The Outliers (The Outskirts Duet #2)

It made me laugh. I was literally laughing in the face of my own death.

Richard never got a chance to produce whatever weapon he was reaching for because something blunt made contact with his head. There was a dull thud followed by a noise that sounded a lot like a crusty loaf of bread being broken in half.

Richard’s stare went blank as he fell face first into the water.

“Mom?”

I looked up to find my mother standing there holding some sort of white rock in her hand. “You’re right,” she said to Richard’s unconscious body. “None of it matters. YOU don’t matter.”

She continued to stare hatred down at him, cradling the rock in her arms like a trophy. “During your sermons, you spoke frequently about Family bonds.” She chuckled as she quoted Richard. “I believe it went something like, there is no greater bond on this earth than that between a mother and her child. And if someone attempts to destroy that bond? God have mercy on his soul.”

She stood over him and squared her shoulders. “May God have mercy on your soul, Richard.”

“Is he...?” I asked, pausing as I saw the faint rise and fall of his shallow breathing.

My mother shook her head. “I don’t think it’s that easy.” She turned to me, kneeling she looking me over from head to toe. “Is the baby okay?”

“The baby is fine. I’m fine. But you are the one who’s hurt.” I pulled gently on her head to take a closer look at the wound.

“It’s just a nasty bump,” she said, flinching away from my touch.

“It’s more than that,” I pointed out. “You kept passing out.”

“I did earlier. I think it was just an after affect from whatever he’d held over my nose. But I tell you what, nothing has a way of slapping you awake than the possibility of your imminent demise.”

“But you just passed out, just now,” I questioned.

She shook her head and winced. “Nope. That was called acting. I took a drama class once. Did you know that?” she asked as she helped me up. I was both impressed and proud and completely in love with my mother.

“No, I didn’t know that about you,” I said. “But maybe, sometime soon, you can tell me all about it.”

We left Richard in the water as we limped over to the boat he had parked between two stumps. It occurred to me that my mother probably did not see the roof of the library collapse.

We needed to get back. We need to see if they had made it out of the library. But first, I had to warn my mother of what we might find when we got back.

Or what we might not find.

I felt like time had stopped around us along with the winds from the storm. The amplified sounds and smells of the swamp from earlier had all died down. It was almost silent. I’m sure if you listened carefully enough you could hear my sorrow.

The words I knew I had to say grew thick in my throat and even thicker as they sprouted roots and wrapped around my heart, squeezing so tightly I didn’t know how I was going to breathe again never mind speak.

“Mother,” I choked out. “There’s something I have to tell you.” I shut my eyes tightly.

“What is it?” She asked, sounding every bit as horrified as she should.

A loud vibration rattled through the swamp, shaking every branch of every tree like the beginnings of an earthquake. An airboat emerged, zipping right over a thick layer of brush like it didn’t exist. Even in the heavy rain I could make out the faces on that boat. I would know them from miles away. My soul would recognize them anywhere.

All the feelings I never thought I would experience again, happiness, joy, elation, and love, all came back to me at once. The weight lifted off my chest and I could breathe again. I was so light I felt as if I were floating above my own body.

Critter was driving. Finn was standing at the front.

Both we’re in one piece.

Both were alive.





Chapter 26





Finn





I still have no idea how Sawyer and her mother managed to free themselves from a man who would stop at nothing until he got what he wanted. What he wanted was their lives. By way of either submission or death.

My stomach rolls at the reminder of how close he came to getting what he wanted, of the despair I felt while thinking the absolute worst had already happened.

We were lucky

Just because I don’t know how they managed to free themselves doesn’t mean I was surprised. There were never two more-determined people on the planet. No one with stronger wills. No one braver.

They might not think so, but they were well equipped to handle the likes of Richard Dixon.

“I’ve never been so goddamn scared in my entire life,” I told Sawyer as she woke up from a twenty-hour nap. She rolled over took one look at me as smiled like I meant everything in the world to her. “I can’t help but think of what could happened to you if…”

“Don’t. Come here,” Sawyer said, stretching out her arm. She rolled over so that we were lying facing one another with our arms and legs intertwined, a lot like we did the first night she spent in my bed. Except this time one of my hands rested on top of our growing baby.

I hadn’t gotten much sleep at all. I found my rest in watching my girl sleep, her chest and belly rising and falling with each intake of breath.

“I missed you,” Sawyer said sleepily. And although her words were simple the look in her eyes said so much more.

“Me too,” I whispered.

Her eyed widened and met mine. “Richard,” she said, suddenly looking panicked.

“He won’t Hurt you again.”

She relaxed into me once more. “What happen to him?”

I shrugged. “Critter said he was taking Richard back to jail but not the one he escaped from.”

“Do you think that’s what he did?” She asked, knowing Critter just as well as I did.

I shrugged. “I think it’s best if we don’t know.”

“That sounds like something he would say,” Sawyer said, placing a hand on my face. I leaned in and kissed her, needing to feel her against me, needing to remind myself that although she was in my arms that she was really here. She was really okay.

“I’m here,” she reassured me, knowing exactly what I needed to hear.

“Yes, you are.”

She glanced over my head to the nightstand. I turned and noticed she was staring at her dirty clothes in a pile as well as the rock that her mother had been clutching to her chest when we’d found them.

“It was real,” she whispered.

“What was real?” I asked, turning back around to face her.

“You see that scarf?” she asked, pointing to the muddied purple piece of cloth on top of the pile. “I had a vision that this blonde woman saved me and she was wearing it. I know it sounds silly but it helped pull me through.”

I sucked in a breath, not wanting to think about how scared she must have been but glad she had found comfort in some sense, even if it was in a vision or a dream.

“What’s with the rock?” she asked.

I couldn’t help the smile that grew on my face. “That’s what your mother was holding. That’s what she hit Richard over the head with.”