Page 18 of Wild Highway (Runaway 2)

The more she’d hesitated, the more anxious I’d been that the Sheldons would forget about us. That this chance to make it rich would evaporate.

As an ambitious nineteen-year-old, patience had not been a strength.

I’d craved adventure. I’d craved the promise of money, to become a woman like Sandra who wore jewels dripping from her ears and nails that would never be caked with dirt.

Katherine had begged me to wait and give our notice to the Greers together.

Two days later, without telling Katherine, I’d taken the Sheldons’ card, packed up my things while she was cleaning a guest room and left. When I’d arrived in Boston and called Sandra, I?

??d lied and said that Katherine hadn’t been interested.

When really, I’d left her behind.

I hadn’t even written a note.

Because Katherine had known exactly where I’d gone. It was truly a miracle that she didn’t hate me.

Over dinner tonight, I told her all about my life in Boston. How I’d worked as Sandra’s assistant for six months until I had my license. How within two years, I’d become their highest grossing agent, specializing in elite Boston properties.

When real estate had become tedious, I’d started investing. Until one day, I hadn’t needed to sell properties to survive. I’d laid the foundation of my empire and kept adding bricks.

I’d spent years trying to fill the hole in my chest with money and business. But even with all the power, the prestige, the fortune, that hole was still there.

The numbness remained.

I was still just a runaway kid, numb to the world, searching for anything to make her feel.

“Do you talk to anyone else?” Katherine asked. “From Lou’s?”

“No, just Londyn. Do you?”

“No.” She shook her head. “How did you know I was here?”

“A while back, I was curious where everyone had landed, so I hired an investigator to find out. You made his job easy since your picture was all over the resort’s website.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

“Did you hear that Lou died?”

“He did?” Her hand pressed against her heart. “How? When?”

“Years ago. He died in his sleep.”

Tears shone in her blue eyes. “I’ll never forget that man.”

Lou Miley had owned the junkyard when Karson had discovered it after running away from home. Karson had snuck in and out for a month, sleeping there and hiding out, until one night, Lou had come out with a blanket.

Lou hadn’t tossed Karson out. He hadn’t brought him inside, either. He’d simply let Karson stay.

When I’d found Karson after leaving my own home, Lou hadn’t even batted an eyelash the first time he’d spotted me in his junkyard. He’d given me a grunt and a glare and disappeared into the shack he’d called home.

“He was so grumpy.” I smiled. “So wonderfully gruff and grumpy.”

Lou had shunned the mainstream world, living alone at the junkyard. None of us had ever asked why he’d let six kids squat on his property, but I believed it was because when we’d moved in, Lou hadn’t been so alone.

None of us, not even Karson, had ever been invited into Lou’s home. But he’d allowed us to use the bathroom and the shower in the junkyard’s shop. Once, Karson and I had been sick with a cold and Lou had left us a bottle of cold medicine by the sink.

Lou hadn’t reported us as runaways. Most adults would have called the cops and ushered us into the foster care system. But I think Lou had liked having us there. And maybe he’d known that if he kicked us out or called the authorities, we would have just run away again, probably to a place not nearly as safe.