Page 62 of Silver-Tongued Devil
She heard the shouts behind her, but she didn’t look back. She ran blindly into the darkness that was the woods, expecting the hands to grab her at any moment. Expecting to be pulled back into the truck.
Run.She heard them calling, shouting, swearing, and she was still running, stumbling. Her hands out in front of her, scraped on knuckles and palms by the rough bark. She stumbled on a tree root, hit her knee hard on a rock, and got up again, limping into the darkness, the shriek of music from the truck still too close. She ran uphill, away from the sound. Away from the cries and the crashing of heavy bodies through trees. She ran, already feeling the hands pulling at her hair, dragging her.Faster,she thought.Go.And ran some more.
When she heard the truck’s motor start again, the music fading, she thought it must be a trick. She stopped moving and dropped to the ground, hugging her knees, trying to quiet her sobbing breaths. If one of them was driving and the other one was still here, listening… If she came out, he’d get her. And he wouldn’t let her go.
It must have been ten minutes, but it felt like an hour before the silence nearly convinced her they were gone. She walked cautiously in the direction from which the music had come, ready to bolt at any noise, a new fear making her heart pound even harder.
She didn’t know where she was, and it was the middle of the night. Her glasses were at home, and her purse was in Steve’s truck.
She found the road eventually, once she made herself think.Downhill. I ran uphill to get away.So she went downhill, her arms in front of her, bouncing off the trees, stumbling and swerving, until she found the road. After that, she followed it, shivering in the cold, her footing difficult over the gravel. When she made it to the pavement, she followed that. She didn’t know where she was, except that it had to be a lake road. She just had to keep going around the lake, and she’d get home. Sometime. Eventually.
Every time she heard a car, she dove off the road, into the trees, and waited, trembling, until it had passed. They knew she was out here. They knew she was helpless. They would come back, and they would get her.
In the end, she had to take off her shoes, because her feet blistered in her heels to the point where she couldn’t walk. Her bare feet were bruised on rocks, sliced on rough edges. They hurt so much, and she was crying now, her shoulders hunched against the cold. And still she walked, because she couldn’t think of anything else to do. She walked because she was scared to stop.
And all she could think was,Don’t let them tell. Don’t let them tell.
She told Blake as little as possible, but it was enough. What she’d said was true. He’d hear it from her, or he’d hear it from somebody else. This was Wild Horse. And she didn’t have to look at him to see the rigidity in his posture, the fury in his eyes.
“It must have taken me hours to walk home,” she said. “When I got there, it was after three. I sneaked in the back door, and all I could think to do was get in the shower. I turned the water as hot as I could stand it and tried to wash it all away. I scrubbed and scrubbed. But what I really remember is how much my feet hurt. I cried because my feet hurt. I couldn’t stand to cry for anything else. I couldn’t stand to think.”
“And something else happened,” Blake said.
Even now, the memory of the next few days—of that whole first week—made her tense and sick. “I told Russell and Riley that I didn’t feel good, and I stayed under the covers all day on Sunday. On Monday, I didn’t go to school. I couldn’t stand to.”
“You didn’t tell anybody,” Blake said. “You didn’t go to the police.”
“I didn’t even think of it. I just wanted it to goaway.I wanted it not to be true. I was so ashamed. I felt so dirty. I felt likeIwas the one who’d done something wrong. And what would the police have done? You know what. He-said, she-said. I was nobody, and Steve’s family is a big deal, and I’d been drinking, and everybody would say that I’d wanted it. I’d have been dragged through the mud for nothing, and Russell would have known. That was the worst. I couldn’t stand for Russell to know. I thought he’d kick me out. I was already only there because of Riley. And if he knew…”
She forced herself to stop, then went on more calmly. “Anyway. On Monday afternoon, after school, Russ got a call. Riley’d been suspended. He’d beaten Steve up. He’d broken his nose, split his lip, among other things. He beat him good.”
“What about the other guy?”
“The other guy? Oh, Rowan. Surely you can guess. Evan took care of him. He and Riley jumped them in the parking lot, right beside that truck of Steve’s. And after Riley punched Steve out…” She smiled. That memory was a good one. “He kicked a dent into the door of Steve’s brand-new truck. They were suspended for a week for fighting. All four of them, actually, because none of them said why they’d been doing it. How could Rowan and Steve say why Riley did it? And there was no way Riley was going to. But all the kids knew. They said… Steve and Rowan told everybody. They said I’d had sex with both of them, and that they’d done everything to me. They… described it. I heard.” Even now, the memory could make her burn. The shame, and the humiliation. “Riley heard, too, and he and Evan took care of it the best they could, but that didn’t stop everybody from talking. It didn’t make the next couple years much fun, either. That reputation… well, you saw. It never really goes away. Whenever anybody asked me out… well, usually, there was one reason. They didn’t want to take me to the movies or go for a walk. They wanted to take me to a ‘party.’ So I didn’t go out.”
Blake swore under his breath, and Dakota said, “Yeah. It was bad, and you see why I moved to Portland. But it was half a lifetime ago, and I’m not that scared girl anymore. And anyway, I still have Evan. He’s still right here, ready to do it all again. Ready to be my protector. The trick is convincing him he doesn’t have to be. As you saw.”
“Evan. Yeah,” Blake said.
“He’s a good friend. A good friend to Riley, and a good friend to me. But you know—here’s the takeaway from the whole thing. You know what Riley told me, when he got the story out of me?”
“No,” Blake said. “Tell me.”
“We were sitting on the edge of my bed, Monday night, after he made me tell him what happened. We were both kind of a mess. My hands, my knees, my feet, even my face from crying. I was hurt inside, too. Bruised. That was the worst. Every time I peed, it hurt so much, and I remembered why and felt dirty all over again. And Riley—he had ice on his knuckles.”
“His knuckles? Not his face?”
“No. Riley was tough, and Steve went down easy. Both of them did. And that night, Riley sat with me and made me tell him, and then he told me, ‘You think you lost. You didn’t lose. It wouldn’t have mattered what they did. You’re tougher than either of those assholes. The winner’s the one who gets up the most times, and we’ll always get up. We’re always going to be the last two standing. That means we’ll always win.”
Blake exhaled. “Smart guy.”
Dakota took a final bite of salmon. She’d thought telling him would be awful. It wasn’t awful. The story was out there now—herstory—and that was better. Riley had been right. She wasn’t a victim. She was a survivor. “Hewassmart. He was the best brother. He’s the only part of that night that can still make me cry to think about. Otherwise? He was right. I got up. Steve Sawyer is a pathetic piece of human garbage who’s going to get what’s coming to him someday, because he’s stuck being his miserable self for the rest of his life. And Ingrid’s stuck with him. Rowan’s living somewhere else. I don’t know and I don’t care, but I’m betting his life isn’t turning out great either. And Riley died a hero. His life might have been too short, but he’ll be remembered forever by everybody who knew him. And me? I got up. Every time. I’ll always get up. That means I win.”
Blake sat there and tried to force the adrenaline back. When he’d managed it, he said, “Two things. That’s what I’ve got going on. They’re kind of fighting it out right now.”
“What two things?” Dakota asked. She was stirred up, but she was more under control than he was. That was the crazy part of it.
“I know I need to tell you how beautiful you are, and how brave you were to come back to this town and to face what you did tonight, to hold your head that high. I want to hold you and say all that, and try to make it better. You can call that my good side. Unfortunately, all my regrettable side wants to do is drive this boat back into town, hunt that bastard down, and kick his ass.”
