Devil's Way Out

by Nika Dixon

Lucy hopped up and down, holding on to the straps of her knapsack while it bounced. “Charlie, do you think your dad can take us to the mall in Dunston? I promised Emma I would take her shopping.”

  “Oh no, Lucy, that’s okay,” Emma said.

  Charlie blinked. “Can we get ice cream?”

  Lucy nodded. “Emma needs some stuff, so we have to do shopping first, but then we can get ice cream. Right, Emma?”

  Emma smiled at the girl’s energy and exuberance. “I’m so sorry. I can’t go to the mall, but thank you very much for thinking of me.”

  Lucy frowned. “But you have to. You need to get some—” She leaned closer and whispered, “Underwear.” Then she straightened away. “Dad said I was supposed to take you. He already said I could.”

  Emma battled with how to explain to the youngster she would love the chance to go shopping. It had been years since she was able to buy her own clothes. Even her bathroom products came courtesy of one of Alan’s assistants. “It’s not that I don’t want to go, I really do. It’s just, well, I’m sure your dad told you I don’t have any money.”

  “Oh!” Lucy perked up. “I have money in my bank account!”

  “Absolutely not. I can’t take your money.”

  “Sure, you can. You can owe me later.”

  “No, Lucy, it’s your money. It wouldn’t be right for me to use it.”

  Lucy’s expression soured. “I don’t even want it. My mom sends it to me on my birthday and Christmas and stuff. But it’s all she ever does—just sends me money. Not even a card. It makes Dad mad, but he never actually tells me that. I hear him yelling to Grandpa and Uncle Marsh about it, though. It’s not like she’s here or anything, to help me spend it. Or buy me anything I actually like. So, I just keep putting it in the bank. Dad says he’ll take me to spend it anytime I want, but that’s, like, shopping with my dad. And besides, he’s always so busy.”

  “Plus, he’s the sheriff,” Charlie added.

  Lucy nodded solemnly.

  Sympathy for the girl pulled at Emma’s heart. She knew firsthand the pain of losing a mother. She couldn’t fathom what it would be like to know her mother was alive and well and living a life that didn’t include her—on purpose.

  While she didn’t know the full story behind where the girl’s mother was or why she’d left, a ribbon of anger braided itself around Emma’s heart. How could a mother willingly abandon a child, especially one as wonderful as Lucy? Emma hadn’t had a proper birthday party since her mother died, yet this poor girl had a still-living mother, one who remembered enough to send a few dollars but couldn’t be bothered to know her daughter well enough to buy her something with her own two hands? No wonder she was so upset.

  “Let’s do it,” Emma announced, nodding firmly. She didn’t have anything in this world to call her own, but the ability to accompany a sweet kid to the mall for a couple of hours was perfectly within her boundary of doable. Besides, it wasn’t as though she had somewhere else to be.

  Lucy’s face broke into a wide smile. “You’ll come to the mall?”

  Emma nodded, calming the now jumping girl by placing her hand on her shoulder. “But on two conditions.”

  Lucy agreed without pause. “Okay!”

  Emma smiled. “You have to promise me you will take some of your birthday money and buy yourself something with it.”

  “Deal!”

  “And I’m only going to borrow a tiny little bit, and I will pay you back every single penny.”

  Lucy grabbed Charlie’s hand and tugged him forward. “Let’s go get your dad to give us a ride!”

  Charlie took a few faster shuffling steps, clearly unwilling to run. “Can we get ice cream? I’d really like some ice cream.”

  “Yes, yes, we can get ice cream,” Lucy answered. “Double chocolate fudge!”

  “With sprinkles?”

  “With sprinkles!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  With every jab of the pitchfork, Marshall cursed himself for walking off from Emma without saying so much as a goodbye. There was no excuse for his behavior; he’d acted like a complete jackass. He’d gotten a burr under his saddle, and he’d taken it out on her.

  Well, it was too late to correct it now. The insurance man would have come and gone, and she would be off to Pikes Falls and back to her life. Not that where she was mattered any. He didn’t need some city girl distracting him any more than she already had.

