River's End (River's End Series, #1)(46)

“She left a note for me that said she was sorry. That’s all the note said, ‘I’m sorry, Erin,’ not ‘I love you,’ or ‘I’m sorry to fail you and abandon you,’ but she was sorry. She knew I couldn’t function in the world without her. She knew I had nowhere to go. Anyway, the part you want to know, Jack? I was left alone with my stepfather in the tiny one-bedroom apartment we all shared. I slept on the couch. He kept the apartment and wanted me to join him in the bedroom after Mom was gone. I said no. He didn’t like that. He got put out. He tried to force me and that was when I left with what I had stashed in my car. And when… I came here.”

Ian spoke first. “You really have nowhere else to go then?”

She scoffed. “No. This is impossible for you to believe, I know. I have no one. There is no money. There are no friendly neighbors or a thousand-acre ranch waiting for me. There is nothing. Except Chance.”

“How come someone your age doesn’t have friends to go to?”

“Because I spent all my time pushing everyone away. I never let anyone get too close to me because then they’d guess I could not read. My entire existence has been about trying to hide that.”

Joey stood up and walked into the kitchen, but glared at her. “Chance was my fault. I know that now. I screwed up. You all tried to tell me and I refused to listen. But she isn’t our responsibility. I doubt we can believe all of this.”

“She’s your girlfriend,” Shane said finally.

“Not as of last night. And funny how Chance is gone this morning and look who is stranded here. I don’t buy it. Not for a second, Erin.”

Looking up at Joey, she finally stood up, sliding her chair back slowly. “I had nothing to do with what Chance did. I have never been involved or had anything to do with what Chance does.”

“You can’t be so different.”

“You didn’t even see what he was until this very moment. I told you what he was, and you wouldn’t even believe me. If I wanted to play you, why would I have told you that?”

“You also said you’d be gone today. If all this was true, then where were you going to go?”

“Last night, I had a car, clothes and over a thousand dollars. I know it wasn’t much, but a lot more than I have today.”

“Who doesn’t use a bank?” Joey demanded, his face expressing how stupid he found her.

“Someone who can’t read a deposit slip, or an ATM screen,” she said finally, after a long pause.

“How did you ever get a license?”

“I didn’t.”

“What? You drive around without a legal driver’s license?”

“Yes,” she said, looking straight into Joey’s eyes. He couldn’t for a moment guess what her life was like.

“What did you do for work? Strip? Hook? What could you possibly do if you really can’t read?”

She pulled her head back as if he slapped her.

“Joey. That’s enough.”

Joey glanced back at Jack. “She played us, Jack. Just like you said she would. Don’t fall for it now. Get her out of here.”

“Yeah? And how do I do that? She can’t drive air. I checked the trailer, and there’s nothing there.”

Erin eyed Jack. She didn’t know he checked her story out. He looked back at her, unashamed. He didn’t trust her. He had to be convinced she wasn’t lying. She also realized she deserved that.

“You think she’s really stuck here? That she’s telling you the truth?”

She watched Jack. And so did Joey. Jack finally nodded. “Yeah, I think she’s telling the truth, Joe.”

“And so what? She’s now our problem?”

“Joe, you were the one who…”

“Screwing a girl doesn’t mean you have to live with her, Jack.”

Erin shut her eyes. Which was worse? Illiteracy or sluttiness? She deserved it. She knew that. She knew they all knew it too. But this? She did not want it discussed like this.

Jack finally stood up. “You can be a real little shit, Joey. She’s sitting right there. I know I’ve taught you better than to act like that. Or talk like that.”

“Oh, you mean how I talk around a lady? I know how to, Jack. I just don’t see any lady here.”

Joey glanced at her and slammed his fist down, then turned and marched out the door, letting it bang shut loudly behind him.

Erin couldn’t look around the room or even look up. She got to her feet and ran out the front door, down the porch steps, and straight into the trailer. She locked the door, shut all the shades, and fell down onto the couch and cried. She wept for the humiliation, for being stuck there, for Joey’s unkind words, and for deserving them, and worst of all, for having Jack, Ian and Shane witness her depravity and shame. She cried because she had no one left in the world, no place in the world, and her only hope was a family who still didn’t trust her, but would help her out of basic decency, which was far more than her own family ever showed toward her.





Chapter Fifteen


Jack stared at the shut door. Shit, that didn’t go very well. And there was far more wrong with Erin than he was prepared to deal with.

“What are we going to do?”

Jack glanced at Ian. “Do? Nothing. We don’t need the trailer. She’ll stay there. We’ll have to get her something to drive though, so she can get around.”