Page 17 of Sugar and Skulls

“Jess, where are you going?” William doesn’t touch me. He just follows beside me while I limp my way along. I keep my head down and focus on moving my bare feet, one in front of the other. That is until large boots enter my vision, halting me in my tracks.

My entire body is shaking now. I’m suddenly cold, so cold. Big Dan doesn’t move. I can feel the heat radiating off him, so I take a tiny step closer. He doesn’t move a muscle, and nobody says anything. My teeth are chattering now so I take another tiny step.

Then another.

And, another.

Another.

His arms wrap around me and I burrow myself deep into his chest.

Good news is Dan is warm just like I would imagine a big, grizzly bear would be.

Bad news, well you already know the bad news. I’ve lost something and I’ll never be able to get it back.

Chapter Nine

Big Dan

???

Idon’t know who I want to kill more at the moment. The last three years Jesse has become like a daughter to me and now I know why. She’s Bill’s kid. She doesn’t even know this yet. When the social worker came and took her a few days ago I was dumfounded. Jesse had been living on her own for the past year and no one even knew. Not until Bill came forward to claim her did social services go looking for her and when the aunt didn’t know where she was they listed her as a runaway.

An entire fucking year.

I’ve known Jesse has had it rough. Everyone in this god forsaken county has it rough one way or another. When Jess left with the worker Raffe literally stood up and then collapsed to the ground. She has managed to find the soft spot of two grown ass, burly men. Well I wouldn’t call Raffe burly, but you know what I mean.

Her young friend William has been worried sick about her. He’s been keeping an eye on her trailer for us, said she hadn’t left for several days. It’s a giant shit show. My cousin Dirk and Bill showed up Saturday morning in the midst of this cluster fuck. Raffe apologized profusely to Bill for not figuring out sooner that our Jess was his long-lost daughter.

And now here she is falling apart in my arms. I want to run with her. Take her away from all of this. Bill and Dirk stayed at my place, we didn’t know what was going on and we didn’t want to overwhelm her. My gaze catches Raffe’s, all I see is horror in his moonlit eyes.

“Hey, William why don’t you take your girlfriend on home and we will take care of Jess,” I tell the kid.

He looks at his girlfriend who is silently crying. “I can’t leave Jesse,” he whispers. “You don’t know what she’s been through.”

Jesse pulls away from me. “William follow me,” she says quietly. “You all wait here for a minute, please.”

She doesn’t look at anyone. William takes her hand and I watch as they open the fence and slip into Tom Winslow’s back yard. The beast of a dog starts barking but Jesse walks right up to him. He licks her face as she kneels in front of him. She points to a pile of tires and William lifts a few of them and pulls out something covered in what looks like a trash bag.

He walks back to the gate and waits for her. She pats the dog’s head before joining William along the fence line. She takes the item from William and unwraps it. She takes what looks like cash out, then wraps it back up and pushes it against the young man’s chest. He shakes his head. I glance at his girlfriend. She is watching the exchange with sadness in her eyes. She whispers, “I think you should know this isn’t the first time she’s been hurt.”

Raffe’s gaze shoots to hers. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to tell her story. It’s hers to tell, but William and Jesse have history. Not a pleasant one. They are both lucky to have each other.” She tears her eyes away from William and Jess to stare at the ground. “I didn’t mean to come between them. I wish she would let him back into her life.”

William’s scream draws all of our attention back to them. He is holding Jesse’s limp body in his arms. I run over to them. “She just passed out,” he says, looking into her face helplessly.

“Maybe we should take her to the hospital,” William’s girlfriend frets.

All three of us say, “no,” in unison.

Raffe takes Jesse from William’s arms. I grip his shoulders and look him in the eye. “Take your girlfriend home and get some sleep. Come by my place in the morning. I’ll take good care of her. I promise.” I shake his shoulders slightly and he nods.

“Call me if she needs me. Please, call no matter the time.” He wraps his arm around his girl, and they head back to his rod.

“I’ll get the car. Wait here,” I tell Raffe.

He is looking down at Jesse with tears in his eyes. “This is all my fault,” he says.

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