Page 77 of Pen Me

“Knowing the details of my escape makes you an accomplice. You sure you want that on top of everything else you got going on here, Octavia?”

She stiffened and swallowed hard, before subtly shaking her head in the negative. She backed away from me like I was a snake that might strike her and fled to her bedroom.

It seemed I was having that effect on women today, because I found Sammy belly down on our bed downstairs.

I paused next to the bed, desperate to touch her, but seriously feeling undeserving and dejected.

“I never lied to you,” I whispered, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears.

She lay motionless, save for the gentle rise and fall of her back with each breath.

“I’ll leave you to rest,” I told her, rushing out the basement door to the woods beyond. I walked the trail, not really in the mood to squat and search. Instead, I raced through it, burning off energy and letting my thoughts run wild.

All the anger I’d felt toward Griz was nothing compared to the certainty I felt in knowing he was right for her. Once I was gone, she’d need a soldier at her side if I couldn’t figure this mob mess out. I just didn’t know how to make her promise me that she’d go to him. That conversation about not dropping her if I lived through my arrest was almost my breaking point. I couldn’t talk about that kind of shit with her, but I desperately needed to.

I ran the trails until I was ragged and collapsed next to the pond. I was still sitting there when Sammy wandered out a few hours later. She quietly sat down and tipped her head against my shoulder in that way of hers. I rested my head on top of hers, grateful she wasn’t too pissed off or put off by that mess with Auggie. We sat in silence, listening to the buzz of Spring insects and the occasional plop of a fish. It was so peaceful we both heard the heavy downshift of the bus gears as it approached Rumi’s stop at the end of the lane.

“Have you decided where we’ll go from here?” Sammy asked.

I took a deep breath, and absently shook my head, “I always liked Arkansas in the early Summer.”

I squinted toward the lane as the rapid pattern of steps drew near. Rumi waved as she sprinted along toward the cabin. I smiled and waved back.

“What you said about it being more dangerous on the road, you’re right,” I quietly admitted, once I heard the cabin door bang shut behind Rumi.

When she didn’t say anything, I glanced toward her. She gave a delayed nod when she realized I was doing so, only to violently flinch mid-nod, when a wail erupted from the house behind us.

The sound went straight through me, it was like nothing I’d ever heard before.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Taking Charge

Sammy

That sound rattled me to the core. I hadn’t heard it in nearly fifteen years, but the second it split the air, I knew.

“That’s a death wail,” I raced Menace for the house.

My heart hammered, and a cold dose of adrenaline shot through me with every nauseating wail that we heard as we crossed the porch.

“Mommy,” the word strangled and garbled on Rumi’s cries.

I knew there were only a dozen or so steps to Octavia’s bedroom, but damned if it didn’t feel like a hundred.

Menace flung the door open, and I shot through behind him just as it clapped off the wall and came back.

Those sobs sent shock waves through my body, and so did the sight of Rumi throttling her mother. Octavia’s head bounced without signs of consciousness, but her lips were still flesh colored.

“Hey. Hey, she’s breathing,” I pointed out as I shot onto the bed and grabbed Octavia from her.

Menace took Rumi in his arms and hugged her, muffling the cries, but not by any great deal.

“Octavia!” I threw my voice, making her name boom in the quaint dimensions of the bedroom.

“She won’t wake up,” Rumi frantically carried on.

“Fuckin’ slap her!” Menace roared.

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