“Great.We can play tag again, only this time, I’ll call hospital security, and the police, and the SBI.Do you think they’re going to sit down with you and have a nice chat on the curb about all the stupid shit you’ve been pulling?”
“I don’t have to talk to anybody,” Daniel said, voice unsteady with anger, and with something else underneath the anger.“I don’t have to say anything.”
“Up,” Jem said, getting to his feet.“You don’t have to go back to the hospital if you don’t want, but you can’t run all over the place on your own, either.”
“But you—” The mess of emotions in Daniel’s voice threatened to spill over.“I thought you were going to help me!You tricked me!”
“Yeah, well, I guess your dad was right about me.On your feet, Junior.”
For a moment, it looked like Daniel might stay where he was, hunkered down like a rock and refusing to move.But when Jem reached for his arm, Daniel twisted away from him and rose.He took off toward the garage fast enough that Jem hurried after him, in case the kid tried to run again, but Daniel slowed when he approached Tean.
“I’m not going back to my family,” Daniel said.“You can’t make me.”
“Daniel,” Tean began.
“You’re supposed to be helping me!”
“I’m trying to help you.I know it doesn’t feel like that, but I promise I am.”
“I won’t go back.I’m not going back.My dad wouldn’t make me go back.My dad would let me go with you because he trusts you.That’s why he told Mom to call you.”
The doc was so uncomfortable he was practically crawling out of his own skin, and he kept shooting looks at Jem over Daniel’s shoulder.Jem said nothing.
“Let me talk to your mom,” Tean said, and he sounded like every browbeaten adult Jem had ever known as a teenager.“Jem?”
“Oh no,” Jem said.“This is your rodeo.”
Tean made a face like that wasn’t particularly helpful, but he fished his keys out of his pocket and passed them to Jem.“He’s got to be freezing.Can you let him warm up in the truck?”
“Sounds like fun.”With a glance at Daniel, Jem added, “We’ll see if he remembers anything else.”
Daniel refused to meet his gaze.
Tean cast a last, pleading look that moved from Jem to Daniel and back to Jem again.Jem ignored it.Daniel ignored it too.Sighing, the doc started toward the hospital.
Jem cocked his head in the direction of the truck, and Daniel started walking gingerly down the length of the garage.
It was a sign of how messed up everything was that Tean was even considering taking Daniel in.Jem bounced the keys restlessly in one hand, and the jingle was the only sound aside from the far-off rumble of a diesel.Under ordinary circumstances, Tean would be all commonsensical about it, telling Daniel he had to go back home, or back to the hospital, or back wherever he was supposed to be.Instead, Daniel knew exactly which buttons to press to make the doc feel as guilty as possible, and that, in turn, had given him the leverage to—
“Ow!Ow!Ow!”Daniel hopped on one foot, grabbing the other and bending over.
“What?What’s wrong—”
“I stepped on something.I stepped on something!Ow, ow, ow!I think I stepped on glass!”
“Let me see—”
Jem took the boy by the shoulder to steady him.
Daniel twisted, faster than Jem could believe.One of Daniel’s hands came down to slap the keys out of Jem’s loose grip.The other caught a handful of Jem’s shirt.Daniel shifted his weight, bringing his supposedly injured foot back down, and pivoted at the waist.The movement yanked Jem forward.He hit Daniel’s thigh, lost his balance, and was dragged off his feet.The next thing he knew, his back slammed down onto the pavement.Breath exploded out of him.
For a moment, the pain of the landing—combined with the flare-up from where the killer had kicked him the night before—sent colored spots floating through Jem’s vision.He was vaguely aware that his body was trying to breathe and his lungs seemed to have forgotten how.Somehow, he flopped onto his stomach.
Just in time to see a white truck lurch out of its parking spot.Tires squealed on the pavement.Brake lights flared.There was a fumbling moment, probably because Daniel was fifteen and had never actually driven a vehicle before.And then the truck shot out of the garage.
18
In their Uber on the way home, Jem inspected a patch of road rash on the back of his arm that was oozing.“Is it weird that this actually makes me like him more?”
