Hunted by Christine Kersey Page B

was there and he sat me in a chair, and then sat across from me—close enough so we could talk softly without being overheard, but far enough away to establish our relationship as just friends. I don’t know why I thought of it in those terms. Maybe I wished he would sit close to me, but I knew that should be the last thing on my mind—what with my life potentially about to be put into danger and all.
    “What in the world are you thinking?” he asked, anger flashing in his eyes—at least as much of his eyes as I could see through his long bangs. “Are you demented, Morgan?”
    I found it hard to meet his gaze because he was the only one who really knew what I would be getting myself into, and he disapproved. His objection scared me. If he didn’t support this idea then it had to be a bad one. I respected his opinion—he’d gotten us out of Camp Willowmoss when things had started to go wrong, and he’d kept us alive until we were able to meet Jack and Dani’s group.  
    I looked past his shoulder, picturing Amy’s face as she sat in the back seat of Hansen’s car, the tears streaming down her face, then met his gaze. “What do you think I should do, then, huh? Just leave her there to be abused by Hansen and the rest?” In the back of my mind—okay maybe it was more like the middle—I wanted to do just that. Just walk away and forget all about Amy and all the awful things she would experience. But I just couldn’t do that. She was my family . My only sister. How could I live with myself if I knew I had stood by and done nothing to help her? Especially since she was quite literally taking my place at Camp Willowmoss.  
    “What about getting back to your tunnel on the right date?” His voice was soft, like he didn’t necessarily believe anything about my story, but hoped I believed it enough to change my mind about going back to Camp Willowmoss.
    Frowning at his unbelief as well as his voicing of one of my biggest worries, I sighed. “That does make me really nervous about this idea.”
    He smiled, like he thought he’d gotten through to me. “You see? It’s not a good idea. If you miss that date, you’ll be stuck here forever, right? You don’t want that.”
    “No, I most definitely don’t want that. But Billy, wouldn’t you do this if someone you cared about was hauled away because of you?”
    He was quiet for a moment. “There’s no one I care about that much.”
    Shocked by his statement, I stared at him. “No one? What about your family?” I paused. “You’ve never told me anything about them.”
    His jaw clenched. “I don’t have a family.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He stared past me, then slowly met my gaze. “My family didn’t want to have to take care of me anymore—they said I was too much trouble and too expensive. So when I was fifteen they kicked me out and told me it was time for me to take care of myself.”  
    He watched me for a moment, I guess wanting to see my reaction, but I stayed perfectly still, my eyes meeting his. I didn’t want to do anything to discourage him from telling me his story.
    His voice softened. “I had nowhere to go.” He gestured to the space around us. “I didn’t know anyone like Jack to help me out. It was all on me.” A look of sadness crept into his eyes. “For the first few days the hunger was pretty bad, but eventually I got used to it. Then one night a group of kids found me huddled in an alley, trying to stay warm.” He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “They must have been bored because they seemed to really enjoy beating me.”
    Shocked by what he’d been through, I pressed my hand to my mouth to hold back a gasp.
    He laughed again. “Oh, it gets better.”
    Suddenly I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his story. I spoke softly. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
    “No, it actually feels kind of good to get this out.”
    “Have you told anyone before?”
    He shook his head. “Not the whole