Chapter 5

Richard grabs the back of my shirt, drags me back to the pigpen, and throws me onto the ground.

"You fucking ran again!"

Margaret rushes over and stomps on my back, grinding my face into the mud.

Elias stands two steps away with his cane, watching coldly.

Margaret is breathing hard.

She turns to him and forces a smile.

"Mr. Carter, please."

"Help us teach her a real lesson."

Before Elias can answer, Margaret's phone rings.

It's a video call from Claire.

Margaret picks up.

Claire's face appears on the screen.

She's leaning against the headboard in a silk robe.

A plate of cut fruit sits beside her.

"Mom, is that psycho acting up again?"

"You bet."

"She just tried to run. Your dad caught her."

Claire tilts her head and pouts.

"Come on, Mom."

"Beating her isn't going to work."

"Someone like her isn't scared of getting hit."

"And what if she gets away and calls the cops?"

"You can't watch her every second."

Margaret pauses.

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Claire smiles.

Her voice turns sickeningly sweet.

"Mom, think about it."

"Why do women who get trafficked into remote places eventually stop trying to run?"

"It's because they have kids."

"If my sister gets pregnant by someone in that town, where is she going to go?"

"Then she can stay there like a good little blood bank."

"You can take as much blood as you want whenever you want."

All the blood in my body rushes straight to my head.

Margaret's eyes light up.

"Richard!"

"Claire has a point!"

Richard leans over and listens for a few seconds.

Then he slaps his thigh.

"Right!"

"Didn't Carter say there's a guy on the east side of town who just got out?"

"Did ten years."

"Two dead bodies on his record."

"A man like that hasn't touched a woman in ten years."

"If we throw her in there tonight..."

He looks at me.

Then he smiles.

"Kill two birds with one stone."

I bite down hard on the rag in my mouth.

I know exactly who they're talking about.

Caleb Reed.

When I was eight, two drunk men from the next town put a knife to my throat and demanded money.

Caleb charged at them.

He took the first one down with a knife.

The other man slashed him across the face.

From the corner of his mouth all the way to his ear.

Caleb didn't even wipe the blood off.

He turned and struck again.

Two dead men.

He spent ten years in prison.

The day they took him away, everyone in Black Hollow stood at the entrance to town to see him off.

I ran after the prison transport for two miles.

Elias didn't catch up and carry me back until we reached the fork in the road.

After that, every year on my birthday, I got a letter.

It always had the same line.

*Tessa, kid, I miss you.*

Three days ago, Caleb finished his sentence and came home.

Richard grabs the back of my shirt and drags me toward the east side of town.

He stops in front of Caleb's metal shack and pounds on the door.

"Open up!"

"Brought you something good!"

The door opens from the inside.

A man's silhouette fills the doorway.

Richard slaps a stack of cash against the doorframe.

"Brother, this girl's my daughter."

"She doesn't know how to behave."

"She's yours."

"Do whatever you want. Just don't kill her."

The man says nothing.

He takes the money.

Margaret steps closer to the doorway.

She crouches in front of me, grabs my chin, and smiles.

"This is what happens when you don't listen."

"Let's see who saves you now."

The door closes behind us.

Darkness swallows everything.

I hear his footsteps coming toward me.

They stop right in front of me.

Then one hand closes around my throat.

He lifts me off the floor and slams me against the metal wall.

My back crashes into the cold sheet metal.

My feet leave the ground.

I can't breathe.

With his other hand, he rips the rag out of my mouth.

I try to scream.

Only a hoarse sound comes out.

He leans closer.

Close enough that I can feel his breath against my face.

Then he stops.

The hand around my throat suddenly lets go.

His voice shakes.

"...Tessa?"