Page 6 of Dark Roads
“Not without me or Lana.”
“That’s crazy. Why can’t—”
“That’s the rule. If you break it, I’ll lock up your bike, understand?”
I clenched my jaw so tight I could feel my teeth grinding together. He’d been wanting me out of my room, so I finally go out for a couple of hours, and this is what I get? Served me right for thinking anything could be the same again. I should have stayed in bed.
We drove in silence until we were off the highway and through the quiet neighborhood where they lived. He pulled to a stop at the end of their street by the mailboxes. I could just see the white trim of their house in the distance. I looked over, confused.
It was dark in the truck with the dashboard lights off. His body close. He was big, his shoulders bunched. He had turned the radio down. I didn’t remember him doing that.
“I’m going to the station to fill out a report.” He stretched his arm across the back of the seat and twisted toward me. “I’ll keep tonight’s adventure between us.”
“You’re not going to tell Lana?” What was going on? He’d just handed down his stupid rule, and now he was giving me a pass?
“Your aunt doesn’t need more problems. She has enough to deal with, don’t you think?”
Right. Another mouth to feed. A headache. A kid neither of them wanted.
I nodded.
“Good girl.” He patted my leg, then reached across me. I flinched, pressed back against the seat. The door swung open. “Go on. I’ll wait until you get into the house.”
I slipped out of the truck, closing the door softly so that I didn’t wake Lana in case she was sleeping, and got my bike. It wasn’t until I reached the front steps that I heard the truck drive off. When I glanced over my shoulder, I caught a flash of red taillights through the trees.
Lana was curled up in a chair in the living room, book in hand, her face lit with a soft glow from the lamp. “Hi, sweetie.” She gave me a warm smile. “You have a good time?”
I hovered in the doorway. I wanted to get to the bedroom and put this entire night behind me. “Yeah. Sorry I’m late. Battery died.”
“You must have thought I was a lunatic with all my texts.” She laughed. “Guess I have to get used to it. I thought it would be a few more years before I had a teenager in the house.” She looked at her watch and yawned. “I should get to bed. Vaughn’s meeting is running late too.”
I forced myself to smile and say good night. While I brushed my teeth, I thought about what she had said. Vaughn must have told her he was going to be latebeforehe picked me up because I never saw him using his phone. So why didn’t he want Lana to know he was out on a call tonight? What was the big deal? He went on calls all the time. Unless that was a lie too and he was really somewhere else. Then I remembered that faint perfume scent on his seats. I stopped brushing my teeth and stared at myself in the mirror, my eyes wide as it sank in.
He wasn’t covering forme. I was covering for him.
CHAPTER 2
The vinyl seat on my bike was burning hot as I slid a leg over. I squinted against the bright sun and coasted around the building, my chocolate-banana milkshake balanced on the handlebars. The parking lot bordered a small rest area with picnic tables and totem poles. The tallest one had an eagle on top, wide wings outstretched, the carvings painted in red, black, and white.
Mason’s Diner and Dairy Queen were the only places most of us hung out because we could afford the food. Jonny was sitting on the open tailgate of his truck, with Andy and a couple of other guys standing around. I’d gone to a movie with Andy once, mostly because he kept asking. A failed experiment.
Two girls walked over, staring at their phones, thumbs flicking. Motocross bunnies. The only time they talked to me was if they thought I could hook them up with Jonny. Everything about school had been a waste of time, and it was going to suck even more without Jonny next year. At least he wasn’t going away to college.
I stopped in the shade behind the building, tugged my cell free from my pocket, and found my last conversation with Jonny. We’d texted after he got home from the lake, but I was waiting to tell him about my ride with Vaughn. I could barely look at Lana this morning. I’d stayed in the bedroom for hours, then told her that I was handing out résumés around town.
My finger tapped across the keyboard, adding to our long thread.Hey, loser-face. Can’t get through your fan club. Meet you at the workshop.
Jonny looked down at his cell, laughed, then glanced around the parking lot until he spotted me. He gave a thumbs-up. Over his shoulder I noticed a flash of white coming down the street. Vaughn’s truck? I wasn’t waiting to find out. I spun around so fast I hit a girl in the legs with my wheel. She lost her balance on the edge of the sidewalk and nearly dropped her burger. Simone, I realized when I saw her inky black hair and hipster glasses. Andy’s sister.
“Hey! Watch it.”
“Sorry.” I wheeled away, darted between the buildings until I was out front by the picnic tables. Kids were laughing, pushing and shoving each other as they waited for their food. I used them to block any view of me, glanced over my shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, then cut across the baseball field and disappeared into the woods. I’d take the trail, then stay on the side roads. Jonny and I had a few secret routes. We used to race our bikes home before he got a truck.
Cold Creek was small, even smaller if you knew how to get around on a bike. The downtown was really only a few streets, with a truck stop, the diner, a motel. The rest of the area was rural, with large farms and people who didn’t much like other people. Those houses usually had a few pickup trucks in the yard, collapsing fences, tarps on the roof, loose chickens, and a dog or two. I didn’t cut across those properties or I’d end up with shotgun pellets in my back.
Ten minutes later I was zipping around the corner near my neighbor’s house, my brakes clenching so hard they squealed. I coasted up their driveway, shushing their dog when he barked, and crossed through the trees to my house. At the edge of our property, I stopped to look around. No white truck. My heart slowed, my skin cooled, breath returned to normal. Stupid. Of course Vaughn wasn’t following me. I leaned my bike against the railing and climbed the steps.
Lana was right—my house was beautiful. Dad had converted an old orchard barn, built a rock fireplace by hand, and refinished all the wood floors. They still smelled faintly of apple. It was impossible to think of someone else living here. What would they change? Would they paint the walls? Rip out the sky-blue cupboards and the nook Dad had made from the barn doors?
