There was a man in the middle of the street, lying there, face down.
He was in a business suit.
I frowned, my hand automatically reaching for the door handle when common sense started to rear its head.
Getting out in the middle of a dark, deserted street was not the best idea in the world. Especially for a hundred and twenty-pound pregnant woman.
I reached for my phone and called 911.
The operator answered, and I gave her a description of where I was and what was going on as I slowly crept down the street and past the man lying in the road.
I didn’t stop until I was two blocks down and could see him in my rearview mirror.
“Did you see any injuries?” the operator asked.
I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me. “No, he had clothes covering his body. Face looked okay. No blood apparent. I didn’t even see any…”
A bat—or something long and heavy—came down on my window that my face was only inches away from.
I screamed.
My eyes went to the man in the road, but he was no longer there.
And, without giving it much thought, I turned and surveyed the man that had now moved to the front of my car—this time taking out the windshield.
I felt my stomach drop as I recognized who it was.
Kelley.
“Fuck me. Jesus Christ, he’s beating my car with a bat!” I cried out.
I couldn’t move forward, or I’d run him over.
I couldn’t back up because my brain wasn’t functioning on all cylinders any longer.
Instead, I just sat there while he beat the shit out of my car and screamed obscenities at me. Not to mention he also told me, in exact detail, exactly what he was going to do to me.
“The cruiser is about thirty seconds out,” the operator said.
I heard the sirens and saw the moment Kelley realized that he wasn’t going to get me out of the car.
He sneered at me. “Next time, bitch.”
I felt my stomach sink as he ran away, down the road and into the woods that led back to the hospital.
My heart was pounding, and I felt bile start to leech up my throat.
“A cruiser is behind you,” the operator said, sounding shaken herself.
I looked up to find James, my uncle, hurrying toward me.
Why he was there and not in Kilgore, I didn’t know. I also didn’t care.
I bailed out of the car and threw myself at him.
He caught me, wrapped his arms around me, and took me to his cruiser in the next heartbeat.
“I heard the call over the radio,” he said. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, even though I was shaking like a leaf. “Yes. He ran that way.”
I pointed, and James looked in the direction I pointed. “Was he alone?”
I nodded. “He was in the middle of the street there. I passed him, pulled over here, and called 911. I don’t know when he got up, but apparently, I wasn’t paying that good of attention because the next thing I know the man in the road is gone and Kelley is slamming a bat into my glass.”
The bat in question was actually a black piece of pipe that was laying on the ground next to my car.
“He didn’t have gloves on or anything,” I told him. “That should have his prints on it.”
James gestured for me to put my feet inside the cruiser, and I did. “Stay here.”
Then he slammed the door on me and started reaching for his mic on his collar.
I heard his voice over the radio in the car and shivered as he told the operator to call a K-9 unit and also call my father.
Ten minutes later, not only was my father there, but half of my pseudo uncles as well as Bayou.
How Bayou had gotten there, I didn’t know, but I was thankful that he was.
Because eight minutes later, when Hoax rolled up on his bike looking like he’d ridden like a bat out of hell to get there, I knew Bayou needed to help get Hoax under control.
“Did you find him yet?” Hoax growled, marching up with his hands clenched.
I disentangled myself from my dad’s arms and went to Hoax.
The moment I was close enough, he pulled me into his arms.
“Are you okay?”
His whispered words into my hair had me releasing a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Yes. I’m fine. Scared, but fine…I’m also hungry as hell.”
He squeezed me just a little bit tighter. “I’ll go buy you anything you want after you tell me what happened.”
“Here,” Jack, who’d somehow arrived without me being aware, said. “This is the call.”
What the hell were they all doing here?
Then I got to listen to the replay of what had just happened, only this time without the terror coursing through my veins, and a cool, calm head to really understand exactly what had almost just happened.
“I think he threatened to rape her at least eight times,” Downy, a family friend, said. “Threatened to beat the hell out of her six. There’s more, but I think we got him on enough counts to bring him in and keep him there for a while.”
“I fuckin’ hope so,” Dad said through clenched teeth.
Hoax stayed quiet throughout the replaying of the call, as well as the discussion of what would happen next.
It was only as everyone was dispersing, and my car had been loaded up onto a wrecker, that Hoax guided me to my dad’s truck. “You’ll need to ride with your pop.”
At first, I didn’t realize the implications of that statement.
