The Outliers (The Outskirts Duet #2)

Kiddo. I loved every endearment Critter swung my way. They made me feel special.


Safe.

LOVED.

Richard had never called me anything other than Sawyer. Or girl. Like it was a bad word.

"I think I'd like that."

"You need to know that I never believed she left me willingly. Not once. You just don't up and walk away from what we had. Not possible. I looked for you two every damned day after she left me that note. Every fucking day. And, when I couldn't find you I thought you were dead."

"Why?"

"Because I never thought he'd let your mother or you live when he found out she was pregnant with you,” Critter said, tightening his grip around his beer bottle.

"He probably would have,” I agreed. “But as it turns out, I was the perfect leverage to hold over her head."

"I didn't know you were alive until a few months ago when this arrived," Critter reached into his back pocket and handed me an envelope with no return address. "I'll let her tell you what happened."

I took the letter from the envelope and although I knew she was inside the house I heard her voice in my head reading the letter to me as if she were still a ghost.



C-

I'm risking everything by sending this, but I have to because I don't have much time left. It's too late for me, but it's not too late to save our daughter.

Help her before it's too late for her as well.

I love you. Always have. Always will.

Forever your sunflower,

-Caroline



Tears were streaming down my face. I looked from the letter back to Critter. "I still don't understand why she didn't stay. She could have fought him off or escaped and come back to you. Instead she stayed with him. For...over twenty years. Why?"

Critter held up his hand. "Richard threatened her with the death of her child. You. With killing me. He told her if she tried to escape he wouldn't stop until she watched us both die in front of her. I know what you might be thinking but your mother wasn't no coward. She did what she had to do and she stayed because she thought that was the best way to keep us both alive. She's not a coward. Not even close. That woman waded through the waters of hell with the devil himself to keep us safe." Critter shifted in his chair. He glanced up at the house.

"She's the bravest woman in entire damned world."



Finn placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I loved how he always seemed to know when I needed to be reassured and at that moment I needed it more than ever. I'd been wrong. My gut and my head and my heart had all thought the worst.

I'd been wrong.

So very very wrong.

"I never...wow," I said, instantly feeling hurt and shame at ever suggesting my mother was selfish.

"There are only two things I regret in this life. Not finding you two, getting to you sooner is one of those things."

"What's the other?" Finn asked, twirling his beer around in his hand.

Critter didn't hesitate when he glanced up at us with cold hatred in his eyes.

"Not killing that son of a bitch, Richard, twenty-two fuckin’ years ago."





Chapter 6





Finn





When my phone rang I left Sawyer and Critter on the porch to talk to answer it. "Hi, Mom."

"Honey, how are you? It's been days and you haven't called."

"I talked to you yesterday, Mom," I reminded her.

"Are you sure? It seems like longer."

"I'm sure," I said, smiling into the phone.

"You sound a lot different. Does this have anything to do with the girl I've heard all about from everyone in that town except my own son."

I looked to where Sawyer was talking with Critter and my heart warmed. "Yeah, something like that."

"Finn Hollis, you bring that girl up here for a visit the very second you get a chance. We'd come there but your father's asthma has been acting up. It’s a little too humid this time of year."

"Stop making me sound like an old man," my father grumbled in the background.

"Then stop doing old man things like sucking on your teeth after breakfast," my mother scolded.

"You two haven't changed," I said.

My mother's tone turned serious. "Finn, we haven't seen you in a long time. Well, not since…” She paused like she was waiting for something. A reaction of some sort.

"You can say her name, mom. It's fine. Jackie. Her name was Jackie." I was downright proud of how far I’d come. Saying her name used to bring nothing but pain. Now it was a name associated with a girl I’d once loved and lost.

And that was okay.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Christ himself. It wasn’t long ago you treated her name like a swear word. A bad one. Like the one you called your English teacher in the third grade. What nine-year-old calls their teacher a cu— “

My father interrupted. "Son, are you coming up here or do we have to bribe you? We've only been asking for two years now," my dad yelled to the phone.

Phone calls with my parents used to be stressful. I’d spend every moment trying to convince them I was okay when I wasn’t. Lately I hadn’t even had the urge to hang up and throw my phone in the swamp.

I crossed my arms. "That depends. What have you got to bribe me with?"

"Cobbler and your favorite fried chicken sandwiches?" My mother asked. My stomach growled at the thought of my mother's famous chicken. "And I'll have Ethan come get you then you won't have to drive."

"And you'll bring that girl of yours so we can meet her?" She asked hopefully.

I looked to Sawyer and our eyes met. She smiled.

"Definitely."





Chapter 7





Sawyer





Ever since Critter and I had spoken a few days ago I felt better. Lighter. But the lingering dread over an uncertain future was starting to weigh on me. I felt drained. My eyes were tired as was my mind. The thought that lingered with me the most, the one that whispered through my ears like an unseen mist was that Richard was still out there. There was a possibility he'd come for me. After all, I'd stolen from him and he hated me because he blamed me for my mother's death. Any other man in the world would have no reason to come find me, but Richard Dixon wasn't any other man. I knew sooner or later he'd come. I'd always known that. But one thing had changed.

Mom.

If Richard came for me and found her instead...I hated to think of what would happen. Maybe if we left Outskirts, just for a little while, just until the tent service packed up and left, then we could keep him from discovering she was alive.

I was about to voice the idea to Finn when he sat down beside me on the dock and distracted me with his bare chest and rippling muscles. When he smiled at me my stomach and something a bit lower did a little flip of happiness.

"What's that look on your face? Not a good book?" He asked, pointing to the book open on my lap.

MODERN RELIGIONS FOR A MODERN WORLD

Book?

"Oh. Yeah. It's not that it's not good. It's that I don't think it's really what I was looking for," I said, staring down at the title of the chapter and reading it again in case I'd read it wrong the first time around.