Zac leaned over the center console and kissed my lips quickly. I had plans to go to a friend’s house for the night to celebrate my birthday, and he’d offered to drive me since Uncle Danny couldn’t. Zac was sweet, and I enjoyed spending time with him, so letting him take me to Tabitha’s was an easy decision.

“You need a ride home tomorrow, too?”

I smiled, feeling like I’d managed to find someone who cared. “That’d be nice…yeah.”

On my way to the front door, I glanced over my shoulder. Zac remained in the driveway, not that I could see him past the headlights. It warmed my heart that he’d wait for me to get inside. And it was a good thing he did, because no one was home. I stood on the front stoop and sent Tabby a message. Apparently, she’d forgotten about our plans and had gone to the movies with her mom.

I trotted to the waiting car and fell into the passenger seat.

“What happened?” he asked, wiping his nose.

“She isn’t home.”

Zac didn’t say anything for a moment, and then he turned to me. “I have to go pick something up real quick from a friend’s house. You can come with me, and after, we can go get ice cream or something.”

That immediately made me smile. There were times I wondered if he’d come from another planet with how incredibly kind he could be. “Yeah, that sounds good. Where does your friend live?”

“Fleetwood.”

I nodded and buckled my seatbelt.

When I unlocked my phone, he asked, “Did she text you?”

It took a second until I realized what he meant. “Oh, no. I was going to text my uncle and tell him what I’m doing. He thinks I’m staying the night at Tabby’s, and I don’t care to piss him off.”

Uncle Danny had a quiet temper. It wasn’t a secret when he was mad, but not because he raised his voice or threw things around. It was in his eyes. Sometimes, he could be frightening. I never worried he’d do anything to me—it wasn’t like that. There were just times when his temperament would switch on a dime. It left me cautious of my every move where he was concerned.

“Don’t text him yet.” Zac took my phone and set it in the cup holder. “He’ll make me take you home.”

He was right. If Uncle Danny knew, he wouldn’t let me stay out with Zac—even for ice cream. He was very protective when it came to me, his princess, which would explain why Zac was my first boyfriend. Well, I wasn’t quite sure what we were; we’d only been dating for a month, and we spent more time on the phone than going on actual dates.

I turned up the radio and sang along, making Zac laugh. Halfway to his friend’s house, I had started to get warm between the heat coming out of the vents and the passenger-seat dance moves. So I took off my jacket and tossed it behind me.

His friend lived out in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least, that’s what it seemed like. We may have passed two other houses after turning off the paved road—which was in dire need of being repaved—and aside from trees, I didn’t see any other sign of life. I would’ve been freaked out if I hadn’t been with Zac. In fact, when he parked on the street and reached for his door handle without turning off the car, I nearly jumped on him.

“Don’t leave me out here alone.” I didn’t care how pathetic I sounded.

“You’ll be okay. I’ll lock the doors.”

“It’s dark. There’s almost no light other than through that one window.” I pointed to the front of the house, to the soft glow filtering through cheap blinds. “I don’t know where I am, and I’m uncomfortable being here without you.”

He nodded, but the way he rubbed his hand over the nape of his neck told me he felt uneasy about taking me inside. However, that didn’t stop him from turning off the car. I grabbed my phone from the cup holder where he’d set it earlier, and with my wallet in my hand, I climbed out. Just to prove what a nice guy he was, he held my hand until we reached the porch. It was then that I realized I’d forgotten my sweater in the car. I just hoped it was warm inside.

I was surprised when we walked through the front door. There wasn’t much furniture. I would’ve guessed no one lived here, except we were greeted by one guy, and another sat on the couch not too far from the entryway. Zac moved away a few feet to talk to who I assumed was his friend, while the beast of a man in the living room just watched me.

Maybe I would’ve been safer outside alone.

“Hey, Mags…” Zac practically skipped to me with a backpack in his hand. “Hold onto this for me, please. It’ll just be for a minute. Marcus needs to show me something in the other room. Just sit on the couch with Robby for a few minutes.”

