Falling For A Criminal

Falling For A Criminal - Chapter Thirteen

I lied down in my bed at eleven o'clock, and I didn't move until at least two thirty. I knew that my parents were asleep by now, so I slowly sat up and threw the blanket off of me; walking over to my dresser and grabbing a change of clothes. I wasn't sure what I was planning to do, but there were things I needed to find out, and staying home wasn't going to help me.

So, throwing off my pajamas and changing into a pair of black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt, I pulled on my Vans, quickly brushed my hair and grabbed my phone off of the dresser. Once I was certain that I was comfortable with what I was doing, I walked over to the window and slowly slid it open; trying my hardest not to make too much noise. I didn't want to wake my parents, especially if I wasn't going to be here when they made it into the room.

From the moment the idea came to me, I knew it was out of character, and that no one would see it coming, and I guess that helped me. Haydn wouldn't expect it, Jayson wouldn't expect it, and I was certain that Trace wouldn't either. I could go out, find the information I wanted and then just go back home. As long as I didn't run into anyone I knew, I was perfectly fine.

If I was lucky, I'd have good karma on my side today, so I blew out a deep breath, stuck one of my legs out of the open window, and began to climb down. I could swear I heard the sound of one of my parents walking in the direction of the room, so I stopped and held myself up; trying to look into the room without being seen, or falling off. After an exact sixty seconds, I exhaled again and finished climbing down. Once I had safely made it to the bottom, I rubbed my arm at the chill that I had just experienced. Only I would be the idiot to not bring a sweater in the middle of winter. . .

I couldn't worry about it though; I had to get to where I was going and back home in less than three hours or risk being caught. Being cold really couldn't be a priority when there was so much I was risking. No pressure though.

My eyes began to scan the snowy darkness around me, and I decided that the best way to go was downtown. Haydn's not the type of person to hang around the uptown area—and he made sure people knew that. He hung out where he did because it was dangerous and he knew that no one was stupid enough to go after him.

He clearly hadn't been thinking about me when he decided that.

He most likely took me as a girl with an early curfew who wouldn't dare sneak out, and had circumstances been different, that would have been true. But, my life was in danger—rather, I needed protection from something, which was pretty much the same thing—and I had a right to know what was going on. Since Haydn was my so-called 'Protector', I was going to find him, and I was going to ask what exactly it was I had to be afraid of. It wasn't my smartest plan; not even close, but you can never get anywhere if you don't try, and I was about to try pretty damn hard to find out what it was that had me in this situation.

To get downtown from where I lived—by foot—took at least twenty minutes, and since I didn't have a sweater, the best thing I could do is run to try and heat up my body. The only problem with that was I didn't want to slip on the ice and find myself in the hospital again. If that happened, my parents would know that I sneaked out and they would take every precaution there was to keep me in the house—even if that meant keeping me locked up like an animal. They cared about my safety, and I couldn't knock them for that, but sometimes they took things a little too seriously, and it was kind of irritating. They didn't really care as much until Trace came back into the picture, so maybe they know something about him that I don't. . . I'll have to ask them later.

Shaking it off, I continued walking until I finally found myself in the unfamiliar downtown area. As soon as I saw everything around me, I felt tempted to turn around and just go back home, but I came for answers, and I was going to get them. Sure, there were groups of guys standing near an alley, and there was graffiti on pretty much every visible wall, but it wasn't enough to scare me away. At least, I made it seem that way.