All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One (43 page)

“I’m supposed to just let my daughter try and capture a homicidal maniac by herself? You realize you’re only seventeen, right?”

“Like that matters.”

“It does,” Mom said with tensely crossed arms. “I don’t want my baby having to do such a scary thing alone. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Instinctively I moved closer to Hale. Mom didn’t know about what he had to do when he was sixteen. She didn’t understand how close to this situation he really was.

I wasn’t even a hundred percent sure what he thought about all of this. His opinion was skewed because of me. He hated himself for what he did to his father, even though it was for the best. He didn’t agree with that opinion. But this was about my safety, and I believed that there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t approve of if it meant me getting out of this alive.

There was a fear in the back of my head that if I killed this man, Hale would see me differently. It was most of the reason I was considering taking the more dangerous path and not killing Dottie’s father. I cared more about what Hale thought of me than about the life of that man. The idea of it bothered me, but at best I was never a very good person.

“If he dies then Dottie would be alone,” I said, trying to care. “It might make her snap. She’s already had a psychotic break back when her mom died; she had to get professional help. Like in a care facility. It’s entirely possible that she might pick up where he left off. I’d be responsible for the death of her whole family.” The reality of the words was heavy in my chest.

“That wasn’t your fault,” Hadley said. “She didn’t have to follow you into the teachers room. That man didn’t need to get wasted on his way home. You can’t be blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Miller doesn’t see it that way,” I reminded them. “Please just help me with this.”

Mom considered it for a minute. “You can teleport away if you need to but that power goes away if your mind of compromised. If you’re wounded bad enough then you’ll be helpless.”

“What?” Hale asked. “You can lose it?”

“Temporarily. A concussion can cloud our heads enough so we can’t teleport. Our strength stays the same but like a normal human, if we’re hurt then we’re compromised. He’s more than human. It might be enough to—”

“No,” Hale stepped back and started walking mindlessly. “I can’t let you do this. He had a gun before and he might again. I’m not losing you, Rory.”
 

“You won’t,” I said, not sure if I was lying or not. This needed to happen. I started it and I was the only one who could finish it. At least if I died they would be safe. This would be over.

“Can you guarantee that for me? Can you tell me with perfect certainty that you won’t be hurt while doing this?”

“Yeah,” Hadley added. “I’d like that too. But if you say yes then I know you’re lying to us. But we don’t have time for this fight. Not if he’s planning on doing whatever the Hell he’s gonna do tomorrow.”

Quickly, I tried to come up with some kind of plan that everyone could be happy with. I was starting to think there wouldn’t be one. But I did the best I could. “What if Mom and Hadley stayed in the neighborhood but not by the house? Make him think I’m alone. That way if I need back up you can be listening in and know to come.”

“Where will I be?” Hale asked, making all eyes go to him.

“Love,” Mom said with as much softness as she could manage. “You’re incredibly human. Therefore, breakable. This man will use you to get to Aurora. He has before.”

“Am I supposed to just let her do this alone? Wait for her to either come back to me or not?”

Mom thought. “Stay with Hadley and I. You’ll know as much as we will and you can come with us if she needs it.”

I could see in his eyes that it wasn’t good enough for him. If he had it his way he’d be doing this for me. There was no way I was letting that happen.

I put my arms around Hale and faced him. “Please, do this for me. I’ll be safe and I need to know you’re safe too.”

He closed his eyes when he spoke. “Just promise me that you won’t let him hurt you.”

All I could do was lie to him. “Nothing is going to happen to me. I promise.”

I was forced to sleep alone and everything about it felt wrong. It was like I was about to go off to battle and I didn’t even get my proper send off. But at least Hale showed up bright and early the next morning to bring me to school.

I grumbled when I woke up, even though he was sitting next to me, reading a book. “It’s stupid that we’re going to school today.” I sat up as he was putting my book on the nightstand.

“If we’re both missing it might tip Miller off about what we know. Plus, I think it would be wise to talk to Dottie one last time. Maybe something’s changed.”

Probably not. But he had a point. God only knows how much surveillance Miller had on me. I just hoped that he didn’t have cameras installed. Paranoid, I looked around my bedroom. I didn’t need that kook having a tape of Hale and I making out. Especially last night’s session. Hale was doing his best to make up for lost time. My face warmed at the thought of it.

I changed into jeans and a t-shirt. I stole Hale’s extra sweater and threw it on. He eyed me like candy when I walked out of the bathroom in it. I stopped a half a foot from him and he looked down at me with desire that should have turned his eyes red.

“You’re gonna pay for that later,” I warned him.

“What did I do?” his face turned falsely innocent. Even with the face of an angel he couldn’t pull off innocent. It only made me love him more seeing the twinge of darkness he carried with him. It gave me shivers.

“You know what you did,” I narrowed my eyes at him without anger behind it.

“If you’re referring to my nearly drooling over the sight of you, I cannot be blamed for that. It seems that you remain unaware of the fact that you’re beauty incarnate. Clearly divine.”

I smirked. “Maybe. I do have angel in me. Kind of.”

He dipped his head down and kissed me under my ear. “Absolutely.”