It was only as he let me go, placed a kiss on my forehead, and watched us leave that I realized something was wrong.
“He’s not following us,” I said carefully, looking in my mirror.
“No,” Dad said. “I expect not.”
“What do you think he’s going to do?”
Dad stayed silent until we got to the house, and when my mom saw me, she immediately started forward to hug me. “I’m going to kill him with my bare hands.”
“You’ll have to get in line,” Dad mumbled. “And, if there’s anything left when Hoax gets done with him, it’ll be a miracle.”
Mom ordered me to take a seat on the couch, and Dad followed me, making sure that I did as I was told.
“You two hang out here, and I’ll get dinner. I don’t have any chicken, but I made lasagna.”
My stomach growled at the mention of her lasagna. “That’s good enough.”
She winked and walked to the kitchen.
My father pulled me down and then threw his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in tight.
“Why were James, Downy, and Jack there?” I whispered into his chest.
“Area SWAT meeting,” he murmured. “Bear Bottom hosted this month.”
That made sense. Now.
Then? Not so much.
“I’m going to offer him a job,” my father said, startling me.
His chest rumbled underneath my cheek, and I shifted on the couch to look up at him in confusion.
“What?” I asked.
“When he’s done doing the Delta thing and realizes what he has at home—and he will—I’m going to see if he wants to slowly start taking over the business.”
I blinked in surprise. “You’re going to do what?”
He chuckled. “I’m getting old, girl. I’m not the spring chicken that I was when I started this place. And I have grandbabies on the way. As much as I’d like to admit that I’m still capable of doing all the things I once did, I’m not. It’s time for the next generation to start taking over.”
I shook my head.
This program my father and his buddies had created was amazing.
They helped abused women—and even a few men—establish new lives. They gave them the tools and the means to disappear, reappearing in a new place with a new ‘face’ to live a different life as someone else—free from the abusive situations they’d escaped from.
My father had built Free from the ground up. To hear him acknowledging that he was ready to step down struck a chord inside of me.
It meant that he believed in Hoax, and he liked him. That he trusted him with something so utterly important meant that Hoax was always going to be ‘in’ with him.
“What convinced you that you could trust him with this?” I whispered.
He was in a business suit.
I frowned, my hand automatically reaching for the door handle when common sense started to rear its head.
Getting out in the middle of a dark, deserted street was not the best idea in the world. Especially for a hundred and twenty-pound pregnant woman.
I reached for my phone and called 911.
The operator answered, and I gave her a description of where I was and what was going on as I slowly crept down the street and past the man lying in the road.
I didn’t stop until I was two blocks down and could see him in my rearview mirror.
“Did you see any injuries?” the operator asked.
I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me. “No, he had clothes covering his body. Face looked okay. No blood apparent. I didn’t even see any…”
A bat—or something long and heavy—came down on my window that my face was only inches away from.
I screamed.
My eyes went to the man in the road, but he was no longer there.
And, without giving it much thought, I turned and surveyed the man that had now moved to the front of my car—this time taking out the windshield.
I felt my stomach drop as I recognized who it was.
Kelley.
“Fuck me. Jesus Christ, he’s beating my car with a bat!” I cried out.
I couldn’t move forward, or I’d run him over.
I couldn’t back up because my brain wasn’t functioning on all cylinders any longer.
Instead, I just sat there while he beat the shit out of my car and screamed obscenities at me. Not to mention he also told me, in exact detail, exactly what he was going to do to me.
“The cruiser is about thirty seconds out,” the operator said.
I heard the sirens and saw the moment Kelley realized that he wasn’t going to get me out of the car.
He sneered at me. “Next time, bitch.”
I felt my stomach sink as he ran away, down the road and into the woods that led back to the hospital.
My heart was pounding, and I felt bile start to leech up my throat.
“A cruiser is behind you,” the operator said, sounding shaken herself.
I looked up to find James, my uncle, hurrying toward me.
Why he was there and not in Kilgore, I didn’t know. I also didn’t care.
I bailed out of the car and threw myself at him.
He caught me, wrapped his arms around me, and took me to his cruiser in the next heartbeat.
“I heard the call over the radio,” he said. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, even though I was shaking like a leaf. “Yes. He ran that way.”
I pointed, and James looked in the direction I pointed. “Was he alone?”
