Southern Comfort - Natasha Madison Page 0,30

in the distance. I study the side where the trees start to fill in again. “He’s coming in through there.” I point out to Jacob. “It’s the only way.”

“Or by there.” Jacob points over at the small clearing on the side that I hadn’t looked at. “It leads right to the side of the creek, and you can get onto the road by there.” I turn the truck around, making my way to the road, and we see tire tracks.

“I’ll call Grady,” Jacob says. I nod and make my way back to my house.

When I pull up and walk into the house, my father stands there with his gun pointed straight at us. “Jesus Christ,” Jacob says from behind me. “Can you put the gun down?”

My father lowers his gun. “Did you find anything?”

“Nothing. I need the wires at P17 put up again,” I say, and he nods, taking out his phone and making sure someone gets to work.

“Where is Olivia?” I ask him, and he just motions to the family room. “They tried to get her to go upstairs, but she refused.”

I walk past him and into the room to see my mother sitting on the couch next to Kallie, who is shaking her leg while biting her nail. Olivia lies beside her with her eyes closed. She must sense that I’m in the room because her eyes open, and she sits up.

“What happened?” she asks as my mother and Kallie look over at me.

“Someone cut the wire.” Walking into the room, I sit on the coffee table in front of her. “They were long gone by the time I got there.”

“I should go,” she says softly, looking at me. “If I go, all this will go away.”

“Over my dead body,” my father barks out, and Olivia looks at him. “No way are you leaving here until I feel it’s safe for you to.” He folds his arms, and Kallie looks like she wants to laugh. Olivia just stares at him.

“He’s sexy when he’s assertive,” my mother says. I close my eyes to block out my mother’s words while Kallie groans.

“But I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.” Olivia stands now. “All of this is because of me, and I can’t watch you guys—”

“Don’t go off getting madder than a wet hen,” my father tells her. She looks at him and then looks back at me, then at Kallie.

“I don’t even know what that means,” she whispers to Kallie.

Kallie leans over. “It means calm down.” She gets up and walks over to Jacob, and he takes her in his arms. “We have to go get Ethan.” She then looks over. “I’ll call you later,” she tells Olivia, who just nods. My mother gets up and walks over to give Olivia a hug.

“We will call later to see if y'all are hungry. I’ll send Dad with some food,” she says, and then my father looks at Olivia.

“I mean it, young lady.” He puts his hands on his hips. “There is no running.”

I look down, trying not to laugh at him being all in charge. Even Olivia tries not to smile, but she can’t, and it fills her face. “Okay, Billy,” she says softly. He grabs my mother’s hand, and they walk out.

She sits on the couch in front of me, and I look at her. “My father was never a father.” I just listen to her. “He stuck around as long as he could or as long as the money lasted.” I sit here while she gives me another piece of herself. I sit here with the rage pouring through me. What kind of man just leaves a child? “Don’t get me wrong, he did come back a decade later when he thought I was sitting on a nest egg of money. When he realized nothing was there, he was gone just as fast as he arrived.” She shrugs, but I can see the hurt in her eyes.

“Then it’s his loss.” I push the hair away from her face. “It’s his loss that he didn’t see what an amazing woman you turned out to be.”

Her eyes come up to look at me, and I lean in. “If I turned out so amazing, I wouldn’t have to be hiding,” she whispers.

“If you didn’t do any of that …” I swallow down the actual words I want to say, and instead, I say, “Then you wouldn’t be here.” I lean in a little bit more, and her breath hitches