Free The Black Feather by Olivia Claire High

to keep myself safe for Muriel’s sake. I need you to go there, get that bag, and turn it over to the police, honey.”
    “I can’t. I’m being watched too closely myself.”
    “You got to a phone to call me, didn’t you? You’ve always been clever. I know you’ll figure out a way to help your old man.”
    “It’s kind of crappy that you’re not worried about me as much as you are about your lady friend.”
    “Of course I’m worried about you, but Muriel has to be my priority right now.”
    Her shoulders sagged.
    “It’s nice to know where I stand in the pecking order. Why is she so special?”
    “She’s pregnant.”
     
    Suzanne decided she was worse than pond scum. She was the primordial ooze that seeped up from the bowels of the earth. She’d not only tricked her friends into using their phone, but she took the cell phone sitting on the dresser. If that wasn’t bad enough, she swiped money out of Greg’s wallet lying there because she’d had to leave her house without her purse.
    Greg’s phone was very basic and she knew he only used it for emergencies. This was definitely an emergency. She took it in case she needed to call for help. Her father said their old house was empty, but what if someone followed her? Something could happen to her and no one would even know where she’d gone. The only thing she could think to do was phone Heather and tell her where she was headed.
    Suzanne told Heather she felt obligated to go, when her friend tried to talk her out of it. She knew her dad was using her and that hurt. Still, she hadn’t been able to refuse him. Maybe she needed counseling? Why else would she allow herself to be manipulated into doing something so dangerous?
    The pattern between them had been set long ago. She’d always been willing to do anything, short of murder, to please her father in an effort to win his love. But this was the first time she’d been asked to protect an unborn child. Her dad’s child, she reminded herself. Well, she was his child, too, even if she was an adult now.
    Thad was right when he described the kind of home she wanted. Maybe that was because she’d never had that life growing up. People who claimed you couldn’t miss what you never had didn’t know what they were talking about. There were all kinds of hunger in the world, and not just for food.
    Thad must have discovered she was gone by now. Suzanne hated deceiving him. He’d inadvertently given her the idea to use her neighbor’s yard and call a cab to meet her a few blocks away. She prayed she’d find the bag, so she could turn it over to the police before the Montane brothers ruined more lives. It made her feel better to focus on the idea that she wasn’t doing this just for herself, or her father. The Montanes had done bad things to good people. If she had the power to end their reign of terror, wasn’t that a noble quest?
    Maybe if she succeeded it might make her father love her. Or maybe she should grow up and stop believing in fantasies. But sometimes fairytales were all there was, and not for the first time in her life Suzanne wished for something she couldn’t seem to have.
    She had the cab driver drop her off a few houses from her destination. She walked at a quick pace in her anxiousness to find her father’s bag and get away as fast as she could. The streetlights spaced out along the route made it easy to see where she was going. But she made herself stay in the shadows as much as possible in case someone might be watching her progress.
    Suzanne doubted if she would ever get comfortable with having to look over her shoulder. She enjoyed a good cat-and-mouse game as much as the next person. But not when she was the mouse.
    A few stars were just beginning to dot the sky, winking like tiny rhinestones on a bed of dark gray velvet. She glanced at the houses as she hurried along. Most of them had lights on giving them a friendly, lived-in appearance. Suzanne remembered this as a neighborhood