by Sharon Dunn
Now he understood why the perfume had meant so much to her. It would have been something she had picked out and bought herself. She just wanted the normal experience of going into a store and purchasing something. She really had been a prisoner in her father’s house. “There will come a time when you can choose your own coat.”
She stared at the ground. “I don’t even like pink. Blue is my favorite color.”
“Only a month, Julia.” He tried to sound encouraging.
She lifted her head and looked straight at him. “Don’t you think I know how many days until the trial?” Her voice had a hard edge to it, though her eyes were rimmed with tears.
Again, he had to remind himself that this anger was not about him, though it was directed at him. This was about her seven years of confinement and abuse. This was about the injustice that had been done to her.
She whirled away from him. The coat fell to the ground. He picked it up and placed it over her shoulders again. “I know you’ve been through a lot.”
She turned to face him, shaking her head. “You have no idea.”
His heart swelled with sympathy. “I wasn’t meaning to minimize—”
Even with the veneer of anger, he could see the pain behind her eyes.
He reached out to put a supportive hand on her shoulder. “I know that—”
She pushed his hand away. “Seven years of living in that house with all the locks on the doors…of listening to his twisted logic.”
He didn’t react to her anger. If she needed to vent, that was fine with him. Anything to let her know that he was on her side.
“Seven years of never going into town, of barely getting to talk to people except for Marlena.” Something visibly broke inside Julia when she said the murdered woman’s name. She kicked the ground and crossed her arms over her body.
He reached toward her. She stepped back, exhausted and shivering, tears streaming down her face. Without a word, he picked up the coat and draped it over her shoulders. She fell against his chest weeping.
Slowly, tentatively, he wrapped his arms around her and held her while she cried. Her soft hair brushed the bottom of his chin. The air around them grew cold. He held her until she stopped crying and pulled back.
“I didn’t mean to lose it like that.” She swiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry I got your shirt wet.”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.” The look of embarrassment on her face tugged at his heart. She had nothing to be ashamed of. “Are you ready to get going?”
She nodded and trudged back to the SUV. After she opened the door, she looked up at him with an expression that suggested they’d made some headway in the trust department.
He only hoped the rest of the day would go more smoothly than it had started.
TWO
Julia settled into the passenger seat just as Gavin opened the door and placed the key in the ignition. Her cheeks still felt hot. She hadn’t meant to lose control. The past seven years, with Elijah calling the shots, had been about maintaining control. Whatever absurd proclamation came out of his mouth, she had simply pretended to agree to it. She knew her Bible well enough to know that he was distorting Scripture to justify his actions, but she had never argued with him.
Elijah True had done landscaping work for Julia’s father. Two months later, he had come back and snatched her when she was walking to her piano lesson. For seven years, the police had never connected him to the kidnapping.
Despite Elijah’s need to control everything and everyone, Marlena had some kind of sway over him as long as she remained the doting wife in public. Marlena had been unable to have children. Elijah had kidnapped Julia when Marlena had threatened to leave, saying that Julia could be the child she always wanted.
She had protected Julia from being married off to the man of Elijah’s choosing. Until the night Elijah had grown impatient, demanding it was time that Julia be married. Elijah had locked Julia in her room, but she had heard all of the fight that led to Marlena’s death.
Julia had thought about escape a thousand times before, had even tried a couple of times only to have Elijah increase her confinement. It wasn’t until that night when Marlena died…that courage and the opportunity for escape had come together. In the chaos that followed Marlena’s death, Elijah had forgotten to lock the outside doors, and she had been able to jimmy the lock to her room…she hadn’t gotten out fast enough to save Marlena, though. With Elijah out of the house, she had rushed to see that Marlena wasn’t breathing and knew that she had to get out.
The last thing she heard as she crawled through the barbed wire that surrounded the houses was Elijah gathering his followers in the dirt street telling a distorted story of how Julia had pushed Marlena and caused her to hit her head, attempting to stir up the others enough to harm Julia. For most of her run through the dark and cold, she had cried for Marlena.
Gavin’s gentle voice brought her back to reality. He shoved the key in the ignition. “Do you want the heater on?”
“Just a little bit. We’ll be sweating if you turn it on high.” The two years of counseling had been good, the nightmares no longer plagued her, the anxiety was under control. Her counselor had told her that the next stage in her recovery would be anger. She hadn’t been prepared for the strength of it. Poor Gavin had had to witness it.
When her father had told her he’d hired a bodyguard, Gavin Shane was not what she had expected. He was tall and muscular as a bodyguard should be, but there was none of the cold brusqueness she had counted on.
Gavin’s light brown hair with blond sun-streaks and the sunglasses he always wore made him look more like a surfer than a bodyguard. The rich brown of his skin only added to the effect.
“Marlena was the woman who died, right?” He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. He was probably afraid of another outburst from her.
“Yes, she was Elijah’s common-law wife. She was only five years older than me…but she was kind to me, like a mom would be.” Marlena had confessed to Julia that even though she always threatened to leave to keep Elijah under control, she really had no place to go. Besides, she had told Julia, Elijah treated her way better than the family she had come from.
