Page 16 of No More Secrets

But Sunshine Girl isn’t his sister. She’s like him, stealing to survive, living in the shadows. He sees himself in her and accepts that she can handle herself. She knows what she’s doing. She doesn’t need him. Yetthe mere thought of her living in such a place makes him want to vomit. It’s the last place any unaccompanied teenage girl should be sleeping.

“Fuck.” This time he does smack his truck. He gets back in and takes it off road. He doesn’t have a plan. No clue what he’ll say to her. But he can’t sit back like he did with Lily.

He drives slow. Tumbleweeds and bramble scrape the underside of his truck. Tires roll over rocks. Windows down, he breathes in dust. It coats his nostrils, stings his eyes.

When he reaches the first car, a dented Chrysler with a missing hood, he understands the lot is more of an encampment than it appears from the road. Several barrel fires burn, roasting something. His stomach turns at the thought of living off dune rabbits and ground squirrels. Flames reflect off sunken faces. Protruding eyes follow him as he coasts along the perimeter. One guy flips him off. Another yells for him to turn off his lights.

His high beams cut through the back window of a rusted-out Malibu. Two heads pop into view, eyes squinting against the glare. A flash of baby-blue sweatshirt bursts into his peripheral. There she is.

Sunshine Girl ducks behind a vehicle. When she believes he doesn’t notice her, she runs, crouched low, and ducks behind another car. Lucas slows to a stop and waits, knowing she can’t see him against the glare of his lights.

She crouch-runs and ducks again, then again, until she reaches a Ford Fiesta, looks around, and slips inside.

Lucas throws the truck in park, blaming the alcohol for dragging him out here. If he had his head, he would have driven straight home. He watches the car Sunshine Girl climbed into and waits for a sign that this isn’t where she’s been sleeping. But she doesn’t come back out. The entire encampment has gone still, holding its breath as if waiting to see what he does next.

Her side windows are gone. Anyone can get to her while she sleeps. Two men standing at a nearby barrel, flames crackling between them,point at her car. They laugh. One guy nudges the other in his ribs and does an obscene hand gesture near his groin. Disgusted, Lucas tightens his grip on the steering wheel. He can’t leave her here.

All those times he thought about Lily and wondered how she was faring, if she was alive, and he hadn’t done jack shit. Sure, it’s easier to reflect back knowing she hadn’t only survived, but excelled. It still doesn’t change the fact he’d sat on his ass when she needed him.

He angles his truck so the lights flood the Fiesta and gets out, pocketing his keys. He approaches her car, staring down the guys leering at him as he tries to formulate a plan to convince her to leave with him. He’ll buy her a meal. He’ll take her to a shelter. Resting a hand on the hood, he peers inside her car where the rear passenger window should have been. Sunshine Girl lies on her side hugging her backpack to her chest. She has the hood pulled so tight over her head that he can’t see her face.

He clears his throat. “Hey,” he says gently.

She doesn’t move or let on that she heard him.

He raps his knuckles on the roof.

She lurches up with a squeak. The backpack falls to her lap. Through the hood’s small peephole, one eye stares back at him.

He folds his arms on the window opening and leans in. “What’s up?”

9

Shiloh backpedals like a cornered raccoon until her spine hits the door opposite him, her heart beating furiously in her throat. She hugs her backpack close, the entirety of her worldly possessions. How did he find her? What does he want from her? Her mind flashes back to Ellis, his hands searching and finding their marks, and she wants to scream. But that’ll only alert Bob and Barton that she’s here, and this terrible situation will go from worse to catastrophic with that one breath.

She didn’t even want to come back here. But market guy threw her off. She thought he was pulling out his phone to call the cops, not his lame wallet. Terrified, she didn’t know where to run but here. Now he and his headlights have alerted the entire encampment that she’s here. Might as well put a billboard above her with a flashing arrow pointing at her car.

She unties the hood and pushes it off her head. Wisps of hair flutter around her face, waving with static electricity. She feels the charge, the tickle against her skin. “What do you want?”

His gaze roves over the car’s interior, taking in the torn pleather seats, the filth on the floor. Snack wrappers and apple cores. The meager sustenance she’s been living off. Fear rises like an ugly beast. She shakes with it. Will he turn her in now that he’s found her?

Market guy’s gaze finds hers again. His eyes reflect his shock and disgust. “You live here?”

“Go away.” She throws what food she has left at him, giving back what she took so he’ll leave. A nut pack hits his forehead, startling him.He catches the Juicy Fruit gum she flings at him. Two fruit strips miss his face and fly out the window.

He drops the gum on the floor where the nut pack landed and retrieves the fruit strips. “I don’t want your food.”

But they’re his. She stole from him. “Then what do you want?” Men always want something.

He drags a hand down his face, and Shiloh catches the stale scent of beer and something harder. Her armpits sweat. Jitters prick her neck. Ellis drank, a lot. He was drunk the night he came into her room. The sour smell of cheap whiskey is permanently stamped in the back of her nose. She swears she can smell him in her sleep.

She reaches for the door handle behind her, thinking she can make a run for it.

But where would she go? She’s fast, but this guy is bigger and stronger. He also has a truck. And there’s no place to hide for at least a mile. She doubts anyone in the encampment would come to her defense.

“Keep the snacks. You’ve got to be hungry.”

She’s famished, but she shakes her head only for her stomach to betray her. It growls loudly. He hears, and her face heats with embarrassment. She throws the cash she stole at him, that desperate for him to go. “Would you leave?”

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