Page 30 of Traces Of You

Her dinner was going to spew everywhere. She was positive all the color drained from her face. She dropped her head to her knees and took several deep breaths.

Gale came over to rub her back, but didn’t say a word.

She finally lifted her head. “No. I wasn’t thinking of that until after he ate it. I know he was alive, I checked. It was my breaking point. I just knew he was going to beat me again that night when I saw the house like that and with Randy there riling him up. I told myself it was this or more pain. He didn’t die, did he? I’ve been trying to monitor things.”

“Ford can look into it, but I’m sure he’s fine. If he’s not, we’ll have to deal with that.”

“He was alive last I checked yesterday. I mean I’d hear something if he wasn’t, right?”

“I don’t know,” Gale said. “Continue on at your pace. There is no judgment here. I’m only trying to help. We all are. Remember that. You’re safe.”

Safe. Not a word she’d thought of much in her life.

Nothing she ever felt either.

As terrified as she was, she was still hopeful.

8

PERSONAL VENGEANCE

“You’re exhausted,” Ford said.

Reenie had come out of his father’s office after having been in there for more than an hour.

Her eyes were red, her face was pale, and she was wringing her hands like she did as a kid when she was anxious.

As much as she’d shown signs of strength, the young girl was still lurking under her skin, clawing to get out no matter how much she tried to shove those demons back.

He knew it twenty years ago as much as he saw it tonight.

Just like his family had too.

“I am,” she said. “But I know you want to talk.”

He was an asshole for pushing this hard, and he knew it. But he had to ask himself, was it about justice for her, or was it just personal vengeance because someone he cared about was the one suffering?

They’d returned to the cabin and he’d unlocked the back door with the key he had. His father gave him copies of the front and back doors to have on him.

“I’d like to know what you said to Gale. If any of it was different. If you remembered something more.”

Her eyes told him the truth he didn’t want to accept.

She didn’t trust him enough to give it all to him.

“I just can’t tonight, Ford. The only thing I want to do is see if there is any news of me missing in Gainesville. Nothing more.”

“I already checked,” he said. “Nothing. Or nothing that they have released. That doesn’t mean someone isn’t looking into where you could be.”

He’d been watching and looking for anything on the local news he could find there. He thought it’d let him know who her ex-boyfriend was. They were always the first suspects.

“There will be,” she said. “Those who helped me know what they are doing.”

“You won’t talk to me about that, will you?”

“I can’t. If the police ever found out, they wouldn’t be able to help the next person. They did nothing illegal. I’m not a criminal. I didn’t want to break the law.”

“Meaning that they have in the past?”