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Whitlock sizes me up, drawing closer than before. A set of scars on his forehead catches my attention, like four scratch marks from an animal fighting for survival. Though they aren’t recent, they only increase my apprehension.
“You think I’m scary, you cross paths with this girl, she’ll do worse.” Whitlock holds my stare for another six seconds before he backs away to join his partner. I don’t flinch. I don’t move. I don’t let on how terrified I feel. That was the first thing I learned on the streets. Show fear and they’ll eat you alive.
I only breathe once their car is nothing more than taillights in the distance. Even then, I’m cautious. Like rats in the barn, if I’ve seen two of them, chances are there are more.
“Why were you helping them, man?” I go after Nick once I grab hold of my voice again.
“I wasn’t. I knew if he got under there, he’d find the number. I thought I’d save him the trouble.” Nick grins. “I gave him my high school locker combo with some zeros tossed in to make it longer.”
Relief floods my heart. “I’m not sure it’ll be good enough. The one called Whitlock didn’t look convinced.”
Nick claps a hand to my shoulder and slams the door to the car. “Either way, I’m gonna get this back to the shop. I’ll keep it in my personal garage and out of the way. You be careful. Those guys look like rabid dogs compared to your new girl.”
He’s not wrong. I was wondering what would cause Sunny to escape the way she did, plowing over dunes and darn near landing in the ocean, but now I have an idea.
Sunny.
I search the beach in the dying light, but I can’t find her. I return to the truck, stealing the trunk out from underneath. I lift it over the side, planning to search for Sunny as soon as it’s safe inside. But the second I drop it over the rail, my nerves go raw. Driving back the other direction is a black sedan, and there’s no mistaking the men in the front seat.
Not wanting to show fear, I drop the trunk, pray they didn’t see it, and jump in the driver’s seat. Firing up the engine, I head away from the beach into town. Just as I worried, it’s not long before that sedan is on my bumper. Thankfully, I didn’t grab my work truck with the ranch logo on the side, but in a town as small as mine, it won’t be long before they figure out my identity. I could lose them. It wouldn’t take long. I know the backroads well enough. A couple wrong turns and they’ll be so lost it’ll take them a hours to get unwound, but that would make me look guilty.
I need to bore them.
I text Mom, asking for her grocery list. As usual, she assures me she doesn’t need anything and then texts back at least sixteen items. At the bottom she tacks on, “Is Sunny with you? Weston says you took her with you after work. Cookie was wondering if you two are eating somewhere else.”
Once I’m stopped at a light, I write back, “Yeah, I’ve got Sunny. She’s helping me with some errands in town. Tell Cookie to leave something in the fridge. Anything else you need me to grab while I’m in town?”
“Well, if you’re offering.”
I can always count on Mom to have a few things. I head to the feed store first. We have a grain pick up, and I don’t have to leave the truck. One text, and Leroy meets me in the warehouse. We pack the fourteen bags of grain on and around Sunny’s trunk, and then in case of rain, we tie down a tarp over the top of the whole mess. It’ll take at least twenty minutes for anyone to get to Sunny’s trunk. Good thing too because the sedan waits for me outside the feed store. Half a block away, lights off with the engine running, I pretend like I don’t see it and head to the dry cleaners. I run inside, make some quick small talk with Trish, and pick up Mom’s pantsuit she’s been meaning to grab. Then, it’s on to the pharmacy.
I hit eleven of Mom’s stops before the sedan abandons me. I hope it was enough. I hope I looked like an average joe out doing his Mama’s bidding. Meanwhile, my stomach is growling something fierce. But I know I can’t drive the truck back to the beach. They might be waiting for just that sort of choice. Instead, I drive home and park my truck inside the barn. I bolt the doors and saddle Chance and Cricket despite their bellyaching for working after sundown.
Chance knows the trails and the half-moon helps to light my way. When I first came to live here, I was overwhelmed by the open spaces and trails that led every direction. Dad used to say, “You can’t ever get lost here, son. When you ride away from the ranch, the ocean will be on the right. Riding home, it’s always on the left.” Simple but effective when riding at night. Whether I’m going out to help an ailing calf, or a busted pipe, or searching out a girl I abandoned to save her life, the principle still stands.
I draw closer to the spot where I found her, but the area is clear. I don’t want to draw attention to myself in case someone is listening. Hoping she hears the horses, I press on. Tide is rolling in, climbing higher as the temperatures fall lower. Chance dances in place as Cricket draws too close on our rear. Neither horse wants to be out playing hide and go seek in the dark, but I can’t shake the feeling that Sunny is waiting for me to find her.
I swing down, hitting the soft sand with hardly a sound. Squinting, I search the darkness for her. My heart clenches knowing those men might have returned and found her. Or maybe she thumbed a ride and she’s halfway to Canada by now. But still I search.
Staying low, I turn on the flashlight on my phone. She has to be here somewhere. The beam bounces off the grasses, illuminates the cypress trunks, and glitters against the sand. It hits the trunk of that downed driftwood we climbed over earlier, and there, in the hollowed-out portion, barely shielded by tufts of sea grass, I spot a hand. Hurrying to her side, worried for the worst, I push back the grasses covering her hiding space.
Chapter 7
Sunny
I
I’m home again. Familiar ’m home again. Familiar sights and sounds surround me like a wooly blanket. Laughter bubbles from the back porch. Tucker must be having a party out there. I naturally seek it out, eager to put this horrible nightmare behind me. It was all a bad dream. Running away. The car chase. Whitlock and Stoll. Everything. Fingers against the screen door, I press it open. The sun warms my face. The chatter and laughter grows, but the light of the sunshine blinds me temporarily. Any second, my eyes will adjust, everything will be normal again. It’s all going to be okay. Like Dorothy, I just need to click my heels together and everything will be fine. No one died. I don’t have blood on my hands. It wasn’t real.
“Sunny. Sunny, wake up.”
That’s not my name. Why do I feel a pull towards that name if it’s never belonged to me?
“Sunny, please wake up. I need to get you back to the ranch.”
I open my eyes, but a new light blinds me, and I recoil. This isn’t right. I don’t want to be here. I want to go back to where I was. I don’t want to start this nightmare again.
“I want to go home.” I mumble it, but the shadow on the other side of the light seems to understand me anyway. “Please, take me home.”
