The Devil's Due by Vivian Lux Read Free Book Online Page B

study classes. “Like... like the demon?”
    Cade nodded. “We give him his due,” he recited mechanically. His eyes went dead as he said the words, like someone else controlled his voice
    The words of his tattoo were facing me, a bright, blaring warning right there in front of my face. And I was too blind to see them for what they were. They were a promise of danger and suffering. They were the price you paid for freedom.
    And true freedom comes from having nothing to lose.
    I couldn’t go back. I wouldn’t go back to Flint Springs and Darryl’s trailer and a life of being beaten around by a miserable drunk. I was moving forward. If this was the path I was on, so be it. I squared my shoulders.
    “What’s he like?”
    Cade turned at the new note in my voice. He looked at me searchingly. “You’re going through with this?”
    “I’ve got nothing else.” My fingers touched the bruise on my cheek again. It wasn’t nearly as painful now, more of a memory than a bruise. Like my old life, it was fading quickly.
    Cade nodded. “I understand that,” he said darkly. Once more, that unutterable sorrow clouded his face.
    I hesitated again, then decided it was okay to press. “Where are you from?”
    “Where we’re headed. Puerta de Fuego.”
    I gasped. “The big city?” I squealed before I could help myself.
    He looked at me sharply and laughed. “I guess compared to Shit Springs, yeah, it’s pretty big.”
    I laughed too and leaned back dreamily on the bed, kicking my legs back and forth.
    “The pastor in our town—he was always warning us that Puerta de Fuego was an ‘evil’ place.” I lowered my voice to match the sonorous boom I’d heard whenever I went to church with Cora. “The name will tell you, my children. "The door of fire," it’s the door to Hell!”
    I expected Cade to laugh again. Instead he turned from me, his fists clenched at his sides. “He’s not far off,” he muttered.
    “Cade?”
    He looked back up at me and his eyes softened. “I haven’t been back in months, It’s been nice being away.”
    “Where have you been?”
    His expression softened further and he perched at the edge of the bed. “Got a place all my own up in the mountains. Gives me space to think.”
    I leaned forward, captivated by the sudden change in him. “I’ve never been to the mountains,” I breathed. “I’d really like to go.”
    “You’ve never been to the mountains?”
    “Never even seen ‘em.”
    He chuckled and smoothed back my hair. “Where have you been, Lainey-girl?”
    I swung my legs back around so that I was sitting next to him. “Well, I’ve been to my stepdad’s store. I’ve been down in the dry stream-bed that runs outside town. I’ve been to my friend Cora’s house.” Cade laughed again as I continued, ticking off the places on my fingers. “I’ve been to Cora’s church. I’ve been to school a bunch of times. And I went to the bar... once.”
    He smoothed my hair again and looked at me, his eyes darting back and forth like he was trying to read me. “That’s it?”
    I nodded. “That’s it. This is as far as I’ve ever been from Flint Springs... .and I don’t even know where we are.”
    Cade motioned to the darkened window. “We only made it over the county line before your... episode,” he smirked at me. “Place called Dry Gulch. It’s even smaller than your little shit town, but it has a good diner.”
    “Where is everyone else?”
    He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. “A few brothers stayed back with us... for protection.”
    “Protection?”
    “You never leave a man behind. You never know.”
    I opened my mouth and then closed it. “Where is everyone else?”
    “We’ll ride out early and catch up with them in Porter Crossing.”
    “Porter Crossing?” I jumped. “Isn’t that where that awful hold-up was?”
    His face, so open and happy a moment ago, snapped shut like a book. “We have to get up early. Shut up and go to sleep now.”
    I opened