AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She didn’t even know him, but the thought of leaving made her entire body shake.
“Loren,go!”
She couldn’t refuse. Robotically, she went to drag her new shoes from where they rested by the door and put them on.
Kyle watched her. “This won’t last for very long,” he said. “Once Lukka accepts her.” It wasn’t reassurance. It was a threat.
One McGoven reacted to visibly—he flinched. “He better.” He raised his voice to carry across the entire room. “And if hedoesn’t?”
Kyle shrugged. “Then someone else will. You’ve done your good deed for the week. Don’t worry, I won’t bring her back.”
Loren didn’t miss the finality in his tone.She won’t be coming back…ever.
“You won’t make it back by midnight if you don’t leave now,” McGoven warned.
After the previous hostility, his tone was eerily casual. Even Kyle seemed shocked by the change, though he shrugged again. “Fine. Come on,” he called to her.
Utterly numb, she took a step after him.
“Wait.” A rush of air was her only warning before something heavy fell over her shoulders. Confused, she looked down to find a familiar blue windbreaker draped over her dress. It was so long that the hem reached her knees.
“It’s freezing out,” a gruff voice told her by way of explanation.
“She won’t be able to wear that on Lukka’s territory,” Kyle warned, eyeing the jacket as though it were a snake. “You know the law.”
“Sure I do.” McGoven stood back, but Loren didn’t miss how he adjusted her jacket until the very last second, ensuring it fell closed over her front. “She can take it off at the gate.”
An angry flush crept over Kyle’s angular jaw, but he didn’t argue. Despite whatever power this Lukka person wielded, for now, McGoven had the upper hand.
Once she left the safety of the farm, what then?
“We need to go,” Kyle insisted, jerking his head sharply toward the door.
Officer McGoven returned to the kitchen without a word—but Loren could read his body language. His shoulders were hunched as if her mere presence was an annoyance.Go,he told her without having to say it.Get out. I don’t want you here.
No, no, no, that inner voice cried.This is wrong.Wrong!
“Come on.” Kyle’s voice was a knife, cutting through the panic in her mind.
It wasn’t exactly like she could argue. After his command, her throat seemed clenched shut around any words that might go against what McGoven told her.Go.
Stiffly, she moved forward, huddled beneath the windbreaker. Near the threshold of the doorway, she paused, half-expecting…
Nothing. No command to stay. No goodbye, either.
The only sound at all was the muffled pitter-patter of rain as she stumbled into the darkness after Kyle.
21
Kyle led her to a truck left idling in the driveway behind McGoven’s.
He hadn’t come alone. Someone sat in the passenger’s seat, a dark-haired boy who lurched from the cabin to greet her, his green eyes flashing.
“This is her?” he asked excitedly. He was tall but slender and lean with an energy that made Loren envision an overworked puppy. “Wow. Up close, she looks even bett—”
Kyle nudged him firmly in his side. “Get in the truck,” he snapped. His gaze was firmly fixed on Loren, almost as if daring her to run back to the house like every muscle in her body commanded her to do.
Slowly, she entered the truck instead, climbing in between the two front seats to sit on the back bench. Without a word, Kyle took the wheel, and the boy bounded into the passenger’s seat.
