The Slow Burn of Silence (A Snowy Creek Novel) by Loreth Anne White Read Free Book Online

“For the candy an d . . . stuff.”
    “Our secret, ’kay?”
    She studied him for a fraction, then nodded before turning and skipping across the grass toward the school. He watched her go on her skinny legs, hair shining in the sun.
    “Anytime,” he whispered to himself. “Anytime, Quinn.”
    He heard the school buzzer and he stood there in shadow, newspaper under his arm. His world utterly changed. This was what he’d come for.
    Yet caution whispered in the rustle of the breeze through the dry pines. One wrong step, one spark, and it could all go up in a blaze. He could lose it all, forever.
    He must not return to this school.
    He must not interact with her again until it was over.
    But as Jeb traversed the bottom edge of the field, making for his bike, he caught sight of the clutch of blondes coming out from behind the trunk of the large oak. Stubbing out a cigarette with bent heads and a whispered exchange, they began to cross over the field as a tight group, making a beeline for Quinn.
    Quinn saw them coming and moved faster. She was smaller. Younger.
    Jeb froze, watching as the group crested the grassy rise and crossed onto school property. The clutch of girls closed in, gathering tightly around Quinn, forcing her to stop.
    Shock rippled through Jeb as one of the girls grabbed the bag of candy from Quinn’s fist. Another snatched away the licorice stick, waving it in front of Quinn’s face, laughing as Quinn lunged to claim it back.
    One of the girls stuck out her boot and tripped Quinn. She sprawled down hard on the gravel, her book flying, pages blowing in the wind.
    Rage flared, sharp and instant. Almost blinding, an electrical charge kicking down familiar neural channels, overriding the logic center of his brain. Jeb moved like lightning over the ball fields. Neck muscles wire tight. Vision narrowing. Up the rise. Onto school property.
    One of the girls pointed and jeered at Quinn as she struggled onto her knees. Whatever the girl said froze his daughter. She held dead still for a heartbeat, as if trying to digest the words while staring at the blonde.
    “No!” Quinn screamed at the bullies. “ It’s not true! ”
    The girls laughed. Jeb recognized the switch in his child the moment before she balled her fists. Quinn lurched to her feet, lowered her head, and barreled straight into the blonde’s stomach, smacking the kid so hard she lifted off the ground and reeled backward, coming down hard into the dirt, hair flying.
    Quinn spun round like a little wildcat, ready for a charge at the others, but they turned and fled toward the school, screaming for a teacher. Quinn turned the full brunt of her rage back onto the fallen girl, raising her leg to kick her in the stomach. Jeb reached them just in time. He grabbed Quinn by her shoulders, jerking her back off her feet. The blonde, bleeding from her nose, scrabbled onto her hands and knees and crawled over the gravel before managing to stagger up into a wild run for the school building.
    Jeb set Quinn on her feet, spun her round to face him. He crouched down to her level, gripping her skinny shoulders tight. She was shaking in his hands. Her complexion was sheet white, tears tracking stains down her cheeks. But her eyes crackled with ferocity and she gritted her jaw.
    “Quinn—” he said quickly, quietly, watching over her shoulders as two female teachers burst out of the school doors and started running toward them. She seemed unfocused.
    Jeb shook her. “Quinn, look at me, listen to me.”
    Her pupils contracted slightly. She was breathing hard.
    “I understand, I really do, that need to hit back sometimes. But whatever they said to you, whatever names they called you, violence is not the answer. Never. You have to trust me on this. I’ve been there. I know. No matter what they say, violence does not work. It comes back to bite you.”
    Slowly her eyes refocused fully and she met his gaze. Tears pooled afresh. He ached to snatch her away right