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My stomach growled and I stifled a yawn. I was exhausted and hungry and every cent I had was gone.
“Hello?” Tav called through the open door. “That you, Jonas? Saw Murph do this earlier, the bastard. He’s gonna get his when Shep gets back.”
I went outside, and I still wanted to sit down and cry. The light from Tav’s trailer glowed in the darkness, and he gave me a sad smile.
“Why don’t you go home, Rye?” Tav said in a tone that wasn’t so much a request as an order. Rye nodded and swayed off in a different direction. Once he was out of earshot, Tav sighed. “Chet told me everything.”
Shaking my head, I crossed my arms. “I found Ethan, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Maybe I should’ve just gone to that fucking camp. I could’ve taken off from there.”
“You hope. No, this was smarter.” Tav growled. “Those fucking lunatics.”
His anger actually made me smile a little. It was nice to hear someone upset on my behalf.
“Come on. There’s almost no room for three people, but we’ll make do.” Tav led me into his trailer, and it was basically the same as Ethan’s. Chet was curled up on the bed, deep asleep. Tav quickly threw together a ham sandwich for me, and I stood over the sink eating it and staring outside into the darkness. I thought I saw a shadow off toward the river, and I stepped to the side to hide behind the cabinets with my heart racing.
“What’s wrong?” Tav asked from the couch in the living room area.
“I couldn’t even help myself. Now Ethan’s in trouble.” I brushed the crumbs off my fingers and turned around to lean on the counter. “I wanted to help Ethan, but someone stole my cash out of his trailer. I was going to find a lawyer.”
Tav grunted. “Murph’s been on thin ice for a while. Someone’s going to have to do something with him.” He sighed. “You helped that lad,” Tav said, gesturing toward Chet. “One good deed, there. Murph’s an arsehole who takes the stupid shite people say around here far too seriously.”
“Like what?” I asked, frowning.
“Lots of shite. I didn’t grow up in this hellhole, so I got my own ideas about life, but the boys who grew up here?” He tapped his head. “They’re fucked.”
“Yeah, well, we’re not exactly living progressively on the other side of the river,” I mumbled. “Money doesn’t buy good ideas.”
“They sure don’t celebrate Pride Month here,” he said with an unpleasant laugh.
“They don’t at my house, either.”
We shared a heavy look.
Tav sighed. “Listen, lad, Ethan will be released. Don’t get worked up. He did nothing much, right? After that, well, it won’t hurt you two to get away from the trailer park. Sounds like you’ll have to do that. Maybe I’ll talk to Chet about where he needs to go.” He stared across the small trailer at the bed and toyed with a bracelet on his wrist. “There’s a whole world out there. Plenty of places for a smart man to be.”
My vision blurred and I wiped my face with the heel of my palm.
Someone pounded on the door of the trailer, and my mind immediately flashed back to earlier. My stomach sloshed as I felt sick enough to almost lose the little I’d eaten.
“Now, what?” Tav asked, standing up.
Chet sat bolt upright on the bed, eyes wide with terror, then snuck quickly toward a door and slid past it. I thought maybe it was the bathroom. Theclickof a lock was loud as I held my breath. I swallowed hard.
Tav glanced at me, then opened the front door. “What do you want?” he barked. “I’m busy.”
“We’re searching high and low for two runaways from over in the Cider Mill private community.” A shudder ran down my spine as Dad’s voice carried into the trailer.
Fury rushed through me.
Dad was the one filling everyone’s heads with his trash—that gay people needed to be sent away and fixed. Chet was hiding in a stranger’s bathroom because of him and his sense of right and wrong. My hands balled into fists. I glanced at the window. They’d probably seen me standing there, lit up like an idiot. I hadn’t been thinking. To heck with this. I walked over, and Tav stepped back as I glared out at Dad and the deacons from the church. They didn’t look any happier to see me than I was to see them.
Dad’s eyes gleamed with rage, and I did the unthinkable. I pushed him. He stumbled backward, and the guys with him caught him and kept him upright, but he stared at me like he wanted to beat me into the ground.
“Where’s your boyfriend Chet?” he asked.
“Don’t know. Not here,” I said.
Tav made an encouraging sound and came out. He closed the trailer door and locked it.
