been something
of a prankster. They’d always been able to count on him for a little levity.
Like the time when they’d seen their English teacher, Mr. Bishop, smoking pot off campus on
the last day of school their freshman year. Marta and Christie were so against any kind of drugs that
they’d been upset to see their favorite teacher with a joint.
Nate had cracked a joke, which had them all laughing, even Marta and Christie. They’d headed
to the Puma Den, determined to put aside what they’d seen. Who were they to judge?
That one memory of Nate and the CoS shifted to a memory she’d hidden deep for so many
years. She swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel tight, unable to stop her mind from going
back to that night.
After they’d left the pizza place, Belle and Dylan had taken off in his truck and had driven up to
the Divide. It had been the most precious thing in her life, nearly wiping away the pain of the
22
***
emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of her mother.
She’d lost her virginity to Dylan that night. It had been something beautiful that she’d held onto
until she had ended up running away.
When her stepfather had begun to abuse her months later, at least he hadn’t been able to take
that part of her innocence.
One memory bled into another.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered how her mother, Mary, had died from a drug
overdose that summer, leaving Belle alone with her stepfather. One form of abuse had ended with
her mother’s death. But a far worse abuse had fol owed when her stepfather had come home drunk
and forced himself on her not long after her mother’s death.
She had taken her mother’s place in her stepfather’s bed whenever he dragged her into his
bedroom. The shame and guilt had changed her forever. She had dropped out of cheerleading and
had been withdrawn with her CoS friends. She had still hung out with them, still dated Dylan, but
she’d had to force herself to participate in conversations and struggled to smile moment by moment.
The emotions crashing down on her were overwhelming. The blare of a horn snapped her back
to the present and she realized she’d started to drift into another lane. Heart thudding, she swerved
back into the correct lane. She braked and pulled off the freeway, into the emergency lane, and
parked on the side of the road.
Her breaths came hard and fast and she realized she was hyperventilating. She pressed the
button for her emergency flashers and put her forehead against the steering wheel as she tried to
slow her breathing.
When she finally regained her composure, she leaned back in her seat to take a few more
moments to make sure she was calm enough to drive. After another five minutes she switched off
the flashers, waited for traffic to clear, and pulled back onto the highway.
The one thing she knew was that going back to Bisbee was the second hardest thing she’d ever
done. The first had been leaving.
***
23
***
Rain fell from the sky like tears. Dylan slammed his truck door and shoved his hands in the
pockets of his leather jacket. Drops hit his Stetson and rolled off the brim as he headed past five
other vehicles, toward a small group gathered on a ridge in the Mule Mountains.
The clearing on the ridge had been one of the CoS’s favorite places to hang out when they were
in high school and needed some kind of escape.
Dylan couldn’t help the churning in his mind or his gut as he trod over wet earth and past scraggly
bushes and cacti.
Detective Jensen had called Dylan and confirmed his suspicions that the spatter on the
baseboard in Nate’s living room was blood. Not only was it blood, but according to DNA tests it
belonged to Edmund Salcido, a suspected bookkeeper for the Jimenez Cartel. Edmund had been
convicted embezzlement in the past, so they were fortunate to have his DNA in the database.
Dylan’s boot slipped in mud as he closed in on the five figures. Al wore jeans
of a prankster. They’d always been able to count on him for a little levity.
Like the time when they’d seen their English teacher, Mr. Bishop, smoking pot off campus on
the last day of school their freshman year. Marta and Christie were so against any kind of drugs that
they’d been upset to see their favorite teacher with a joint.
Nate had cracked a joke, which had them all laughing, even Marta and Christie. They’d headed
to the Puma Den, determined to put aside what they’d seen. Who were they to judge?
That one memory of Nate and the CoS shifted to a memory she’d hidden deep for so many
years. She swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel tight, unable to stop her mind from going
back to that night.
After they’d left the pizza place, Belle and Dylan had taken off in his truck and had driven up to
the Divide. It had been the most precious thing in her life, nearly wiping away the pain of the
22
***
emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of her mother.
She’d lost her virginity to Dylan that night. It had been something beautiful that she’d held onto
until she had ended up running away.
When her stepfather had begun to abuse her months later, at least he hadn’t been able to take
that part of her innocence.
One memory bled into another.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered how her mother, Mary, had died from a drug
overdose that summer, leaving Belle alone with her stepfather. One form of abuse had ended with
her mother’s death. But a far worse abuse had fol owed when her stepfather had come home drunk
and forced himself on her not long after her mother’s death.
She had taken her mother’s place in her stepfather’s bed whenever he dragged her into his
bedroom. The shame and guilt had changed her forever. She had dropped out of cheerleading and
had been withdrawn with her CoS friends. She had still hung out with them, still dated Dylan, but
she’d had to force herself to participate in conversations and struggled to smile moment by moment.
The emotions crashing down on her were overwhelming. The blare of a horn snapped her back
to the present and she realized she’d started to drift into another lane. Heart thudding, she swerved
back into the correct lane. She braked and pulled off the freeway, into the emergency lane, and
parked on the side of the road.
Her breaths came hard and fast and she realized she was hyperventilating. She pressed the
button for her emergency flashers and put her forehead against the steering wheel as she tried to
slow her breathing.
When she finally regained her composure, she leaned back in her seat to take a few more
moments to make sure she was calm enough to drive. After another five minutes she switched off
the flashers, waited for traffic to clear, and pulled back onto the highway.
The one thing she knew was that going back to Bisbee was the second hardest thing she’d ever
done. The first had been leaving.
***
23
***
Rain fell from the sky like tears. Dylan slammed his truck door and shoved his hands in the
pockets of his leather jacket. Drops hit his Stetson and rolled off the brim as he headed past five
other vehicles, toward a small group gathered on a ridge in the Mule Mountains.
The clearing on the ridge had been one of the CoS’s favorite places to hang out when they were
in high school and needed some kind of escape.
Dylan couldn’t help the churning in his mind or his gut as he trod over wet earth and past scraggly
bushes and cacti.
Detective Jensen had called Dylan and confirmed his suspicions that the spatter on the
baseboard in Nate’s living room was blood. Not only was it blood, but according to DNA tests it
belonged to Edmund Salcido, a suspected bookkeeper for the Jimenez Cartel. Edmund had been
convicted embezzlement in the past, so they were fortunate to have his DNA in the database.
Dylan’s boot slipped in mud as he closed in on the five figures. Al wore jeans
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