world. Then my thoughts wrap back around to the fact I can’t deny: I smiled.
Chapter 20
Pigpen
Dust and I sit at the kitchen table in silence. I’m straining to hear any indication of which way this situation’s heading. Dust stares at the nothingness of air. Guilt festers between my tendons. I should have thought harder before dragging him into this. By asking him to play along, I tossed him into a replay of some of the worst moments of his life.
“Eli and I have this if you want to bail,” I say.
Dust doesn’t move a single muscle other than to grant me a side-eye.
“I’m serious,” I say.
“I told Addison I’d stick around until she makes her decision. Plus, if you offer her what I think you’re going to offer her, you’d have no choice but to involve me.”
He’s right. The solution we intend to give Addison, if she chooses to talk to us about her problems, involves something very personal to him, and we would never disrespect him by leaving him out. “But if you need a few hours off—”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I’ve got nothing to say to that. I roll my neck and cross my arms over my chest. “Ms. Whitlock still looks great even when she rolls out of bed. I swear to God she’s part mermaid or something.”
“Mermaid?” He looks at me like I’m insane. I’m used to the expression.
“Didn’t mermaids tempt men? Lured them in with their beauty?”
“They’re part fish.”
I shrug. “And I said or something.”
Dust grants me another side-eye, and I wonder what it would have been like to kiss her at least once. Now, I’ll never know.
The door to the bedroom opens, and both Dust and I stand. Ms. Whitlock in all her supernatural beauty sweeps in with Addison under the shelter of her arm. “Addison and I talked, and we have questions. A lot of questions.”
“And we’ll answer them,” I say. “Each and every one.”
Chapter 21
Addison
If I leave, I’m heading to Louisville. There I’ll be staying at a house supported by a woman’s shelter that’s only for teenagers like me. No longer a minor, but not old enough to be truly independent. In theory, the people there will help me navigate breaking free from my father. They’ll mentor me, counsel me and help me figure out how to earn my degree while working to support myself.
I’m shaking like a leaf stuck on a tree during a hurricane. Occasionally, my teeth chatter. Judging by the sweat on the men in the cramped kitchen, it must be warm, but I’m frozen.
Ms. Whitlock rubs her hand along my back, but removes it when I flinch. “You’re in shock,” she whispers, but everyone hears.
I guess I am. This decision to leave frightens me to the core. “I don’t know if I can do this. My father will find me.”
“He won’t,” Dust says. My eyes flash to him as these are the first words he’s said since I walked into the kitchen forty minutes ago.
“You don’t know that,” I respond.
“You’re right.” Eli leans forward on the table across from me. “We can’t predict the future, but we can tell you that we believe in this program and they are committed to keeping you safe. If you aren’t comfortable with this particular program in Louisville, we’ll take you to wherever you are comfortable. There are women’s shelters all over the state. If you don’t want us to take you, we’ll call them, and they’ll come get you. The point of all this is for you to know you have options that don’t include returning home.”
Dust is shaking his head as if he’s annoyed. “Your father won’t find you.”
“Dust,” Eli snaps in a tone that would frighten me if I was the one in trouble, but Dust doesn’t flinch.
“He won’t,” Dust repeats, and his insistence annoys me.
“You don’t know that,” I spit out. “And it’s my life on the line.”
“I do know it.” Dust stares straight at me. “Because my dad didn’t find my sister. He didn’t find Mia, and he never will.”
I blink so hard I swear it made a sound. “Mia? As in Mia Ziggler?”
Mia Ziggler is an urban legend in this town. A girl a few years older than me who was there one day and then the next she was on the back of a Reign of Terror bike and never seen again. Rumors were that the Reign of Terror had killed her and buried her body where it would never be found.