Bullet shook his head at her.“You aren’t going.Your mom and granddad probably have their entire network out looking for you.It's too dangerous for you to leave this compound, until we get them into a jail cell.”
Andy wrung her hands.“But Avery won’t come out of hiding if I don’t show up.”
Shilo sighed but he had to agree, “Bullet’s right.Going to Houston would be a death sentence for you.Is there any other way?”
Andy looked down at her wrist, at the bracelet Avery made for her.She used a type of plastic tubing so fine she was able to twist it into a design that only made sense to her.But Andy loved the design and Avery had made her one to match the one she always wore.The day she gave it to Andy, she whispered they would always be friends now.Andy made up her mind and slipped the bracelet off her wrist.She handed it to Bullet.“Show her this and tell her that Andy needs her.Tell her that you guys are there to bring her to me.By now, she’ll have heard that I left my mom’s reach.”She reached out and put her hand on Bullet’s arm.“But please be gentle with her, she might not understand that this is her chance to get away from mom too.We were friends but my mom never knew it.She would have stopped it right from the get go if she knew we had been talking.My mom held us both down under her thumb so hard that we didn’t talk very often but like I said, Avery could see how I was treated and she wanted to help me.But I told her no, that she would get hurt too.”
Chapter Two
Ryker reached out andtook the bracelet from Bullet’s hand.Then looking at it, something shifted in his eyes.He looked up at Andy and asked, “What did you say her name was again?”
“Avery March.”She noted the look on his face.“Do you know her?”
Ryker smiled faintly.“I don’t know but I’ve seen this design before.”
King frowned and asked him, “You have?Where?”
“A kid I grew up with, his little sister used to make the same kind of bracelets.It was almost twenty years ago now but this was her design,” Ryker told them all.“I could never figure out how a piece of plastic could be folded and twisted like this but Trever had one just like this.And when he died two years later, he was buried with her bracelet on his wrist.”
“What happened to him?”Gabby asked.
Ryker sighed hard.“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he got caught in a shoot out between two gang bangers.He caught a bullet and died at the age of fourteen.His little sister was devastated.His parents too.They ended up moving away, they just couldn’t stay in Tyler anymore.”
“Oh, that is so sad,” Gina spoke up.
With a slow nod, Ryker looked at Andy and said, “I tried to find them again after I grew up but I couldn’t.Then I read they were dead.The gang that killed Trever found them and killed them in cold blood.They blamed the parents because when Trever died, their leader went to prison for first degree murder because Trever’s dad pressed charges.Nothing was ever said about his sister, but I think this could be her.”
“We’ll take just a small group of four at most,” Shilo suggested.
Ryker agreed, “And if she shows up, we’ll get her the hell out of that city.”
“Just be careful, if my mom finds her before you guys do, she’ll hurt her real bad,” Andy assured them.“Mom hates the fact that Avery knows what all she’s been doing but she also needs Avery’s brain to keep up with everything.
A few hours later...
Bullet’s truck rolled into Houston under a canopy of darkness.They made their way to the water’s edge and parked under the cover of the trees nearby.Then they waited.
