Chapter 23 #2
“You hurt people, Silas. You and Everett both, started hurting people when you didn’t need to, and—”
“And you betrayed us, both of us!” He shook his head, the look of disgust on his face plain to see. “We were doin’ it for you.”
She stared at him. “He didn’t have to do those things. We could have found jobs! I could’ve found another job, worked harder, done my part, but he wouldn’t let me do any of those things. Instead, you and Everett became criminals! You became people I didn’t even know anymore!”
He sneered. “You want to know somethin’? When we were in that prison, Everett and I, well, let’s just say he was determined to get us out, but we were in there for months. Months! You ever visited a prison before, Chloe?”
He stared at her hard before she shook her head.
“It ain’t pretty. The guards with their clubs, their shackles, they treated people anyway they wanted.
For the first two weeks we were there, we got a couple pieces of moldy bread and a small cup of water a day.
That was it. Locked in our cell for days on end, the chamber pot overflowin’, the old blankets on the floor crawlin’ with lice and spiders … ”
Chloe swallowed, tried to pull her gaze from his, but was unable to. She saw hatred in that gaze, and the despair. “I’m … I’m sorry you had to go through that, Silas.” He snorted and leaned so close she felt his stale breath on her face.
“You’re sorry?”
She nodded. “I am.” She straightened her back, she had to say it. “But what you were doing was wrong and you know it. You chose your path. I chose mine. I did the right thing reporting you and Everett—”
A hand darted out so quickly she couldn’t escape it as his fingers wrapped around her neck.
He didn’t squeeze, but simply held her there, his eyes so filled with rage she was afraid that if he wanted to, he could snap her neck without hardly any effort at all.
Her heart pounded. Eliza! She had to survive.
She had to live, for Eliza. An image of Nathaniel flashed through her mind at that moment, the look on his face as he was teaching Eliza how to fish. Oh, Nathaniel, if only …
Silas removed his hand from her throat and looked away, his jaw tight and his lips pressed together.
Finally, he looked back up at her, the anger gone and another look replacing it, one that she was surprised to see.
Perhaps regret, perhaps a little bit of understanding, some responsibility for his own actions.
“Why?” she gasped, wondering if she wanted to know.
“When you and Everett escaped, why didn’t you go far away?
California or back east somewhere? Why didn’t you just get as far away as you could?
” He snickered, then rose, taking a few steps away, eyeing the distance again for a moment before glancing over his shoulder at her.
“We started to, actually,” he admitted. He turned to her, arms crossed over his chest, peering down at her with a half-amused expression.
“But Everett, he’s not a man who forgives easily.
We’d sworn revenge on you, remember? He swore revenge and he never forgot.
He wanted to punish you, to make you sorry for what you did. ”
He paused so long she wasn’t sure he would continue. When he did, she felt the chill race down her spine.
“After we escaped from prison, he … we tracked you off and on for months but you were always gone when he thought he’d finally caught up to you.
” He sighed, slowly shaking his head before he chortled.
“And then we heard about a woman fittin’ your description, but this time with a little baby, and then poof, you were gone again. ”
She stared up at him, cold inside, filled with an unspeakable fear. They had suspected she’d had a child and so had come after her. She warily eyed Silas as he paced one way and then another, constantly searching the distance to the south before turning back to her.
“Funny thing though, when we did manage to get some kind of a track on you, you’d up and disappear, but you were alone then.
No kid.” He stopped pacing and turned an angry gaze on her.
“Not only did you betray Everett and me, but you betrayed your own offspring, didn’t you?
” His voice rose. “You left the kid somewhere and then ran away, didn’t you? ”
Though feeling sick to her stomach and filled with guilt and despair, she refused to reply. He already knew.
“We eventually found out a little bit about your kid, a girl child, Everett’s child—”
“No!” she snapped. “She was mine. Just mine.” She stood, her knees wobbling with fatigue, her bound hands clenched into fists in front of her. “I protected her against Everett and his threats against me. I did! Never mind that it was his own fault! Never mind that he was the one doing wrong—”
“That kid was his too, Chloe!” he snarled. “He had a right to see the child, didn’t he?”
Did he? She slowly shook her head, speaking so softly he had to take a step closer to hear her.
“He lost that right before he even knew of her existence, Silas. I wasn’t going to have any child of mine raised by outlaws who thought nothing of stealing and shooting people, killing people for what they wanted, for what they wanted to take from others! ”