It was the truck behind her.
Old. Rusted. Rolling slow. Too slow.
I rolled my window down and leaned out. “Briar!”
She froze, turned, and the second she saw me, she bolted. The truck behind her spun around, gunned it, and took off, tires skidding as it sped away into the dark behind me.
Briar didn’t stop until she hit the passenger door.
I threw it open. She climbed in, gasping, pale as hell.
“Are you okay?” I asked, checking the mirrors, trying to get the license plate, but the truck was gone.
She nodded too fast, blinking hard, arms wrapped around herself. “I didn’t know what to do. They weren’t doing anything. Just driving slow. I really didn’t want to go into the woods, and?—”
“Okay,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “You’re safe now. Everyone’s out looking for you. Your mom is terrified.”
That cracked her. Her face crumpled, and she covered it with both hands. I found my phone in the console and sent a text to Paige, then Cade, to let them know I’d found her.
I didn’t say anything. I reached behind the seat and pulled out the clean jacket I kept back there. I passed it over to her, along with the crumpled pack of travel tissues in the cupholder. She yanked the jacket on and buried her face in the sleeves.
“I didn’t mean to scare anybody,” she mumbled. “I just—I didn’t want to be at my dad’s house anymore. And I didn’t want to make Mom feel worse. Everything’s already hard.”
“I get it,” I said quietly, pulling back onto the road to take her home.
She sniffed, hard. “Danielle acts like me and Lark are a problem. She makes it feel like every time I breathe, I’m taking something from her kids.”
My hands tightened on the wheel.
“She says things like, ‘We all have to make sacrifices now,’ and then looks right at me. Like I’m supposed to feel guilty for existing. I don’t know what her problem is. Grandpa is paying for dance now. She hates me. I know it. And when he’s there, my dad doesn’t say a word.”
I let her talk. Let it all tumble out in angry, breathless pieces while I fought back the urge to find her father and cave his face in with my fist for allowing this to happen.
“She treats Lark and me like we're extra. It's as if we're the ones who don’t fit into their perfect little family. And Dad just lets her. Lark says to ignore her, but I can’t. She said we have to go to his place, or Mom could get in trouble with the judge because of the custody stuff.”
Listening to her, something fierce burned in my chest—I wanted to protect her, to go to war for her if I had to, the same way I would for her mother. I’ve known her since she was a baby, and it made me sick to think Eli could stand by and let this happen, let her feel unwanted in his own house. How could he?
I didn’t say what I was thinking. That Danielle had no business parenting anyone. That Eli had no business letting her even try. And I wished she had said something to Paige, because there was no way this would have happened if she had known how bad it was. And that if it were up to me, she’d never go back there again.
“I didn’t know what to do. I thought about calling Mom, but I didn’t want to make her deal with more crap.” She wiped her nose. “But it just—it all sucked, so I snuck out. Everyone at school was talking about this party—I screwed up. I’m horrible.”
“Maybe you screwed up. But you’re not horrible,” I said. “You’re a kid who got stuck in a really bad situation and didn’t know what to do.”
She was quiet, sniffling into her tissue. Then, so soft I almost didn’t hear it, “Is Mom gonna be mad? I promised I would call her if I got upset. I didn’t call her. That makes me a liar. I broke my promise.”
I shook my head. “She won’t be mad. She’ll be relieved when she sees you. That’s all.”
We turned onto her street.
The porch light was on. The front door was open, just the screen pulled shut, and Paige stood there in leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, arms crossed over her chest, pacing just inside the frame.
The second she saw my headlights, she stepped outside.
I pulled into the driveway and put the truck in park.
“She’s right here,” I called out. “She’s okay.”
Briar looked up. Her whole face crumpled again.
