Occasionally, I hear her whisper or mumble under her breath, but I know it’s not to me, and the churning in my stomach warns me not to interrupt.
Grizz.
He’ll notice I’m gone soon.
Maybe he already has.
He’ll be rushing around, checking The Gallows, the clubhouse, the cabin.
The cabin.
I slow my pace and squint my eyes, hoping the sliver of moonlight breaking through is enough to help me make out a familiar fork in the road—a path I’d once taken by accident, but that might actually be my saving grace now.
The trail splits in two, though it’s obvious that the left is more used and well-trodden, while the other is barely visibleand disguised—maybe purposefully—by large ferns that reach across, and a couple of haphazardly placed rocks.
It’s at least a few minutes of trudging and tripping through the trees before the fork in the path appears in the shadows. The lack of light gives me only a few steps to come up with something distracting so that I can veer us into the overgrowth and toward the cabin without her noticing.
I gasp loudly, stumbling and tripping to the right and onto the old path. “What was that!” I hiss under my breath, glancing around as if I heard something in the trees around us. “Sarah, this really isn’t safe. Maybe we should?—”
“Oh, Brynn, stop thepoor meact,” Sarah comments, her laughter vibrating through the trees. “Poor Brynn, she’s a single mom, she needs to be coddled and treated like some kind of princess.”
The teasing in her tone fades away as she speaks, spitting the last few words out as if they’re bitter tasting.
I shove the ferns out of the way, clearing the path as I walk and considering how I can distract her so she doesn’t pick up on the change of scenery.
“You’re right, you know,” I say, breathing heavy as I fight my way through. “I am kind of a princess. I guess it was nice to have someone want to look after me.”
She scoffs, muttering under her breath before she finally speaks out loud. “Grizz deserves better than that,” she snaps, her footsteps getting harder and louder at the mention of his name. “He deserves someone who is stronger.”
“Like you?”
“Like me!” Sarah spits, and before I can brace myself, she jams the gun between my shoulder blades. I fly forward, myhands hitting the cold ground first before the rest of my body crashes down into the dirt.
Stabbing pain shoots up into my wrist. I breathe through it, inhaling and exhaling twice before I manage to cradle it to my chest and roll over.
“Sarah…” The moonlight beams down on her, outlining her silhouette as she stands over me, her body trembling as she points the gun in my face. I swallow hard, scooting back and sitting up, needing just a few more inches between us before I start what I know is going to be the negotiation of my life.
Literally.
“I know what it’s like, you know,” I start to explain while still trying to catch my breath. “We’re very much the same. I’ve been through hard things too. I’ve had to live with a mother who only thinks of herself. Who doesn’t understand how to love us in the right way.”
She scoffs loudly, shaking her head. “Oh, really? Did yours lock you in the basement for a month after she found you dissecting the neighbor's budgie?”
Jesus Christ.
“Exactly,” she whispers, without me even having to say a word. “My mom was a bitch, but honestly, it ended up working in my favor because when I went in to get a job at The Gallows, Grizz said I was too young. Too shy. And as I was walking out the door, he heard Mom call me useless, and immediately called me back in to start work that day.”
Sounds right.
Grizz has made it clear time after time that he is not a fan of seeing children treated like trash. He wants to uplift them, to show them the kind of support he feels like he missed out on when he lost his mother.
“He used to smile at me and laugh with me. He was always checking in and making sure things were okay,” she continues,firing each word at me like bullets. “Being around Grizz made the world… quiet. Then you came along, like some stray dog, and suddenly, he had a new project to fix. A new girl to save. A daughter to fuss over.”
My heart pounds hard against my ribcage like it’s trying to break through.
I want to argue and scream at her that she’s wrong.
But for a brief moment, I can’t disguise the feeling of panic that surges through me as her words drive home every damn insecurity that lives within me.
