“No, Bobby. I’m not.” He looked at me and his grin flattened. “You hit my truck.”

“It was a mistake,” Bobby said.

“Shut up!” Eyes back on me, glaring now. “Scoot over. I’m taking you back to where you belong.”

I wanted to scoot. I should have scooted. But the thought of going back to Kathryn had turned my muscles to paste.

“Move!”

I moved. Quickly, then, panicked.

Claude climbed in, started the truck, shoved the gear shifter all the way back, and backed away from the white truck, which was turning around, driven by the other man, who slid over to take the wheel.

It was Zeke that I was more concerned with, but he was turning his black truck around, then heading back in the direction we’d come from. By the time Claude got our truck turned, I could only see the taillights of Zeke’s black truck. He’d left us in Claude’s care, as if totally unconcerned.

But that couldn’t be true. Of all the possible scenarios I’d imagined during my planning, being found out by Zeke himself was the worst. I sat in the seat next to Claude, hands folded in my lap, hardly daring to breathe. My palms were sweaty and my face was cold. I felt like what a corpse must feel like, ten feet under the ground.

The white truck was following us.

Beside me, Claude chuckled.

“My, my, my, you have gone and done it now, haven’t you?” He shook his head. “Not too smart.”

“My dad helped us,” Bobby said. “He gave Eden the keys.”

Claude cast a side-glance at us. “He did, now did he? Even dumber.”

I wanted to defend Wyatt, I really did. But my voice wasn’t working and I didn’t know what to say.

How much Claude knew was beyond me. I wasn’t even sure he was aware of who I was, other than Kathryn’s daughter. But I couldn’t help feeling like he was part of a bigger plan that I’d been kept in the dark about all these years. Like maybe getting my money.

“You really did piss him off. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, I can tell you that much.”

The same road that had taken us much longer to travel stuck in first gear, now flew by. The dogs barked as we sped past Zeke’s house. And before I could fully process what had just happened, we skidded to a stop in front of our house.

“Are you going to hit us?” Bobby asked, face drooping.

“Get out,” Claude snapped.

We both climbed out.

“Get in the house.”

Without waiting for us, he marched up to the porch, rapped his knuckles on the front door, and yanked it open. “Kathryn! Get your sorry butt out here!”

He’d told us to get in the house but he was blocking the front door and all I could think was, Kathryn’s going to see me standing outside. She’s going to catch me. I’m in terrible trouble.

I could see Kathryn stumbling out of the hallway in her night dress, eyes wide.

“What’s going on? What on earth are you doing here?”

“Zeke wants to see you,” Claude said. “That’s what’s happening.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Why else would I be here in the middle of the night?”

Wyatt appeared behind Kathryn, buttoning up his pants. I didn’t think Kathryn had seen me or Bobby yet.

“Why?” she demanded.

“Why? Because your rat made a run for it, that’s why. Now get your butts down there, both of you. He’s waiting and he ain’t happy. Don’t bother dressing.”

With that, Claude stepped aside, brushed past me, and headed toward the white truck which had pulled in behind us.

Kathryn could see me now, that much I knew. But I couldn’t bring myself to look at her face. I couldn’t bear to see her accusing eyes boring though me.

It took a few seconds, but she finally spoke, and the low, biting tone of her voice did the job plenty well, anyway.

“What have you done to us?”

“I showed Eden how to drive the truck,” Bobby said, stepping up beside me.

Mother shoved her arm back into the house. “Get back in your room this instant, you little runt!”

Bobby scurried up the steps, ducked into the house, and vanished into the hall. I started to follow, eager to get away from her.

“Not you,” she snapped.

I finally found the courage to look her in the eyes and they were as fired as I could remember seeing. She glanced at Wyatt’s truck, then found me again.

“Where did you think you were going?”

What was I supposed to say?

“Answer me!” she screamed.

“Away from you,” I said.

She blinked. I could see her jaw flex. I knew that hitting her in the face would be kinder than the words I’d just spoken, but I was done with not telling the truth. So I said some more.

“I don’t want to be your slave anymore.”

My mother stepped forward, trembling. She lifted her arm and pointed a finger back into the house. “You get back in that closet this very instant and you get down on your knees and you start begging God for mercy and you don’t stop until you have accepted the full weight of your repentance. Go! Now, before God strikes you down where you stand, you hear me?”

I looked at Wyatt who was dressed—maybe he knew this was going to happen the moment he heard Claude’s voice. He certainly knew that I was in trouble and his eyes showed me great empathy.

But that look gave me the courage I needed to set my jaw, step up onto the porch and walk past Kathryn into the house.

I knew that I was done. That I was going to face a new kind of hell. But I also knew that I wasn’t going to get down on my knees and repent for trying to run away from a monster.

Not this time. Not ever again.

[[SECTION BREAK]]

THE NIGHT was hot and the air heavy, but something far more threatening suffocated Kathryn as Wyatt guided the truck down the gravel road.

Dread.

“How dare she?” Kathryn breathed through gritted teeth. “How dare she do this to me!”

Wyatt stared out the windshield, silent.

“Why? How dare she?”

Tears gathered in her eyes. Every stitch and seam that held her life together seemed to be unraveling.

Zeke was waiting. Dear God . . .

“There’ll be hell to pay for this,” she said. “Hell to pay for all of us.”

Kathryn’s mind spun. “How’d she get the truck? It doesn’t make sense. I told you to keep your keys in the nightstand. How could she have gotten her hands on those keys?”

Wyatt kept his eyes straight ahead.

“Answer me! Don’t just sit there like a wart. Say something.”

He glanced at her nervously.

“Don’t you dare tell me you knew about this.”

“No. No, of course not.”

“We’re all in a world of trouble here. How’d Bobby show her how to drive? He can’t drive.”

Wyatt shrugged. “I showed him a few things.”

“If you know anything, it’s gonna come out. Zeke will know. You realize that, don’t you?”

He began to speak, then stopped.

“What? Spit it out.”

“I can’t remember what I did with the keys. Maybe I left them on the kitchen counter by mistake.”

“Maybe?”

“I’m sorry, sugar. If I’d known . . .”

“Shut up, Wyatt! Just shut up!”

He offered no response.

“All that matters now is that I failed. Zeke told me there would be consequences if she ever got out of line.”

“We’ll talk to Zeke and he’ll understand—”

“You think Zeke called us to his house to have a conversation? Eden tried to leave us, for heaven’s sake! She meant to find that judge and tear up the power of attorney. She betrayed him!”

The turn into Zeke’s was just ahead. She stared at the moonless night beyond the window.

“There’s gonna be hell to pay, I swear.”

Wyatt pulled into Zeke’s compound and brought the truck to a stop. Claude leaned against a pillar on the porch, watching them as they climbed out of the truck and made their way to the front door.

Claude pushed the door open. “He’s waiting in the study.”