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“When I was eight, I tried to fight my sister when she tried to drown me in the bathtub,” I said softly. She zip-tied my hair to the drain—you know that part that crisscrosses at the bottom of the drain? I thought she was being sweet by braiding my hair. Sometimes she could be that way. Sweet. I took it for the boon it was and allowed her to do that since it meant she wasn’t trying to kill me any longer. Only, when she was done, she yanked me back into the bathtub by my hair and then sat on me while she anchored my hair to the drain by connecting the zip-tie through the top of my hair. The braids made it to where I couldn’t pull it free.”
Hoax remained silent.
“Anyway, long story short, if I’d just allowed her to do what she wanted—which was partially drown me just to see what I’d do, I wouldn’t have been tortured over the next couple of hours,” I said into the darkness that stretched out as far as the eye could see. We were no longer in the city anymore. “She filled the tub up until it was lapping at my nose and mouth. Kept it running until the hot water was so hot that it scalded my skin. Which eventually turned cold as hell. At first, she sat there and watched, but then she got bored.” I swallowed hard. “My hair in the drain kept it from draining as fast as it normally would have, and the water being on full blast kept it at a level that I was constantly almost swallowing water.”
“Fuck,” Hoax said.
“Anyway, that went on for hours. Or what felt like hours. I don’t really know,” I admitted. “That night, after she finally let me go? I cut off every inch of my hair.” I laughed. “Which then pissed my father off, causing him to beat the shit out of me.”
Hoax’s hand tightened on the steering wheel so hard that the leather creaked.
“I don’t like your family,” he said simply.
I grinned. “Welcome to the club.”
We drove for what felt like hours, switched out vehicles, and then drove for more hours.
“Your child is doing well,” he surmised on hour eight of the trip.
I glanced into the back seat to see Linnie still sleeping. “She’s always been a good sleeper from what I’ve been told. Tyson, my brother, told me that from six days old she slept through the night.”
Hoax didn’t say anything at first, so I chose to ignore him and instead focus on the landscape passing us by at an alarming rate of speed.
We were headed toward El Paso.
And from there, maybe out of the state completely.
I hadn’t asked because I didn’t want to know.
Each mile that passed felt like more and more of the oxygen had been stolen from my lungs.
Which sucked because I was supposed to be happy that I was finally getting away from my family, and instead I was thinking about all the things that I left behind—mainly Liner.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for treating you like I did at first,” Hoax said. “I’m protective of those I count as my family.”
I didn’t say anything to that.
“And, I was a complete dick,” he continued.
My lips twitched, but a smile still didn’t break free.
“Also, I know that you have feelings for Liner,” he continued. “But for his sake and yours, you need to remember that he’s not safe anymore. Tara knows something, and if you ever think of making contact with him again, remember that Tara will be there in the wings, waiting for you to fail.”
He had a point.
One I didn’t like, but a point nonetheless.
“I wrote Liner a letter,” I said softly. “Would you give it to him?”
He grunted out a reply. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
No.
But I wanted him to have it anyway.
And then we arrived at our new place—which was, in fact, very near to El Paso, but happened to be Morning Glory, Texas and not El Paso itself.
“Why this place?” I asked as we started down a quiet street.
“It’s near Fort Hancock,” he said. “And there’s a couple of people we know on the base that would be able to help us if we needed it in a pinch.”
That made sense.
He pulled into a small neighborhood and then continued down the quiet street until we arrived at a small house that looked straight out of a magazine.
“Nice,” I whispered. “Though, just sayin’, this is way more than I expected us to have.”
Hoax looked like he was fighting with himself for a few long seconds, and then nodded his head. “It is. We don’t normally go this fancy, but Liner chipped in.”
Liner chipped in.
“How?” I wondered.
“By buying it for you,” he said. “We originally had an eye on one closer to the base, but Liner had some of our staff send him floor plans and pictures and he liked this place. Knew you’d probably like it, too.”
