by Mia Malone
Black
by
Mia Malone
Copyright © 2019 by Mia Malone
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
SHARING OR DOWNLOADING AN EBOOK WITHOUT PERMISSION IS EQUAL TO STEALING. SO PLEASE DON’T.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Books by Mia
The Brothers series
Gibson
Padraig
Joke
Day
Mac (released 2019)
Waterfront series
Waterfront Café
Thor series
Black
Dear reader –
Some stories just have to be written, and for me, this is one of them.
I hope you enjoy.
And as always; I rely on the reader community to spread the word about my books as they see fit, so if you like what I write - reviews are highly appreciated, and please tell your friends.
Thank you for your support!
XOXO/ Mia
THEN
Chapter One
Run
Cassandra
The gate into the neighbors’ yard was open again, and I should have walked out to close it, but the familiar sight didn’t even register. I just stood there in my kitchen, staring out the window and frowning as I focused on my daughter’s voice.
Something was off.
I knew my girl, and something in the tone of her voice grated on my mommy-nerves in a way I couldn’t shake off. It was subtle, and I fidgeted slightly while I tried to decide what to do. Should I ask her? I didn’t want to be that mother-hen we’d laughed about. It was the first time she was away from me, so maybe I was overreacting, but she didn’t sound the way she should. And why had she put me on the loudspeaker? She’d started doing that a few days earlier, but it wasn’t something she had ever done before, and I knew she hated it when I did.
“It’s so good to hear that you’re enjoying yourself,” I said. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Mom,” she said happily, and I winced because it sounded forced. “I miss home. I thought about Bessie earlier today.”
“Oh, honey,” I murmured.
Our old dog had finally given in a year earlier, and one night, she just kept sleeping. She’d been fourteen years old which was a lot for a dog her size, but we’d still been devastated.
“I miss her sweet brown eyes,” Desi murmured, and I froze.
Bessie had been a chocolate lab with eyes the color of amber, so pale they were almost yellow.
I closed my eyes and focused on breathing slowly because I’d suspected that something was wrong, but now I knew. We’d talked about this.
Fuck.
Six months earlier, Desi got accepted into a college prep camp for the summer, and that same night there had been a show on TV about a woman whose daughter had been in a cult. The young woman had suddenly started bringing up things which seemed reasonable to everyone around her, but they had been entirely off to her parents, like talking lovingly about a distant uncle she’d never met, or a childhood friend’s cat when they’d had a dog. The parents had called the police and gotten the woman out of there.
And we talked about it and laughed at the thought of Desi needing any kind of signal. She’d stay with the local Sheriff and his family, had her own phone and since it was all arranged by a well-known college, we couldn’t see how there would be any problems with the setup.
Except now there were problems.
And I couldn’t call the police because the man most likely to make her talk to me on a loudspeaker was the police.
“I know, sweetie,” I murmured, planning frantically for what to do. “I miss her too. I wish I could see her again.”
“Yes,” Desi whispered brokenly
Okay.
Right.
Fuck it, I would go there and get her out of whatever situation she ended up in, and then we’d sort everything out. I’d dropped her off and spent a few hours walking around to look at the town so I would find my way.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked, voice full of fake but very cheerful enthusiasm.
“We’re writing on a report, and I’m late with my parts, so I have to focus on that.”
Yes. My clever girl was unwittingly setting things up nicely for me.
“Perhaps you should go to the library?” I asked. “You know you always do your best work there.”
Desi had always done all her homework at the kitchen table at home, right where I was standing, staring out at the yard where she’d taken her first steps.
“Oh, Mom,” Desi said. “I do. Yes...” There was a pause, and I wondered if someone was watching her. Giving her an okay to go to the goddamned library? “I think I will. There’s a nice one in town, not like the one Aunt Paula works in.”
I laughed happily, and murmured, “Oh, honey. That’s because your Aunt Paula is lazy. You know she always whines about walking from the car.” I took a deep breath, and added, “I wouldn’t mind at all parking where she does. It’s a nice area, right next to the park. I would probably get there an hour early each morning and just sit there at the far back of the lot, watching the trees and the flowers.”
“Mom,” she snorted, but I heard the hitch in her voice.
“I might visit her already tomorrow, see if I can get me something nice to read,” I added breezily.
“They don’t have the kind of books you read in the library,” Desi quipped, and I laughed again, for real this time.
She was right about that. I liked my books of a lighter quality, and also with fewer hints about vague areas between legs and more use of actual words.
“Oh, God,” I squealed. “I forgot, I have a date tonight, so I have to go.”
Desi asked a few questions about my date, I lied through my teeth about seeing a man who stayed in the hotel where I was the manager, and then we closed the call.
I stood there for a few seconds, planning what to do.
