“Well then, perfect timing because something else is about to be up.”

“Oh God,” she whispered.

“Is Esposito there?” I asked.

“No, he’s gone.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t share his schedule for the day.”

He wouldn’t.

He’d left all husbandly duties behind when he started pimping out his wife.

Except one.

Not that he’d ever been good at husbandly duties.

Even, according to Tia, that one.

“Then we don’t have much time,” I announced.

“For what?”

“Tia, we’re leaving.”

She was silent a moment before she asked, “What?”

“Leaving. Leaving town. You and me. You need to pack a couple of bags and get your hands on some money or valuables we can sell that are easy to carry, like jewelry. We’ll meet at the 7 Eleven on Thomas and 16th in an hour, ditch your car and we’re going to Seattle.”

“Seattle?” she whispered.

“Yes, Seattle,” I replied.

More silence, then…

“Are you crazy?” she hissed into the phone, and I could tell she was moving, probably to make sure she had privacy.

Esposito might be gone, but that didn’t mean his bevy of bad guys weren’t around.

“No, I’m not crazy.”

“Um, Clara, I think you were around when I asked Enrique for a divorce. I think you remember his response. So I think you’re crazy.”

His response was Tia getting an eye that was swollen shut and not being unable to walk without holding her ribs for a while.

And this fact made me even less crazy.

“Buck says he’s making enemies. Buck says he’s the kind of guy who burns bright then gets snuffed out. And Buck is the kind of man who knows what he’s talking about. We just have to stay gone and lay low until someone snuffs him out.”

“Who’s Buck?”

“West Hardy.”

“Oh God.”

This was an indication she didn’t think the president of a motorcycle club was the top choice for a life decisions advisor.

Then again, Tia had been in foster care with me, so she knew all about doing your utmost to make the right moves.

However, she, just like me, screwed up big time along the way.

“He’s nice,” I explained. “And he’s smart.”

“Clara—” Her voice had started trembling.

She was scared.

I hated to hear Tia scared and it happened a lot.

And I was done hearing it.

Yes.

Buck was so right. We had to get out of here.

We weren’t safe, no matter what we did.

Not in Phoenix.

And it was me who had to make us that.

“Tia,” I cut in, “I know how this is going to play out. Either Buck’s right and Esposito’s enemies move in for the kill or Esposito messes up and the police move in for the kill. Either way, you do not want to be around. Trust me, I know. You want to leave. You want to be far away from here. You want to be with me, in Seattle, making coffee drinks.”

“Yes, Clara, but I have fifty dollars in my purse, can only take out two hundred from the ATM, and Enrique hasn’t exactly showered me with jewels,” Tia returned.

“We’ll be okay.”

“How?”

“We just will.”

“And what if he comes after me? Which we both know he will.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

“Clara, honey—”

“Pack clothes and some food. If we don’t have to spend money on food, then we can just spend it on gas to get to Seattle.”

“I can’t,” she stated.

“You can. I can. Mrs. Jimenez just gave me her nest egg. I don’t know how much is there, but we’ll sell your wedding rings, which should be good for something, and go as far as we can go until we can’t go anymore. Then we’ll figure something out.”

“If he finds me,” she whispered, “he’ll hurt me.”

“Tia, baby,” I whispered back. “He’s hurting you now.”

Tia had no response and this was because she knew I was right.

When she didn’t speak for a while, I didn’t want to do it, but I had to.

So I pulled out the big guns.

“And he’s hurting me.” Tia still didn’t respond so I continued, “We both know he’s playing with me in ways I could get hurt. We both know he’s doing it because he likes the idea I might get hurt. And we both know that when that doesn’t happen, he’ll make things more dangerous for me so I will get hurt. And, last, we both know my deal with him to keep you safe won’t last forever. He’ll get bored with that too. We have to go. We both have to go. Now.”

“I don’t think—”

“Whatever happens to us out there cannot be worse than what’s happening and is going to happen here.”

Tia again fell silent.

“Honey—” I started.

“An hour,” she whispered, and relief swept through me. “The 7 Eleven. He gave me a string of pearls and a pair of ruby earrings when we were dating. And I put all my change in that bowl in the kitchen. There has to be at least seventy dollars in there. I’ll grab that too.”

God, we were reduced to change in a bowl.

I used to live in a four-bedroom house with a pool in the backyard in a neighborhood where all the women wore Lululemon clothes and carried Louis Vuitton bags (both, I never did, because enough with the Lululemon already, it should be called Lululemming—even the LV, those stuck-up, entitled women who I hadn’t liked even before my life turned to garbage (because they were stuck-up and entitled) were such they actually ruined the brilliance of LV for me).

And four months ago, Tia and Esposito moved into an ostentatious mini-mansion.

Then again, Tia had tried to talk me into taking that change for the last six months since it was the only thing she figured Esposito wouldn’t notice was gone as he wasn’t a fan of Tia helping me out, so he put a stop to it months ago.

Therefore, I’d essentially been reduced to change in a bowl for a while.

And seventy dollars was a couple tanks of gas.

“Perfect,” I said.

“7 Eleven,” she said.

“An hour,” I replied.

“You and me,” she whispered.

“Coffee drinks and Seattle,” I whispered back.

We’d dreamed, Tia and I. We’d dreamed in whispers at night while in our twin beds in our foster carer’s home.

We hadn’t dreamed big. But we’d dreamed.

None of those dreams were about coffee drinks and Seattle.

But, for now, that would do.

I heard her take in a shaky breath.

Then I heard her say a shaky, “Yes.”

“See you soon, honey.”

“’Bye, babe.”

I hit the button for off, and you couldn’t say I wasn’t scared. I was scared. Definitely scared. And I still didn’t like the feeling.

But that despair in my belly shifted again.

It didn’t evaporate, but it shifted and there was a tiny little niggle of hope.

I hadn’t felt that in a long time either.