Runaways (Orphans 5)

"You want me to scare you?" Gordon asked me. "Is that what you want, Brooke?"

"No, Gordon," I said.

"Good. Because if I have to scare you,get even angrier than I am now and I just don't know how I can be any angrier and not tear you all into little pieces," he said in a voice so controlled, his teeth were locked together as he spoke.

"What do you want from us?" Crystal asked in her composed demeanor.

"What do I want? I want what's mine, Crystal. I want what you found under that seat. Where is it?" he asked.

"We didn't find anything under the seat," Raven cried.

He pointed at her in the rearview mirror.

"Don't treat me like a fool, Raven, or I'll start on you first. Or," he said with a cold smile, "do you want me to stop the car and pull the little one out and ask her? I know she'll tell me everything, won't you, little one?"

Butterfly's face turned a shade redder than rose. Crystal put her arm around her quickly.

"We discovered it by accident," Crystal declared. "We were looking for loose change and we didn't even know what it was at first."

"Loose change?" He smiled and shook his head. "Okay. I'll buy that. Then what?"

"Once we realized what it was, we got scared and we stopped along the way and buried it," she said.

"You buried it?"

"We didn't want any children finding it and we didn't want to be stopped with it on us," she continued.

He looked thoughtful for a moment and then he slowed down and turned off the road onto the shoulder and stopped. After he took a puff on his cigarette, he spun around. "Where did you bury it?" he asked. "Or are you going to tell me you forgot?"

"No, I remember where," Crystal said firmly. She barely blinked

I looked at her and raised my eyebrows. How could she say that? What would happen if we took Gordon to the actual place and he saw we had dumped the bag?

"Okay, okay. You'll show me then," he said.

"I won't be able to find it in the dark," she said. Night had begun to fall rapidly now. The cloud cover kept any moonlight from illuminating the highway.

Gordon stared at her, but Crystal still didn't wince. Good old Crystal, I thought, when it came to Gordon doing mind games with her, he was definitely outmatched. He sat back a moment and thought.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. We pull into the first motel for the night. Tomorrow, we find what's mine and then, I'll tell you what, girls. I'll let you run away again, only this time I won't report you. How's that? Raven? That make you happy?"

"Yes," Raven said, her eyes glowing with pain and rage. "It does."

"Fair enough. I get what I want and you get what you want," he said.

"What about Louise?" I asked. "I thought her heart was broken when we left."

He glared at me.

"She'll get over it. She always gets over it," he said.

He put the car in drive again and started away.

"I know you girls aren't fond of me. That's okay. I never asked to be a loving foster parent. That was all Louise's idea. It was never easy running that place when it was a rooming house. Her parents treated me like the hired help, never a son-in-law. When I got out of the navy, I had skills. I was worth something. It wasn't my fault the place fell apart. Customers stopped coming around and there wasn't any money. Then Louise came up with the foster home idea. Sure, I went along with it, but having you creatures around all the time hasn't been a ball, exactly. I don't apologize for taking advantage_ of an opportunity. That's always been my motto, girls, take advantage of an opportunity."

He laughed and glanced back at Raven and then at me.

"You girls have guts. I'll say that for you. I think we understand each other now. We're going to get along just fine. There," he said seeing a neon sign flashing an advertisement for a motel. "We'll rest up and tomorrow, we'll part friends. Okay?"