Sacrifice by John Everson Read Free Book Online Page A

of her bra strap and the bottom of a cup as she lifted the shirt up over her face.
    “Hold on,” he said, suddenly feeling the blood rise in his face.
    “Just look,” she said. “Look at what they did to me.”
    She twisted in her seat so that he could see her back, its creamy, freckled skin marred by long stripes of ugly maroon. There were spots between and over her shoulder blades that were a blend of scabs and angry red raw flesh; a little infected, he guessed. Lower, near her waist, the weals graduated to light pink welts, instead of swollen furrows.
    “Been working on the chain gang?” he asked.
    She snorted.
    “Yeah. Chained by a gang at my daddy’s feet,” she said. Alex pulled her shirt back down and sunk into her seat, careful not to meet Joe’s eye.
    “So you packed up and said, ‘I’m not taking this anymore’?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “They’ll be looking for you.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Parents don’t usually give up that easily,” he said. “Especially if you spit in their eye when you left.”
    She shrugged, and Joe caught the slight grimace of pain that accompanied the motion.
    “Look,” he said. “If your parents put the cops on your tail, and they find you with me, who do you s’pose is going to take the heat?”
    “They won’t find me. They won’t find you. Just don’t worry about it.”
    With that, Alex twisted away from Joe, staring again out the window.
    He decided not to press it. For now. But Denver was a couple hours away, and the Rockies an hour beyond that. If she camped with him to night, there’d be time to find out the rest of the story.
    Joe nodded and stepped on the gas a little harder. The white lines blurred to a solid dash behind him. The girl stared out the window, volunteering nothing more.
    He pulled in for gas at a BP station in Loveland, and Alex finally broke the silence.
    “You’ll take me all the way up into the mountains, right?”
    Joe nodded.
    “Would you wait for me here then? I want to run over there to the drugstore. I’ll be back in a minute.”
    “You’re not going to rob it or anything, are you?”
    She shot him a dirty look and said, “Just don’t ditch me, okay?”
    With that, she slipped out of the door and ran across the parking lot to a Walgreen’s.
    The credit card reader on the pump was broken, so Joe had to pay inside after filling up. He grabbed a couple bottles of cold Coke and a bag of potato chips, and was just walking back to the car when he saw Alex hurry out of the Walgreen’s with a bag. She was out of breath when she slid back into the seat next to him. He could see her visibly relax.
    “That was quick,” he said.
    “I didn’t want you to leave without me.”
    “I wouldn’t have.”
    “I couldn’t be sure. And I don’t know where we are.”
    “Does it matter? You’re a couple hours from home, for sure.” As he said that, Joe realized he really didn’t know how far Alex had come from. Was she from a small farm town on the border of Nebraska, or Colorado where he’d picked her up? Or had she hitchhiked halfway across the country?
    She shrugged.
    “Tell me this much,” he said. “How long have you been on the road? If your parents were to set the cops out looking for you, would they have gotten a call yet?”
    “I left yesterday,” she said. “But don’t worry about it. Just get me to someplace that I can change clothes and stuff”—she held up the bag—“and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”
    “We’re not far from the base of the mountains,” he said. “I figured on finding a camp area and pitching a tent. It’s not a big tent, and I’ve only got one sleeping bag and some blankets. Up to you if you want to keep going with me, or head out on your own. You can probably find someone else to tag along with here in town.”
    Alex scowled, the lines of her face twisting in obvious fear.
    “Take me with you?” she pleaded.
    Joe bit his lip. The kid obviously needed some help, but