Or Junie and Em, or any of the rest.Junie had been so pale and frightened, her blue eyes had stood out.And Em…she’d been practically vibrating.
“No, they don’t.And we just don’t know what it is he is doing or what he is after.A smart man would have already headed out of Wyoming, toward the border, or back to Texas.Yet he keeps hanging around.We just can’t seem to track him down anywhere.”His sister’s frustration was hard to miss.He knew she’d made Bruce Tyler something of a personal quest.“And so many of us have our hands tied for one reason or another.It’s just me and Zach who can look for him, and even that is iffy, since he and Sage are related.I have to sign off on everything, but since Bruce is also responsible for injuriesIsustained…we’ll have to turn him over to the FBI or to the WHP when we do catch him.Boone is also looking for him.All of us are looking for him.And none of us are getting anywhere.How much longer can this go on before someone else is killed?No one man should be able to evade us all like this.It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t know.I’m just…I can’t leave her, Claud.I just can’t.”
“Just…if you are going to stay out here,pleasewatch yourself.Bruce Tyler is involved in some seriously heavy things.I don’t want you to get caught up in the middle of it.More than you already have been.”
“I’m not going to be in the middle of it.I’m going to be standing betweenthemand any of it that I can.”He just couldn’t walk away.Not now.“However she’ll let me.There is something about that woman that I…hell…”
Claudia laughed at him, quietly.“I think…maybe the two of you can see each other’s scars and not be frightened away.I think you both need that.I love you both.Remember that.Watch yourself out here tonight.I think…demons are coming out to haunt us all.”
38
She was holding herself together.Auggie and Em and Junie talked to January.Told her what had happened and that it was safe.That Bruce was gone now.There was no way they could have kept it a secret, and they all needed to be on alert.But…she wished she wasn’t the one who had put that look in her little sister’s eyes.January had been through so much.
Sometimes, Auggie thought she, Em and Junie had been the lucky ones.Bruce had been in and out so much during their childhood, to finally disappear when Auggie had been younger than January was now.But January had had to live with Bruce every day.
And their mother.That wouldn’t have been easy, either.
Katie had been in and out of jail most of January’s childhood, but she’d died after Markie had been born.January had been forced to become more of a parent for the younger girls then.Even though Auggie seriously suspected January had been taking care of the younger girls for a long, long time before that.
Just like Auggie had taken care of Em and Junie.
She was trying so hard to help January see that she didn’t have to take care of the younger girls so much now.That was Auggie’s job now.Auggie wanted January to have the rest of her childhood to be achild.
That was something she had struggled with when she’d first moved in with her aunt and uncle ten years ago.She had been so used to being the one in charge, especially of Em and Junie, that letting others make the decisions for her sisters had been a real struggle.
She’d wanted to protect January from the same pain.
She wasn’t so sure she was succeeding.
But tonight…tonight wasn’t the time for those worries.They had something more immediate.January was going to be terrified.And they still had to get through the night.
Auggie and Em and Junie couldn’t guardeverywindow.
Unless…they packed up the girls, even in the snow, and took them somewhere they could be safe.Gil and Sage’s ranch.Gil had armed guards out there now.
But the thought of driving at least an hour through a spring snow, with six little girls, in the dark of night…with Bruce out there…
No.
They were safer right where they were.
She just had to make it through the night.
She headed back into the living room.She had one more…problem to deal with.
If she could call him that.
Calloway Ellis Grady was still in her living room.He hadn’t left with his sister and Deputy Lowell like she’d half-thought he would.He was still there.
And he had to be hurting.
She just stood there, in her living room.And looked at him.
He had been there.And he hadstayed.Right when she’d needed him most.
She would never forget the hope she had felt seeing Cal in her bedroom.Ready to fight her father.To protect her.
