AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And hopefully find Kate safe and sound,” Tina says. She’s been quiet this whole time, and I’d begun to worry she was buying all the bullshit too. “It’ll be good to get away for awhile.”
“It’s settled then,” Frank says. “Let’s go.”
He sounds troubled and walks carefully across the wet deck like an old man. We follow a few steps behind him.
“So I guess this nightmare isn’t over yet,” Eagle says quietly.
I turn to him sharply. “Did you have a nightmare last night too?” Dreams are a big deal to me. And they’ve always told me things.
He shrugs. “Maybe, I don’t remember. Did you?”
“Yes. I had the nightmare I always have, where the man grabs me and drags me into the trees. But it was a lot more detailed than it usually is. I saw a car with its headlights on waiting for us, and my mother was screaming curses at the guy and punching him. I don’t know. This is all so weird.”
Especially the fact that the dream sort of came true just now. There is a hooded bad man prowling the Rez and abducting girls. And I’m accused of being him.
“I’m sure it’s just a dream,” Eagle says as he holds open the door for me. Tina has already gotten in at the passenger side.
I’m sure he’s wrong. But the last thing I need is to argue with him right now. I need to think or calm down. Or both.
I never expected my homecoming to fall apart this spectacularly and this quickly. But at least he’s here with me. Just like it was always meant to be. In my other dreams.
14
LILY
The further away fromthe people and houses we ride the better my mood becomes. The skies are clearing up, bright sunlight reaching down all the way to the ground in places, glowing invitingly and showing me the way to a better rest of this day.
We didn’t speak much as we rode into the city to pick up some of the supplies Tina insisted we needed, and she’s not speaking much as she sits beside me in the truck now. Eagle is behind us on his bike and I can feel the rumbling deep in my chest, telling me all is well. I’d prefer it if he was riding beside me.
“So what does your father’s MC do, if they’re not selling drugs and prostitutes?” Tina asks in a raspy voice hoarse from disuse, I guess.
They kill people.
But that’s not the best answer to give her.
“They sell guns, mostly,” I say instead. “And they don’t trade in people. Never have.”
She nods and keeps on nodding. It’s impossible for me to know if she believes me or not. Or what she’s really thinking for that matter.
The rolling hills in the distance is where we’re headed and there’s nothing but lush, untouched plains from here to there. In the distance I can already see sunlight reflecting off water. A lake, or the river. The campground is near the Cheyenne River and I hope that’s what I’m seeing. I’m ready to get out of my own head and start using my hands to avoid thinking.
“What was all that about disappearing women and girls?” I ask. “Do any of them come back?”
She shrugs. “Some, but more don’t. It’s been a problem for many years. Traffickers, but just plain old accidents while trying to make a living turning tricks, I’d say.”
“The way Ariana and them were talking, it didn’t sound like it was just that.”
Listen to me. Just that? As if it’s not terrible even if it were.
“There have been many cases over the years that just don’t tally in with the rest. Girls and young women from relatively good homes. College students, nurses, girls with children, husbands and homes gone missing on their way to and from the Rez. Maybe you’ve heard of Sabrina Good Places? We tried to make as wide an appeal as we could about her.”
I vaguely remember hearing about a Native girl who had gone missing on a night of partying with friends at a night club. She was gorgeous and only nineteen.
“No one knows where she is?” I ask since her disappearance happened at least five years ago.
“Not a trace,” she says. “But despite the media coverage the cops still didn’t do much to help us. No matter how many women go missing, they never do much. That kind of indifference is brutal on the families and all the rest of us.”
The sun is glaring now, hurting my eyes, and making it hard to see the road in front of me.
