The Runaways

Chapter 38

Caleb

        “Mrs. Anderson, I apologize for all the violence, but it’s a necessary evil. Now, once again, would you mind repeating to me what we discussed earlier, so I can be totally sure of letting you go once you’ve done your part,” Liam said.

Even lying halfway across the room, I saw how tight Liam had tied her hands. Her voice was trembling so badly I thought she’d break if she pushed herself past her limit.

       “Please don’t do this. I just want to see my daughter, please let me see her.“

        “Maria, crying won’t do if either of you want to live past today.”

      “You’re a damn liar, Liam! Mrs. Anderson, don’t listen him. He’s been after your daughter and he’ll kill her if he has to,” I said.

        “Maria, please excuse me.”

There wasn’t any use in trying to get away from Liam ‘cause he flew over and kicked me onto my back so fast I didn’t even have time to brace for it.

       “The game’s changed, Cal, but because you’re the flesh of my flesh I’ll let you in on the grand scheme of things. I’ve lost interest in killing little girls, so in exchange for Maria and your lady love’s lives, I’m taking Anderson’s, and then yours, and then mine. Doesn’t that put your heart to rest? Knowing your Hailey is out my line of fire. But don’t get too comfortable ‘cause I’m gonna ruin her either way. I’m gonna turn her into you and Maria into me. Broken people who have everything worth living for taken away from them.”

He brought his heel down onto my leg so hard I choked out a scream. But I fought against every part of my body that wanted to quit living, ‘cause God knows Liam wasn’t worth dying for.

        “Sit and watch, little brother. It’s gonna be quite the show. Where were we, Maria?”

Liam danced back across the room like the devil was at his heels and left me to strattle the line between staying sharp and blacking out. My gut went cold but my hands stayed warm trying to hold my wound shut. Panic rattled the bars in my bones, but I held back and tore off the sleeve of my shirt to tie off my leg.

        “Maria, repeat what I’ve asked of you,” he said.

        “I’ll take the tape to the police and the press, once my husband admits to—”

        “Admits to what? This is key, Maria. Read what I’ve written for you and don’t screw it up.”

      “—The attempted murder, fraudulent charges against, and bribery of the Evans brothers, the manipulation of the police, and the attempted murder of myself and my daughter.”

Liam wanted to tell our story to whole the world, to broadcast our lives to total strangers like it would change things. But none of what we’d been through belonged in newspaper headlines or CNN specials.

Nobody needed to know our story. Nobody needed to see the kind of suffering we’d caused. Our sins would follow us down into the dirt and feed the maggots instead of the press.

       “Mrs. Anderson, you’ve skipped the most important crime on your husband’s long list; the murder of Jack Evans, who burned alive for the senator’s entertainment.”

I’d been holding on to this dream ever since the tree house, a kind of empty hope you keep in your back pocket just to feel like you’ve got something to shoot for. My Dad was that dream even though he’d been a nightmare for most of my life. But I’d wanted to change that.