Thief

Chapter 44

We were at breakfast. Riley and I had been texting back in fourth on our way here to prepare for what we were about to say as to why we're living in a hotel.

"So dad, where are you staying?" He takes a bite of his waffle, wiping his mouth again. "I'm in a motel right now till I find a good paying job and an apartment. Those are my two pain goals right now."

"It must be hard to do since you just got released." I say looking over at Riley to make sure she's still breathing correctly and not having an anxiety attack. "It is but I'll figure it out somehow." He shrugs.

"My question is, why are you guys in a hotel? I would've thought you would've had a big ass house and three cars by now. You guys look very educated and smart minded." She smiles, looking between the both of us. I don't know if I'm use to him being this nice. When I was younger, growing up he would just scream and yell when something didn't go his way. He's changed a lot.

"I'm- Riley you wanna tell him why?" I say smiling through the pain and guilt for making her do this. She kicked my leg looking down at her plate to avoid eye contact. "We uh, we had a flood in our house and had to get out. So we're staying in a hotel till everything's back to normal." I taught her well. I'm so proud.

"Oh okay. I hope everything goes to plan." We both nod holding hands under the table. We made this thing up that if we squeeze each other's hands, it means success in a way. Something we have to do to communicate when we can't actually speak.

"Well it was so nice seeing you dad but we have to get going. You look good by the way, I like the beard you're growing out." He laughs sitting his cup down. "I try I try."

-

"I'm never leaving this hotel room ever again." I whisper rapping my arms around her waist. "He was so nice though. Don't be so hard on him." I sit up trying to figure out if I wanted to tell her or not. "You never asked me why he was in jail.."

"You told me you didn't wanna talk about it so I just let it go." I take both her hands, kissing each one softly. "So.. when I was little, my dad use to steal too. It's where I got it from. He did it because my mom died and he didn't know how to take care of me so in order to keep me safe and healthy, he would steal and get money to feed me and keep a roof over my head. One day he made the wrong move and killed some man. He never told me why but I found out when I got home and there were hella police cars outside."

"The reason I shot Alexa was because the person my dad killed was her father. I don't know how she found out about me but she knew me before I even got the job. I guess she wanted revenge and tried to kill me to relive the pain that my dad caused."

I look up at her with her eyes wider than ever. She looked like she seen a ghost, scared of anything else I had to say. "At least you had the decency to not kill people and just steal.. well except for little miss Alexa." She laughs laying back down.

"So you don't care.." she turns to me, kissing my forehead and then my lips. "At this point, I knew you were crazy and you had to get it from somewhere so I figured." I slapped her in the head with a pillow, getting up and running because I knew she would try to get me back.

"YOU'RE SO VIOLENT!" She yells running up to me and jumping in my arms.

"You love me though.." I whisper kissing her nose.