Page 99 of Running to You

He didn’t like her explanation. In fact, he was getting angry all over again. Because maybe she’d quit letting her mother control her, but it sounded like she’d just found another master.

Oh, what did it matter? Wasn’t he supposed to not care?

Just like that, he was back on the couch, Eliza in his arms. His mouth probing hers. His hands sliding across her silky pajamas. Pulling her closer. Wanting her with every cell in his body.

And outside the restaurant earlier, hearing Jon’s question about Levi…and yeah. Sam had been furious. Furiously jealous. Ready to kill someone.

Not care? Right.

That lie wasn’t flying anymore.

* * *

Hitting the drive-through in Manchester was partly about filling his empty stomach.

And partly about taking some time to pull himself together. He needed to hear the rest of her story, and he needed to keep his opinions to himself so she wouldn’t clam up. Or edit her remarks to avoid his questions.

Okay, fine. His judgment.

He drove while they ate, chatting about nothing. She was taking her time with her burger, but he finished his. He wadded up the paper.

She took it and shoved it in the sack. “Nothing like a healthy dinner.”

“At least you had a salad for lunch.”

“That’s right. You had a burger.”

“But lunch was a thousand years ago, so it’s fine.” He took the exit onto the highway that led toward the coast. It was time to get back to her story. “You didn’t contact me because you thought I’d gotten married. Then what happened?”

“I was heartbroken. I poured myself into…the things I had to do.”

He heard evasiveness in the pause, then the hitch at the end of the sentence.

“About a year ago,” she said, “Miss Sharon was out of town for a couple of days. As a rule, I wasn’t supposed to answer the phone, even when she wasn’t there. Jed told me to let it ring. But once, the same number called four times in a row, and I thought maybe it was an emergency. It was an irate mother who demanded that we let her daughter go—as if we’d been holding her prisoner. I explained that the residents were free to come and go as they pleased, but the lady was not listening. She threatened to call the police. I recognized her daughter’s name and knew that she’d been with us for over a year. I told the mom I’d talk to her daughter, and if she wanted to leave, I’d walk her to the gate myself whenever the woman told us to be there. Turns out, the woman was at the gate and wanted her daughter brought right then.”

“Were you supposed to do that?”

“It wasn’t my job, but I was the only one around. It didn’t occur to me that Jed and Lola would mind.

“I found the girl in the barn, mucking out a horse stall, and told her that her mother was there to pick her up. I told her that if she wanted to stay, she had to tell her mother the truth. She needed to learn to stand up for herself.”

Sam didn’t miss the way Eliza’s glance cut to him at those words.

“She told me she wanted to leave, but… Oh, Sam, she looked terrified. At first, I thought she was afraid of her mother, and I could relate. But she was looking all around. She asked me where Jed was. I’d seen him out in the field, which was on the far side of the property. She didn’t tell anybody goodbye, didn’t stop to get her things. She just ran, flat out, to the gate. She’d climbed it and jumped down the other side before I reached the keypad to open it up. Her mother squealed away so fast that I barely got a look at the car.”

Sam imagined the scene. “So she escaped?”

“That’s what it looked like, but it didn’t make sense. I mean, their families were paying us to keep them. Why would she need to escape? I got nervous, thinking I’d done something wrong. Maybe her mother wasn’t trustworthy. Or maybe the woman on the phone hadn’t been her mother at all. Maybe I’d been duped.”

“Even so,” Sam said, “she was an adult. She could go wherever she wanted, right?”

“Exactly. When I told Jed what happened…”

The long pause had Sam trying to read her expression. Not a good idea while he was driving.

“He wasn’t happy,” she finally said. “He tried to hide it, but… He said, ‘Next time, come get me, okay? Let me handle it.’”

“By handle it, he meant prevent it.”