Page 18 of Scatter the Bones

“Cain, it’s okay,” Ruth says gently, holding out her hand. “We’ll call Jensen when we’re settled.”

That’ll be hard to do without my number.

Something brushes against my conscience. Guilt, probably. Or the faint echo of a soul. I’ve just ripped this kid from his home, his family, and maybe a father who hadn’t started showing him the business end of a bullwhip yet.

I pull the ring I took off my father’s finger out of my pocket and crouch down in front of Cain. “Be good for your mom, okay? Don’t take shit from anyone.”

He drops his gaze to the ring and frowns. “The monster wears that.”

“Not anymore.” I hold it out to him. “You keep it, so the monsters stay away.”

His eyes widen and he plucks the ring from my palm and holds it up with both hands and stares at it. After a few seconds, he slips the ring on his thumb and closes his fist around it.

Without another word, he joins his mother in the van.

Logan, Jezzie, and I stand on the porch in silence as the van rattles down the driveway and disappears behind the trees.

Jezzie glances up at me. “I don’t have a lot of stuff.”

“Pack whatever you want.” I gesture toward the front door. “Anything you think you might need or want from this place. We’ll stop and get you some new stuff but take what matters.”

She nods and hurries inside, the hard soles of her shoes thudding lightly on the floorboards.

Logan stands beside me, arms crossed. He knows better than to ask about Cain or Ruth or anything else. He just waits.

“What can I do?” he finally asks.

“Help Jezzie pack. Load her stuff in the back of my truck.”

He holds out his hand. “Give me your keys.”

I drop them into his palm. “Just keep her away from the barn. I’ve got some things I need to take care of out there.”

I head for the barn alone, the late afternoon sun casting long, crooked shadows across the yard.

Inside, the stink hits first—smoke, chemicals, decay, and something deeper, something older.

I roll up my sleeves.

Time to collect what’s left of the man who made me a monster.

Piece by piece.

I’ll scatter his bones across the country—coast to coast. Drop a bit of him at every truck stop, every ditch and dumpster between here and Pennsylvania. A puzzle no one will ever piece together again.

Then maybe I’ll find peace.

CHAPTER TWO

Jigsaw

Present Day

Some ghosts haunt you. Others show up out of nowhere and fuck up your night.

As I wind my way through the back roads leading into Empire, my lungs tighten. Instead of calming me, this ride sends dread crawling over my skin with every mile.

How did Cain find me? Why’d he go to Crystal Ball of all places? On paper, my income comes from the laundromatandCrystal Ball. Cain can’t be more than seventeen or eighteen. Tracking me down at a strip club probably seemed like the fun choice.

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