Jimmy Junior was the company’s CEO and son of the founder. I didn’t know if I was reassured or not.
“Okay. Stand my ground. What happens if David tells me I’m fired?”
“Hmmm. It’s been a while since I visited any of the restaurants in Alabama. I think it’s a good day to go for a drive and drop by and visit.”
“Where are you?”
“Carrollton. I was visiting with the new manager here, but we’re all finished. I’ll see you in about an hour.”
I closed my eyes and sagged with relief. One time, twenty years ago, I’d defended Jeremiah from some assholes near the Metroplex in Atlanta. He’d been returning the favor over and over and over and over again ever since. “Thanks,” I said.
“Cole—you’re welcome, but understand, this isn’t special treatment. I’m not going to see any manager under me screwed over for doing the right thing.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Well, thanks anyway. You don’t know what it means to me.”
I heard the steel back door screech a little as it opened behind me. Bubba stuck his head out the door. “Cole, you’ve got a call—it’s some girl, she says it’s an emergency.”
Sam
I don’t know why I reacted the way I did, but when I saw Billy running through the yard away from my room, I panicked. I was already crying, almost hysterical. I had to leave—I had to go now and run as fast and as far as I could.
A new chat had popped up on my screen. It was Lilya, the leader of the Brigade—and one of the GMs. The message said: Tamara, are you around? We need to talk about a note card I just received.
No, no no no. I was freaking out. I dumped out my backpack on the bed, textbooks and notebook scattering everywhere. Then I began to stuff the bag. My makeup case and my journal. The pathetic amount of money I had. I started to put clothes in there, but then I stopped.
Fuck that. I was never going to dress as a boy again. I hoped Mom would forgive me. I went into her room and stole two dresses, a shirt, and her boots. Twenty dollars wasn’t going to get me anywhere, but I’d figure out something. Right now I just needed to get out of this house and out of this town.
Maybe it was because of my irrational panic, or because I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings, or … maybe it was just fate. I don’t know. But when I ran out that door, tears running down my face, I ran right into Cody Hendricks.
He had been standing right behind Mom’s van, but that didn’t excuse my not seeing him. His truck was parked right there in the driveway. When I bumped into him, he got a stupid grin on his face, and said, “Holy crap, Billy, you’re right. He really is a fag.” I started to run, but before I had a chance, he gripped my arm in a vice. “I wouldn’t do that, faggot.”
Jesus Christ. Billy was behind me. And Cody had a knife. “Get in the truck. You behave and I won’t hurt you too bad.”
Terror had me frozen. A litany of names ran through my head: Brandon Teena, raped and murdered. Paige Clay, shot in the face. Kyra Cordova, executed with a shot to the head. Brandy Martell, shot in the privates before she was shot two more times in the chest and left to die. I knew the names, the statistics. They were people who had been murdered because they were like me.
I was shaking, terrified.
“Get in the fucking truck, faggot.”
I didn’t have any choice. But I needed to run at the first chance I had. I shook, terrified, as I got in the truck. Billy followed me in on the passenger side, and Cody got behind the wheel, leaving me between the two of them.
Cody laughed. He started the engine, commenting, “I thought you were fucking with me when you said he was wearing a dress, Billy. I can’t believe it.”
Billy was fiddling with his phone and laughing at Cody. Where the hell were they taking me?
Cole
When I got to the front of the restaurant, I reached under the register and picked up the phone. “Waffle House, this is Cole. How can I help you?”
“Mr. Roberts?” It was a girl, and her voice sounded frightened. “This is Hayley.”
I had to think for just a second before I put it together. Hayley, Sam’s friend who I had met yesterday. What was going on?
“Oh, hey. What can I do for you, Hayley?”
“I’m really scared about Sam, sir. I’m really scared. Have you talked with him?”
A chill ran through me, instantly freezing me in place. “What’s wrong, Hayley?”
She started to babble, and I interrupted in a stern voice, saying, “Hayley! Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
She took a deep breath, then said, “Cody … the guy Sam hit with the rock yesterday? He posted on Twitter a little while ago that … he was going to fuck somebody up. I didn’t really think anything of it, but then Billy posted a picture … of Sam. The picture’s going everywhere on Snapchat. They Photoshopped it or something because in the picture Sam’s wearing a dress.”
As she was speaking, I took out my cell phone and looked up Sam’s location. He wasn’t home. The map showed him moving west on Hubbard Lane.
As I watched the screen on my phone, she continued. “Mr. Roberts, I tried calling him, but he’s not answering. I know he was trying to reach me earlier, and I didn’t answer because I was upset, and I’m afraid—”
“Thank you, Hayley. I’m going to call him right now.”
She started to say something, but I didn’t wait to hear what it was. I disconnected and dialed Sam.
Sam
The phone had rung three times and popped up with messages from Hayley during the five minutes we’d been in the car.
Billy said, “For a really ugly girl, you sure are popular.”
Cody thought that was fucking hilarious. He burst out laughing, slapped his knee, and for good measure, slapped mine, really hard. The pain was sharp, bringing tears to my eyes. Then my phone rang again.
“Awww, fuck,” Billy said. “It’s the faggot’s dad.”
