Chapter 6 – Camille
Thankfully, it wasn’t a long drive from the gas station to a small, quiet town by the name of Norwald, still within the state of Tennessee.
With a population of only a couple thousand people, there wasn’t much there.
A Sonic Drive-In, a few motels, and a Dollar General.
It was one of those forgettable, cookie-cutter small towns kids dream of leaving—but never do, because they don’t have many other options.
My trust in Erich’s survival skills began to deplete as I realized we had landed in a dead-end town like this.
“What now?” I asked, my hands buried in the pockets of my stolen flannel jacket. With no clothes to change into, I had to make do with what I’d taken from my brother.
“Lying, cheating, stealing,” Erich answered nonchalantly. “We have to eat and sleep somehow.”
And just like that, he pulled into the parking lot of a tiny grocery store and turned the car off.
That threw me off. This man—who had gone out of his way to make sure I wasn’t alone and hurting—made a living by deceiving others? What kind of twisted morals did he have? Was he selective about who he helped and who he used? I felt my respect for him slipping faster than I expected.
Erich noticed my silence—or read it in my body language.
“I don’t need to explain why this doesn’t bother me,” he began.
My patience was wearing thin, but I kept my mouth shut.
“I’m not perfect. No one is. I’m just trying to get by like anyone else.
So what’s the difference between someone like me and a door-to-door salesman selling shitty vacuum cleaners to old ladies? ”
His fingers ran through his hair, leaving the loose locks framing his forehead.
“The difference is I wouldn’t scam an old lady.”
I studied him. That was the most I’d heard him say—and the most thought-provoking. He didn’t seem shaken by what he’d admitted.
“So what falls into black and white for you?” I asked, half wondering aloud, half directing the question at him. “Why is this a morally gray area? Do your needs come before someone else’s? And if they do, what would you be willing to do to survive?”
A sarcastic laugh bubbled in my throat.
“Would you pick up a rich girl and bring her back for the reward?”
Erich turned toward me fully this time. His light blue eyes narrowed, his jaw tightening as he processed what I’d said.
“Are you trying to talk philosophy with me? We’ve only known each other a few hours.”
The answer was no. And since he didn’t laugh, maybe I wasn’t far off.
I didn’t know anything about philosophy, and the truth was, I was a hypocrite for judging him.
I came from a family that did horrible things in the name of God, opinion, and entitlement.
I had been raised to believe I could treat people poorly because I had more rights than they did—and my family thrived on those beliefs.
If Erich needed to pickpocket someone—whether it was a man with four kids to feed or a man who spent his money on booze and gambling—I had no place demanding an ethical explanation.
My silence answered his question.
“If you want to live this life, you’ll have to do it too,” he said. “But if you want to die on that hill, I won’t stop you.”
“Just how long have you been on your own?” I asked, again letting my thoughts slip out before I could stop them. I hoped I wasn’t pushing too far—but it also didn’t matter. I planned to leave him as soon as I could. He’d be nothing more than a footnote in my escape.
Tension rolled off him in waves, and I immediately regretted asking. The way his jaw clenched and unclenched… it wasn’t my business. Yet here I was, making it mine.
Before I could apologize, his posture loosened, and he let out a small chuckle.
“Most of my life. Traveling? Several years, if I’m counting right.”
“Several years?” I repeated.
“Yup.” He cut the conversation short, already shifting away from himself. “It’s too early to try winning drunk people’s cash, but I’ve got enough from Belham to buy breakfast. We’ll figure out the rest.”
Despite the fact we’d just come from a gas station where we bought nicotine, candy, and caffeine, he stepped out of the car and headed for the grocery store without checking if I was following.
I hurried after him, trying to match his pace, but it was useless as the giant shoes he gave me stomped awkwardly behind, my toes pushed to the front to avoid tripping on them.
I ran my fingers through my hair, spreading it over my neck while the baseball cap kept most of it in place.
