Chapter 2
Chapter Two
SOFIE
I eye my big brother. “You want me to drive?” All of us have been awake since we left Finn River yesterday morning, but Jesse’s the only one I’m worried about.
“I’m good,” he replies, sending me a wink.
“The car’s clean?” I can’t help but ask. The U.S. Border Security doesn’t mess around.
He rolls his eyes. “Relax, okay?”
We climb into his Jeep, and I settle into the cushy seat. Jesse starts the engine, its throaty rumble rattling my bones. He engages the clutch and slowly reverses out of the parking spot. At least we’re the caboose in our convoy. All he has to do is follow Gabe and the others home.
“Can you come for dinner tonight?” I ask while Jessie accelerates onto the freeway, the beefy tires humming on the pavement.
He’s so focused on adjusting the air vent that he’s starting to drift to the right. “Um, Jess?”
He steers us back into the center. “Will Dad be there?”
That would be the point—all of us together. “Linnie misses you.” It’s a low blow, but it’s also true. I don’t want our little sister to be collateral damage in the fight to save my family.
“I miss her too,” he says, and at least this time, there’s real emotion in his reply. “Want me to pick her up from school today?”
“So you can put your moves on Miss Evans? Sorry, no.”
“You’re admitting I have moves?” He arches a cocky eyebrow.
I roll my eyes. “You’re impossible.”
Traffic slows as we approach the border crossing. Cars inch forward, splitting into four separate lanes. A few cars up, Gabe chooses the middle lane. Kirilee takes the left one. While Jesse navigates around the back end of a giant horse trailer to the far-right lane, I pull our passports from the glove box.
At the booth, Jesse hands over our passports. The guard asks us the usual questions. I count slowly to twenty in my head, keeping my body still and my face calm as we go through the motions of answering. If Jesse isn’t telling the truth, and the agent sizing us up gets curious, we’re sunk.
As if Jesse’s troubles aren’t bad enough.
But the agent stamps each passport and hands them back with a friendly nod. “Welcome home.”
Relief shudders through me so hard I grip the edge of my seat.
The gate opens, and Jesse steps on the gas too hard, and the Jeep jolts forward. I glare at him. “I really don’t want to get arrested today.”
Jesse smirks, his eyes on the road. We’ve ended up behind the horse trailer. Gabe’s truck and Kirilee’s BMW are ahead, already merging onto the two-lane highway.
Now that we’re back in the U.S., I text Dad our ETA, even though he’s in the field today and likely out of cell range. Jesse flips on the radio, but all we get is a gospel program.
We talk about the show and the afterparty that kept us all awake until three in the morning, but I don’t bring up what happened with Gabe during Burnout’s set or ask Jesse where he went halfway through it.
The addiction counselor walked us through signs of relapse, and random disappearances are at the top of the list.
But I don’t want to confront my brother right now. Maybe I’m in denial, or maybe I’m just… scared.
When we crest the pass, the long lake below us glistens in the morning sun, with the Bitterroots rising into the pale blue sky to the east. Though I can’t yet see our little town nestled into the Finn River valley, the promise of home warms me from the inside out.
Jesse flies down the pass, coming up tight on the horse trailer, the Jeep vibrating so hard at this speed that the soles of my feet have gone numb.
“I heard from Mom,” he says over the noise.
“What?” I squint at his face to get more information, but the sun’s angle is too bright, especially with the reflection off of the lake. “Did you call her?”
“She wants me to come to L.A.,” he continues, as if he didn’t hear me.
“Oh, Jess.” My heart pounds inside my chest and my thoughts swirl. Our mom left five years ago and lives a very different life now—one that would swallow my fragile brother whole.
“You think I shouldn’t go?” There’s a bite to his tone that makes my neck prickle.
“I didn’t say that.”
I glance at the closeness of the Jeep to the trailer. He wouldn’t try to pass here, would he? The road gets twisty, and though it’s familiar, that’s not the same as X-ray vision.
“She knows people in the film biz.” He checks his rearview mirror, then crosses the double lines and accelerates.
“Jesse,” I warn as we fly past the horse trailer. Below us, the lake shimmers. I can’t see our friends ahead of us. It’s too bright, or maybe?—
“Shit,” Jesse says as an oncoming car pops into view.
I scream as he tries to get around the front of the trailer, but it fades from sight to the sound of screeching brakes.