Cody frowned. “Answer it, and tell him you’re going to a friend’s house. You say anything else and I will throw you out of the car and then stab you to death. Under-fucking-stand?”
My heart beating a thousand beats per minute, I nodded.
Cody took the knife in his right hand and rested it on my thigh. It was a huge knife, at least six inches long, with a serrated back edge. I looked back and forth between him and Billy as the phone rang again.
Billy handed me the phone. “Answer it, faggot.”
Cole
Sam answered on the fourth ring, and his tone of voice immediately put me on edge. “Hello?” His voice trembled just a little.
“Sam,” I said. “I just got a weird call from Hayley. Is everything okay? Where are you going?”
He didn’t bother to ask how I knew he was going somewhere. Instead, he answered in an unusually slow voice, “Dad, everything is fine. I’m going over to Brenna’s. For her birthday. I’ll be home really late, okay?”
I had a visceral reaction. What the fuck did that mean? Going to Brenna’s? I felt nauseous. For her birthday?
In a quiet voice, I asked, “Sam, are you in danger?”
Sam sounded like he was going to cry, even while speaking in a fake cheery voice. “Yes, I am. Everything’s fine. A couple of friends picked me up and they’re taking me to Brenna’s for her birthday party.”
My heart was thumping wildly, and I felt rage coursing through my veins. “I understand. Try to keep your phone turned on. I’m coming after you right now. I love you.”
“Okay, Dad! Talk to you later, love you!”
Sam clicked off the phone. For three or four seconds I sat there, panicking, then I looked up at Bubba. “Call 911. Tell them to send the police to Hubbard Lane, headed west, they’ll see me speeding. Someone’s kidnapped my kid.”
Bubba gaped. I was already headed to the door, and he hadn’t moved yet.
“Do it!” I shouted.
Sam
Cody drove the truck south out of O
xford on Route 21. It wasn’t long, maybe ten minutes, before he turned left onto a gravel road and entered the woods. The truck bounced in the deep ruts as we went further back into the woods, finally leaving the gravel behind and driving down nothing but a dirt road.
The road ended abruptly in a tiny clearing. I had to get away—I had to get away, or I was going to die here. I knew just as sure as I knew anything in the world. I was terrified, drenched in sweat. Billy and Cody both opened their doors and Billy got out.
Cody said, “You get out that side.”
“Please let me go,” I whispered.
In a vicious tone, he responded, “Get the fuck out of the truck.”
I slid over and got out on the passenger side.
I scanned the clearing and realized this might be my only chance. Cody was still getting out of the driver’s side of the truck, and Billy was at least ten feet away, fiddling with his phone again. I didn’t hesitate—I took off at a dead run.
Billy and Cody both shouted, and I assumed they were running after me, but I didn’t take even half a second to look. I ran as fast as I could, sucking in painful gasps of air as I sprinted toward the road.
But I was wearing goddamned sandals, and I stubbed my toe once, then twice, and then one of the straps broke. I felt one of their hands grabbing at me, and I lurched ahead, then went flying. I landed flat on my face and cried out.
“Motherfucker,” Billy screamed. He kicked me hard in the side, and I cried out and curled into a fetal position, and then Cody kicked me in the back.
I shielded my face with my arms and started to scream.
A second later, I felt Cody’s arms grab me, and one hand clamped down over my mouth. I tried to bite, and he hissed, “Stop screaming or I’ll fucking cut your throat.”
I stopped, and he let go, shoving me roughly to the ground.
Cody said, “If it’s a girl, maybe we should fuck it.”
Billy said, “I don’t think it’s no girl. Look at that, its boobs are crooked.” He reached out and grabbed my blouse and tore it open. I flinched.
Cody guffawed. “Is that fucking socks?” He doubled over, laughing in hysterics.
But Billy looked at me with utter hatred in his eyes. “Fucking freak.”
Cody said, “I can’t fucking believe it. Get some pictures.” He started to yank at the socks, pulling them out of the bra. While he did it, Billy was taking the pictures with this phone and laughing.
“I’m gonna make you pay for hitting me with that rock and getting me and Ashley suspended.” Cody brought his knife up, waving it slowly in front of my face.
My eyes tracked it, and I began to tremble.
“That’s right, bitch. Watch the knife.” Then he flicked the knife out, and I felt it slice at my cheek.
I screamed, and Billy shouted, “Holy shit, Cody!”
Cole
I slowed down at the main intersection near the mall, making sure I wasn’t going to hit anybody, but I didn’t stop for the red light. My phone was leaning against the speedometer with the map on the screen, the little icon representing Sam updating its location every minute. His phone was still on, and he was still in motion, headed south now on Highway 21.
When I ran a second red light, almost immediately a police car pulled out of the intersection behind me, blue lights flashing. I didn’t stop or even slow down. The police car kept pace with me, siren blasting, and I just prayed that Bubba had actually called 911, and that this police officer was going to help, rather than hinder.
A moment later I got my answer. As I was approaching the busiest intersection in Oxford, just south of Interstate 20, the police car nosed ahead of me and into the intersection, blocking traffic and letting me by. As soon as I passed, he pulled out again. A moment later we were joined by another police car.