Then I moved.
***
I’d been in the car through the night and only had one more hour to go. I knew I’d need to be fresh once I got there, though, and I was jittery but had started to yawn. It was too early anyway so I turned off on a small dirt road, set the alarm on my phone, made sure the doors were locked and closed my eyes.
Four hours later I drove up behind the big building I’d passed last time I was in town. Desi’s aunt was a librarian, and I hoped she’d gotten that I’d be in the staff parking lot in the morning. The plan wasn’t really a plan as much as a desperate attempt at getting to my daughter, and I hoped she’d understood that I meant the public library and that she’d be able to leave.
I didn’t have to wait more than thirty minutes, but they felt like hours.
Then the passenger door was ripped open, my daughter got in but doubled over and leaned her head into the bag she’d thrown on the floor.
“Go! Go, go, go, Mom!”
“What?”
I was leaning toward her when I saw the door my daughter had come running from. It opened slowly, and Sheriff White walked out, followed by two men. They were looking around the parking area, and one of them was talking on the phone. While I stared at their hard faces, the Sheriff slowly moved his hand to unclip the holster to his gun and shift it in a way I did not think meant good things.
With a hand that was shaking slightl
y, I pulled out my sunglasses and put them on, adjusted my ball cap, and then I slowly drove away, taking the exit at the back so they wouldn’t see my face.
“Stay down, honey,” I murmured. “They’re not following us.”
I sincerely hoped it wasn’t a lie, but Desi was shaking, and I heard how she was crying.
“‘Kay,” she mumbled.
“Are you hurt?” I asked as I forced myself to stop at a traffic light, feeling stupid in my glasses and cap because it was early in the morning and the sky was overcast.
“I’m okay,” Desi mumbled into the bag.
Unless someone stepped right up to the car, she wouldn’t be seen, and I exhaled when I started driving again.
Then I saw how her hands trembled even though she held on to her backpack.
“Desi,” I murmured.
“I want to go home,” she mumbled. “Mom, I just want to go home.”
“Okay, baby,” I said calmly. “Let’s go home.”
“‘Kay,” she sniffled, and I clenched my jaws together.
We went on in silence until we were out on the interstate, and then she straightened.
One of her eyes were swollen almost completely shut, and there was a cut on her lip.
“Desi –”
“Keep driving, Mom,” she said. “Please. Don’t stop.”
“What the hell is –”
“Sheriff White smuggles illegal immigrants across the border. And drugs.”
What?
The man was pretty vocal about his opinion on these matters, and his view was not of the lenient kind.
“He does, and he makes a lot of money out of it,” she said quietly. “I found documents, and I didn’t know what to do, but I talked to my counselor in the summer program, and she said she’d take care of it. He came home that night and started asking all these questions. Said he’d get me arrested for dealing drugs if I spread rumors...”
Desi went on to explain exactly what she’d found and how scared she’d been. I glanced at her and started looking for the next exit. I needed to hold my girl.
I was also way beyond furious.
I got that some people didn’t like immigrants. I did in no way agree with disliking someone you’ve never met out of principle and based primarily on skin color, but I was allowed my opinion, so they were allowed theirs however dumb I thought it was. What they were not allowed was to be goddamned hypocrites, and what they were absolutely not allowed was to make a profit out of people’s hardship and misery.
“We’ll go back to C-Springs,” I said calmly, even though my insides were quivering with a need to turn around and go back to tie the fucking man’s dick in a bow around his balls. “We’ll call the police when we get there.”
“He said he had friends in high places, Mom. Said that if I tried something like that, then they would believe him and not me. Said I’m just a kid...”
“Well, I am not a kid. They’ll have to believe me.”
“Okay,” she mumbled, and added, “I wanna go home.”
She sounded like a small girl and not the almost seventeen-year-old who had one more year in high school and was on her way to becoming an adult.
“Does your eye hurt?”
“No. I took a Tylenol.” She sighed and added, “I’m tired, Mom. I haven’t slept well. I locked the door, but I wasn’t sure if he had a key. He was so angry, and I tried to pretend that I’d just been gossiping and didn’t know anything, but he didn’t believe me. He...” her voice hitched, but she pushed on, “He punched me in the face, Mom. Twice.”
Yes. I would kill that man for putting his hands on my girl and that fear in her voice.
“We’ll sort this out, Desi,” I said calmly. “I got you now, sweetie. I won’t let that man hurt you.”
“I knew I’d be safe if I could get to you.”
I swallowed and blinked away my tears, promising myself that Sheriff White would never be within breathing distance of my girl ever again. He would have to walk through me to get to her.
“Sleep for a while, Desi,” I said calmly. “I’ll keep driving, and we can talk more later.”