I nodded. “He was in the middle of the street there. I passed him, pulled over here, and called 911. I don’t know when he got up, but apparently, I wasn’t paying that good of attention because the next thing I know the man in the road is gone and Kelley is slamming a bat into my glass.”
The bat in question was actually a black piece of pipe that was laying on the ground next to my car.
“He didn’t have gloves on or anything,” I told him. “That should have his prints on it.”
James gestured for me to put my feet inside the cruiser, and I did. “Stay here.”
Then he slammed the door on me and started reaching for his mic on his collar.
I heard his voice over the radio in the car and shivered as he told the operator to call a K-9 unit and also call my father.
Ten minutes later, not only was my father there, but half of my pseudo uncles as well as Bayou.
How Bayou had gotten there, I didn’t know, but I was thankful that he was.
Because eight minutes later, when Hoax rolled up on his bike looking like he’d ridden like a bat out of hell to get there, I knew Bayou needed to help get Hoax under control.
“Did you find him yet?” Hoax growled, marching up with his hands clenched.
I disentangled myself from my dad’s arms and went to Hoax.
The moment I was close enough, he pulled me into his arms.
“Are you okay?”
His whispered words into my hair had me releasing a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Yes. I’m fine. Scared, but fine…I’m also hungry as hell.”
He squeezed me just a little bit tighter. “I’ll go buy you anything you want after you tell me what happened.”
“Here,” Jack, who’d somehow arrived without me being aware, said. “This is the call.”
What the hell were they all doing here?
Then I got to listen to the replay of what had just happened, only this time without the terror coursing through my veins, and a cool, calm head to really understand exactly what had almost just happened.
“I think he threatened to rape her at least eight times,” Downy, a family friend, said. “Threatened to beat the hell out of her six. There’s more, but I think we got him on enough counts to bring him in and keep him there for a while.”
“I fuckin’ hope so,” Dad said through clenched teeth.
Hoax stayed quiet throughout the replaying of the call, as well as the discussion of what would happen next.
It was only as everyone was dispersing, and my car had been loaded up onto a wrecker, that Hoax guided me to my dad’s truck. “You’ll need to ride with your pop.”
At first, I didn’t realize the implications of that statement.
It was only as he let me go, placed a kiss on my forehead, and watched us leave that I realized something was wrong.
“He’s not following us,” I said carefully, looking in my mirror.
“No,” Dad said. “I expect not.”
“What do you think he’s going to do?”
Dad stayed silent until we got to the house, and when my mom saw me, she immediately started forward to hug me. “I’m going to kill him with my bare hands.”
“You’ll have to get in line,” Dad mumbled. “And, if there’s anything left when Hoax gets done with him, it’ll be a miracle.”
Mom ordered me to take a seat on the couch, and Dad followed me, making sure that I did as I was told.
“You two hang out here, and I’ll get dinner. I don’t have any chicken, but I made lasagna.”
My stomach growled at the mention of her lasagna. “That’s good enough.”
She winked and walked to the kitchen.
My father pulled me down and then threw his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in tight.
“Why were James, Downy, and Jack there?” I whispered into his chest.
“Area SWAT meeting,” he murmured. “Bear Bottom hosted this month.”
That made sense. Now.
Then? Not so much.
“I’m going to offer him a job,” my father said, startling me.
His chest rumbled underneath my cheek, and I shifted on the couch to look up at him in confusion.
“What?” I asked.
“When he’s done doing the Delta thing and realizes what he has at home—and he will—I’m going to see if he wants to slowly start taking over the business.”
I blinked in surprise. “You’re going to do what?”
He chuckled. “I’m getting old, girl. I’m not the spring chicken that I was when I started this place. And I have grandbabies on the way. As much as I’d like to admit that I’m still capable of doing all the things I once did, I’m not. It’s time for the next generation to start taking over.”
I shook my head.
This program my father and his buddies had created was amazing.
They helped abused women—and even a few men—establish new lives. They gave them the tools and the means to disappear, reappearing in a new place with a new ‘face’ to live a different life as someone else—free from the abusive situations they’d escaped from.
My father had built Free from the ground up. To hear him acknowledging that he was ready to step down struck a chord inside of me.
It meant that he believed in Hoax, and he liked him. That he trusted him with something so utterly important meant that Hoax was always going to be ‘in’ with him.
“What convinced you that you could trust him with this?” I whispered.