We trudged on and went to school like a madman wasn’t after me or anything. Totally normal day. I went through my morning classes like nothing was off. I even tried playing with Hale at lunch like everything was okay.

His chair was right next to mine and he kept fiddling with my feet as he kicked them with his. There was a lot of giggling on my side and pleased smiles on his. He even managed to sneak his fingers under my sweater and up to my sides so he could tickle me. Thank God no one cares about paying attention to anyone but themselves.

“People are going to see us,” I said under my breath when Hale went for my thighs.

“No they won’t.”

“What makes you think that?”

He glanced around. “Because they’ve all got their noses in their books. Last minute studying.”

“So that means you’re free to take advantage of me?”

He smirked. “Does it still count if you like it when I do?”

“You’re the cockiest person I’ve ever met,” I nearly rolled my eyes at him.

He mumbled something very inappropriate in my ear just before the bell rang and the students started shuffling off. We followed suit and went to Art.

The assignment today was to sketch a person. It wasn’t specific, it could be a real person or they could be made up. So when Hale turned his chair to face me, I got a little nervous.

“What are you doing?” I asked, already knowing.

“I need a good view of my subject, Lamb. Sit still,” he said without his eyes leaving the paper in front of him. I watched for a few minutes as he made the basic shapes of a human being and slowly started adding detail. He meticulously added soft lines for the curves of my face. He spent the most time on my lips—no surprise. He erased and redrew them at least three times. He said he needed to get them perfect.

I looked down at the stick figure I was drawing and frowned. I clearly didn’t get my biological mothers artistic skills. A child could probably have done a better job than me. But any art skills I had weren’t in sketching. I could almost paint my way out of a paper bag, but even that wasn’t very good. Hale was talented though. It made sense that he chose this as his elective.

“My goodness,” Mrs. Lore said when she was making her rounds. “That is lovely.”

“Thank you,” Hale said like he only half heard her. He was too focused on the sketch. And I was focused on not blushing at the attention he was giving me.

“Clearly you excel when you have the proper muse,” she added.

A crooked smile appeared on his face. “Very true. I happen to have the most beautiful subject one can have. Almost a pity that I’m the only one who gets her.”

Must not run from embarrassment… Must stay strong.

Mrs. Lore went back to walking the room and I relaxed just a little. I could handle Hale staring at me, that was nothing new. But I didn’t like other people noticing me. It was uncomfortable. He was the only thing that could make me feel comfortable in my own skin.

Hale set his picture down, covering it either from me or from the world. Then he scooted his chair right next to mine. He leaned over and looked at what I was doing. He had the decency not to laugh. “Who might that be?”

I squinted my eyes at it. “I don’t know. But I hope he pulls himself together soon.”

He lightly laughed before he put his feet up on the table and went back to his sketch.

I was trying hard to not think about what might happen tonight. I’m sure Hale was doing the same. We were stuck pretending that everything was okay just to keep up appearances. One wrong move and Miller could catch on to us.  

We still haven’t heard from Dottie and that wasn’t helping my worry. She ducked out on lunch again and I had no clue where the Hell she was. I had half a mind to have Hale call her. Since he had her number… But if I did that then I’d guarantee that he’d have to be thinking about it again. At least like this there was a chance that he was thinking about more pleasant things.

Unfortunately, the boy knew me too well. He asked me, “Are you worried?”

I couldn’t lie to him. He’d know, and he deserved better than that. “I’m worried about how this is all going to go down. If Dottie talked her dad down don’t you think she would have found us by now?”

He pressed his lips to my shoulder. “Don’t lose hope. There’s a fair chance this will all work out. We’ll find her before we go home.”

I nodded. “Okay. You’re right.” I just needed to calm down. I was prone to panic and it was showing.

I glanced at Hale and he was back to his sketch. His face was calm and I stared at him until I felt calm too. It worked, surprisingly. He had a talent for settling me and he remained unaware of it.

We finished up class and trudged onto Gym. Jenna decided that it would be a baseball day. And she wanted to put Hale and I on different teams.

“No way,” I crossed my arms so I couldn’t throw my red vest at her. “Why should we?”

She sighed. “So I can get you to actually play.”

I looked over at Hale, who had no problem letting me fight this alone. He was too easy going. I’d need to fix that. “I’ll play properly if you let us play together.”

“You keep forgetting that I’m the teacher here. If I keep letting you guys screw around then all of the kids are gonna start and I’ll have a mutiny on my hands. The year is almost half over, can you just cut me a break.”

“Why should I? You’re making me play against my boyfriend. How is it gonna make him feel when I kick his ass?”

Hale turned to me with amusement. “Now who’s cocky?”

I set a hand on my hip. “Do you want to be on different teams?”

He shrugged. “We’re only playing for a half hour. And what I’d rather be doing isn’t an option.”

I felt like his whole goal in life was to make me blush. But thankfully Jenna pretended not to understand what he was talking about. She’s known me forever and I think the idea of me with a boy is a little weird for her. She saw me and Hadley like little sisters.

“Fine,” I threw my hands up. “I’ll do what you want, Jay. But as revenge, I’m playing with full demon strength. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I marched off to my team’s side and Hale went to his.