Page 1 of Scatter the Bones

CHAPTER ONE

Jigsaw

Jensen Killgore,20 years old.

At a certain point in life, you reach an age when you realize being a man isn’t about strength, money, or respect. It’s about the awareness of how your actions affectotherpeople.

No matter how you try to bury the past, the consequences of our actions—or inactions—often find a way to hunt us down.

More than six years away from my family’s farm and I couldn’t banish this place from my memory even if I wanted to.

The old white mailbox appears on my left. Rustier now. A little tilted. But still there.

Dread and fury beat against my skin. This isn’t a social call. It won’t be a warm family reunion.

I’m here for retribution and rescue.

One way or another, my baby sister’s leaving with me today.

I’m bigger now. Stronger. I have a little bit of money.

Nope. Don’t think about the money or where it came from. Rooster’s Aunt Em made it clear on her deathbed, she loved me like a son.

I’d rather have Aunt Em alive and breathing than all the money in the world.

She’d know how to take care of Jezzie. Instead, I plan to take my sister halfway across the country to stay with a woman she probably doesn’t even remember.

A woman who once tried to protect my mother from getting involved with my crazy-ass father.

He never hit the girls.

Girls were meant to serve. Be silent. Obedient. He never whipped them or locked them in the basement.

That you know of.

Ruth would’ve protected Jezzie. The woman who helped me escape. Who promised she’d look after my sister.

I was a kid. Fuck, I’mstilla damn kid. Rooster’s Aunt Em and Uncle Boone saved my life by taking me in after my father’s last beating sent me to the hospital.

I owed them everything. After I graduated from high school, I planned to come back for Jezzie.

Then Em got sick. Really sick. I helped Rooster and Boone take care of her until she passed. Peacefully at home. The way she wanted.

Boone was a mess. The man who treated me like his son was lost without his wife. I helped Rooster take care of Boone.

Until Boone had a stroke.

Rooster was dealing with Boone’s estate. Learning the ins and outs of the bar and restaurant Boone left us. In a few weeks, I’ll return to help him figure it all out.

But now it’s time to get my sister. I can’t wait any longer. She’ll be approaching fourteen now. Getting too close to the age my father thought girls should be married off to start breeding the next generation of the Lord’s servants.

Before she passed, Aunt Em tracked down my real aunt. My mother’s sister, Angela. Like the mama bear she was, Em hired a PI to learn everything she could about Aunt Angela before givingme the information. She works a normal nine-to-five in a nice small town in Pennsylvania. No children. No husband. Nocult.

I had a few fond memories of Angela. Her face. Her smile. A yappy dog who always sat on her lap when we visited. How she tried to convince my mother not to move to the other side of the country when my father got his first “vision from the Lord.”

Then later how she visited our farm when Jezzie was maybe two or three. The arguments she had with my parents. How she left in a hurry and we never saw or heard from her again.

That’swho I was trusting to take care of Jezzie now?

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