Into the Desert

Rae’s secrets might kill her.

When Rae Stone’s dirty secrets are all revealed to her family and Wulf has told her that he is leaving the country, she takes off, desperate to be alone to figure out what to do. Her cousin Jim Bob, who caught Rae in The Devilhouse, has worse plans for her, and it will take all Wulf’s resources to save her because he cannot bear to lose her.

EXCERPT:
Rae Stone drove her father’s white pickup truck through the desert town of Pirtleville like a drunk teenager, skidding around intersections. In the rearview mirror, two black SUVs and a black Porsche tailed her. Out of habit, she reeled the seatbelt around her with one hand and leaned into the turn while she swerved the truck at breakneck speed over the hot asphalt.
She sped by the Dairy Queen, the Sonic, and the True Value hardware store. In the parking lots, no one even looked at her.
In the rearview mirror, the dusty stores and red traffic lights turned away from her, shutting her out. The SUVs and the sports car chased her, but she didn’t want to talk to them.
Within minutes, she reached the desert.
The sun was setting over the mountains, streaking the blazing desert with the rich plum and navy blue of a deep bruise. Cacti and tumbleweeds shielded her from the far away homes and businesses and cross-streets and people and any reach of civilization. Fire-orange sunset light glared through the windshield. She squinted, trying to see through it.
She spun the truck left. Angry sunlight poured in the passenger-side window.
The church was, even now as she drove away, going through the process to disfellowship her, so now she was a pariah in her hometown.
She ran away from them all.
Her family who had let it happen.
Her mother who had cried instead of defending her.
Her father who had writhed in rage rather than helping her.
Wulf.
He was moving out of the country in two weeks, just to rid himself of her.
They were gone, all gone, and Rae was alone in the world. She felt like a seedling bitten off its roots.
As much as losing her scholarship had been terrible, as much as compromising her morals to work at The Devilhouse for tuition money had upset her, all this, losing everyone, hurt.
The pavement ended, and Rae drove the truck at breakneck speed onto the dirt trail, rooster-tailing pebbles and dirt. The shocks bounced the truck over rocks, and Rae kept a tight hold of the jumping steering wheel with one hand while she wiped her eyes with the other.
She didn’t know where she was going. She certainly had nothing to go back to.
In the rear view mirror, the black SUVs were farther back, and the Porsche was nowhere to be seen. Wulf had given up on her rather than go boonie-bouncing in his pretty car. He might have sent his security men after her for a while, but they wouldn’t leave Wulf unprotected for long. She had to respect that they had followed her that far. Only a native could navigate the wild desert or was stupid enough to try.
She knew this fang-tipped desert better than she knew Pirtleville. She could lose them all.
Eventually, Rae could find the highway and drive back to college, where she could stay in her dorm with silent Hester, if Hester came back after that sermon. Rae could work in The Devilhouse and try to build her autism clinic somewhere else, because no one in Pirtleville or the Border region would darken her door now, even if they needed help for their child.
Even Aunt Alana and Daniel.
Especially them.
Everyone would know that she had been cast out, and no one would even nod if they passed her on the street.
Rae could do it all alone, without her family, and without Wulf.