Page 62 of The Lovely and the Lost
The sheriff turned and reached for the folder on the table—my file. The space that put between us let me breathe. A single breath—just one, then he pulled out a photograph of a woman with dark hair and blue eyes and features that looked altogether too much like my own.
“Yourrealmother,” the sheriff clarified needlessly. He studied me. “You don’t recognize her. You don’t remember.”
He was moving toward me again. There was nowhere left for me to go.
“Haven’t you ever wondered? Why you survived? How a child could live like an animal, lost in the wild for weeks?” He lowered his voice to a bone-shuddering hum. “Your biological mother was some kind of conspiracy nut. She lived off the grid. No one even knew she had a child, and that meant that she could do whatever she wanted to you.” He was too close to me—and coming closer.
Can’t think. Can’t breathe.There was a roar in my ears, and a rush of emotion—not mine.
Girl’s.
“The police described the abuse as intermittent but severe. They think you used to take refuge in the forest to escape.”
No.He wouldn’t stop advancing. My body was a live wire, every nerve ending screaming.Man wants to hurt Girl.
“With trauma like that in your background, you must see the world as such a hostile place.”
Man is right on top of Girl. Man reaches—
The motion flipped a switch inside of me. Like a rubber band stretched past its limit, something inside me snapped. I stopped fighting. I stopped trying.
I lunged.
No control, no thoughts, no words.
My hands swiped air. Strong arms clamped around me. My eyes darted to the door—it was open. I was so far gone that I almost didn’t recognize Bales as he pulled me away from the sheriff. I fought the old man, bucking against his hold, arching my back, twisting my neck, my teeth going for his—
“You’ll be wanting to take a step back, Sheriff.”
Even with my mind a twisted mess ofimagesandfeelingsandhurt, I could hear the lethal note in Bales Bennett’s tone.
The sheriff’s voice broke through the red haze next. “I was just talking to her, and she went feral. I should arrest her for assaulting an officer.”
He was lying. He was athreat, and he waslying, and I would…
Bales tightened his hold, forcing me to still. “Kira didn’t assault anyone.” He kept his tone low. “She’s going to breathe and calm down, and the two of us are going to walk out of here.”
Breathe. Calm down. Breathe.
Bales whispered into the back of my head, “Jude said that I should offer you confetti. He also said that if the confetti didn’t work, I should up my game and bribe you with glitter.”
Jude.I recognized the name and clung on for dear life.Jude. Free. Cady. Me.
Kira. I’m Kira.
“Your granddaughter is a very disturbed child.” The sheriff shook his head sadly. “What Cady’s tried to do for her is admirable, really, but—”
One second, Bales was restraining me, and the next, he’d let loose of me and had the sheriff by the throat. Bales slammed him against the wall, like the sheriff weighed no more than a rag doll.
“I’ll haveyouarrested,” the sheriff wheezed.
“I’m dying.” Bales offered the sheriff a glittering smile, his knuckles whitening as his hand tightened around his target’s neck. “I’ve got weeks, maybe months to live.”
On one level, I was surprised Bales had volunteered that information in my presence. But on another, more immediate level, I was entranced by the superhuman control with which Bales held his prey in place. Long seconds ticked by as the sheriff’s fingers scraped futilely against the vise on his neck. With no warning, Bales dropped his hold. The sheriff wheezed, and Bales took a single step backward.
“Funny thing about dying,” Bales said, his voice contemplative. “You don’t have much to lose.” He let his hands fall to his sides, his palms facing outward. “Go ahead and arrest me. I’d love to hear you telling a judge that you were brutalized by a frail, dying old man.”
I thought of the sheriff, puffing himself up to seem bigger—and then I realized that I could think again. Bales had attacked, so I didn’t have to. But thinking was a double-edged sword.