Despite all the abuse she had suffered in her own family and the psychological badgering with Elijah, there had been a deeper goodness to Marlena. She could have been mean to Julia or jealous of Elijah’s leering glances. Instead, she had wanted to protect Julia from all that she had been through. “She could be a little rough around the edges, but she was a good person. She was the biggest reason I am not more messed up because of what happened.” Her hand fluttered to her throat as pain stabbed at her heart.
After checking for oncoming cars, he pulled out on to the road. “If you don’t want to talk about it…”
And she thought she had hidden her sadness. He seemed to be pretty good at picking up on her feelings. She didn’t know if she liked that about him or not. “I’m fine.”
Maybe it was just out of habit, but she felt her emotional shields going up. Feelings were something she learned to keep to herself in the cult.
“So you know the woman who runs the hot springs spa where I’m taking you?”
She was grateful he had switched to a safer subject. “No, the police advised my father to find someone who couldn’t be linked to us in any way. Elizabeth Johnson was a friend of my mother’s from high school. She got in touch with my dad when she read about the upcoming trial and offered her place.”
Gavin tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel. “I’m going to have to stop for gas at the next town. This detour cost us some fuel. I don’t want to run out before we get to the hot springs.”
“The last sign said there was a town coming up in six miles.” She could make small talk, too. Maybe that would be the safest thing to do. “So Dad said you moved back up here from Florida?”
“Yeah, I was born and raised in Montana.”
“What made you decide to come back?”
Julia sat back in her seat. For some reason, he didn’t want to talk about Florida. She’d touched a nerve even with her small talk.
The silence caused a familiar sadness to surface. Pain jabbed at her insides. Before her life had been turned upside down, she had had dreams. She was going to go to college and study fashion design or dentistry. Someday she would fall in love, marry and have kids. Just simple ordinary dreams…and they had been taken from her.
Though it was hard, she could not focus on what she had lost. The Bible verse about God restoring the years the locusts had eaten gave her hope. She would get her life back. Sometimes, though, all this continued confinement made her doubt that day would ever come.
Gavin hit his blinker and took the next exit. The town consisted of a truck stop and a block or two of shops and a hotel. After parking by a pump, Gavin got out of the car.
Julia stared at Gavin as he walked past the windshield. He never stopped looking around, constantly assessing his surroundings. Old fears returned. The last time they had stopped, things hadn’t gone well. She shouldn’t have insisted on stopping at that store. A false sense of freedom had overtaken her as they’d sailed down the road.
She didn’t want to be alone with her fear in this car. Being close to him made her feel safer. She pushed the door open and circled around to the gas pumps where Gavin was standing. “Can you show me how to put gas in a car?”
Gavin straightened slightly. Though she caught just a flash of it, he did a good job of hiding his shock. “You don’t know how?”
She fought past the embarrassment that rose up over all these simple things that she didn’t know how to do. She wouldn’t learn if she didn’t ask. “My father took me out sometimes at night to practice driving when the media wasn’t likely to be around. We never got around to the gas lesson.”
Warmth came into Gavin’s eyes. His voice softened. “Sure, I can show you.”
He walked her through twisting the gas cap, zeroing out the pump and placing the nozzle in the gas tank. She relished this moment, just standing with the brisk air buffeting her, doing something that most people took for granted.
He glanced toward the store that was part of the truck stop. “Are you hungry?”
“Can I go with you and pick out my own snack?” She was almost afraid to ask the question. After what had happened at the department store, would he tell her to stay in the car?
“I have to go in to pay for the gas, anyway. I don’t want to leave you out here alone.” He touched her lightly on the shoulder. “Stay close to me.”
Julia nodded and made her way to the store. She could feel Gavin’s body heat as he walked behind her. She’d just have to get used to the claustrophobic feeling that went with the close proximity of another person. She didn’t like it, but she would have to get used to it. She understood the need for a bodyguard. She wanted Elijah put away for good, but a part of her longed to hop on a plane or bus and run and be free. The long fight against the injustice that had been done to her had left her battle weary. Sometimes the longing for escape into normalcy was so intense.
Once inside the store, Julia gazed up and down the aisle. In addition to the food items, she noticed hats and T-shirts. She passed an aisle that contained makeup, aspirin and other things a drug store would carry. This store must function as the everything store for the small town.
She contemplated some packaged donuts. Her awareness of her surroundings heightened when Gavin pivoted suddenly and stalked toward the window.
He turned back to her, squaring his broad shoulders.
His vigilant soldier stance made her heart beat faster. “What is it?” Her voice was hoarse. She swallowed to quell the rising fear.
He pointed to the front of the store. “We got company.”
THREE
Gavin leaned close and shout-whispered, “To the back of the store. Now—go.”
Julia didn’t move. One look at the wide, round eyes told him she was frozen by panic. He pressed on her lower back, steering her to a rack of hats and T-shirts.
