Page 64 of The Banned Books Club

“When we’re talking about a horse, a cow or a pig, I do,” he said with a grin. “And I would do it for any animal, if it became necessary. Do you have any pets?”

“No. I don’t want to leave an animal alone in my condo all day while I’m working. I might get a dog at some point, though, if and when I marry and start a family.”

“You’d like kids?”

“One day. You?”

“Definitely.”

“You’d have to settle down with someone for that,” she said wryly.

“I’d be happy to settle down if only I could find the right woman.”

Finished with her beer, she set the can aside. “From what I’ve heard, you have your pick.”

He hated the reputation he was getting, wished the people of Wakefield would mind their own business instead of showing so much interest in his love life. “Who told you that?”

“I think it’s the general consensus.”

“I’m sure you’ve had plenty to pick from over the years, too, and yet you’re still single,” he pointed out.

She eyed him through the steam. “I have a hard time falling in love.”

Cormac was willing to bet that what she’d been through in high school played a role. During the years when most people fell in love for the first time, she’d probably been too traumatized to experience it. That made him feel even worse about what’d happened. “Look at us,” he said, gesturing between them with his can. “Did you ever think we could be friends?”

She tilted her head as she studied him. Then the prettiest smile spread across her face. “Never.”

He finished his own beer. “Just goes to show...anything’s possible.”

Margot peered through a crack in the curtains of the cheap motel room she’d rented in Billings, Montana. What with bathroom breaks, food breaks and a park break so the boys could play for a bit, she’d been on the road for sixteen hours. When she’d first left Wakefield, she’d considered traveling east. There were so many more people on that side of the country. It felt safer somehow, as if she might need that big a melting pot in which to hide.

But that was panic talking. There were plenty of good towns and people in the other direction, too. Thanks to the weather, north wasn’t an option, but she could go south...

In the end, she’d decided to go where her heart led her and since she’d always wanted to live on the West Coast, she’d plotted a course through Montana and Idaho to Washington. If she didn’t find a place she liked there, she’s drive down into Oregon or even California. The coming months were going to be hard enough. Why not trade a cold, snowy winter for a warm one? At least she wouldn’t have to shovel the walks.

The back parking lot, which was all she could see from the second-story room, was almost empty. She couldn’t say what she was looking for, anyway. She was just checking her car. Besides the few boxes and bags of belongings she’d brought and the suitcase full of cash she’d wheeled into the room with them, that car was all she had. She needed to sell it and get something else—the sooner the better—but she wanted to put more distance between her and Wakefield first.

Stretching her neck to ease the tension headache that’d come on around dinnertime, she wandered into the bathroom and stared into the mirror. A wan stranger stared back at her. She couldn’t believe she was really doing this. That she’d felt desperate enough. She’d taken what money she could, her children, their clothes and a few toys and left most everything else, including her dying mother. She didn’t even have a computer or a cell phone to make things easier. She was so used to technology making it possible to search the internet, provide directions, give weather forecasts and keep her abreast of what was going on in the world—all at the touch of her fingertips—that she felt helpless without those tools.

She knew she should get some sleep. The boys would probably be up at the crack of dawn. If she wasn’t well-rested, it would be hard to cover very many miles.

But she was too uptight, too fidgety. She’d used some of the cash she’d withdrawn from the bank for gas, but they wouldn’t let her rent a room without a credit card. Before she left Wakefield, she’d opened a new account with a card exclusively in her name—and created an email address Sheldon wouldn’t know about for the digital statements—but even that left a trail. People could be tracked so easily these days.

Would the police get involved? She didn’t think so. Not from everything she’d seen on the internet. And if they didn’t, she should be okay. The average person, like Sheldon, wouldn’t be able to access her credit card data.

Besides, he and his buddies would be in the wilderness, out of cell phone range, much of the time he was gone. It was once he got back that she had to worry. Then he’d probably get a private investigator involved if the police wouldn’t help him, and she had no idea how far a professional might be able or willing to go to find a runaway wife.

Maybe to avoid using a credit card and creating that paper trail, she and the boys would have to start sleeping in the car. Or go to a women’s shelter—at least until she could buy a new computer. She was finally feeling enough panic to brave the dark web, where she’d heard she could purchase a fake ID. A simple Google search explained how, but so far, she’d been hesitant to venture into such a dangerous space.

Probably the worst that would happen was that she’d get ripped off by paying for something she never received. But it was a risk she was going to have to take.

Leaving the mirror, she wandered back into the hotel room and covered up her sleeping children. Had Sheldon already tried to call her?

Typically, he didn’t call home that often, not while he was hunting. With Cece back in his life, maybe he’d be calling her instead. The longer it took before he realized something was wrong, the more time she’d have to get situated and prepared.

Stepping back, she watched her boys. She’d figure everything out. She had no choice.

She just had to take it one day at a time.

---