Page 47 of Sugar and Skulls

She reaches into the back pocket of her jeans and pulls out a photo. “This…this is hard to look at, but I can’t say it out loud,” she starts to cry again, the photo shaking in her trembling fingers.

Slowly I reach for it. Jesse reluctantly lets go when I give it a gentle tug. One look and I see red. I turn it over and set it on the coffee table.

“I couldn’t leave her there, Dad.”

Dad.

She called me dad.

“And, I can’t call CPS. She would end up…” Jesse stops talking and scoots away from me a few feet.

“Like you,” I finish for her.

She nods. I know she isn’t saying this to hurt me. She’s saying it because it’s the truth. CPS did not do right by her. She doesn’t want Katie to experience what she did.

“Does her mother know where she is?” I ask calmly.

“She knows she’s with me. I told her she had three days to get clean. You should have seen it, dad. It was awful.”

I scoot next to her and she doesn’t move away. “We will figure this out, together. Okay? We won’t let anyone hurt her anymore.”

“How can we do that? How can I keep her safe? I can’t even…” She turns away from me.

“Jesse, please talk to me. I know someone hurt you too. Please, trust me.”

Her wall comes up. “We just need to stay for a few days until I figure things out.”

I lean back against the couch. She’s shutting me out again. “I’d do anything for you.”

She quickly stands. “Thank you. I’ll see you in the morning.” Jesse rushes out of the room before I can respond.

I rub at my eyes.

Please, let me in, Jesse. Please.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dirk

???

Ifound Bill passed out on the couch this morning. I also found a disturbing photo of Katie on the coffee table. That explains why Jesse brought her here. My tongue snakes out to flick the ring in my lip. I can taste death in the air. Whoever took the photo is a dead man walking.

Jesse’s been avoiding me like the plague. She can’t run forever though. Bill took the girls down to the lake after breakfast. Her eyes flitted to mine before they walked out. She can run all she likes. What’s going to happen is going to happen. She can’t stop it. Raffe can’t stop it. Not even Bill can stop it.

I’m a patient man but I’m also persistent. Jesse will show me her demons. How do I know this? Well I’ll tell you. I’m an exorcist. Ask Raffe. He’ll fill you in. I cracked him clean open and sucked the poison straight out of him.

I can do in a week what would take a therapist years to do.

Is it painful you ask?

Yes.

Very.

No one gets through life without pain.

I watch them out the window. Bill is helping Katie toss her line out. Jesse is leaning against a pole on the dock staring into the dark forest. The guys are all talking over each other behind me. Bill left instructions before he left. Find out who Katie’s mom is and who sells to her.

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