Free Unfiltered & Unsaved by Payge Galvin, Bridgette Luna

tell him I took everything. He didn’t believe me. He asked me where you kept your money and I said in your backpack, that’s all I told him. I didn’t tell him—what you had. You need to get the hell out of there, now—”
    “I’m out,” she said. “Skinner busted my dorm room door in, but I’m okay. Where are you?”
    “Solomon locked us into the motel room, but I jimmied the lock on the connecting door to the other room,” Elijah said. “I’m okay right now, but it won’t last. Hope, you need to go to the cops.”
    “I can’t,” Hope said. She took a deep breath and heard that days-old ghost of herself saying to the room full of strangers at the coffee shop, We need to call the police. She’d had her chance to be honest, to be good, to be the person she’d always imagined herself to be, and she’d blown it. Oh, there had been reasons, maybe good ones, but she’d compromised herself. It was true: the road to Hell was paved with good intentions. And money. “Elijah, I can’t . If the police see the money I have … they’re going to ask questions. I can’t answer them.”
    “Skinner’s coming for you, don’t you get it? Trust me, the money’s the least of your problems right now.”
    “Where are you?” She stopped the car for a red light, and wiped her damp palms against her skirt. “I can come get you. You can go to the police. Tell them everything.”
    “I’ve got a record for fraud; I’m not exactly police-friendly either. Even if I do try it, Solomon will just stick the others in a van and hit the road before I can get anybody to believe me, and then it’ll be too late. Avita … I told you, I can’t abandon her.” He was quiet for a few seconds, and when he came back, his voice was very soft. “I have to go. I think he’s outside the room. I can hear him yelling.”
    “That’s probably because I got away from Skinner,” Hope said. “So I can’t go to the cops, and you can’t either. Right? What are we going to do?”
    He was quiet for a moment, and then she heard him let out a breath. “I don’t know. I can’t figure you out,” he said. “I thought you were a soft touch, and then I thought you were some crazy idealist. Now I’m really not too sure what you are. Doesn’t matter, though. You need to run and keep on running. Solomon’s going to make me tell him everything now. I can’t protect you this time. I know how much I can take and he’s going to hit my limits. I’m sorry.”
    The light turned green, but Hope didn’t really notice beyond a vague impression. She was too busy concentrating on the sound of Elijah’s voice, on the tense, worried tone in it. “I’m coming.”
    “Hope, don’t.”
    “Shut up, I’m coming to get you. Can you get out somehow? To the parking lot?”
    “You don’t know what you’re getting into!”
    “I know you’re already in it,” she said. “And I know that I need to help you get out of it.”
    He was quiet again for what felt like a long, long moment. A car cruised up behind her and honked loudly; Hope flinched, and realized that the light was still green, and going stale. She hit the gas and hurried through—not fast enough for the car chasing her, which whipped around her and roared off. It was filled with drunk college guys, one of whom leaned his bare ass out the window as it sped past.
    Honestly.
    “We’re at the Rio Verde Valley Inn off of 298. First floor, southwest corner of the building. I’ll meet you in the parking lot. If you don’t see me, keep driving and don’t stop; toss your phone on the way out of town so they can’t track it, and whatever you do, don’t look back. Understand?”
    He sounded serious—serious and scared. She swallowed hard and said, “I understand. But you’d better be there, E.J. I mean it.”
    He hung up without replying. She stared down at the phone for a second, then turned left at the next intersection and dropped the phone into the passenger seat. It was at least five