I wanted to argue with him, but I didn’t exactly have that option. Telling him that this Robby character “robbed” me the wrong way wouldn’t exactly bode well in my favor. So I gave him that face—the universal look for secretly getting someone’s attention that everyone was supposed to recognize—yet all he did was kiss my forehead and turn to his friend.

“Uh, you think that’s a good idea?” Marcus pointed to me while looking at Zac.

Zac glanced at me for a split second and then shrugged. “Yeah, she’s cool.”

Clearly, it had gone over his head. Not only did he disregard my stare-down, even this other guy didn’t think leaving me alone with butch was a great idea, and he still didn’t get it. I couldn’t wait until we were in the car where I could explain this all to him privately.

I took a seat on the couch and stuffed my wallet and phone into the front pocket of the bag. I figured if I kept them in there, Robby would have a harder time getting them than if they were just in my hand.

“What’s your name, precious?” Even his voice was frightening.

I didn’t care to answer him, and I feared if I ignored him, things could go from creepy to felony very quickly. The thought crossed my mind to make something up, except he probably heard Zac call me Mags, and I couldn’t come up with anything close to that without using my real name. So, I kept my gaze straight ahead and muttered, “Umm…Maggie.”

He leaned closer, and I scooted farther away. Unfortunately, I reached the armrest. My only other option was to stand, and at this point, I was seriously considering it, regardless of how offensive that would be.

Then he grazed my shoulder with his finger, and I jumped.

“Hey, calm down, girl. I won’t bite.”

When I turned to face him, I couldn’t ignore the heaviness in his eyelids or the lazy way he seemed to smile out of only one side of his mouth. Either he was on something, or he was the poster child for men you never want your daughters to date. Scratch that—more like someone you never want anyone you’re remotely acquainted with to come within a hundred feet of.

“Your boy tells us you’re the sheriff’s little princess. That right?”

“No.” I decided not to correct him.

Before anything else could be said, loud voices came from the other room, where Zac and his friend had gone. From my seat on the couch, I could tell it was the kitchen, though I couldn’t see anything beyond that. Either way, Robby jumped up—jumped was an overstatement—and headed their way.

Being alone should’ve been comforting, and it might’ve been had the voices not grown louder, and deeper, and…meaner. I carefully slipped closer to the wall that divided the two rooms, making sure I stayed quiet and hidden. Honestly, I only tried to ensure that Zac was all right. But what I heard sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You brought the princess here?” That was Marcus.

“She’s cool, man. No worries.”

“Oh, I’m not worried. Because I’m not the one he’s gonna kill when he finds out you brought your little girlfriend to the house. Between that and how often you’re sampling his shit, I doubt you’ll last ’til morning. Actually, I don’t care to be dragged down with you, so let’s give him a call. Let’s tell him about all this…the missing coke, bringing her here, and see what he has to say. For your sake, you better pray that sweet thing in there doesn’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“She won’t, Marcus. Everything will be all right. She doesn’t know anything.”

A loud, barking laugh erupted, followed by Marcus’s voice again. “I’m willing to bet she’s not stupid. It’ll take her minutes to see how high you are right now. And then what? What’ll happen when she goes to her uncle about it? The fucking captain of the fucking sheriff’s office, you dipshit.”

“If she hasn’t noticed at this point, I doubt she will. You’re fine. Calm down, dude,” Zac argued.

My heart thundered so hard it made it difficult to hear the rest. But I didn’t need to. I’d heard enough. It was all I needed to make me slink toward the front door. My sight bounced around the room, wondering where America’s Most Wanted was. I hadn’t heard him talk after he left the room, which worried me the most. He could’ve been anywhere, and I wouldn’t have known until it was too late since I couldn’t hear over the fear beating in my ears.

As soon as I made it to the front door, I twisted the knob as slowly as I could, not sure if it would make a sound or not. The door would only open part of the way, any more and they’d likely be alerted to my exit by the creak of the hinges, so I shimmied through the narrow space as quickly as I could.