I drove as quickly as I could once I was on Route 21, and the two police cars kept pace with me. In less than five minutes, I was approaching Sam’s position. Whoever had him had pulled off onto a side road and I began to slow down as I reached the spot.
There it was. A gravel road that cut into the woods. I took a quick left turn and pulled to a stop at the edge of the gravel road. I got out of the car as quickly as I could, as the first police car pulled up next to me. The officer motioned then reached across and opened the passenger side of the car.
I got in and said, “They’re not far ahead. Or his phone is anyway.” I showed him the point on the map.
The officer said, “There’s a clearing back there. Sometimes the stoners at the high school hang out there. We’ll go in quiet.” He made a quick call on his radio and pulled forward with the lights and siren off. He didn’t drive recklessly, but he didn’t drive slowly either. As the police car rattled in the ruts and dips, he said, “Your cook from the restaurant said you thought your son was kidnapped?”
“Yeah.”
A second later we drove into a clearing, and my eyes widened, as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
A gleaming black pickup truck was in the center of the clearing, both doors standing open. Nearby, two teenagers, one of them huge, were kicking at a prone body. I opened the police car door before it had even stopped and jumped out, running for Sam.
“Freeze, police!” I heard behind me.
That came from one of the police cars; the other officer ran beside me and grabbed my arm. “Stop!”
The two teenage boys heard it and started to run away. But the big one, Cody, was too late—the cop who’d shouted to stop raised his Taser and fired, a loud clicking sound followed by a scream as the guy hit the ground.
I tugged away and ran to Sam. At first I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. He wore a skirt that looked like one of Erin’s and a blue blouse that had been torn open. There was blood everywhere. Sam’s cheek had been cut below the eye, a tiny slice but it was bleeding profusely. His chest was a mass of bruises and one of his hands was bright red, swollen. Even with all the blood, it was obvious that Sam was wearing makeup, mascara and I didn’t know what all. He looked like a young woman.
Sam groaned, and I knelt beside him. “Sam? Can you hear me?”
One of his eyes was swollen shut and bruised almost black. But the other one opened, and my son looked out at me with such an expression of terror and grief that was worse than anything I’d seen since—ever. “Daddy?” His voice rose in a squeak as he said the word.
“You’re gonna be okay, Sam. It’s okay.” I did my best to put my arms around my son, but I tried not to move him. God only knew if he had broken bones or what. He began to wail tears of pain and grief.
The cop who had given me the ride knelt beside me and said, “Ambulance is on the way. You did good, Dad. That was really quick thinking. I’m Officer Richmond.”
“Cole Roberts.”
I hadn’t done good at all. I got here in time maybe to avert the worst disaster, but how the hell did this happen in the first place?
Thank God I’d made him keep location services on his phone.
Thank God Hayley had called.
Thank God he was smart enough to say the one thing guaranteed to make it absolutely clear what kind of danger he was in.
I looked around for just a second. Cody was being stuffed in the back of a police car. The other kid was nowhere in sight, but it seemed to me that the police would have him soon enough. In the meantime, I held my weeping son.
I heard the wailing of the ambulance as it approached down the dirt road, and a moment later the paramedics boiled out of it and surrounded Sam.
They gently pushed me away and began examining him. They spoke to each other in low professional tones, words like contusions and fractured ribs. Taking their time, they got Sam onto a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance.
“You’re the dad?” one of them said.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You can ride over with us. Hop in back.”
I wasn’t about to let anything else happen to Sam.
Twen
ty-Six
Cole
At the hospital they made me wait outside of the emergency room. It was an old hospital. It looked like it had been built in the 1970s back when Fort McClellan was still open and the economy in Anniston wasn’t crap. The waiting room was nearly full with tired people.
I paced for a few minutes then dialed Erin’s number.
As I heard the first ring, I felt a layer of panic inside. Would Erin blame me? Would this be all about how I was a lousy dad and neglected the kids? My mind ran through a thousand possibilities of the kinds of conversations we’d had in the past. It happened quicker than thought, and then I stopped.
No.
Forget the past. Worry about right now.
She answered on the third ring.
“I don’t want you to panic,” I opened with. “Sam got beat up pretty bad by some boys at the high school, and we’re at the hospital. It’s not life-threatening.” I tried to get the words out all at once, because I could only imagine the fear they would rise in her when I told her that Sam was in the hospital.
She gasped. “In the hospital? What happened?”
“I don’t really know any details yet. They’ve got him in the emergency room and wouldn’t let me back there. So I’m not sure exactly what happened.”
She sounded a little impatient when she said, “Well, what can you tell me?”
I started telling her what I knew, starting with the rock-throwing incident yesterday afternoon. I told her about meeting with the assistant principal and his counselor, and ice cream with Sam and Hayley. From there, I moved on to this afternoon when I was waiting for Brian and David to show up, when Hayley’s phone call came in.
That’s when I lost my composure. “Erin, Sam said he was going to see Brenna. That a couple of friends had picked him up and were taking him to see Brenna for her birthday party.” My voice cracked as I finished the sentence.
She gasped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
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