I had to admit—I was starving. Reese’s and Twizzlers only went so far.
“Are you afraid anyone will recognize you here?” Erich asked. He stopped beneath the canopy at the entrance.
I watched as he pulled out his pack of cigarettes, slipped one between his lips and dug for a lighter. I had just caught up to him.
“No,” I answered, careful not to say more than necessary. The last thing I needed was to tell him something that would give him a reason to send me back—or leave me behind. He was my best chance at staying gone.
I caught the smirk at the corner of his mouth as he lit the cigarette, taking a slow drag before exhaling. Even if I hadn’t seen it, I could hear it in his voice.
“‘Jack,’ you’re feminine enough to get whatever you want. As long as you can get past whatever godly morals you’re clinging to, you won’t have any problem with the kind of crowd we’ll be around.”
There was sarcasm in the way he used my alias. I didn’t bother correcting him—we both knew it wasn’t real. But I wasn’t ready to give him the truth either.
“Are you implying I need to seduce drunk men?”
The cigarette burned between his fingers. Of course he had to have a vice. One that made me hold my breath.
“I’m not telling you to do anything. I’m saying you could—and you’d come out on top.” He paused. “You’re young. Or at least you look it. You’re naturally pretty, and you carry yourself well. You were taught to be pleasant.”
He had picked up on more than I realized. Heat crept into my face as I dropped my gaze from his to the cracked pavement beneath my feet.
“Yes,” I said quietly. “I’m almost nineteen.”
He considered that, forcing a small, tight smile.
“About what I figured.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Twenty-one.”
He slipped the cigarette back between his lips, his gaze drifting out across the parking lot as the ember glowed.
It was strange, but sharing that felt… normal. Like we were connecting. Something I hadn’t expected hours earlier.
I returned his smile, but inside, my thoughts drifted back to Reed—turning twenty this fall. The comparison made my stomach twist. At least they didn’t look alike. Not even close.
Reed was polished and proper.
Erich was rough around the edges—like he wore the same pair of jeans for as long as he could get away with.
We didn’t have much else to say while Erich finished his cigarette.
He dropped it to the ground and snuffed it out with the bottom of his boot, and we went into the grocery store together.
Inside, we found one cashier reading a magazine from three months ago, an elderly customer examining beans as if his choice would determine life or death, and a young woman who was stressed and frantic as she tossed random items into her cart while her baby screamed from the car seat clipped to the front.
It wasn’t peaceful or enjoyable, but this must have been what normal people expected when they got their groceries. The thought soothed me.
Our hunger led us to a small bakery in the back of the store, and we decided on donuts.
I chose one with vanilla frosting and sprinkles, mostly because it was pretty against the white.
Erich went with a cinnamon roll. There was no line, so we were back outside quickly—no questions, no comments, not even a second glance from anyone inside.
Instinctively, I wanted to thank him, but I knew he wouldn’t have much of a response, if any. Instead, we sat against the white brick wall of the store. Loitering, but no one was around to scold us.
I took a small bite of my donut and realized I hadn’t had anything like it in years. It tasted incredible—like the childhood thrill of candy, but better because it felt like something I was allowed to have.
I quickly found myself wolfing it down, trying not to be obvious about it. I was fully aware I wasn’t alone.
Erich, being that someone, didn’t seem to mind. He was just as quick with his cinnamon roll. We ate in silence, and for the first time since meeting him, I welcomed it.
He wiped the frosting from his fingers onto his jeans. That was strike two for disgusting habits.
“It would be easy for you to get whatever you wanted from half the sleazebags I have in mind.”
I choked back a surprised laugh. “Sleazebags? Are you going to pimp me out to drunks?”
There was that smirk again. I couldn’t tell if it was at my comment or his own phrasing.
“I’m just giving you ideas,” he said. “If this is what you want to do—and you have nowhere else to go—you’ll need to learn how it works.”
