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Prologue
Willow Fork, TX
Jared Burch knew it was a stupid idea to holeup on the devil’s land, but he didn’t have anywhere else to go.
It was what they called Jack Barnes around town. The devil.His own mother claimed the man had been put on the earth to lead people astray.Jared had met the man, but it had been years before when he’d been a normalkid. Before his dad had died and his mom had married his stepfather. It wassometimes hard to believe there had been a time before Ezekiel Smith, that he’dhad something of a childhood where he’d played with kids who lived close tohim, and his whole world hadn’t revolved around pleasing one man.
He hadn’t managed to do it today.
He’d run, and the wrong way in his complete panic. He’dknown his stepfather would follow him and use the shotgun on him if he didn’tget out fast enough. After all. before he’d been kicked out, his stepdad hadset his brother and stepbrothers on him. It had only been after they’d givenhim a walloping that Ezekiel Smith had delivered his judgment. Banishment.
Now he found himself on the outer range of Barnes’s land. Heseriously doubted the stories about Abigail Barnes being some man-eating siren,but he could believe Barnes could be ruthless. Not that he believed the craphis stepfather shoveled about Barnes. It was the twenty-first century, butsometimes he believed Willow Fork was stuck in 1892 or something.
He was absolutely certain his parents were since they’dchucked him out of the house for being a bad influence on his siblings. Therewere three of them. One older and his full brother. Two stepbrothers who wereolder. He was the baby of the “family” and yes, he put quotes around the wordbecause they sure as hell hadn’t felt like family today. Maybe not since theday he realized his older brother believed everything their stepdad taughtthem. Billy was one of them now, and he’d proven it mere hours before.
Jared shivered in the chill. Autumn in Texas meant hot daysand chilly nights.
It wasn’t fair. Anger warred with a deep sense of sorrow ashe made his way across the flat plane that would hopefully lead him to the mainroad. He thought it would, but nothing had gone right today. All he’d done wasdared to stand up to his stepfather. This time when his stepfather had punched,he’d punched back.
And then his stepfather told his brothers to defend him, andthey’d given Jared a beating he was still recovering from. His brothers. Hisonly friends.
It wasn’t like he was allowed to play with other kids. Notthat he was a kid. He was sixteen, and he barely had an education that wouldget him any kind of job. School wasn’t important to his parents, and they’dmade him drop out two years before. “Homeschool” had meant working on theirranch, reading the Bible, and learning not to talk back or have a singlethought that went against their father.
And stay away from those heathen Barnes-Fleetwoods.
Well, he couldn’t now unless he wanted to walk twenty miles,and damn it, it was starting to rain.
When his stepfather had tossed him out without a dime to hisname, he hadn’t exactly offered a ride. So Jared had started walking. He’djumped the fence separating his stepfather’s land from the devil’s becausethere had been nothing else to do. He had to make it to town, and this was thefastest way.
Damn, it was getting cold.
He’d found one of the outer buildings the Barnes-Fleetwoodranch hands used when they got caught on the range after dark. Or when theywere babysitting the herd.
His stepfather would have shoved a tent his way and told himto make do.
This place was kind of a palace compared to what he was usedto.
He would get warm and be on his way.
The door opened easily. No lock, like what his stepfatherput on every building and many of the rooms in their house. There was a lock onthe pantry and the fridge, one on the room with the only television because hisstepfather believed no one else could be trusted to watch and not to be temptedby the outside world.
Sometimes he blamed his real dad for everything. One dayhe’d been okay. Sure he was poor, but they’d gotten along. And then he’d diedand his mother joined the most extreme church she could find, and now he washomeless because he didn’t respect authority.
He wasn’t sure there would be one, but he felt for theswitch and breathed a sigh of relief when soft light illuminated the shack.Shack? It was a small house. Like one of those tiny ones he’d seen when he’dbeen in school. Sometimes he would see magazines or get time in the library onthe Internet. He knew things, and he knew this was a nice place.
It wasn’t his place, though, and he needed to get warm andget out before morning when Barnes would surely figure out someone was usinghis land. There would be a price to pay if he got caught. There always was.
Barnes was mean, according to the people around him. Barneshad more than once threatened his stepfather.
Sometimes Jared wished Barnes would have taken hisstepfather out.
He shoved the thought away because he was too tired to bemad tonight. He ached. Every muscle felt weary after the trudge across themiles that separated his ranch from Barnes’s.
Not his. It had never been his.
This ain’t your home. Get out.If you call the cops, you’ll get more of what you had tonight, boy.
And his mother had stood there, tears in her eyes, but she’dnot said a word to defend him. His brothers had made sure he didn’t takeanything that didn’t belong to him—and it had been made clear almost nothingbelonged to him.
