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“So, if you aren’t mad at anyone, why are we leaving?”
“We are just going on a little trip,” she evaded.
“What the hell, Mom? Life was getting better. Now you have some crazy idea to run away. You are going to ruin everything. Did you at least tell them we were leaving? What about packing clothes?”
“There are some clothes in the trunk, enough to last a few days,” Reese purposefully avoided the rest of his questions.
“You didn’t tell Pappy or Cash we were leaving, did you?”
“I left Pappy a note.”
“You left Pappy a note. Are you trying to ruin my life? Because if you are, you are doing a damn good job.”
Reese ignored him. She knew she would have to tell him eventually, but Reese hoped to put a few more miles between them and home before she did. How she was going to tell her son they had to stay hidden until he turned eighteen so his father and grandfather couldn’t take him, well, she was still working on that. There wasn’t a good way. It wasn’t like they made a Hallmark card for that.
Instead, Reese chose to focus on the trip. Mav wasn’t buying they were going on an adventure, and she wasn’t stupid enough to claim it was going to be a vacation. They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. This part wasn’t going well either. Reese hoped one day Mav would understand. By the looks, it wasn’t going to be any day soon.
She navigated her way through traffic and away from Nelsonville. If she were careful, she wouldn’t have to stop for gas until lunchtime. By then, maybe Mav would be in a better mood. Fingers crossed, they wouldn’t have to spend a lot until she decided where their final destination would be.
As if whoever handed out fortune heard her thoughts and promptly disagreed, a light appeared on her dash. Reese turned her focus back to the road. Maybe she imagined it, or it was a short somewhere that made the light come on. Yeah, that was it. It was a short because she hit that hole on the way out of town. Cash did tell her the wiring was bad. Reese looked down at the dash. The light was not only still there, but now it was a blinking light on her dashboard.
“Mav, is it the solid light or the blinking one that you should stop for?”
Panic clouded her vision as the light mocked her escape attempt.
“You need to pull over. It is the engine light, and blinking is very bad.”
The words no more than left his mouth before the car made a loud grinding sound and gave a final chug. Thick smoke came rolling out from under the hood. Steering it off the highway, Reese barely managed to get it off the road before it burst into flames.
“Get out,” Reese screamed, shoving Mav out the passenger side door. Grabbing her purse, she ran to where Mav was standing safely away from the now fully engulfed car. “No, no, no,” Reese cried, burying her face in her hands.
“Mom, it is going to be okay. It was a piece of shit car anyway,” Mav hugged his mother awkwardly, patting her head.
“You don’t understand,” Reese wrenched away from him. “They are going to find you, and they are going to take you. That piece of shit car was the only chance we had. It is gone. All gone.” Any hope Reese held, she was forced to let go with the smoke billowing up into the sky. She had one shot, and not it was over. She would have to go home and somehow find the strength not to lose her mind when they took her son away.
Drivers raced past them, gawking, as Reese and Mav watched the car burn. The sound of sirens approaching did nothing to lift Reese’s mood. One of the passing motorists must have called it in. Firefighters had the car extinguished in no time. Well, what was left of the car anyway. They tried to ask Reese questions, but she just stared at the burned-out remains of her car. Her soul felt like the heap of metal and ash still smoldering on the side of the road.
The firemen spoke quietly to Mav, but she couldn’t force herself to pay attention to them. Her mind raced to come up with another plan. She had no concept of time as she stood on the side of the road in a trance while the tow truck pulled up to haul what was left away. There was nothing she could think of to make this better, no other angle to work to keep Mav safe with her.
Distantly she could hear her name being called, but it didn’t pull her out of her thoughts. Arms like steel bands came around her and then shook her hard. Still, she couldn’t seem to bring herself to respond. Nothing was ever going to be the same.
“Reese, Beautiful, talk to me,” Cash demanded, focusing his attention on the woman in his arms and then Mav. He crushed them both to him. “Mav, are you hurt? What happened? How long has she been like this?”
“I am fine,” Mav choked out when Cash dropped a kiss onto the teen’s head and then one on to his mother’s. “I don’t know what is wrong with her, but it is something bad. After the car caught on fire, she told me someone was going to take me, and then she just quit talking.”
Reese looked up into Cash’s worried face. “They are going to take him,” she managed to get out before she started sobbing uncontrollably. Her body shook until Reese thought she was going to fall apart, drowning in grief. Reese had one shot, and now she had nothing.
“Mav, go get in my truck,” Cash said softly. “Pappy is in there waiting.” Holding Reese tight against him, he waited until Mav was almost to the truck before picking Reese up, cradling her to his chest. “When all this is over, when you are safe at home, when Mav isn’t in danger, I am going to tan your hide, Beautiful.”
Walking back to the truck, he found Mav and Pappy in the back seat, watching intently. Depositing her in the passenger seat, Cash buckled her in before getting in the other side.
“Did she say anything?” Pappy asked quietly.
“Just that someone is going to take him,” Cash answered. “I assume him is Mav. Did she say anything else before the car caught fire?”
Mav took them through the morning, not garnering a response from Reese. She sat staring out the window, never uttering a word as Cash drove them home. Reese didn’t move when he turned off the truck in her drive. “Reese,” Cash said, taking her hand. “Beautiful look at me.” Red, teary eyes turned in his direction. “Let’s go inside. You can tell me what the hell is going on.”
Reese sat until Cash opened her door, helping her out and leading her toward the house. Broken. She was broken inside. There were so many pieces that continued to shatter with each step she took. Reese wasn’t sure how she was going to tell them.