“Okay.” She tilted the seat as far back as possible, leaned on the good side of her face, and closed her eyes. “I love you, Mom,” she whispered so quietly I barely heard it, and then her face relaxed when she fell asleep.
While the miles passed, I planned for our next steps. I didn’t know anyone within law enforcement, but I’d ask around. I’d need to find a lawyer too. Someone must know something, and not every cop down there would be dirty. We’d get through this.
The phone woke Desi up a few hours later when we were approaching Santa Fe, and she straightened.
“It’s your father,” I said reassuringly and answered the call on the loudspeaker.
“Hey,” I said.
“Cassandra,” he said. “I just got back from Dallas. The police are here, they’re looking for Desi. She’s in trouble and has disappeared.”
“Bill, she –”
“They have a warrant for her arrest.”
“What!”
“Have you heard from her?”
“What do they say she’s done?” I asked back.
“Doing and dealing drugs.”
Desi opened her mouth, but I put a finger over mine, indicating that she should stay quiet.
“No way,” I said decisively.
“They say they have proof.”
“No way,” I repeated.
“Where are you?”
“It is always so very nice to spend some time with old Mrs. Jones,” I said which wasn’t a lie, or at least, not exactly. “I’ll come back home as soon as I can.”
“Let us know if you hear from her.”
“See you in a while,” I said and closed the call.
Then I turned the steering wheel sharply to the right and got us off the interstate and onto the highway leading up into the mountains.
Right, I thought. We couldn’t go home just yet, so I’d have to find somewhere for us to hide and then I’d start making calls.
We drove for hours, talking about what she’d found, who she knew or suspected was involved, and I didn’t stop until it was dark. I pulled into a gravel road leading up on the mountain and parked among some trees where I hoped no one would see us during the night. Then I pulled out a few blankets from the trunk and fell asleep with my daughter’s hand in mine.
***
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, sweetie,” I said and turned into the mostly empty parking lot in front of Target. “We’ll get some food. I’ll make a few calls and see if we can get help.”
“Okay.” Desi pulled out her phone and made a face. “It died yesterday. No battery.”
“Charge it,” I said and pointed at the cable. “I’ll go and get supplies. Are you okay to stay here?”
She nodded and plugged in the cable.
I rushed through the empty store, trying to think while I picked up bread and cheese. Bottles of water. Something to clean her face up with. Candy.
God. What was I supposed to do? Should I go home and hope that the police would listen to us? Call a lawyer?
On my way over the parking lot, my phone buzzed, and I answered when I saw the familiar name on the screen.
“Cassandra.”
Desi looked scared, so I mouthed, “Dad,” and turned around.
“Bill.”
“The police called again. They were informed that you and Desi are together, and not on your way home.”
He went on to tell me exactly where I was, and I felt my gut freeze to ice.
“Bill, please,” I whispered. “He hit her. You should see the bruises on her face, and she’s so afraid. She hasn’t done anything wrong and that man –”
“Cassandra,” he snapped. “That man is a law enforcement officer, and they have proof. Don’t get her into more trouble than she’s already in. Just stay where you are, and the police will pick you up.”
>
“He could be the King of England for all I care. He is a really bad man, Bill, so I can’t do that,” I said, suddenly calm and focused again. “I will do whatever I have to do to protect my daughter. You know I will. I will never let him hurt her again.”
Then I closed the call and opened the door behind me.
“Give me your phone,” I said, trying to sound calm.
I looked around for the nearest waste bin, but a soft voice cut into my search.
“We’ll take them.”
I turned to find an old couple standing next to me. They looked determined, and I saw the man glance at Desi, and how his jaws clenched.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, honey, but we heard you,” the woman said quietly. “We’ll help.”
“I can’t let you –”
“Now, now,” the old man said calmly and pulled the phones out of my hand. “We couldn’t have known that you threw the phones in here, could we?”
He tossed them in the back of their pick-up and turned back to smile tersely at me.
“We’re going down to Denver,” the woman said coolly. “We’ll toss them in someone else’s car if we can, or else we’ll try to drop them by Peña Boulevard. With a bit of luck, they’ll think you headed for the airport.”
I blinked a few times and tried to get my stunned brain to understand.
“We heard you,” the man muttered. “Now, go. Don’t use your credit card and dump the car if you can.”
“Why –”
“A long time ago, someone helped me. I’m finally able to do something,” the woman said softly and glanced at the man by her side. “Payback.”
“Oh, God,” I whispered. “Thank you. You just gave me the break I need to get away.”
“Go,” the man repeated. “Our daughter runs a flower shop down in Denver. Blossom. Let her know you’re safe when you can.”
“Okay,” I said.
Then I tore out of the parking lot and headed north, going to the only place I could figure out would be safe.
