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he would be certain I still had.
    So, what were
my options?
    I glanced at
Daisy and sucked in a shaky breath of air.
    Could I do it? Could I run with a five year old girl? Could I
make my daughter live her life looking over her
shoulder?
    Or could I do
what Rick did in the end? Sacrifice myself for her, like he
sacrificed himself for me.
    Ah, fuck. I
pulled the Yellow Pages phone directory towards me from the other
side of the table and looked up Sweet Seduction Café. Having found
my goal, I checked my wallet. I'd made sure to take out the largest
sum of money the cash-point had allowed last night, so I had enough
for a taxi fare, even if we were in South Auckland and Sweet
Seduction was in High Street in the CBD.
    I didn't allow
myself to think too long on whether McLaren's men were watching the
store. How much, realistically, could they have accomplished since
yesterday? Since Pierce visited me at work? McLaren was under
arrest, behind bars, so organising a stake-out of a café that was
connected in some way to the cop who questioned me was pretty slim.
Wasn't it?
    I also had to
hope that Detective Sergeant Pierce had thought of that. Why else
would he offer me his card with details of some woman's shop on the
back for me to use, instead of insisting I contact him through the
Central Police Station where he was based?
    I closed my
eyes and prayed this was the right thing to do. How could I know
for certain that going there would help? Where else did I have to
go? Never in a million years, despite my history with the likes of
Roan McLaren, did I think something like this would happen. That I
would be fearful for my daughter's safety, to the point of trusting
a stranger enough to help us out.
    This wasn't what my head was telling me we should do, but one
look at Daisy and my heart was pleading with me to do
something, anything , to get her off
the street and keep her safe.
    I had no
choice anymore, after yesterday's close call, and admitting that
was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do.
    I let Daisy
watch the last of her cartoon, then bundled her out the door. I'd
ordered a taxi earlier which arrived five minutes after we checked
out, making it possible to hide my nerves from both the motel
receptionist and Daisy. Any longer and they would have been eyeing
me up strangely like the woman at Daisy's school.
    I took a deep
breath and then gave Sweet Seduction's address to the driver, all
the while trying not to vomit in my mouth out of sheer terror.
    Daisy could
tell I was upset. Kids know, don't they? She sat silently, and
unusually non-inquisitively, staring out her side window as
Auckland city grew bigger and bigger as the CBD grew closer. The
music on the taxi's stereo grated. The static on his communications
radio made me jump. And the ride took the last of my confidence and
left me feeling decidedly raw by the time the car pulled up at the
kerb outside the store.
    Moulded glass
and English pub-style wooden framed windows met my eyes as we
stepped out of the vehicle and stared at the welcoming glow of what
had to be the singularly most delightful looking premises on this
stretch of road. Everything either side was steel and straight
lines, not an ounce of character in sight. But this store, this
place, it stood out, it shouted, "Hello!" It made you long to go
inside.
    I'm not sure I
could have done it, if it hadn't have appeared to be so quaint, so
welcoming. So non-threatening. Even having made it thus far, I'm
sure I would have backed out, so jangled were my nerves. Every
sound on the street made my body shake. Every flash of colourful
clothing caught my fearful eyes. Every sharp bark of laughter made
me cringe.
    But the
decadent smell of coffee mixed with chocolate somehow soothed, and
the warm, muted yellow-gold glow of lights, behind those magical
rounded panes of glass, beckoned.
    Clutching
Daisy's hand tightly in mine, I pushed the swing door open and
walked into a different world.
    Black
overstuffed sofas