Reckless Hope by Nyssa Kathryn

Author:Nyssa Kathryn [Kathryn, Nyssa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

He’d found her. Harper’s father had found her, and not just her town—her workplace.

Her heart pounded, fear crawling through her chest as she moved around Cody’s apartment, grabbing all the little things she’d accumulated over the couple nights she’d stayed here.

There was only one thing she could think to do. One word that screamed at her, so loud and so furious it wiped out everything else.

Run.

She needed to get out. Go. Disappear. If her mom and brother hated her for testifying and ensuring her dad was thrown into prison, how did her violent, former drug-addict father feel?

His brown eyes, eyes so similar to her own, flashed in her mind, angry and hate filled.

A whimper tried to escape her lips, but she swallowed it down.

Where was she supposed to go—and how was she supposed to get there? She had no car. It was the only reason she hadn’t left hours ago, when she’d spotted her father across the street. She’d come downstairs to work almost on autopilot, going over plan after plan of what she could do. To leave or stay. To hide or run. Maybe a part of her also wanted to be close to Cody, because that was where she felt safe. But after having her father walk inside her place of employment…there was nowhere that would feel safe unless it was far away from him.

Why was he here? What was his plan? To hurt her again? To drag her back to Hamilton?

Her fingers shook as she grabbed her toiletries from the bathroom. Ali had brought some of her stuff over when she’d been sick. It wasn’t much, but when you had almost nothing, everything was important.

She returned to the bedroom, grabbed a T-shirt off the dresser, and shoved it into her bag.

A ride. That was the first thing she needed. Someone to take her to the cabin so she could pack the last of her things, then another ride to a bus station. Where was the closest bus station? And when would the next bus come? God, where would she even go from here?

Panic welled in her chest. It was so thick and heavy that it pressed down on her, suffocating, making every breath a battle. Every thump of her heart a struggle.

Then more panic bubbled to the surface. A different kind, but one that weighed just as heavily on her chest.

Panic at the idea of leaving Cody.

She paused and pressed a hand over her heart, as if that could somehow stem the pain. She hadn’t known him for long, but in their short amount of time together, he’d slipped into her heart and become the first person who’d given her hope for a better future.

She closed her eyes and focused on the air moving in and out of her lungs. It was only the click of the apartment door opening that had her pulling out of her stillness. Quickly, she grabbed her cat nightgown from the bed and stuffed it into the bag.

“Harper…”

His voice… It slipped inside her, making her yearn for a future that felt so far out of reach.

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