Canvas & Keys

8. Shut Up And Wave Goodbye...Well, Can't Do That Now, Can You?

Chapter 8

Shut Up And Wave Goodbye...Well, Can't Do That Now, Can You?

I waited until the tumblers behind the door slid back into place before repositioning the rug over it.

With Kenna gone and the virus planted on every Order computer, I had to come up with an escape plan fast to get myself and Beau out. Flannery would have something, too, so we could make it happen within the next day. It just had to be sometime before nightfall.

Turning off the bathroom light, I eased the door open and peeked out into the darkened bedroom. Flannery was still asleep in the chair, though I could barely see her, curled up even more with her blanket around her. She shifted slightly as I walked toward the side of the bed...

And saw Beau was awake.

"Beau?" I whispered, sitting down on the edge and taking his hand. "Beau, can you hear me?"

He blinked a few times, trying to make out my features in the dim light coming through the window.

"Hattie? Where...what...?"

"It's okay. You're okay."

I tried swallowing the lump in my throat as I stared at him, but couldn't. He was really awake, not delirious and sputtering nonsense. Though he still looked like he'd been through hell and back, his eyes were focus on me.

Beau squeezed my hand. "You really were there, weren't you?"

I nodded, swiping the back of my other hand under my eyes to wipe away the escaped tears. "Yeah, I was...and I still am."

"Where...where are we?" he asked then, looking around the room. "All I remember was that warehouse...bein' strung up...and that damn whip..." His eyes found mine again. "I wasn't gonna tell them anythin', no matter what they did to me. I wasn't going to let them hurt you or any of the others."

I gave him a tight lipped smile, bringing the hand I was holding up to my lips to kiss. "You shouldn't have done that, Beau. Not when what they did to you was..."

"It's nothin' compared to what they could have done. I'm still alive, aren't I?" He looked around the room again, barely making out Flannery's figure in the chair. "Is Flannery still here?"

"Yeah, she helped clean you up. We've been watching over you to make sure nothing..."

"She's an idiot for what she did, comin' in there to make sure we were okay," he mumbled, still looking over at her. "They could have caught her and then what would have happened to her?"

"She did it to help you guys."

"Yeah, she did...but I couldn't have somethin' happen to her when she was tryin' to help us. I couldn't have someone else be hurt, caught helpin' me. Why do you think the others were so bad off? That Vince guy just wanted to torture me, not them. But then they...I couldn't stop them from..." He looked at me again, a new panic rising. "What happened to them? The last thing I remember was them being taken and I..."

I knew I needed to tell him everything that happened over the three and a half weeks he was locked up or out of it, but I didn't exactly know how to without putting everything bluntly. I didn't want to cause him any more pain.

Beau wasn't going to wait patiently while I thought it through, though.

"Give it to me straight, Hattie."

So I did.

I started with the hidden message in my text conversation with Savannah, though I didn't notice it until a few days later. He knew about it, though he'd apparently told Savannah that it was a bad idea.