Behind the Stars by Leigh Talbert Moore

Author:Leigh Talbert Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: love, romantic, action, adventure, small town, paranormal, female protagonist, suspense, survival
Publisher: Leigh Talbert Moore
Published: 2014-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

“Jackson”

Volume 4

Chapter 16

The next day, Gallatin was not in the barn for morning chores. I went to the back stall, but other than Bully running around his mother, the space was empty. I couldn’t neglect the milking, but I felt conflicted. Something new was twisting in my chest.

I missed him. I wanted to suggest a creek run after lunch so I could get back on track and ask about the microchips, about their schedule for leaving. But to be completely honest, I just wanted to talk to him, to hear his voice.

As it was, I’d have to work like we were back at the beginning, and I had nothing to look forward to but another day of labor. It was a good thing, I decided. It kept my focus on escape. My real escape that is, not forbidden trips to a hidden creek.

I sat on my stool and gripped the teats, filling my bucket and emptying it into the churn, then going back and doing it again. The tone sounded and we all filed into lunch. Hamsters on a wheel, zombies in a pen. I’d grown used to seeing the men looking drugged and passive, the women keeping their eyes down. Only the occasional glance to me, the one who’d promised to do something. The one who’d once been a leader, and who’d since become distracted sneaking off with a guy. Maybe that was another part of their plan.

Maybe they knew everyone was looking to me to help them, and Gallatin was their secret weapon to keep me under control. I stole a look at the guards watching over how much we ate, still fussing over us cleaning our plates like somebody’s grandma, and I refused to believe it was true. Everything in me rejected the idea of Gallatin pretending to care for me, of his using our trips to the creek to disarm me or keep an eye on me. He couldn’t have predicted the accident with the calf. Then a tiny fear crept in, the smallest shadow of doubt. How did I know he couldn’t? And where was he now?

* * *

Thoughts of betrayal were heavy in my mind that afternoon. The idea of being used made my stomach hurt, it caused a pain in my heart I never expected and didn’t want to feel. Yet my logical mind insisted it was for the best. If Gallatin’s friendship was fake, it would be easier for me to use him right back. If I got him to admit everything was part of some kind of spy game or method of control, I could ask him about the chips and the mass graves without remorse.

Only I did feel remorse, painful remorse. I was sad and miserable. I longed for my new friend, my...

I wanted Gallatin to be truthful.

What had that guard told the men about what was happening here? The thing that had them all believing in little green men? I wanted to find Braxton and ask him about cutting ropes with only their eyes—the things D’Lo had said—and see if they matched.

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