The Jeep fishtails across the road, tipping harder each time.
“Hold on!” Jesse cries, trying to regain control, but with a sudden lurch, we tip into space. We’re airborne for one terrifying second, and then the Jeep’s front slams down. Metal crunches in my ears and we’re flipped forward, end over end. My side slams into the window, and then I hit the dashboard. Stars burst in my vision, and pain erupts from my temple. I reach out to grab hold of something but we’re moving too fast .
We land with a thud on the lake’s surface, the water engulfing the hood and sloshing over the windshield.
“Jesse!” I shriek as the nose of the Jeep begins to sink.
“Oh my god.” He’s breathing hard, and his eyes are wide. He’s bleeding from a gash on his face, and his left shoulder is limp, like it’s been knocked from its socket.
Something warm oozes past my eye. I swat it away, and my hand comes back smeared with blood. I reach for my seatbelt to help Jesse, but a hot pain erupts in my hand when I press on the release. It takes both of my thumbs to pop the button, but then I’m free.
The water is level with the bottom of the windshield and seeping in through the crack in my window. We’re going to be underwater soon.
Jesse has unbuckled and is yanking on his door handle. “We have to get out of here.”
“How?” The Jeep gives a lurch and tips downward into the water. “Jesse!”
“I’ll push the door open, and we’ll swim out!” He swivels sideways and slams his feet against the door. The windshield is half-submerged now, revealing the inky black depths of the lake.
“No, the window!” I shout because there’s too much water pushing against the door now. I start to roll mine down, but the crank is impossible to turn with my throbbing hand.
“Okay,” Jesse says, breathless, trying to roll his down too. “The water’s going to rush in. It’s going to be hard to get out.”
I see it all play out in my mind—the water blasting us and filling the cab, weighing us down even more.
“Fuck!” Jesse cries, jerking on the crank. “Mine’s jammed.”
I’ve got mine down a few inches. A few more, and the water is going to flood in. “Jesse,” I whimper. My head hurts so bad it’s hard to think.
“We’ll go out yours.” Jesse leans over me to help roll my window down further. “You first.”
“No!” I say as we struggle with the crank. Moving it takes all my strength. “We’ll go together.”
Jesse gives the crank one more turn. In a burst, water spills over the window. The cold lake floods into the cab, hard and powerful, splashing on my lap and gushing down to my feet .
“Take a breath, Sofie!” Jesse shouts.
“I’m not leaving without you!” I fight against the current to grip the edge of the window. The water is up to my waist.
From outside the Jeep, I hear shouts. Someone is coming.
The car starts to roll.
“Go!” Jesse yells just as the cold water engulfs me. Everything goes silent. Jesse shoves me through the window. Heart pounding, I try to turn back, but someone from outside the car grabs me. Pulls me in the opposite direction. I thrash against it but they’re too strong. I surface spluttering and kicking.
“Quit it, or you’ll drown us both!” a guy barks in my ear.
“Jesse!” My cry comes out garbled.
“Fuck, there’s someone else?”
“My brother!” I fight against the guy’s hold. “I have to go back!”
A man in a shearling coat is hurrying toward me, his eyes wide as he splashes into the shallows. I’m coughing so hard that my lungs are burning. My head feels like it’s going to explode. Even though I don’t feel cold, I’m shivering.
“I’ll go back.” The guy carrying me passes me off to the man.
He lifts me into his arms like I’m made of feathers. “I got you,” he says, wrapping me in his coat, which smells like hay.
“Jesse!” I strain against the stranger’s arms. Everything hurts, but I ignore it. I have to go back for Jesse.
The guy who dragged me to shore is splashing back through the shallows, then disappears under the water.
Sirens wail in the distance. Several cars are above us on the road. People are standing, staring, their mouths open. A woman is filming us with her phone.
“Ambulance is comin’,” the man says as he carries me through tall grass, but his voice sounds far away. Another man comes down to help carry me, his arms jostling my broken body. Panting, I squirm to watch for Jesse, but the man is as big as a refrigerator. I’m shivering so hard now that my teeth are tapping uncontrollably.
Jesse’s going to be okay. He’s going to get out.
The lake surface breaks, but the person who comes up isn’t Jesse. Sickening dread pools in my stomach.
I scream for my brother as my rescuer heaves a giant breath and dives.