His Texas Home (Holts of Briar Hill #4)

1. Willa

ONE

Willa

I don’t remember much about the night I ran away.

I remember the smell of cedar, the way the dark felt thick out past the tree line.

It was nothing like the dark inside the compound, where there was always someone awake, always a light on somewhere.

Out here it was just black in every direction and the sound of my own breathing and the ground uneven under my feet.

I remember thinking: don't stop.

So I didn't.

I walked until the compound lights disappeared behind the hill, and then I kept walking because disappearing behind a hill wasn't the same as gone.

The cash was folded flat against my sternum, tucked into the bodice of my dress, and I kept one hand pressed there without meaning to.

Forty-three dollars. I'd taken a few bills at a time over two years, whenever I could, whenever the offering basket came around and I could palm something before it passed.

It had felt like stealing. Maybe it was.

I'd asked God to forgive me every time and then done it again the next week.

I figured He understood.

The trees got thicker and I slowed down because I had to, because roots kept catching my feet and I couldn't afford to fall. I didn't know whose land this was. I didn't know much about what was out past the eastern fence—we weren't encouraged to wonder.

At some point I found the blind.

I almost walked into it. It was up on legs, wooden, tucked back against a big live oak, and I stood there at the bottom of the ladder for a long moment just trying to think. Someone owned this. Someone would come back to it eventually.

But it wasn't tonight.

I climbed up. Pulled the door shut behind me. Sat down on the wooden bench inside with my back against the wall and my knees pulled up and my hand still pressed flat against the money in my dress.

My feet hurt. I didn't know how long I'd been walking.

Outside, something moved in the brush. I held my breath until it passed—deer, probably, or something small. Nothing looking for me.

Not yet.

I let my head fall back against the wall and closed my eyes.

Don't stop had gotten me here. I'd figure out the rest in the morning.