Before I made it all the way out, a horrible cracking sound from inside startled me. I turned my head, not paying any attention to how close the door was, and clipped the corner on the side of my face. My brow bone immediately started to throb, and the space between my bottom lip and chin burned. As soon as I realized they hadn’t noticed me gone, I ran the rest of the way out, not bothering to close the door behind me.

I ran.

I ran until I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. Until my throat had closed up so much I couldn’t breathe. And after stumbling a few times, leaning over to slow my heart rate…I ran some more. Through fields, yards, around ponds and between trees. I found roads and took them, clueless where they led. It didn’t matter, just as long as they took me far away from that house, from Zac, from this town. I needed to get away, anywhere, far from here.

Finally, when I felt thoroughly lost and scared, I stopped and slipped the backpack off my shoulders. I realized halfway into my escape—when I tripped and fell—that I still had the bag, not having a clue what was in it. But I was too scared to stop and take a look. For all I knew, it was filled with drugs, and I definitely didn’t need to be caught with that. So, I unzipped the top and peeked inside. It was hard to see anything with only the moonlight, and I was too scared to stick my hand in there for fear of needles stabbing me.

My phone was in the front pocket, along with my wallet, and I said a silent “thank you” to anyone listening, grateful that I hadn’t left those two things behind. Using the flashlight on my cell, I was able to see what was in the bag, and my heart stopped beating.

Bricks of cash that looked nothing like I imagined. They weren’t neat stacks or new bills. They were dirty and old, crumpled. Some were twenties, some were smaller, and they weren’t in any organized fashion.

The longer I sat crouched over the bag, the colder I became, remembering I’d left my jacket in Zac’s car. I needed to get moving, so I finished checking the bag, making sure there wasn’t anything illegal inside—other than the money I was certain hadn’t been obtained lawfully. When I didn’t find anything else, I zipped it closed.

I tried to access the navigation feature on my phone, but with no service, I couldn’t get anything other than a general map. No blue dot to show where I was or even what direction I was heading in. And anytime I tried to search for something, the wheel just spun endlessly. So I continued my blind escape and prayed I would find shelter somewhere.

Finally, my phone had enough service to push through text messages. All of which were from Zac—he realized I had left.

Where are you?

Why did you leave?

Please come back? Maggie??

If you don’t come back, they’ll kill me.

They’ll kill you.

The last one was enough to make my chest tighten. But I ignored it and tried the maps again. Still, nothing would load. The service kept going in and out, which only frustrated me to the point of tears. All I needed was to find out where I was, where I was going, so I had some chance of getting help.

About ten minutes later, my phone vibrated in my hand several times, alerting me to new texts. I didn’t need to unlock the phone to read them. And again, they were all from Zac.

Just tell me where you are and I’ll come get you.

Please, don’t make me tell your uncle that you ran off.

OMG Maggie come back now! You’re gonna get us both killed!

I couldn’t take it anymore. It was obvious my navigation app wouldn’t work, so there was no point in keeping the phone on. All his words brought me were fear and anxiety. I was alone in the dark, clueless as to when I’d come across another person. I didn’t need anything else causing me panic. So I shut down the device and returned it to the front pocket of the bag.

After walking aimlessly for what could’ve been ten hours, I finally reached a main road. Well, I wasn’t sure if it was a main road or not, but it wasn’t made of dirt, and maybe half a mile or so ahead, there were lights. A few cars drove by; thankfully, no one stopped. I just wanted to get to the lights, which as I got closer, I realized came from the parking lot of a gas station. I crossed my arms over my chest, curled my shoulders in, and tried to fight off the chill long enough to get inside the convenience store.

As I approached the parking lot, I noticed blood on the sleeve of my shirt and touched the side of my face, freaked out when I realized where it had come from. If I went inside, someone would surely see it, and quite possibly, call for help. I couldn’t risk that—I also couldn’t stay outside much longer without warming up.

I took a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other, telling myself that if I could make it in and out, then I would be all right. I just had to focus on one thing at a time. So I kept my head down and reached for the handle to go inside.