  Footsteps approached. He ignored them.

  Someone cleared his throat.

  “What?” Marshall snapped.

  “Did you talk to Lucy before she left for school?” his father asked.

  “You know damn well I didn’t.” He’d been off and out the door after Emma and her barefoot cat walk before he’d even had breakfast. His father knew that as well as he did. It was the old man’s fault to begin with, letting her wander off on a ten-mile hike to town.

  His father sighed, then turned away.

  Hearing more than exasperation in his father’s exhale, Marshall stepped out of the stall. “Wait.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. “Why?”

  “She didn’t get off the bus this afternoon. Wondered if maybe she mentioned going anywhere after school.”

  Past his father, the faded light of early evening filled the space between the open barn doors. Surprised by the missing sunshine, Marshall checked the old clock hanging on the wall by the tack room.

  Lucy should have been home hours ago.

  It wasn’t like his niece to take off without telling anyone where she was going. Not like her, at all. He set the pitchfork aside and pulled off his work gloves. “Did you call Danny?”

  “Left a message. There was another barn fire over in Kitteridge last night. Looks like they lost a couple of horses. He and Sam have been there all day.”

  Marshall swore. Whoever was burning barns was going to have an epic ass kicking coming once Danny caught up to them. Until now it had been sheds and equipment. But horses…horses were a whole other story.

  Marshall fell into step beside his father and headed up to the house.

  “I called Bailey, though,” his father continued, speaking of Danny’s other deputy. “Said he’d check the usual spots.”

  “Call her friends?”

  “I checked with Peaches and Kathleen, but both girls said they haven’t seen her since school, and she didn’t say anything to them about going anywhere.”

  Peaches and Kathleen were Lucy’s two best friends. The trio did everything together. If they didn’t know where she was…

  Marshall’s worry climbed another a step. “Did you call the school?”

  “She didn’t stay late. And no one in town saw her, either.”

  “Did you ask Mertle if she even got on the bus?”

  “No, damn it. I never thought of that. I’ll give her a call right now.”

  Marshall followed his father in through the back door to the kitchen and eavesdropped on the phone call. Lucy had, indeed, gotten on the bus, but for some reason she’d gotten off over by the old Creemore farm. The place had been abandoned for years. Why the hell would she want to go there?

  Marshall headed back out the door, waving his father off when he tried to follow. “One of us should stay here in case she comes back. Or calls.”

  Hank clamped his mouth closed on whatever argument he’d been about to deliver. The old man would want to be anywhere but sitting and waiting—something Marshall had no problem feeling sympathy over. There was no way he was going to be the one to sit on his ass, but at the same time, he knew he’d be going squirrelly if the roles were reversed.

  “I’ll check the Creemore place first,” he told his father. “Maybe try Peaches and Kathleen again? See if they can think of why she would get off the bus there?”

  His dad clasped him on the shoulder and nodded. “Good idea.”

  Marshall stepped onto the back porch. He paused in the open doorway and forced a lightness into his voice. “Danny�
�s going to ground her till she’s thirty for this.”

  Hank flashed a half smile, but it faded quickly. “Just find her.”

  “Count on it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Emma licked dripping chocolate ice cream off the side of her hand. “Stop making me laugh,” she said to Lucy with a giggle. “You’re making my ice cream melt.”

  “It’s not my fault.” Lucy snickered. “Charlie keeps farting.”

  Charlie stared out across the dark, empty parking lot, grinning.

  Emma relaxed back against the wooden bench. Her sides physically hurt from laughing. How was that even possible? There was no way something as simple as going to a mall should be so much fun. Although her silly companions had to take most of the credit.

  Spending time with the kids had sent her back to a time she’d all but forgotten. They’d walked the tiny loop of the mall’s ten stores over a dozen times. They’d tried on clothes they didn’t buy, tested out hats and scarves that were ridiculously sized, and sampled the greasy offerings from the little burger place. They’d even been ushered out of one store by an elderly security guard, which hadn’t fazed her in the least. If anything, it made her afternoon even funnier.

