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Rachel struggled against Atticus, the side of her face compressed against the hard surface. “You better let me go! I swear to God, you better let me go!”
“Get the duct tape from the backpack,” Atticus instructed. “Please, Thais, just get the tape from the bag. I need you to trust me. Can you trust me?”
Still unsure about everything, but trusting my instincts, if not Atticus, I nodded rapidly. I couldn’t let myself believe that after everything we had gone through together already, that he would hurt me. I knew that what he was doing to Rachel he only did because he had to—the why would have to wait.
I rushed over to the backpack and did exactly as he said. The barn filled with curses and threats as Atticus and I wrapped the tape around Rachel. Atticus sank in front of her into a crouch, and she glared up at him, wrapped in a sticky gray cocoon, unable to move her legs or arms.
“I’ll ask you one more time,” Atticus threatened, his jaw tight. “Who’s coming for us?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered defiantly.
Atticus rounded his chin; his jaw tightened and relaxed. I thought he was going stand up and walk away from her, but then I saw his massive fist, a quick flash in my vision, smack against the side of Rachel’s head, knocking her out cold. Her eyes rolled back before the lids fell over them; her cocooned body fell in the dirt.
“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!” I roared.
Atticus stood and whirled around at me, and the movement made me jump out of my skin. I sank back and away from him; both of my arms came up instinctively to cover my face.
ATTICUS
I frowned—she was terrified of me.
“Thais, please just listen to me”—I stepped closer cautiously; I didn’t want to scare her any more than I already had—“I don’t have time to explain everything to you right now, but I need you to do exactly as I say because someone’s coming for us and I don’t know how many there are, or how close they are, but someone is on their way here right now and I need you to trust me.” Every word dripped of desperation.
Thais’ wet eyes darted to and from me and Rachel who lay unconscious in the dirt, her dark hair laid out all around her head in a wild fashion; the side of her face swelled and changed colors.
“Why did you hit her?”
“I hit her so I wouldn’t have to kill her.”
There was no lighter way to say it, and I wanted only to tell her the truth.
Her eyebrows tightened; she took two more steps back.
“I couldn’t tell you what I’m about to tell you if she heard it,” I explained. “Please, Thais…I would never hurt you. You have to believe that—I would never hurt you.”
I held my breath, hoping she would believe me, until slowly she nodded and relief washed over me. I placed my hands on her arms and peered into her eyes.
“You’re going to leave on the horse”—I reached into my pants pocket to retrieve my compass dangling from a silver chain, and I placed into her hand—“with the backpacks, and this compass, and you’re going to travel through the woods heading west”—(already Thais was shaking her head no)—“but stay out of sight of the house. And I want you to go only as far as the outskirts of the woods, but don’t for any reason leave the cover of trees. Wait for me there.”
“I’m not going without you,” she refused, trying to give the compass back but I pulled my hand away, forcing her to keep it. “Atticus, I can’t go out there alone. What if someone finds me? I can’t—”
I put my gun into her other hand.
“If anyone comes for you,” I said, “you shoot them dead and don’t think about it—shoot them dead, Thais. But stay in the woods. I won’t be long. I’ll come for you.”
“Atticus, no…”
“You have to,” I said with intensity. “I have to make sure we aren’t followed. If we leave right now, and I don’t take care of what I need to here, we probably won’t get much farther.”
“Then why can’t I stay with you? I can hide here in the barn, or in the house.”
I grew impatient; time was a luxury we did not have.
“They’ll search the barn,” I said. “They’re coming from the highway—that much I know—and the first place they’ll look is in this barn. And they’ll search the house. And they’ll search everywhere around the house.”
“But what about you?”
I dropped my chin and swallowed what saliva was left in my mouth; my throat was incredibly dry.
