3
Sarai
I ran out of the church as if the devil himself were chasing me. I couldn’t believe what I had done, nor who had done it to me. Something had come over me in that moment, his deep voice demanding me to tell him more. It’s as if he had put me in a trance, and I, a willing participant in his game. My body tingled as I ran towards my car. Slamming my door, I sat there gripping the wheel until my knuckles turned white.
Micah. Micah had returned to Crescent Springs.
When did he come back?
Why?
The last time I saw him was just before I was married off to Silvestre. I didn’t know who he was or what he was doing in Crescent Springs, but I was looking for someone that night, anyone of my choosing to give myself to. I figured if I was not a virgin going into this marriage, they’d release me, not want me. But that was not the case, and I suffered severe repercussions for my so-called wrong doings.
Micah had been the man I had chosen, and he was ideal in every way. Young, handsome, charming, a deep baritone to his voice that gave me chills as we talked the night away. And then that kiss, that mind-blowing kiss that had taken my breath and seared my heart. Up against the side of his truck he had started his seduction, and he’d entered me as my eyes stared up at the stars. He’d been gentle, sweet yet passionate as I gave myself to him. It was as if he knew that this was what I needed from him and I never felt closer to another human being as I did with him that night.
Recognition had shown in his eyes in that brief moment when he’d stopped me just now. The touch of his hand heated my skin as he held me frozen in place. Could he have remembered me? It had been so long ago. I had wanted him to be my hero back then, wanted him to take me far away where no one could find me, but that was not the case. After we made love he took me home, he kissed me goodbye without the promise of another moment. In a way, I didn’t want that promise, because it would be one that I couldn’t keep. And now I was so close to being free, so close I could taste it. Yet, in all this yearning to be free, I so deeply wanted to get lost in his embrace once again.
I took deep breaths, trying to control my heart rate, and as I sat there in the air-conditioned four by four my eyes caught movement down the road. A large black pickup truck loomed in the corner and propped up against it with his hands in his pocket, stood the man in question. As Landon Cartwright stepped out with another man, he shook hands with Micah and soon they were on their way. I wasn’t seeing things. He had come back.
After a moment I started my car and headed home. I could only be away for an hour at a time before my father would come searching for me. I’d move back home after Silvestre’s death, not of my own free will, I was forced to. My father was selling the house and the business to another one of his allies, and I had to move out as fast as possible. I had nowhere else to go.
Pulling into the driveway, I sat in the car for a minute before entering. I knew what was waiting for me inside and my heart dropped to my stomach hoping I wouldn’t be battered once again. It seemed I was a punching bag for the town douche bags.
As soon as I walked in through the door, his voice ran down the hall. “About time you got home! I need to eat!”
I set my purse down on the table and tried not to sigh or even make a sound. Anything might trigger him. “Yes, Sir.”
I walked past him towards the stairs as I answered him quietly. “Where the fuck are you going, girl? Did you not hear that I’m hungry?”
“I’m just going to freshen up, I’ll be right down.”
“I said, now!” He yanked my arms to hard I stumbled down the few steps I’d already taken towards my room.
I pulled away from him, anger filtered through me. “You don’t have to be so cruel!”
“Excuse me?” He loomed over me menacing.
I looked down, holding my wrist close to my chest. He looked at me with disgust and then an evil leer appeared in his eye. “It doesn’t matter anyway. You’ll be out of my hair before you know it.”
“What do you mean?” I followed him down the hall way to the kitchen.
“There’s been an offer for your hand.”
“What?” I stood there shaking as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.
“Oh yeah. Jebediah Eaton down the road wants to have you. I don’t know what he sees in you, but I don’t give a shit as long as he gives me what I’m askin’ for.”
“No!”
He turned to me, a cynical smirk on his face. “You ain’t got nowhere to go. Don’t think you’re gonna stay here and eat my food and sleep in my pay and not have to pay a price.” He stalked over to me and grabbed my bruised arm making me yelp in pain. “Everyone pays a price, Sarai, or did you think that money was yours?”
My eyes flew to his and he chuckled. “That’s right. I was signed over every penny, that includes the forty-five thousand you stole. Did you not realize people in this town like to talk? All I had to do was ask and the manager gave me all I needed.” He grimaced. “You thought you’d be smart enough to steal from me!”
“No!” I sobbed, shaking my head as my life crumbled around me.
“You will never amount to anything! You’re a worthless whore!”
I yelled out as he released me and walked out leaving me to myself. I slumped down on the floor and sat there, my mind drawing a blank as I realized this was it. It was over. Any little ounce of hope that I had in me was gone. There was nowhere to go, no one to reach out to, I had suddenly become my mother overnight and I didn’t even realize how it happened. This is how he’d secluded her, how he’d used her. Jebediah Eaton was the worst of men. He was cruel and cold, a pervert by nature, and this is who I was going to be handed to.
I couldn’t let him do this. I’d had enough. I wasn’t property, I was smarter than this. But if I left, he’d probably hunt me down. I needed help.
I needed someone.
I needed him.
The wheels in my mind started to turn. How could I find him? Would he help me? It had been years since I’d seen him last and he was obviously a man who didn’t want to be discovered. I suddenly remembered who he’d been talking to. The one man in Crescent Springs who knew everyone’s deepest darkest secrets and I was going to make it a point to go visit Landon Cartwright tomorrow morning.
“Sarai?”
I turned towards his voice as he slammed the contents in his hands down on the bar top. Whiskey bottles rattled within the boxes.
“What are you doin’ around these parts?”
I looked down at my shoes, men like Landon always made me nervous. Ever since we were in high school I couldn’t manage to bring myself to look at him. He had this intimidating way about him which I both respected and feared. A handsome man, dark long locks of jet-black hair rested just below his collarbone, piercing blue eyes that when they looked at you, they seem to expose soul, and tattoos that lined his powerful arms in sleeves of stories to tell. He’d changed some since I last saw him, he was more rugged, darker even. But that was Landon for you. Always on the edge, always teetering right at crossing the lines of what society deemed appropriate. He’d grown up, just like me, in a strict Christian household, but he was rebellious, he’d always been. In a way, I always admired that about him. There was no one else in this town I could go to who would understand my turmoil like he would.