By the time I get there, everybody is asleep. It’s too quiet and I spent too much time couped up in the hospital. I slip into some shorts and take off towards the shore.
It’s a beautiful night to go for a run. I clear my head and let my feet pound into the sand. I focus on the steady rhythm of my breathing and my steady heart rate.
Running is one exercise that doesn’t come natural to me, but I push myself to do it anyway. Control and self-discipline are essential in handling the dangerous kinds of situations I find myself in and I strive to conquer both.
I run three miles along the shore before turning around. I’m hot and drenched with sweat by the time I get home but I’m still not satisfied so I sit in the sauna located on the back deck and relax.
Reflecting on my earlier meeting, I’m once again in a state of unease. I don’t like the idea of sending the girl in undercover, even with protection. I shouldn’t have even suggested it, but it might come down to our only option.
Instead of heading to my room when I come back inside, I take a left and head towards her room. Slowly, I ease the door open, careful not to wake her. The moonlight illuminates her pale face. She looks so frail and vulnerable, causing that foreign feeling to stir inside of me.
She will be ok. I’ll make damn sure of it.
Chapter 7
Maya
Dammit Emma.She convinced me to get out of bed and come to the table for breakfast, promising it would be good for me. Nick sits at the table looking like he just stepped out of aGQ Magazine—the epitome of male perfection. My heart skips a beat.
Glancing down at the hand-me-down clothes Emma gave me, my subconscious eats away at how I’ve never been good enough to have anything nice of my own. Not that I’m not appreciative, because I am, but for once I would love to know what it’s like to feel beautiful in my own skin and appearance.
Judging by my reflection in the mirror, I’m getting smaller by the day. I look like I actually did die and they forgot to tell me.
It’s been days since I last showered. I add it as the single thing on my list of to-dos for the day. After my fit last night, my eyes are somehow more sunken and puffy than normal.
After Mama died, I was forced to wear hand-me-down clothes from our neighbors. Most of them too baggy for my small frame. I was thankful, nonetheless, but Daddy always made it a point to tell me how worthless I was for having to accept handouts from others.
It’s not like I had anyone to impress, even if I was able to find clothes to fit me. I never had time to date, nor did I want to.
More hours at work meant more time away from Daddy and his buddies. After work, I earned extra cash by doing “favors” for my boss’s son, Trevor, and his best friend, Kaleb.
I kept every spare dollar I made in a hole in the sheetrock behind my mattress until I had enough money to take my GED with the plan to get the hell out of Whiskey Rivers one day. Trevor was nice enough to cover my shift for a few hours the day I took the exam. Truthfully, I think he felt bad for me and my situation, even if he would’ve never admitted to it.
As much as I had hoped to go to college one day, that just isn’t in the cards for someone like me. When I was little, I wanted to be a nurse, just like Mama, but someone as broken and damaged as myself could never care for others the way she did. Now I just wish I could disappear.
Nick doesn’t look up as I take a seat at the table, holding my arms tightly to my body in attempt to take up as little space as humanly possible. My nerves are so bad I might throw up.
Emma sets a plate of French toast and bacon in front of me. I realize I’m famished when I’m hit with the delicious smell. Hopefully I can hold it down.
Thankfully, Ethan strolls in and breaks the tension radiating between Nick and myself. “Ahhh look what the tide carried in. Good morning, Rivers.” Ethan plops in the chair next to me, pouring me a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice before pouring one for himself.
“Good morning,” I squeak, my cracking voice barely a whisper.Shit.I didn’t add “sir” to the end of that. A flash of panic floods my veins, wondering if I am going to be in troublefor forgetting my manners. I instinctively tense, not daring to look up from my plate.
I wait for a blow that surprisingly doesn’t come. My daddy would’ve had me laid out on the floor by now.
Wait…he called me Rivers. I didn’t give any of them my last name, and I made sure not to have any identification on me the night I jumped into the river.
“How do you know my last name?” I struggle to get out, hoping I’m not stepping out of line by asking this.
“Baby girl, your face isALLover the news! You’re the new local celebrity. Everyone in the southeast is looking for you.” He bats his pretty blue playboy eyes at me. “Here, look.” He pulls out his phone and shows me a news article.
Local Woman Wanted for Questioning in Explosion That Killed One
My last school picture is plastered on the front with a news article about the explosion that killed my father. They know I wasn’t in the house. My head starts swimming.
Of course they would be looking for me. I’d be stupid to think otherwise. Still, I don’t have any regrets over what I did. For the first time in my life, I feel liberated. He deserved to be wiped from this planet.
“Still thinking of trying to run?” Nick finally speaks, his menacing tone making the hair on the back of my neck rise.
