AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s me,” she agreed, though Violet thought she heard something false in the cheer.
“I’ll be coming by next week for some new pieces for my daughter. Tell her, won’t you?” The woman stepped back and opened the door.
“Of course,” Red agreed.
Violet bent to pick up the nightstand before the woman spoke again. “And you are?”
Red went to answer, but Violet was quicker. “Violet Page.” She figured the more people knew her name, the more there was a chance it might get to the right person to get her out of here. “I’m new to town.”
“She’s Mikel’s claim,” Red added, and the change in the woman’s face at this information was fascinating. Her expression darkened, and Violet could see the suspicion, feel herself being appraised.
“I didn’t think the Davis family was allowed to mate. I think it’s best you wait outside.”
Her temper flared.
“Actually, Mrs. James,” Red said coolly, hefted one nightstand into the open doorway, and turned around and shoved the second in behind it, “your furniture is now delivered so we’ll just be on our way.”
Violet let herself be snatched by the arm and led back down the driveway. It was only surprise that made her follow.
“What’s her problem?” she asked as soon as they were back in the van.
“She’s a stuck-up bitch,” Red replied, already swinging the big van out of the residential street and back onto the forest-lined main road.
Violet was ready to ask more, but her eyes caught up ahead on an attendant’s booth, a barrier, and what looked like a car leaving into the forest.
“Hey, is that the way out?” She hadn’t meant to let so much urgency creep into her voice, but it wasright there. She’d just watched someone leave!
“They won’t let us out, babe.” She loathed the pity in Red’s voice.
“Look, you seem really cool, and I appreciate you being nice to me, but I really need to go home.” They were nearing the checkpoint, and Violet was gripping the door handle, torn between looking at the flimsy barrier, standing between her and freedom, and Red, who could take her there. “Please, if you can help me, I’ll get you money, or help you get home too, or whatever you want.”
The checkpoint came, whizzed past, and Violet wanted to puke. She sagged in her seat and told herself she was stupid for hoping. Just because Red seemed decent, kind, and prettynormal, that meant nothing in this town. Everyone here was subscribed to the insanity; it was hopeless.
The girl beside her was quiet, pensive, and Violet tried to understand her. Mikel had said she was an outsider, another prisoner—was she so resigned to being stuck here that she’d given up, or did she actually like it?
The truck brakes screeched, then they were spinning in a U turn Violet was positive wasn’t legal nor in keeping with Mikel’s demand ofcareful. Hope burst hot and traitorous inside her.
“They won’t let us out,” Red told her again, like a warning, “but Dani did this for me in the beginning, and it helped.”
Violet didn’t know what to say, not with the barrier coming back into view, not when she was crippled with thoughts of Lila and normality. Her heart was in her mouth by the time they pulled up to the booth.
“Name?” the attendant demanded. Then, he looked up, and Violet could sense the moment the interaction changed from the mundane to the menacing.
“Red Hawthorne.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Hawthorne, you’re not permitted to leave the Bluff. You can turn around in the next lane.” The words were cordial, but there was a hardness in his face, like he was waiting, expecting trouble.
“Why?” Red demanded before Violet could speak, though there was no bite in the question.
“You’ve not completed the change,” the attendant shot back. The more Violet looked at him, the more he looked like a soldier, short-cropped hair and severe dark eyes. “And your passenger is unidentified.”
“I’m Violet Page,” she butted in before Red could beat her to it.
“Mikel Davis’s girl?”
The question stunned her for a second. “No, I—”
“Yes,” Red said. “She thinks she’s authorized to leave. Could you check?”
