Sudden Independents

“Why is that girl tied up?” Vanessa asked when she finally pulled away, wiping her tears.

Scout reluctantly let her go and introduced his hostage. “She’s one of our captors.”

“She’s not very good at it,” Vanessa said.

“She had unreliable help. Remember when we were little, a girl stole your bike and her big sister said it was hers?” Scout smiled at Jolanda and returned her earlier eyebrow waggle.

Vanessa tilted her head. Her eyes regarded Scout’s captive. “Jolanda Lewis?”

Scout made extravagant hand gestures like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. “Here in the flesh. And she’s dying to help us rescue Catherine.”

Vanessa stepped up to face Jolanda while Samuel struggled to hold the frightened girl upright because her knees kept collapsing. “Take her to Catherine’s room,” she said. “And Samuel…”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t play with the dolls.”

Scout chuckled, but could tell there was more to the story by the way his sister bounced with laughter, and how Samuel’s face flared into a bright crimson.

“I can’t believe you’d joke like that now.”

Vanessa shrugged. “It’s been a long night and I needed the laugh or I might have started crying again.”

Samuel walked Jolanda onto the porch and guided her into the house.

Vanessa inspected Scout’s face and brought her palm to his cheek. “Are you okay?”

He nestled in her touch. “I am now.”

Mark hung in the doorway. His face carried that faraway look of someone not ready to believe part of his life was now altered forever. He hid his hands deep in his coat pockets and his chin was ducked below the collar. His eyes were misty from the cold, or sadness. Scout decided not to guess which.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Mark said.

“Thanks, man. How are you doing?”

“Fine.” Mark sighed. “I guess you’ve heard already.”

“Molly? Yeah, I heard.”

“I just wish I knew why she did it. I keep thinking it’s my fault.”

Scout placed his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “We’ll find her. We’ll get Molly back. I promise.”

“Why would we want to get her back?” Mark turned to go inside. Vanessa took Scout’s hand and they followed Mark out of the cold morning air.

Jimmy lay on the long dining room table, his head resting on a roll of royal blue fabric while Luis tended to his various injuries. Ginger’s pale face glanced up with worry set in her features. She held Jimmy’s hand. Scout checked off another slot on his matchmaking card.

Hunter spoke in hushed tones to his brother. The fear in Hunter’s eyes disturbed Scout almost as much as losing all his stuff. Maybe Hunter did care after all.

Jimmy slowly turned his head toward Scout and nodded. His face resembled a rotten prune. One eye was swollen shut. A white strip of tape bandaged his nose, but the shine in his good eye said everything. You can’t keep a guy like Jimmy down.

Scout nodded back.

Day broke gray and cold as Molly sat beside Chase in a truck driving away from Independents. She pressed her hand against the roof because of all the bouncing, fearing she might snap her neck if she got tossed any higher. Her sore butt complained from the squeaky springs in the bench seat and she worried her spine would be permanently crooked by the time they arrived at the place where Hunter was being kept.

“Are we almost there?” Molly asked after a series of bumps slammed her against the passenger window repeatedly.

Chase peered straight ahead through the cracked windshield and ignored her. It had been that way ever since they made their escape.

Kessie shot an evil glance at Molly; her white knuckles gripped the steering wheel. “We’ll get there soon enough. Maybe you could do something useful like find me a better road to follow. You live around here, right?”

Molly shrugged and looked away. “I stayed in town where I was needed.”

“That why you burned that house down?” Kessie asked. “That boy no longer needed you?”

The comment stung more than Molly wanted to admit. Was that really why Hunter broke up with her? He’d get a chance to explain soon enough, she thought. But part of her never wanted to know. She noticed a corner of Chase’s mouth curling.

“You think that’s funny?” she asked him. “Tell her to stop and say that to my face.”

Kessie slammed the brakes and everybody pitched forward, including Patrick, who was watching over Catherine in the truck bed. He pounded the top of the cab. “What the hell!”

Kessie pointed at Molly. “Look, bitch, I don’t know why Chase decided to bring you along, but he doesn’t have to tell me anything. If you want to stay pretty, you better keep your mouth shut. Or I will seriously rip out your tongue and leave it on the side of the road.”

Molly ignored Kessie’s threat and smiled at Chase. “Is she always like this?”

“Pretty much. I wouldn’t want to go up against her.”

“Hear that?” Kessie said.

“Oh, I hear it,” Molly replied. “Too bad, maybe he’d like to go up against me.”

“I knew it! Chase, this chick is trouble. She burnt down her boyfriend’s house and clubbed her town leader. She’s crazy in the head!”