The Truck Driver

Location Reads South Dakota

Josh had went over to Kayla's parent's house with his mom as his mom overheard him talking to her earlier. Diane didn't know the full picture of what was going on with Kayla, but she knew that Josh should tell her parents what he knew. And what he knew was that Kayla was on the road, and before her phone was powered off, he had her location as they shared their location during their relationship. And her location read—South Dakota.

Martha's face twisted in shock as she clutched her chest. "South Dakota?!" she repeated, her voice shrill. "How in the hell did she get from Maine to South Dakota?"

Josh shrugged, his face serious. "I don't know, ma'am. I just know what I saw."

Vince, who had been listening from his recliner, grunted. His dark eyes flickered with something almost knowing. He rubbed his chin before standing up slowly, his large frame moving toward the kitchen where Martha and Diane stood.

"I know how," Vince muttered.

Martha snapped her head toward him. "How, Vince? How?"

"That night she ran off," Vince started, looking at Diane and Josh now. "She ran to that truck stop on the highway. I ain't think much of it before, but if she really made it to South Dakota, then she hitched a ride with a trucker." His eyes narrowed. "But I just don't know which one."

Josh exhaled, shaking his head. The thought of Kayla, his first everything, out there with some strange-ass trucker made him uneasy. Yeah, he had done her wrong, but that didn't mean he wanted anything bad to happen to her.

"If she's with some trucker, how do we even find out which one?" Josh asked.

Vince's lips curled into a smirk. "Oh, I'll find out. Best that."

Martha swallowed hard, rubbing her temples. "Vince, don't go doin' nothin' stupid. We just need to make sure she's safe."

Vince ignored her. He was already thinking, already plotting. He wasn't letting this shit slide. If Kayla thought she was grown enough to run off, if some motherfucker thought he was bold enough to take her in—Vince was gonna handle it.

Vince chugged a beer as he thought Kayla over.

Vince had a problem. A sickness. One he never said out loud, never admitted to himself in words, but it lived in him, twisted up in his mind like poison. He was attracted to his stepdaughter.

He didn't understand why she wasn't attracted to him.

Ever since the day Martha whooped her in front of him, skin bare, body trembling under the harsh sting of that belt, he hadn't seen her as a child anymore. No, that was the day she became a woman to him. A grown woman.

And now, Kayla was gone.

The thought of her out in the world, hitchhiking, sleeping God-knows-where, riding with men—it made his stomach twist. But not with worry. No, it was something else.

What was she doing to get those rides?

Vince knew truckers. They didn't help out the kindness of their hearts. If she was making it from Maine to South Dakota, it wasn't for free.

His grip tightened around the beer bottle.

She out there giving herself to strangers but wouldn't even look at him that way? The idea made something snap inside him.

If he wasn't determined before, he was now.

Kayla wasn't just some runaway girl. She was his stepdaughter. And if she thought she could run, if she thought she could belong to another man—she had another thing coming.