I considered that, oddly flattered. I pictured myself in a long red gown with a slit up the side, makeup flawless, silk gloves on my hands as I laughed politely at a mediocre joke from a middle-aged man in a suit.
“What would I do?”
“We’ll go to that bar we passed coming into town. But we’ll pretend we don’t know each other, so you look like you’re alone. I’ll do what I usually do—cards, pool, whatever game I can stretch long enough until everyone’s too drunk to notice I’m tipping things in my favor.”
He paused.
“Even though I’m doing my own thing, I’ll keep an eye on you. These people can get unruly, and since it’s your first time, you might run into problems. So we’ll need a signal. Some kind of code word.”
I thought for a moment, trying to follow along. “How about ‘baseball’?” I suggested, thinking of the cap. I had to hold back a small laugh at the idea of it as a code word.
“Perfect,” Erich said. “If you’re in trouble, mention baseball. If you can’t get to me, say it loud enough and I’ll find you.”
He picked at a loose thread on his jeans, which made me check mine instinctively.
“You already know how to act, so start with that. Act interested in whoever is interested in you. If they offer to buy you a drink, you can accept—but don’t drink it unless you see it made and handed to you. That’s common sense.” He shrugged. “It could be drugged.”
“Just listen until he’s stumbling over his words, then decide what you want to do. You could play the pity card—say you don’t have money to get home. You could get hands-on and take a wallet… But I wouldn’t recommend accepting payment for favors.”
My eyes widened. “What? No, of course not.”
He caught my tone and backtracked. “Not literally. I mean there are ways to fake it. Like…” He hesitated, running a hand through his hair.
“I used to work with someone. She’d play the part, I’d slip something into his drink, and next thing you know, we’ve got his motel key, his wallet, and he’s out cold—either in a ditch or still at the bar. ”
That was new. I didn’t fully believe him, but I didn’t have a reason not to either. I didn’t know how to respond.
“If it works,” I said carefully, “I’m willing to learn.”
His small smile disappeared. “No. It got to be too much. She liked the power. It stopped being about survival.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“We had our differences. She went back home.”
“That sounds… simple,” I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
The wind pushed my hair into my face, and I adjusted it to keep my neck covered.
Erich smirked again. “We were friends for a long time. Her mom didn’t care.”
What kind of mother lets their child seduce old men, stay in motels with an ethically unjust young man, drink at bars, and do God knows what all over the country?
They weren’t even adults yet! That didn’t sound like a good relationship to me, but then again, who was I to say what a healthy relationship with one’s parents was?
Erich sensed my confusion and let out a huge sigh.
“We dated,” he added. “Her mom trusted me.”
I nodded slowly, though I didn’t fully understand. There was clearly more to him than I had expected.
“So… did you steal the car too?” I asked, nodding toward the Nova across the lot.
“Believe it or not, no,” he said with a short laugh. “I bought it. Not exactly with honest money, though.”
He glanced at me. “It’s up to you what you want to do. I won’t let anything happen to you. We can use what I’ve got left from last night to get a room. It won’t be nice, but it’ll be something.”
I didn’t respond. I picked at my fingernails instead, relieved there were no more black paint chips stuck to them.
A room. With him.
The voice in my head told me he wasn’t a threat—but that didn’t mean I was comfortable.
I wondered if my family was searching for me or, if they were nervous they didn’t cover their steps concerning me.
Who was to say I wouldn’t tell someone? Then again, who was to say anyone would believe me?
It was a crazy story, and I was just a young girl.
Legally an adult, but I had never held a job or experienced the real world.
Would they go to the news with my disappearance? Report me missing? Offer a reward? Would someone recognize me and send me back?
And if they did—would anyone even believe me?
I had too many questions. Most of them starting with why.
Erich pushed himself to his feet. “We should figure out where we’re staying before the town wakes up and someone decides to talk.”
I stood as well. “Lead the way.”
My smile didn’t reach my eyes, but I forced it anyway.