No Safe House Read Online Free PDF Page A

minute. Cynthia watched the street the entire time.
    Finally, she said, “I’m ashamed.”
    “It was an accident,” I said. “It was just a crazy accident. You never meant for that to happen.”
    “I do everything I can to protect her and I’m the one who ends up sending her to the hospital.”
    I didn’t know what to say.
    “You probably need to get home and make Grace dinner,” Cynthia said. “Give her a hug for me.” She paused. “Tell her I love her.”
    “She knows,” I said, getting up. “But I’ll do it.”
    She walked me to the car. The smell of freshly mown grass wafted up my nostrils.
    “If there was anything going on, if Grace were in trouble, you’d let me know,” Cynthia said. “Right?”
    “Of course.”
    “You don’t have to tiptoe around me. I can take it.”
    “Everything’s fine.” I grinned. “Mostly she watches me to keep me out of trouble. I try to throw any wild parties, she nips that right in the bud.”
    Cynthia rested her palm on my chest. “I’m coming back. I just need a little more time.”
    “I know.”
    “You just keep an eye on her. This thing, about those teachers being killed, it’s got my mind going all kinds of places it shouldn’t.”
    I forced a smile. “Maybe it’s some former student, years later, getting even with teachers who gave him a hard time for not doing his homework. I better watch my back.”
    “Don’t even joke.”
    I lost the smile. I realized I hadn’t been funny. “I’m sorry. We’re okay. We are. We’ll be better when you come back, but we’re getting by. And I’m watching her like a hawk.”
    “You better.”
    I got in my Ford Escape, keyed the ignition. Driving home, I couldn’t get out of my head two things Nathaniel had said.
    Hey, good-lookin’
was the first.
    And the second was:
Another friend dropping by?

FOUR
    “WANNA have some
real
fun?” the boy asked.
    That worried Grace. Maybe not a lot, but a little.
    She had a pretty good idea what Stuart was getting at. They’d already been having some fun—just above-the-waist stuff—parked out back of the Walmart in his dad’s old Buick. This car, it was an aircraft carrier. Massive hood and trunk, and inside, well, you hardly had to get into the backseat. The front—which went all the way across, no console or shifter in the middle—was the size of a park bench but way, way softer. The car was from the seventies, and when it went around corners, she felt as if she was in a huge boat way out past the sound, out in the Atlantic or something, getting carried away by the waves.
    Grace was okay with what they’d done so far—she’d let him touch her in a couple of places—but she wasn’t sure she wanted to take things any further. Not yet, anyway.
    She was still just fourteen, after all. And even though she knew, with absolute certainty, that that meant she was
not
a kid anymore, she had to admit that Stuart, being sixteen, mightknow slightly more about the whole sex thing. It wasn’t even so much that she was scared about doing it for the first time. What scared her was looking like a total amateur. Everyone knew, or thought they knew, that Stuart had already been with plenty of girls. What if she ended up doing it all wrong? Ended up looking like a total idiot?
    So she decided to play things cautiously. “I don’t know,” she said, pulling away from him, leaning against the passenger door. “This has been, like, good, you know? But I’m not sure about taking things, like, to the next level.”
    Stuart laughed. “Shit, I’m not talking about that. Although, if you’re thinking you’re ready, I’ve come equipped.” He started to reach down into the front pocket of his jeans.
    Grace slapped his hand playfully. “Then what are you talking about?”
    “It’s something totally cool. I swear, you’ll wet your pants.”
    Grace could guess. Maybe some pot, or X. What the hell? She could give something like that a try. It was actually a little less scary than