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“That’s enough, young lady—”
“No. I don’t think it is. I am not a temptress, Grandpa. I am not impure. I am justme.I am an eighteen-year-old girl, who has all her life been policed and chided and made to believe that she is bad, through and through. Just because God created me in a way people seem to find me pretty. I’m eighteen, what you’re doing right now is against the law. Kidnapping. False imprisonment. Assault.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve never assaulted anyone in my life.”
I glare, then reach one hand across and lift the torn sleeve of my dress, shaking it at him, showing him the bruises from his fingers underneath. “Assault.”
He scoffs. “You want to talk about assault? I could tell you a thing or two about that animal you’ve been spending time with.”
This?
I almost laugh. He thinks Davis is holding secrets from me. He has no idea.
“I know all about the accident,” I tell him with a note of triumph. “Davis was just taking care of his brother. Bad things happen. You think I care about that? You have no idea. He respects me, and I respect him back, that’s how it works. Maybe if you cared about someone other than yourself you’d understand that.”
He grins as he turns my way. “You don’t know anything, you stupid little girl. You don’t know the half of what Davis Ray is capable of.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means—” He falls silent as his eyes flick to the mirror. “Damn him!”
I hear the roar of an engine as I turn in my seat, my hair being swept out of the open window as I see the massive truck bearing down on us.
And the darkened face of Davis glaring from behind the wheel.
The front of his vehicle almost collides with the back of ours, but he swerves and mounts the bank to the left, his truck throwing dirt and melted snow in an arc behind. I scream in panic as Grandpa tries to turn into Davis, gunning the engine, but he doesn’t have the courage to maintain that course.
Davis’s truck careens back onto the road at a sharp angle, brakes squealing in protest, suspension barely hanging on as he pulls right across our path, missing the front of our vehicle by an inch. I scream again as his truck skids, barely holding onto the mountain path, almost toppling over the steep edge as the rear end fishtails then regains its hold.
Grandpa swears, slamming on his brakes as Davis slows in front, turning his truck to block the road.
Davis is out of his door in an instant, booted feet planted firmly in the dirt, a shotgun held loosely in his hands.
“Get the fuck out here, old man,” he demands, spitting at the ground at his feet.
“You wait here,” Grandpa tells me, but I no longer care about his orders. As he slides out of his seat, I open my door and bound onto the road. My slippers sink into the mud but I don’t care. I’ll go barefoot to Davis’s side if I have to, but Iamgoing to his side.
“Baby, you okay?”
I don’t even look at Grandpa as I nod and squelch through the wet ground, pulling myself in beside Davis. “I am now.”
“I’m going to give you one chance,” Davis says as he turns to face my grandpa again, his voice a low growl. “One fucking chance. You get back in your truck and get the fuck off my land.”
“Or what?”
My fury is lit as I pull my shoulders back and he darts his eyes between us, I say, “We’re gonna pop all four of your tires. Then you’ll have to call Larry at the tire shop and we don’t want to do that, do we, Grandpa?” I say, cooing, “What will Larry do when he learns that you’ve been bonking his wife every Sunday after Bible Study forthe last twenty years?Do we want to see that?”
Davis nods but adds, “And I’ll shoot you as a trespasser.”
“You will not!”
“You want to try me? You break into my home, steal my things and I’m supposed to just let you go?”
Grandpa huffs. “I didn’t break in or steal anything!”
“You took the most precious thing I have.” Davis puts an arm around me. “The two most precious things.”
“What’s that supposed to… You don’t answer your phone, what am I supposed to think? I told you one day I’d call on you and you needed to be there. Tit for tat. I kept your secret but by God, I won’t anymore. I get here and findhergone from where I left her and having a goddamn vacation with you and your fucking brother!”
