Page 10 of Honest Neglect

I didn’t realize how cold I had gotten until I stepped into their place. The heat burned and prickled on my skin, and the woman took a step back to look me up and down. I didn’t even want to think what kind of mess I looked to her right then, standing there in front of her, covered in dirt from scrambling around the forest all day.

“You look like you haven’t eaten in a week,” she told me, hustling me toward the kitchen. “I’ll make you some tea. Leroy, call the police.”

“No, no,” I protested at once, using the last of my energy to plead with them. “Not the police, please. You can call anyone else about this, but not the police.”

Leroy, who already had one hand on the phone, dropped it down by his side again.

“You care to tell us what’s going on?” he asked, his voice low and even. I could tell he was having his doubts about me, but I couldn’t blame him for that. They must have thought I was crazy, on a bad trip or something.

“It’s too complicated to explain everything,” I replied.

“So explain something,” he told me, crossing his arms over his chest as his wife bustled in the kitchen to make me something to drink.

“I was taken,” I offered him. “There were some men in Oakville who kidnapped me for—well, I don’t know exactly what for yet, but I know they always get what they want. I managed to escape. They had me tied up someplace in the woods.”

“The woods?” the woman remarked, sounding worried. “Oh, honey, you must be freezing. Here, have this tea. It’s hot.”

“Thank you,” I murmured to her. After facing so much brutality, there was something about her gentle kindness that soothed me in a way I didn’t even know I needed.

“And what about that means you can’t call the police?” Leroy asked. “Doesn’t sound like they should be able to get away with doing this to you.”

“That’s the problem. They’re tight with the police,” I explained. “If you call them, chances are they’ll just come to pick me up and take me right back to them.”

Leroy shot a look at his wife, as though silently consulting her for her opinion.

“Well, you’re sixty miles from Oakville now, so I don’t know if you would have the same problem with the cops here,” he remarked.

Sixty miles? They had taken me sixty miles from my home? Suddenly, that gulf seemed to open up in front of me, all the distance from my mom and Warren spreading out to cover half the world.

I looked down to my feet, where Silver was curled up happily. She was already asleep, just glad that she had managed to find me again. No, not that she had just managed to find me—that she had come sixty miles to find me, no less. She had traveled all that distance searching for me. I felt tears prick my eyes again, and I leaned down to pet her.

“Good girl,” I whispered. It seemed an understatement for the kind of dog I knew she was now, but it was the best I could do for the moment. When we got home, though, I was going to make sure she had all the treats she could ever want. For the rest of her life.

“Yes,” Leroy replied. “You want me to try our cops here? I know them pretty well.”

I shook my head at once. “I don’t want to risk it.”

“Leroy, give the girl a break,” his wife scolded him. “You can see she’s telling the truth. It’s written all over her.”

Leroy sighed and gestured to the woman next to him.

“This is my wife, Grace,” he introduced. “And we saw your dog—”

“Silver,” I said her quickly.

“Silver,” he corrected himself. “On the side of the road. We tried to get out to go to her, see what was going on there, but she took off before we had a chance.”

“I guess she must have been out there looking for you,” Grace remarked. I blinked back more tears. The thought of Silver out there all alone, searching for me, even when she was offered help? It was the sweetest thing in the world.

But just because Silver was okay didn’t mean the same thing went for anyone else close to me, and I couldn’t take the risk. I couldn’t let the relief get the better of me.

“I need to get back to Oakville as soon as I can,” I continued. “Is there some kind of public transport I can take? Or maybe you could give me a lift? I’d be happy to pay you.”

“There’s nothing like that out here,” Leroy replied. “We can talk about the lift once you’ve rested up a little. But what I don’t understand is why you’re so keen to get back to that place if it’s full of people who are out to get you.”

I lowered my gaze to the steaming cup of tea in front of me. “There are people there I need to get to. My mom and Warren.”

“Warren?” Leroy asked, furrowing his brow. “Sounds familiar. What’s his last name?”