  And all because of the darling girl sitting beside her.

  Emma leaned to the side and bumped her shoulder against Lucy’s. “This was the best day ever. Thank you.”

  Lucy grinned. “You can come shopping with me anytime.”

  A flicker of sadness threatened to take over, but Emma shoved it away. “Only if Charlie promises not to fart.”

  Charlie laughed until his face turned red. “You said fart.” He snickered after he had his breathing under control.

  “Why is that so funny?” Emma asked.

  “Grown-ups don’t say fart,” he answered.

  “Who says she’s a grown-up?” Lucy countered.

  “Thanks.” Emma laughed. “I think.”

  Charlie pointed across the empty parking lot to the pair of crooked headlights coming toward them. “Dad’s here.”

  The rusty wagon pulled alongside them and stopped. “Closed the place down, did you?”

  “Yep!” Lucy answered.

  “And did you kids have fun?”

  Charlie flashed his dad a double thumbs-up as they piled in. “It. Was. Awesome!”

  “I hope you didn’t just eat ice cream,” Charlie Sr. said, narrowing his eyes at his son.

  Charlie quickly wiped at his face with the back of his hand. “Nope. No ice cream.”

  “Uh-huh.” His father snorted, putting the car into gear. “Then I guess we can call this a successful outing.”

  The laughter and jokes continued all the way to Absolution, where they died into sputtering silence when the inside of the car was lit up with flashing red and blue strobes.

  Emma’s happy day flashed away, replaced with a wash of fear. She glanced over her shoulder through the back window at the swirling lights behind them.

  “I think that’s Bailey,” Lucy said, twisting against her seat belt for a better view.

  “Who’s Bailey?” Emma asked.

  “Dad’s deputy. It can’t be Sam—he drives a white truck like Dad.”

  “Who’s Sam?”

  “Dad’s other deputy. And his best friend.”

  Charlie Sr. pulled over to the side and stopped.

  “What’d you do, Dad?” Charlie asked.

  “I wasn’t doing anything, so don’t you be telling your ma I was speeding.” Charlie Sr. rolled down his window. “Evenin’, Bailey.”

  From Emma’s side of the car, the only part of the deputy that was visible was a broad chest and the black gun in the holster at his hip.

  “Hey, Charlie,” the deputy greeted. “Sorry for the pullover, but I need Lucy.”

  “Everything all right?” Charlie Sr. asked.

  “Yup. All good. Sheriff asked me to bring her home.”

  “What? Why?” Lucy demanded.

  “C’mon, Luce.” Bailey opened the rear door. “If I don’t bring you home right now, your dad’s gonna tan both our hides.”

  Lucy muttered a goodbye to Charlie and his dad, then slid out of the seat. “Come on, Emma.”

  The deputy bent down next to Charlie Sr. and stared at Emma through the open window. She was surprised by how young he was. He couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty, tops. He might have been cute—if not for the gun and badge.

  “You’re Emma?” he asked with disbelief. “Georgie’s Emma?”

  “I guess so?” She gripped the armrest tightly.

  “Emma’s staying at the ranch,” Lucy said, dragging her backpack out of the back seat.

  “Huh.” Bailey blinked, then flashed a smile that made him appear even younger. “Well, then, I guess you’d better come along, too.”

  With a lump of trepidation in the pit of her stomach, Emma joined Lucy on the side of the road. Her heart knocked against her ribs. She’d fully planned to go back to the ranch with Lucy, but now that she faced an unscheduled ride in a police car, she felt a throat-tightening desperation to go anyplace but.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Marshall was pacing the porch when approaching headlights slowed and turned into the driveway. “They’re here,” he shouted, although the notice wasn’t necessary. His brother and father were already coming out the front door.

  “—going to ground her until she’s eighty,” Danny was grumbling.

  “I seem to recall a pair of boys who were quite fond of disappearing at all hours of the night,” Hank reminded him.

  “Boys,” Danny snapped. “Big difference, Dad.”

