After the Storm (KGI #8)(29)

Regret and sorrow tugged at her chest as she faced the inevitable. She hadn’t wanted to part with the only things she, Travis and Cammie had left of their mother. She’d wanted to keep them for Travis and Cammie to have. But they needed the money more than they needed the reminder. She hadn’t wanted to risk pawning it before now, saving it for a last resort. It was too risky. Pawnshops required ID. But time had run out, and this was her only option now.

The jewelry wouldn’t bring much, though it was fine quality and expensive when it had been purchased. But pawnshops didn’t pay even a fraction of retail value. The few hundred dollars she could hope to get from the sale would have to be stretched to provide a place for them to live. Hopefully the food that Donovan had brought earlier that day would last them for some time if they ate sparingly.

“She would want you to use it, Evie,” Travis said.

She turned to see Travis staring at her, at the box in her hand.

“I know,” she whispered. “But I had wanted to save this for you and Cammie. It’s all we have left of her.”

Travis shook his head. “No. We have our memories. Good memories. She was a great mom. You’re a lot like her, Evie. You look just like her and you have her same heart. She would be so proud of you for doing what you have to protect me and Cammie.”

Eve felt guilty for the brief surge of anger she had to battle back. She was in turns angry and sorrowful over her mother’s decision to remain with a husband she knew to be a danger to her children. Her mother knew, and yet she’d never tried to get out. To get Travis and Cammie out of his reach.

Eve had seen the truth about Walt, had known the kind of man he was, and she would have never had contact with her mother or Walt—Walt wouldn’t have allowed it—if it hadn’t been for Travis’s phone call to Eve. His plea for help and his suspicions concerning Walt and his intentions toward Cammie. Suspicions that Eve took very seriously, because she knew.

She should have taken more time to develop a plan, thought out their escape better. But she’d been too desperate to remove Cammie from a dangerous situation to take the time to formulate a better plan. And so they were still running.

“We’ll stop in Memphis long enough for me to pawn it,” she said. “Then we’ll take another bus into Mississippi. We’ll need a place to live. Somewhere that Cammie isn’t exposed like she is now. She needs to get better. Have good food to eat and a dry place to sleep.”

On cue, raindrops sounded on the tin roof and Eve glanced up, grimacing.

“I’ll finish packing, Trav. You go make sure Cammie stays dry, okay?”

Travis exited the tiny bedroom and went to see to his sister while Eve finished stuffing their belongings into the suitcase.

When she was done, she dragged the full suitcase into the living room and then took the empty one into the kitchen and began packing the food that Donovan had brought over. The roof had already started leaking and small puddles were forming on the floor. Hopefully the rain wouldn’t last long and they could leave as soon as possible.

A loud boom sounded, shaking the entire trailer. Cammie let out a startled shriek and Eve flinched. Her gaze flew to where Travis was holding Cammie on the couch, his arms wrapped around her to shield her from the leaks. Two more lightning flashes illuminated the dark interior of the trailer before the thunder sounded again, right on their heels.

“I’m scared, Evie,” Cammie said in a faltering voice.

Her thumb slid into her mouth as Travis comforted her.

“It will be all right, darling,” Eve said with a smile. “Trav won’t let anything hurt you.”

Thunderstorms certainly weren’t anything new. The entire two weeks they’d lived here, they’d had many afternoon storms. By the time the trailer dried out from one storm, another would roll through, making the interior musty and dank from mold and mildew.

They had to find a better place to live. For Cammie’s sake. She’d never get well in these living conditions. It only hardened Eve’s resolve to pawn her mother’s jewelry so they could afford better accommodations. It was what she should have done from the beginning. Only fear of discovery had prevented her from the desperate act.

But now she realized she should have pawned it much earlier. When they were still on the West Coast. That way there would be nothing pointing Walt—or the police—in their direction. Live and learn. It wasn’t as if she was an expert on being a fugitive. She’d pawn it in Memphis and then relocate to Mississippi as fast as possible and as far away as possible from Tennessee.

She finished packing the food, cramming everything possible inside the suitcase. Then she took one of the bottles of Pedialyte and one of the snacks she’d left out for Cammie over to the couch.

She sat next to Travis, who had Cammie perched on his lap and nestled against his chest.

“Are you hungry?” Eve asked. “You should probably try to get some fluids down and maybe something to eat before we leave.”

Cammie’s thumb slid farther into her mouth and she stared at Eve with wide eyes. “Where are we going, Evie?”

Eve slid a reassuring hand down Cammie’s leg as she extended the bottle. Travis snagged it from Eve’s grasp and put it to Cammie’s lips for her to drink.

“I think toward Jackson. It may take us a few days to get there, but once there, we can buy bus tickets to Memphis. When we get to Memphis, I’ll sell Mom’s jewelry so we can afford a nicer place to live and bus tickets to the next place. The next few days will be the hardest, but if we stick together, we can do anything.”