Page 1 of Wicked Dove
ONE
ELODIE
“Get back here you wretched bitch!”
The door slams shut behind me, rocking the trailer with its force as I ignore my father’s screaming. There will be consequences; there always are, but I may as well delay them for as long as I can. Besides, Walker won’t wait forever.
I make it two lots along before the telltale creak of our trailer door opening rings in the air. Even from this distance, I can smell the liquor my father all but bathes in. My nose crinkles in distaste as I attempt to hide behind the closest trailer, but I’m not so lucky.
“I know you’re there, whore. Get your ass back in here now!”
My heart rattles in my chest as always, my pulse quickening in my ears as his raspy breaths grow harsher.
“Elodie, let’s not do this,” my mother mumbles from his side.
Anger snaps through my veins at the quiet plea from my mother. I know it’s him I’m actually mad at, but her… she chooses this again and again and again. I’m done living with the consequences of her actions. I’d rather deal with my own; at least I’ve earned those for myself.
If she weren’t so subdued in his presence, so submissive, so spineless, then I’d be free of these chains that refuse to let me go.
My hands ball into fists as the sound of their bickering rings through the night, neither of them bothering to leave the doorway of the trailer as they wait for me to come crawling back. They don’t actually need me for anything right now, my father just wants to make a point, and I don’t care to return for the lecture accompanied by a prolonged beating, or the hostile environment.
I’m nineteen. I should be long gone by now. So why aren’t I?
The unfurling frustration seeping into my bones turns on me as I become the focus of my rage. Taking a deep breath, I swallow it down. I can see the beam of Walker’s headlights from here. He’s not going to hang around much longer. If I want to get the hell out of here, I need to move now, which means I need to put a pin in the self-loathing weighing heavily on my chest.
One look up at the moon and my mind is made up.
Darting along the length of the trailer, which is currently shielding me from my father’s griping, I thank my lucky stars that no one else is out tonight because they definitely wouldn’t be on my side. They’d call my father’s name as they knocked me to the ground, taking pride in overpowering me.
I’m almost in the clear, but I know there’s no avoiding the stone trail, and as predicted, my name is a sneer from my father’s lips the second it crunches beneath my feet.
“Elodie!”
Walker must hear him too because the lights draw closer through the tree line, coming to my aid, but I don’t ease up until I see his face. All the good in the world falls into place the moment my eyes crash with his, the rightness of my decision immediately lifting the weight of doubt that had settled in my stomach.
“Get in,” he grunts, leaning across the cab to swing the passenger door open, and I jump inside.
He screeches down the worn dirt back road before I even have the door closed. As soon as I slam it shut, I tug on my seatbelt, refusing to piss my favorite person off.
A knowing smile curls on his lips the moment I glance at him. He’s scolded me enough times over the damn safety contraption for me to put it on instinctively, and I’m sure there’s a part of him that likes the sense of control it gives him.
Before I can worry myself over the fact that I’m surrounded by men attaching me to strings and forcing me to dance to their beat, I’m caught up in the laughter that fills the air. I join him, the sound mingling between us, both of us spurring the other on as we head out onto the main road. Damn, that was an adrenaline rush.
As the noise dulls down, a comfortable calmness washes over us.
We don’t speak as he cuts through town, doing twenty over the speed limit while I lose myself in the lure of the street lights framing the night sky.
As always, he gives me comfort and the space to gather myself. I don’t think I’ve ever left my trailer in a good mood. I’ve definitely never climbed into his car without adrenaline pounding through my veins, stealing my breath and rattling me from head to toe.
It seems like routine for me to spend the entire time silently seeking the words to ask him to take me away from here. Far,faraway, but I never quite manage to ask that much of him. He already does enough.
He’s the light in my bleak life, my solid, my best friend. He’s enough without asking for more.
Especially when I have nothing to offer him in return.
Some would probably question our dynamic. Hell, I know I do most days, but it just works.
“I have a job for us tonight,” he states, cutting through my thoughts, and I turn my attention from the world passing by outside to the man beside me.
