Page 29 of No More Secrets

“Not so fast, girl. You’re ours tonight. Bob, grab her feet.”

Her screams cut through the night. If Bob and Barton drag her off, she’ll never see her mom again. She’ll never get to Finn. This can’t be happening. She screams again, kicking at Bob where it counts. Butthey’re big guys. He blocks her foot and picks her up with ease. Again she screams, and again, struggling in their grip as they effortlessly carry her like a pig on a spit into the dark, dark desert.

Nobody is coming for her. No one cares what they’ll do to her.

She’s going to die out here.

Shiloh sobs, wishing for the first time she’d taken Lucas up on his offer to take her to a shelter. Being sent home to Ellis couldn’t be nearly as horrific as what these guys have planned for her.

15

“Get some ice on that eye,” Mike says when Lucas drops him off at his house.

Lucas grunts and lifts his chin to say goodbye before driving off. He cruises back through town, past the Lone Palm, past the homeless encampment, and straight to his apartment, where he sees that same car from earlier is parked across the street. His pulse rate rockets.

Someone’s found him. He needs to leave town.

Survival mode kicking in, he starts to turn around but notices the sandwich he left for Sunshine Girl is gone.

She did come back.

He looks around, momentarily forgetting about the car across the road, his concern for a homeless girl, a stranger, outweighing his fear of getting caught. Where is she now?

A mixed bag of relief and anxiety has him rubbing the back of his neck. He’s been worried about her since she took off last night.

Looking off in the direction of the homeless encampment, he prays she didn’t return there. But it’s the best place to start. He doesn’t know what he’ll do when he finds her, but he admittedly feels like he wronged her. It was his fault she ran off last night, just as it was his fault Lily ran away. He needs to check on her. Then he needs to get out of town.

With one last glance over his shoulder toward the Honda with the darkened interior, he leaves his truck behind, reasoning he can get there and back quicker without it, and jogs the mile across the open field, moonlight guiding his way.

It’s late, and the encampment is still. Barrel fires have burned down to a flicker, but the full moon casts a mystical glow, and the dirt under his boots appears to shimmer as if alive.

Sweat dripping down his spine and coating his hairline, he canvasses the outer rim until he reaches Sunshine Girl’s Ford. At the same time he hopes she’s there and that she’s not. If she is, he won’t have to spend the rest of the night looking for her. If she isn’t, she’s probably in a safer spot than this haphazard parking lot. Still won’t stop him from searching for her.

He knocks gently on the roof, so he doesn’t startle her like he did last time. The lot is so damn quiet, she’s got to be asleep. When he doesn’t get so much as a grumble from her, he knocks a little louder. This time he gets an annoyed groan.

His shoulders tense. That doesn’t sound like her.

He sniffs the air. The smell is off.

Frowning, he leans into the window, flashing his phone light. A woman with missing teeth and thinning hair shrieks. Her clothes are filthy, and she smells worse. She holds her hands up against the light.

“Turn it off! Turn it off!”

Her yelling stirs others nearby. Someone has a coughing fit. Someone else shouts for them to shut up.

“Where’s the girl?” Lucas demands, swallowing his panic as he tries not to think what it means that someone has commandeered Sunshine’s car. Did she give it up willingly? Or is this what happens when someone leaves the encampment for the day?

Or didn’t return the previous night.

His hands clench, and he fights the urge to punch the door.

His fault she lost her car. He convinced her to meet him at McDonald’s last night.

“Where is she?” he repeats when the woman covers her face with her hands and shakes her head, refusing to answer. “Tell me.” He roars, smacking the hood, his anger startling even him. He doesn’t understandthe urgency overtaking him, only that he needs to find her. She shrieks louder.

Heads peek out windows. Same guy as before swears at him to shut up. He’s trying to sleep.

As if Lucas cares.

---