Prologue #2
I texted the guys to tell them I was safe and sound in bed, and lay down on top of my comforter, staring at the crumbling molding on my ceiling. I plugged my phone into its charger, giving Kara one last call. If she didn’t answer tomorrow, I was going over there, to hell with what Axel said.
A knock at my window made me jump off my bed, my heart pounding. I pulled back my curtain and jerked back in shock as a wild-eyed Kara appeared in the glass like a ghost.
I opened up my window. “Kara, what’s wrong? What are you doing here?”
She reached through the window and tugged on my arm. “You have to come with me, Isla. I need you. Please.” She tugged harder on my hooded sweatshirt. “Please.”
The level of desperation in her tone scared me. “Hey, okay. Just let me grab my phone.”
She shook her head. “No. Leave it behind; they’ll track it. Please, you have to hurry. Grab anything important to you. But hurry.” She was crying now, her arms wrapped around her belly. Her flat belly.
“Kara, the baby…” I couldn’t get the words out.
She cried harder. “I’ll explain. Please, Isla, now.”
Her tears clinched it for me. I ran to my dresser, pulling out the few things that meant anything to me.
A silver chain from my grandmother, before she died when I was six.
A picture of my mother, before she got hooked on heroin.
A picture of me, Kara, and the guys down by the river.
I also stuffed in my Converse sneakers, all my underwear and a change of clothes.
I was halfway out the window when I heard a heavy thumping on the front door. Kara was vibrating with terror as she dragged me through the backyard, into the woods behind the house. “Come on, you have to run,” she whispered, pulling me with a speed I hadn’t known she possessed.
“Kara, what’s going on?” She was freaking me out now. My heart was thudding with fear.
We stopped in front of a beat-up old car.
“I don’t have time to explain, Isla. But I need you to do this for me, okay?
I’m so sorry, but you’re the only one. The only one I can trust. The only one they can’t track.
There’s so much you don’t know and that I can’t tell you now, but I’ll find you, okay?
Just… I need you to run. Go as far away as you can tonight, then ditch the car and go further.
Don’t stop, okay? You can’t stop, because they’ll find you.
” She pushed me into the driver’s seat. “You’re the only one I can trust with this,” she repeated as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Kara, come with me, or we can go see the guys. Axel will help with whatever this is. You’re scaring me right now.”
She grabbed my arm too tight. “You should be scared, Isla. God, I hate that I have to do this to you. I love you like a sister; you’re the only one.
I’ll tell the guys, okay? I promise. Then we’ll all come and find you.
But you need to go now. There’s a suitcase in the back with everything you need, as much money as I could get. It’ll help. Now go. Please go.”
I started the car and did as she asked, pulling off the fire trail where she’d parked and onto the dirt road that would lead to the main highway. I watched Kara get smaller and smaller in the red glow of my tail lights, my heart thumping with terror.
I pulled onto the highway, and the car mixed in with the trucks and night-time travelers. I realized the banged-up old car had no radio, so I hummed to myself in an effort to block out the thoughts that just kept swirling in my head like a hurricane.
Then I heard it. The tiniest sound from the back of the car.
I swerved onto the shoulder, making gravel spray up against the side panels of the car.
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I whipped around in the seat.
In the back of the car, hidden by the darkness, was a baby car seat.
Inside the car seat was an infant, who couldn’t have been more than a day or two old.
It let out a tiny mewl, and the sound cracked my heart in two.
“Oh, Kara… what have you done?”
I missed my phone so badly. I was desperate to Google “how to take care of a newborn” but I made do.
In the suitcase, I’d found baby bottles and newborn formula, diapers, onesies and a basic assortment of other baby stuff, including a parenting book.
And about five thousand dollars in cash.
For someone in such a state of terror, Kara had been prepared.
It made me wonder how long she had been planning this.
I’d made the baby a bottle from water heated in a coffee cup at a gas station. He was a quiet little thing, his face screwed up and wrinkly, and he spent most of his time sleeping.
I’d done what Kara had said; I’d driven through the night and hadn’t stopped until I hit Omaha.
Now, we were waiting at the bus depot, the old beater left at the mall parking lot across the street.
The baby car seat—including all the attachments—rested at my feet in the waiting room, with the suitcase beside me.
I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt further over my face and tried not to close my eyes. I was exhausted. Mentally and physically drained. But every time I nodded off, I’d imagine something happening to the baby, and that kept me awake.
I stared down at the sleeping baby. Was he supposed to sleep this much? Kara hadn’t even told me his name. We’d talked about baby names over the past few weeks, but had she even named him?
I looked up at the TV, the headline across the bottom of the screen catching my eye. Then a photo of a face that was all too familiar flashed on the screen, along with almost a dozen others. I strained forward to hear what the newsreader was saying.
“It is a tragic scene in Chatsville this morning, as a dozen bodies have been pulled from the remains of a fire that killed a local family, including five children. Police described the scene as horrific when they arrived early this morning to find the house completely consumed by flames. The family of six that resided here, as well as extended family and friends who were staying for a family celebration, all perished.”
Kara.
My fist wrapped around the bar of the car seat, my knuckles turning white. She’d been murdered, along with her whole family. I knew that in my gut.
Choking back my sobs, I stood as they called for my bus. I straightened my shoulders and looked down at my charge. He would have been the thirteenth victim last night. I’d made a promise, and I would keep it.
I would call him Bohdie, like Kara had planned, and I would do what his mama asked. I would never stop running.