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Only two years older than my daughter. What the hell was she doing in my barn? Dirty, alone, and afraid?
“What are you doing here?”
“I needed a place to rest tonight,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve been resting here the past few nights, or so I’m told.”
“Who told you that?”
“Does it matter?” I stared into her crystal blue eyes which were in stark contrast to her black hair. “Who did that to your face?”
“I…” She pressed her fingers to her swollen cheek. “I bumped into a door.”
Liar.
“I’ll leave.” She glanced at her backpack, but I stepped in front of it.
“What if I’m not ready for you to go?”
“Why wouldn’t you be?”
“I have my reasons.”What is your story?“Who are you running from?”
“No one.”
“Why do you keep lying to me?” I studied her frightened expression. “I don’t like it.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re lying to me again.”
When I moved toward her, she turned and ran from me.What the hell?
I switched the flashlight on as Sasha barked in the doorway, shining it on her as she ran away.
“Oh!” my uninvited guest yelled as she darted out of the stables and toward the woods.
“Luke,” I shouted. “Hold Sasha back.”
Luke, Sasha, and Anthony joined me by the horses.
“Do you want me to go after her?” Luke rubbed Sasha’s neck in an attempt to calm her down.
“That won’t be necessary.” I picked up her backpack and rummaged through it.
“Who is she?” Luke asked.
I held up her non-driver’s license. “Her name is Emmie Jaxon.”
“What was she doing here?” Luke took the identification from me. “According to this she’s not a kid.”
“She might not be a runaway, but she’s definitely homeless. She’s going to come back for her stuff. It’s probably all she has.”
I looked through the bag. It contained some clothes, a water bottle, and a wallet with ten dollars in it. There was an envelope with her social security card and her birth certificate too. In the bottom of the bag were a couple notebooks and a few pieces of scrap paper with drawings on them.
“If she doesn’t resurface in an hour, I’ll take Sasha and go after her. She shouldn’t be alone in the woods all night.”
“Do you want me to find her?” Anthony asked.
