Craft II (The Craft Saga)

31 - Wash The Worries Away

I spent endless amounts of time in the shower after my encounter with Junior, just breathing and thinking and breathing and trying to talk myself down and breathing until I finally stopped shaking. Once I felt some sort of sense of calm, I stepped out and dried off, putting on some loungewear and wrapping my damp hair up in a towel. As I slipped my feet into my slippers, I heard the door slam shut downstairs and I jumped, stumbling backwards into the glass of the shower causing a loud bang that made me jump again. I felt jittery and shaky all over again, and then the sound of Ollie calling my name as his feet pounded on the stairs made me force myself to get my shit together.

His knuckles rattled gently on the door. 'Cece?'

'I'm fine!' I called to him. 'I just tripped over my towel.'

'Alright.' He mumbled, and I heard him disappear downstairs again.

Once again, I breathed in and out trying to force my panicked chest palpitations away and eventually walked out of the bathroom and downstairs to where Ollie was unloading groceries onto the kitchen counter.

'I didn't expect you home so early,' I murmured, hoping there wasn't still a shake in my voice as I lingered in the doorway. 'It's the middle of the day...everything okay?'

Does he know about Junior finding me? Surely he must know!

Junior would have ran straight to Roman and Roman would most likely have all of his men trailing Garden City by now...the word would surely have gotten to Ollie too.

'Yeah I just noticed we needed some groceries so I got them while I had some free time; I've gotta head back out soon,' he told me, as he piled fruit into the fruit bowl on the island. 'Speaking of middle of the day - pyjamas?'

I forced a fake small breath of laughter. 'It's loungewear.'

He seems okay; he doesn't seem mad... Maybe he doesn't know? Or maybe, he doesn't want to tell me he knows...maybe he is seeing if I tell him myself first...

'You feeling okay?' he asked me, finally taking his eyes away from the groceries to look at me. His face read as innocent and none the wiser, but maybe Ollie was just good at that.

'Why do you ask?' I questioned.

He shrugged slowly. 'You seem...off.'

I shrugged also. 'Do I?'

His eyes began to narrow and he sniffed. 'Cece, what's wrong? Spit it out.'

He doesn't know...

'I uhh...I think...' I didn't even know what to say or where I was going with the sentence, but my mouth somehow took over any thoughts or fucking sense I had and said the thing I really wanted to say but also really didn't. 'I think we need to move.'

Fuck!

His head flickered and he blinked several times. 'Move? Cece, what the fuck?'

My mouth began opening and closing as desperate noises replaced whatever words I thought were going to come out. 'I-I I'm sorry!'

'Sorry?' he reiterated, moving around the island to get closer to me. 'Sorry for what? What did you do, Cece?'

'I didn't do anything!' I exclaimed. 'It wasn't my fucking fault!'

'Did you shoot someone?' he cried. 'Is someone dead?!'

'No! For crying out loud!' I bellowed. 'Junior Cabrera fucking found me!'

The silence that fell upon the room took me by surprise. I waited for his face to turn red as he flipped out on me and yelled the god damn house down, but all he did was frown and look to the floor then back up at me again. 'What do you mean by that?'