Saving Sophia (Devils of Alliston Springs #2)

Prologue

Grant

My ma used to tell me to stop starin’ at the sun.

She said I’d go blind one day and then I wouldn’t be able to use my talents like I wanted to.

I didn’t think losing my eyes would ever stop me from drawing.

I’d still see the things I found most beautiful in this world in my mind all the same, like the lines and grooves on leaves, the way a patch of clouds reflected in a lake at noon, or the orange and blue birds that’d land on my mother’s bird feeder.

The feeder currently being chucked across the lawn.

My pencil cracked in my hand as I glared at the man responsible for the destruction of everything I found beautiful.

The reason my sister stayed hidden or went away until nighttime, and why my ma cried herself to sleep with marks on her wrists.

The reason my sketchbook remained empty, my hands uninspired for months.

The sun wasn’t going to be the end of what I loved.

He was.

“Told your mother to stop usin’ my money to buy bird feed!” Kirk shouted, dusting his hands over a singular, clasped strap on his worn overalls. As he kicked at the dirt to fill the hole he’d just made, the front door of our—well, his—mobile home flew open.

Shit.

I waved my hand to shoo my sister back inside, but the fiery girl she was didn’t care about the consequences.

She didn’t think first before reacting, and although she was only eight, I could tell that trait wasn’t goin’ anywhere.

That’s exactly why I stood, with my broken pencil firmly in my grip, and ran to block her from comin’ any closer.

“Stop it! Stop!” Tallulah hollered right as my arms caged her in. Kirk paid her no mind and started grunting and cursing at the hole he was only makin’ worse.

“Go back inside. Now,” I ordered, keeping my voice low and tone as neutral as I could, hoping Kirk hadn’t heard a thing.

Hoping he was too lost in the destruction to give a damn what his girlfriend’s kids were doing while she was out working her second job, getting him more money.

That bird feeder and all the seed that had been inside was rightfully hers.

“No! He just threw mama’s bird feeder! She won’t like—” I clasped my hand over her mouth, making her grey eyes—same shade as mine, only one was splashed with brown halfway through—go wide.

“Shhh.” I glanced over my shoulder, making sure Kirk was still oblivious. He was. “Go back inside and go to our room. Lock the door, and don’t come out ’til I say. Okay?”

“But—”

“Tallulah, please.”

She nodded slowly, and I dropped my hand. “I’ll fix it like I always do. It’s not worth you gettin’ hurt, ya hear?” Her gaze darted past my shoulder before meeting mine again, that flare back in them like she was terrified.

And then, I felt it.

The air muted, all birdsong gone from the trees. Even the wind halted, like it had nothing left to give.

In an instant, my body was ripped from my sister’s. Pain wracked through my shoulders before spreading to my back as I was slammed into the packed dirt. A leather boot pressed into my stomach, keeping me there as I coughed, gasping in lungfuls of dust.

“Grant!” Tallulah screamed.

“Shoulda let it be. Idiot.” Kirk spat beside my head. I jerked my face away. “What’s the matter, can’t get up?” My thumb dug into the splintered wood of my busted pencil as my fist tightened.

“Let him go!”

“Quiet, Tallulah.” I grunted, earning a laugh from Kirk. “Go inside, like I said.”

“Yeah, little girl. Wouldn’t want to see your big, bad brother get his ass beat by a real man.

” Kirk pressed his boot deeper into my gut, hoping I’d squirm.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek as tears welled in my eyes, fighting to keep my core rigid.

Letting him see me weak wasn’t an option.

“Let this be a lesson to you, girl. Your brother ain’t able to protect you forever.

Better off trackin’ down one of y’all’s daddy’s than wishin’ for this scrawny fucker to do a damn thing.

Hell, at thirteen, I was bigger than him. ”

“Probably just as much of an asshole, too,” I murmured.

“Oh-ho! Big words for a lil boy.” Kirk chuckled as he pressed in hard enough to stunt my breaths. I gasped for air, and my sister’s face paled.

I slapped at his boot with my empty hand. “Go! R-run ins-side!” I shouted. Tallulah stumbled back a few steps, red hair sticking to her tear-streaked cheeks as she cupped a hand over her mouth. “Go!”

“Go! Go! Go!” Kirk repeated, taunting us. “Run away from the big, bad wolf before he gits ya!”

Something flashed in Kirk’s eyes as he watched Tallulah back away, and although I was pressing up on his boot, I knew that wasn’t why the weight on my gut was temperin’. He was going to go after my baby sister instead.

I’d seen what he did to our ma. The way he made her cower in fear when he had his angry outbursts.

It was like Kirk craved hurting people. And that flash in his eyes?

It looked an awful lot like the one he gave our ma when she didn’t come home with enough cash for him.

What he did with her money—well, I may’ve only been thirteen, but I wasn’t a moron like he believed.

It wasn’t like he hid what he did that well.

Shooting shit up into your veins left marks, too.

As Kirk’s boot slid back to solid ground, his gaze tracked my sister, who was too stricken with fear to move any further.

“Go!” I shouted again right before lunging for Kirk’s legs, looping my arms around them and trying my hardest to knock him down. To make him lose his footing and trip.

I should’ve known it wouldn’t work. Kirk was a jackass, but he was a big one, at that. A big ole junkie with nothin’ better to do than torment the three of us like we were his property—just like my ma’s birdfeeder.

“Fuck you doin’, boy?” He freed a leg and reared back, then kicked my side. Searing, white-hot agony coursed through my ribs as I rolled and curled in on myself, coughing up a fit.

“Stop it! Stop hittin’ my brother!”

“Your brother needs to be taught a lesson. Just like you do.”

“Don’t you touch her.” I clawed at the dirt, trying to fight the pain.

“Maybe I should,” Kirk replied, circling around until the trees in the distance were covered by frayed, jean hems and tattered, leather boots.

“Maybe I should make you watch me hit her like I do to your worthless ma. Worthless fucking kids, all of ’em.

” His boot swung back and hit me with a force greater than the first.

I cried out, unable to stop the sound that escaped me as he did it again and again.

My sister dropped to the ground and held me from behind, her long hair draping over my arm as she begged for Kirk to stop.

But no amount of pleading made him listen as he moved on to my legs, filling my body with bruises I didn’t have to see to know covered most of my skin.

Tears of pain hit the dirt with every jerk of my body, but as long as Tallulah was safe, I’d take every hit. Every kick. Every bruise.

He finally gave up and stormed inside, slamming the metal door behind him, leaving my sister a sobbing mess as she hugged me close.

Still gripping the broken pencil in my fist as she wept over me, a realization struck hard—Kirk wasn’t ever going to stop.

Not unless I did somethin’ about it.