Chapter 12
Teslyn rode in the passenger seat of Wyatt’s truck, squinting against the bright light of a sunny morning.
She hadn’t had any nightmares after talking to him in the night, but her mind had incorporated him into a different type of dream altogether.
She was certain she’d blushed a deep crimson every time he’d made eye contact with her today.
Ivy was in the back seat, happily coloring in a coloring book Wyatt had thought to purchase at the convenience store the night before.
The look in her eyes when he’d given them to her made Teslyn remember how little she herself had once had.
A fresh box of crayons was not a priority on Marilyn’s shopping list, and Wyatt had clearly been elevated to superhero status with that particular purchase.
They’d stopped at a drive-thru for breakfast before hitting the road, and they were rationing Ivy’s liquids in hopes of making the four-hour drive without a very public stop at a rest area.
So when the girl piped up two hours into the trip and said she had to go to the bathroom, Teslyn and Wyatt shared a look of concern.
“We could pull over,” Teslyn suggested quietly.
He shook his head. “A passing cruiser might stop just to see if everything’s okay. I’ll get off at this exit. We’ll make it work.”
He sounded confident, but the idea made her stomach burn as if she’d swallowed acid.
She’d already learned, all it took was one alert employee, one observant grandmother, or a snippet of video footage, and the authorities would be all over them.
Add to that, Ivy was wearing the same clothes as the last time she’d been spotted, and those images had likely been broadcast all over the news. “How?”
Slowing down, he took an exit ramp that led to a two-lane road with shopping plazas on either side. “We need to get her new clothes.”
“Walmart?” Teslyn suggested.
“They’ll have cameras. Someplace smaller.”
Her eyes scoured a large board that listed the stores in that plaza. “Thrift shop. Go there.” He pulled into the parking lot. Teslyn turned to Ivy. “I’m going to buy you some new clothes. I’ll be quick, then we’ll take you to a bathroom.”
“I gotta go now,” Ivy whined.
Wyatt parked. “I’ve got this.” He turned to Ivy. “Can I see your coloring?”
Teslyn slipped out of the truck.
“Wait!” he called, just as she was about to close the door. “Take my sunglasses. There’s a baseball cap in the back.”
Chastising herself for nearly going out in public without the smallest disguise, she did as she was told, donning the sunglasses before Ivy handed her a Miami Dolphins hat. “Dolphins fan, huh?” she asked, putting it on.
“I enjoy disappointment,” he quipped, with a smile that made her heart pause too long between beats.
She closed the door and headed inside, hurriedly flipping through racks of girls’ clothing.
She only had twenty bucks in cash, but the three tops and two pairs of shorts she picked out came to only half that, and the clerk barely seemed to notice she was alive.
Teslyn was back in the truck in no time, assuring Ivy she and Wyatt wouldn’t turn around while the girl changed in the back seat.
This was going better than she could have hoped.
“Fuck,” Wyatt said quietly under his breath.
Teslyn was about to ask what was wrong, but before she got the words out, she spotted the police cruiser turning into the lot and heading straight for them. “Oh, my God,” she said, her voice just as quiet as his had been.
“Okay, you can turn around now,” said Ivy. “How do I look?”
Teslyn turned in her seat, lightheaded with panic. They hadn’t come this far only to be caught in a thrift store parking lot. “Wow, you look beautiful,” she said, doing her best to look as if she meant the words, and wasn’t going to be sick.
“Ivy,” said Wyatt, his voice firm. “I want you to get down on the floor and stay quiet. There’s a policeman, and I don’t want him to see you. Do you understand?”
She was on the floor before he finished his sentence.
“Keep driving, Barney Fife,” Wyatt muttered, but the officer pulled alongside their truck, his open window even with Wyatt’s. Teslyn couldn’t breathe.
The cop eyed Wyatt. “Afternoon.”
Wyatt nodded politely. “Afternoon.”
“You hear about that girl who was kidnapped from Mississippi yesterday?” The policeman asked with a thick southern drawl.
“Sure did,” said Wyatt, and Teslyn nodded, grateful for the sunglasses she still wore, and the way they hid her face.
“I see you two have Georgia plates. Where are you headed?”
Wyatt sounded so natural she might have believed him when he said, “Arches National Park.”
“Utah.” The cop nodded. “Beautiful place. That’s a hell of a ways from Georgia.”
“It’ll be worth it, though,” Wyatt assured him. “We love the outdoors.”
“Right.”
He sounded like he didn’t believe them. Any minute now, he was going to get out of that police car, see Ivy, and realize exactly who he was speaking to, and Teslyn didn’t know what the hell she was going to do then.
The officer cleared his throat. “I just figured with you having Georgia plates, you might be spending time on the interstate. Wanted to make sure you knew about that missing girl.”
