.
                  Instead, he pulled his gun that I knew all too well from inside his jacket, the silencer on the end making it protrude, and opened fire on Marley's supposed house.
                  I stared in shock. He wasn't even going to interrogate her to find me? He was just going to kill her? But...why wouldn't he try to lure me back with her, or hold her hostage to make me come back? My truck wasn't there...he knew I wasn't