Chapter 3
Nothing good happens in a storm like this.
Light severed the darkness with a glaring flash, the boom of thunder rattling Teslyn’s car and making her hands tighten reflexively on the wheel. Water poured down the windshield, the wipers barely able to keep up, wind forcing the vehicle toward the shoulder with every gust.
She should pull over, stop driving, but her mother’s phone call after so many years of silence echoed in her memory.
I have a little sister.
Guilt pulled at Teslyn like the mud of a swamp sucking at her feet.
Was Ivy’s childhood just like hers? No one should have to live through that.
If Teslyn had known the girl existed she would have come back.
Tried to shield her, protect her somehow.
Maybe she could do that for her now, even try to become Ivy’s guardian.
She doesn’t even know you. What makes you think she’d want to leave her mother and live with you?
She knew in her heart of hearts that if someone had offered her a way out when she was five years old, she never would have taken it.
Back then, she’d loved Marilyn, no matter her faults.
It was only when she grew up that she was able to see her mother for who she was—and see how close she herself was to following in Marilyn’s footsteps.
Teslyn frowned, unable to believe she was heading home.
She’d put as many miles between herself and that piece of shit trailer as she could muster, using the distance like a balm upon her soul, a magical cream that could heal wounds she once thought would weep for all eternity.
She’d made a life for herself. A good one.
But a gossamer string would always connect her to Marilyn Gleason, no matter how far away Teslyn got.
Coming back to Osprey, Mississippi was like slicing open a scar—but the fear in her mother’s voice had been her undoing. “He owns the police, babydoll.”
Another flash of lightning, the roll of thunder nearly instantaneous.
Tornadoes were common this time of year, and her eyes went to the radio.
If she turned it on, would it warn her to seek shelter?
There was nowhere to go, no safety in sight, and it occurred to her she had always felt this way here, tornado warning or not.
Teslyn shook her head and took a deep breath, forcing her fingers to relax their viselike grip on the wheel. “It’s just a place,” she whispered. “Just a town. Just a rundown, nasty trailer.” But the words failed to calm the erratic gallop of her heart.
She would do what she came here to do and get back to her life inside of a week.
Help Marilyn and Ivy get set up in a new town, find them someplace to live, stock the refrigerator for them.
She could do that. She could handle herself.
She would handle everything. She would get to meet her sister, let her know she had somewhere to go when she was finally old enough to extricate herself from the mess that was Marilyn Gleason’s life.
She passed an abandoned gas station and slowed down, turning onto the dirt road that wound its way toward her home.
The road looked like a creek bed, water rushing down its rutted surface and pooling along one side.
She passed a pickup truck and wondered who besides her would be crazy enough to be out driving in this mess.
Just a few hundred yards now. Her car bounced along the pocked road, her nose twitching at the scent of something burning.
That had better not be my car. The last thing she needed was a car repair bill, especially after calling in to work for the week claiming a family emergency.
It felt like a lie, for in her heart she no longer had a family.
She followed the bend in the road, her surroundings getting eerily brighter as she made the turn. “What the hell?” she whispered to herself.
She slammed on the brakes as the trailer came into view, fully engulfed by a raging fire. She jumped out of the car and ran toward the burning trailer. “Momma!” Her cry was hoarse and full of emotion.
Intense heat had her backing away, shielding her eyes with her forearm. Flames shot from every window, intense and threatening. She screamed as loud as she could, “Mom! Ivy!” Emotion and smoke choked her airway. Marilyn was in there. Marilyn, and the little sister she’d never met.
She ran back to the car and grabbed her cell phone, dialing 911. Rain wet the screen and she yelled in frustration, wiping it on the cloth seat and dialing in the car.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“My mother’s trailer is on fire!” She rattled off the address. “Please, hurry.”
“I’m sending help. Is anyone inside?”
“I don’t know.” Teslyn looked around, her stomach falling when she saw the late-model sedan parked beside the rusting metal shed. Marilyn always parked there. She swallowed hard. The words rushed out on a sob. “I think so, yes.”
“And what’s your name, sweetie?”
“Teslyn McGregor. Gleason,” she corrected. “Teslyn Gleason.”
