Montana Standoff by Sharon Dunn

Author:Sharon Dunn [Dunn, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2013-11-22T08:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

They circled the entire house. The front door was unlocked just as she had left it on the day she’d run out of here. She pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Bryan peered over her shoulder.

Clearly the men had come back here after chasing them away.

Though the house wasn’t in complete chaos, cupboards and drawers in the kitchen were open. Desk drawers, file cabinets, even her bookshelves with the photographs on it, had been disturbed.

She shuddered, unable to let go of the sense of violation. “Why?”

Bryan pressed close to her, placing a calming hand on her back. “They were on a mission to get Crew. Maybe they thought they could find some information that would help them.”

A mournful meow came from the back of the house and a fat yellow cat appeared from around the corner. She swept the cat up and held him close. “Did you miss me?” She closed her eyes as he purred in her arms. “I know we don’t have time to deal with this mess, but I have to at least make sure he has food and water.”

Bryan nodded. “I understand.”

After feeding the cat, Sarah grabbed two backpacks from the closet, changed her clothes and found hiking boots. “These are daypacks. There’s food and water, supplies for extreme weather conditions and a first-aid kit.”

“We’d better get moving.” His voice filled with a sense of urgency.

Once they were out of town, it took only minutes before they were on a forest road headed toward the lake. Bryan checked the rearview mirror several times, though he was fairly confident they hadn’t been followed.

“So how old were you when you and Crew ran away to this place?”

She liked that he was curious. “I was twelve and Crew was fourteen. He stole a car. Things had gotten so bad with our foster care family at that time. We decided we would run somewhere nobody could find us.”

“And so you came upon this forest service cabin?”

“We stayed up there for a couple of weeks. There were some canned goods already there and Crew was pretty good at catching rabbits and fish. We had a campfire every night, and we took turns reading from our favorite books. We called it the safe place because it felt like nothing in the world could hurt us there.”

“So what happened?”

“A ranger found us. Crew wanted to run, but I knew we had to go back.” Sarah bent her head. “They put us in a better foster home after that, but I think by then Crew figured he couldn’t trust anyone but me.”

“You know, the whole time we were dating you never told me any of that.”

Sarah lifted her head. Was Bryan finally ready to talk about the past? “When you’re sixteen, there’s a lot of shame attached to not having a family. It was embarrassing enough that I was in foster care. I didn’t share details with anyone. I wanted everyone to see me as a normal kid. I don’t think your

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