A thought occurred to him. He grabbed one of the hats off the display. “Blue is your favorite color, right?”
She nodded.
He slipped the hat over her head. “Tuck your hair in and stay at the back of the store until I get a read on what’s happening with them. That blond hair is too easy to identify at a distance.”
Gavin stalked down the aisle grabbing hair dye and the donuts Julia had been eyeballing earlier. He set the items on the counter in front of the clerk and then pointed to where Julia stood. “My girlfriend would like that hat, too.”
While the clerk rang up the purchases, Gavin watched the dark blue van that had just pulled up outside. The last time they had seen the van it had been in a rearview mirror, but he was pretty sure it was the same vehicle. Two men, both with long hair and beards, got out. They hesitated in front of his SUV, studied it for a moment.
Good thing Julia had gone with him into the store, or the bearded men might be pulling her out of the SUV right now.
“There you go, sir.” The clerk handed him a bag.
The two men made a beeline for the store.
When he looked over to where the hats were, Julia had vanished. His heart hammered in his chest as he took large strides across the store. She wasn’t behind the display rack, either. Shaking off the rising panic he glanced from one corner of the store to the next, then walked the aisles.
Gavin ducked his head behind a rack of greeting cards when the two men came inside. They feigned interest in the soft drinks at the front of the store while they continued to study the room. One of them had a distinctive bulge on his side that indicated a gun.
Only two other customers walked the aisles, an older man and a teenage girl. Gavin wandered toward the snack shelves, searching without turning his head too much, keeping his back to the two men. Julia must have gone into the restroom. He bolted across the floor and stepped into the narrow hallway between restrooms and the “Employees Only” door. He took note of a back door exit he had passed as he gently rapped on the restroom door designated for women. “Julia,” he whispered.
She opened the door a crack. “I knew by the look on your face I had to hide.” Her voice was steady. She’d overcome the initial panic and pulled herself together. She showed remarkable composure, considering.
He directed her out into the tiny hallway between bathrooms and then pointed toward the back door. They would only be exposed for a few seconds, and her blond hair stuffed under the cap no longer functioned as a beacon.
“Walk slowly…don’t call attention to yourself.”
Again she froze, fear written on her face. She’d spotted the two men. Her pulse beat visibly at the side of her neck. Was she going to give in to the fear after all?
Urgency pressed on him from all sides. “We. Have. To. Go,” he whispered, emphasizing every word.
She focused on him and squared her shoulders. “Let’s move.”
Gavin ushered Julia out of the hallway and slipped in behind her, shielding her from view. Each footstep was a drum beat. Slowly. No one will notice. The door was five feet away.
The bell on the front door dinged and two loud children, followed by a mother and father, stepped in. The noise of the children drew everyone’s attention.
Julia yanked open the door. Gavin almost fell on top of her as they slipped outside. “Now we can run.” He grabbed her hand, pulling her along the side of the building toward the car. Adrenaline surged through him.
His feet slid over a patch of ice. He recovered, but Julia stumbled. She let out a cry.
“Are you okay?”
“I scraped my leg against something.” She indicated her torn jeans. A jagged piece of scrap metal was frozen in the ice, sharp end pointing up and glistening with Julia’s blood. “I’m okay. We can deal with it later.”
With Julia favoring her right leg, they ran. Gavin wrapped his arms around her waist and helped her to the car. As he started the engine, he glanced at the windows of the store. No sign of the bearded men. They must have worked their way toward the back, but it would only take minutes before they noticed the SUV was gone.
His heart thudded as he pulled out on to the road. He clicked on his GPS. All these detours had probably turned a five-hour drive into a ten-hour one. He couldn’t go to the secure house until he was sure they weren’t being followed.
Out of breath, Julia rested her head against the back of the seat. Her palm was pressed to her chest. “My heart is racing.”
“You handled yourself just fine.” It was a huge step in their being able to work together that she had muscled through the initial fear and panic and made smart choices.
He drove through the two blocks of downtown, glancing at the GPS. How long were they going to have to play cat and mouse? He picked a route that would take them in a wide arc before they got to the location her father had set up. The route showed two small towns before they arrived at the hot springs.
Julia opened the bag and pulled out the donuts. “Thank you.” She lifted the box of hair dye out. “For me?”
“As much as I like that hat…” The floppy ears on the blue knitted cap made her look kind of cute. “I think we need a more permanent solution to you being so easy to spot from a distance.”
Julia studied the box. “Sunset red.”
He adjusted his sunglasses on top of his head. “I wasn’t looking at colors. I just grabbed one.”
“Red hair might be okay.” Her voice fell half an octave. “One of the reasons Elijah took me was the blond hair. He said it made me look like an angel.”
He drove for a few more minutes. She winced and exhaled heavily.
“What is it?”
Her back arched in pain. “My leg. I think the cut is worse than I thought.” She gripped the arm rest.
“Can you hold on for just a bit?” He checked the rearview mirror. No sign of the van, but it was still too soon to stop. “I’ll get us to a place where I can take care of that.”