In the morning, she called Shane. He came without question. “Ready?” he asked after she’d buckled her seatbelt. She nodded and waited for the lecture. And waited. And waited. “I could have been kidnapped and sold as a sex slave,” she said, unable to take the silence anymore. “Yeah, you could have. You scared us.” “Why? I’m not your responsibility anymore. I disappear of the face of the planet, you can’t get in trouble at work.” “And yet here I am again. You’re right. I’m not your social worker anymore. There’s nothing in it for me on a professional front. So maybe you should ask yourself if maybe I do it because I care about you.” Tori crossed her arms. “Look, I know I’m more dependent than I should be. I only have enough money for maybe four nights in a hotel, and that’s if I don’t feed this stupid thing.”