“Teslyn, I want you to stay put until the authorities get there, okay? It should only be a few minutes.”
“Okay.” She hung up her phone and stumbled toward Marilyn’s car, running her hands over the roof, needing to touch it. It was warm like a toaster despite the rain, and she thought of the heat that must be inside that trailer.
Emotion overtook her. She fell to her knees in the mud as great, gasping sobs escaped from her mouth. Rain pummeled her head as horrific images pummeled her imagination.
Marilyn and Ivy were gone. She knew it. Her mother had feared for her life, and she’d been killed just as she predicted.
Teslyn didn’t know how long she stayed like that.
Long enough for the cold from the rain to seep into her bones.
Long enough to wonder what was taking the firemen so long to arrive.
Long enough to consider staying in town overnight or turning around and heading home.
She wanted to curl up inside her mother’s car and never leave it, to inhale the scent of Marilyn’s cigarettes and try to remember what made her worth hating.
Teslyn’s body felt heavy as she pulled herself to a stand and slowly turned around, her eyes catching on something half-hidden by darkness.
Peeking out from behind the rusted metal shed was a small girl.
She wore a light nightgown, her pale feet bare against the dark, wet earth.
Her face was covered in soot or dirt, her long hair clearly tangled.
Could it be? Teslyn approached, her voice wavering as she asked, “Are you Ivy?”
The girl nodded.
Teslyn leaned down so they were on eye level. The girl was small. Too small for a healthy five-year-old. “I’m Teslyn. Did your mom tell you about me?”
Ivy shook her head no.
That stung a little, she wasn’t going to lie. “I’m your sister. I used to live here before you were born.” The girl furrowed her brow, eyeing her skeptically. “It’s true,” said Teslyn. “Marilyn was my mom, too.”
“Momma didn’t get out.” Her voice was flat, her face void of emotion, and Teslyn suspected the girl was in shock.
She needed to get to a hospital, be seen by a doctor.
Teslyn opened her mouth to say as much when the wail of sirens echoed in the distance.
Ivy snatched her hand, squeezing it tightly. “We gotta hide!”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s gonna find us. We gotta hide.”
“Who’s going to find us?”
“He wouldn’t let me out. I had to crawl out the bottom of the trailer.”
“In the fire? There was someone here?”
Ivy nodded frantically. “A policeman. My window was stuck and he wouldn’t help me get out.”
The sirens grew louder. Ivy wept, her chin trembling as she spoke. “We gotta hide, now!”
Marilyn had said he owned the police, and Teslyn suddenly understood the danger she had summoned to their door. “Is he coming here with the sirens?”
“Uh-huh,” Ivy sniveled, hysterical.
“Quick, get in my car.” She jogged to it, the girl fast on her heels.
Teslyn started the engine and tore down the gravel road as quickly as she could, pulling to the side when a fire truck passed.
“Get down,” she commanded, the girl unbuckling her seat belt and moving to the floor as the fire engine and a police car raced past.
This was bigger than Teslyn knew how to handle, bigger than she could manage on her own, and she desperately wished she had someone to help her.
Vanessa’s brother Ian flashed in her mind.
He used to be in the military, and though Teslyn didn’t know exactly what he did now, she’d long suspected it was top secret and dangerous.
He was brawny and solid and intimidating as all hell.
His nickname was Razorback, as if he wasn’t scary enough as Ian.
Ian will know what to do.
Teslyn pulled back onto the road and voice-dialed Vanessa.
“Who’re you calling?” asked Ivy.
“A friend of mine. He’ll be able to help us. He’ll know what to do.” Her hands tightened painfully on the steering wheel. “We’re going to be okay.”
“You promise?”
Teslyn’s promise to her mother resonated in her mind.
She shot a glance at her little sister. The girl was clearly exhausted.
She’d nearly been killed and had lost everything she’d ever known, and she was Teslyn’s responsibility now, and for the rest of their lives.
“I promise.” She reached for Ivy’s hand and squeezed, pressing down on the accelerator as sirens pierced the quiet of the night.
One way or another, she’d make sure that was true.