  Because no one had taken care with the parking when they’d returned from searching, all three Boyer trucks were sitting askew across the front of the house, blocking the patrol car from getting near the porch. Bailey parked at the back and flashed a quick wave toward the house. Danny was too busy ranting to acknowledge it, so Marshall gave him a wave back.

  Ethan Bailey was the third member of Danny’s small department. He was young, eager, and addicted to technology, but he had a way of finding connections the others didn’t. Even though he’d been on the force barely a year since graduating from high school, he was already proving himself invaluable. Especially tonight.

  Bailey opened the back door of the patrol car, and Lucy hopped out.

  “Lucy Marie Boyer!” Danny snapped, his boots clomping as he stomped down the porch steps. “Get your ass over here, right now!”

  Lucy stayed where she was. Marshall couldn’t figure out why she was delaying the inevitable, until Bailey helped a second passenger out.

  Emma?

  What was she doing back here?

  Bailey had radioed that Lucy had gone to the mall over in Dunston—the opposite direction of Pikes Falls. So how had they both ended up in the patrol car?

  Marshall hurried after his father and brother as they wove their way through the trucks toward the cruiser. Danny was snapping off all the punishments Lucy was going to face, and Hank was doubling down on the suggested time limits. They stepped out from behind the last truck and into the open.

  Everyone skittered to a halt when Emma launched herself in front of Lucy.

  “Don’t!” Her voice was high-pitched and frantic. She held her palm up as though the force of her will could keep them away.

  Out of sheer surprise, no one moved, and no one spoke.

  While everyone was playing statue, Marshall’s memories kicked out a bone-chilling event from his childhood and layered it over the scene in front of him. The location was different, the players changed, and the year long gone, but the situation was 100 percent a repeat of a nightmare he would never forget. The day Maisey Mickelson had stepped in front of her drunk-ass husband to take the beating the man had been about to rain down on his son.

  The dramatic scene in the driveway matched the event near perfectly, straight down to the way Emma was holding Lucy safely behind her back and the sound of Lucy’s sniffling tear
s.

  Marshall hadn’t been more than a kid himself, but he would never forget the blood. The screaming. The way Edward kept swinging and kicking even after Maisey was on the ground.

  Jesus.

  Emma thought—?

  He was disgusted she would think so lowly of his little brother, horrified to know it was her first reaction to the situation, and stone-cold furious at whoever put that level of fear into her. His eyes snapped from Lucy to Emma and back again. Desire to comfort his crying niece was seconded only by the urge to wrap Emma in his arms and swear to her nothing and no one would ever hurt her again.

  He shared a glance with Danny, reading the same run of emotions in his brother’s expression.

  Bailey inched closer to Emma, watching for a cue of what to do. Danny waved him off with a slight twist of his head. The deputy took a step back as Lucy sucked up a loud, snotty sniffle.

  “This is all my fault,” Emma insisted, her voice a cracking warble. “I’m the reason she’s late. Lucy was just helping me.”

  Lucy flung her school bag to the ground and wrapped both her hands around Emma’s wrist. A big fat tear rolled down her cheek to her chin. “How come I’m grounded? You said I could take Emma shopping after school! You said! That’s what we did!”

  When Danny spoke, his voice was much calmer than Marshall could ever have mustered with the insanity of the situation before them. “I said you could go, Luce, but that didn’t mean you could take off without telling anyone where you were or who you were with.”

  Lucy wiped her nose on her sleeve. “But I wasn’t by myself. Emma was with me. And Charlie.”

  “Yes, we know that now. But we didn’t know that a couple of hours ago. You should have come home and told your grandpa or your uncle Marsh where you were going and who you were going with. Neither one of them would have had any problem with you going to the mall if you’d come home and told us. But you just disappeared.”

  “I didn’t disappear. Everyone saw us.”

  Danny ran his hand through his hair. “Luce—everyone didn’t see you. Half the town’s been out looking for you. Your grandpa has been on the phone for hours, and your uncle Marsh and I have been across the county and back looking for you. You had us all worried to death.”