Teslyn’s stomach pitched violently. It was one thing to know objectively you were being hunted, another entirely to have the wolf at your door.
The cop rattled off the make, model, color, and license plate of Teslyn’s car. “Can’t have too many pairs of eyes looking for that baby,” he said.
“Absolutely, officer,” replied Wyatt. “I appreciate you helping to spread the word.”
The men nodded at each other as men do, Teslyn’s chin inching closer to her chest as the squad car drove off. She swore softly and let her body pitch forward, her head landing between her knees.
“Relax. It’s okay,” he said, his hand gently stroking her back. “He’s gone.”
“Can I come out now?” asked Ivy.
Teslyn righted herself in a flash. “No, not yet.”
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
“There’s a McDonald’s across the street,” said Wyatt.
Ivy piped up, “Can I get a root beer?”
“No,” Teslyn and Wyatt answered in unison, their eyes meeting across the seat.
A wave of gratitude swept over Teslyn. If it weren’t for him, she would likely be sitting in a jail cell right now, or worse. She couldn’t even bear to think of what may have happened to Ivy. “Wyatt… Thank you,” The words were so tiny compared to the debt she now owed him.
He grinned, the expression changing his entire appearance from strong and intimidating to warm and kind. It was a breathtaking transformation, and one that didn’t bode well for her mental health on the rest of this journey.
“You’re welcome.” He drove to the restaurant and parked the truck.
Teslyn moved to open her door, but his touch on her other arm stilled her. “What?” she asked.
“They’re looking for a woman and a girl. I’ll go in with her.”
Teslyn nodded, feeling silly for not thinking of that herself.
Wyatt got out and opened the back door for Ivy.
“Can I get a little root beer?” the girl asked. “Just a small one?” She hopped out of the truck.
Teslyn laughed to herself, watching the pair as Wyatt took the girl’s hand and headed inside.
“Not a chance, buttercup.” He held the door for Ivy, making Teslyn wonder if any man had ever done such a thing for her little sister before.
Men like Wyatt weren’t a part of Teslyn’s life with Marilyn, and she doubted they were part of Ivy’s, either.
The black and white of a cop car in her peripheral vision had her gasping with alarm. She looked back at the entrance to McDonald’s, the door just closing behind Wyatt as the same officer from the plaza pulled into the parking lot.
“No, no, no…” she chanted, sinking lower in her seat as the patrol car passed the truck and pulled into a spot on the other side of an empty blue sedan.
He was close, too close, and he would damn sure find it strange if she and Wyatt suddenly had a five-year-old girl with them who hadn’t been there before. She stayed low, her eyes just high enough to watch him exit his vehicle and head inside.
A string of curses came out of her mouth.
“Please, God, please, don’t let him see Ivy.
” She fervently promised to be a better human being if her sister escaped the fast food restaurant unrecognized.
“I don’t know about church, God. You know I’m not big on church.
But I could try if it was really important to you…
” She was blabbering nonsensically, her eyes trained on the exit.
They’d come all this way only to be arrested in a parking lot under a pair of golden arches.
And what would happen to Wyatt? Would he get arrested too, for aiding and abetting a fugitive?
The door opened, Ivy emerging first with a small white cup in her hand and a giant smile on her face. Wyatt was talking to her, ushering her to the truck quickly.
He got her root beer?
Wyatt opened the back door for Ivy. “That policeman is inside right now!” she hissed.
“We know,” said Wyatt. “Get down, Ivy. Hurry up.” He closed her door and opened his own, climbing in beside Teslyn.
“We were walking out when he was walking in. I turned around and got Ivy a root beer. Don’t worry, she promised not to drink the whole thing.
” He backed out of the parking spot and took the entry ramp to the highway. “You can get up now, sweetie.”
The sound of a drinking straw sucking air echoed through the truck cab. Teslyn sighed. “As long as she’s not going to finish it, I guess it’s okay.”
Wyatt chuckled. “At least it kept us away from Barney Fife.”
“That’s true.” She turned to peek at Ivy. “Put your seatbelt on.”
“I’m sorry, Teslyn. I like root beer.”
“That’s okay, honey.” She turned forward, suddenly exhausted. “How much longer to your house?” she asked Wyatt.
“An hour and a half, maybe two.”
“If you don’t mind, I might close my eyes.”
He picked up a red sweatshirt on the seat between them and handed it to her. “Have at it. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
She rolled the sweatshirt up and used it as a pillow.
It smelled like him, something spicy and uniquely Wyatt she’d already learned to identify.
The rhythm of the tires hitting the seams in the roadway was hypnotic, pulling her quickly toward sleep like a weight tugging her to the depths of the ocean.
Her last conscious thought was that she felt safe for the first time in her life—at a time when she and her sister were anything but—and that the feeling had everything to do with Wyatt.