Atonement

{Ten} Something is Amiss

“The sun goes down, and then she slips away/It gets so lonely after dark/If only we could relive yesterday/Tomorrow always seems so far.”

-Fourteen, Hawk Nelson

  “That’s great,” I said after what seemed like hours. “Good to know.”

  Cap and I had been staring eachother down for a good and silent ten minutes before I had the guts to speak. Thankfully, my voice didn’t crack as much as I thought it would. Actually, I didn’t even remotely feel like crying yet. Shock evaded me from feeling anything but stupidity and anger. I was furious—with him, myself. It was the kind of fury that made people kill. Blind. If I’d had any sort of weapon in my hand, I shuddered to think what I’d do. Yet I still worried with just my bare hands.

  How. Dare. He.

  As silly as those three words were, it struck me how appropriate they were. When thinking of how he led me on, how he’d protected me….it just didn’t seem fair. So, yes, how dare he!

  Due to my irrational amount of anger, I blurted out without thinking, “If you think for one second I’m gonna stand by here waiting to be killed, you got another think comin’! The second you turn your back, I’ll be running as fast as I can!”

  “Well, then, I guess I ain’t gonna turn my back, am I?” Cap retorted smartly.

  “Eventually you will. And when you do, you won’t see a sign of me or my brother.”

  Cap’s deadpan expression turned into a nasty smirk as he said, “Thought of that, sweetheart. Ya may run off if I turn my back, but ya gotta find your brother first.”

  Dread filled my heart and plummeted to the pit of my stomach. God, how could I have been so stupid?! If I hadn’t been so hell-bent on telling Cap off, I would have figured out what was going on! Why Jim came out to get us. He hadn’t been fetching us to the house; he’d been prepared to separate us. And I’d made it so easy!

  “No,” I groaned, ripping my hands through my hair. “No, God, you have got to be kidding me!” Way to freaking go, Josie!

  I made one move toward the door. Cap instantly blocked the way. “Don’t try it. Ya ain’t gettin’ by.”

  I debated my odds if I were to promptly disobey his orders. They weren’t favorable. But I hated to stomach the fact that I’d have to let this one go without a fight. It wasn’t in me to give up; not that I was, really. I was just calling his bluff. He couldn’t watch me all night. Sure, he and Johnse would likely take shifts, but eventually one of them would fall asleep. It’d take Cap a while, I was sure, but Johnse would be like putty in my hands.

  “I don’t trust Jim alone with my brother,” I said firmly.

  Cap knew better than to tell me Jim was under strict orders not to touch Russ. But even he knew his uncle was apt to break orders. “We’ll check on ‘um.”

  “Now.”

  Cap shook his head. “Might as well lay your pretty little head down an try to sleep.”

  “So you can kill us in the morning?” I snorted. “Not likely.”

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Either way, you’d better keep your mouth shut.”

  If I didn’t think Russ would get punished for my actions, I would have been as loud and obnoxious as humanly possible. But I was walking a thin line as it was. The Hatfields hated me because I was a “spy” but they also hated me because I’d spurned their precious son. I had to admit, I admired the family spirit. They had eachother’s backs; even if they didn’t agree with eachother, they covered one another.