Tainted by Jamie Begley Page A

the confining space, with so much male testosterone was beginning to wear on her nerves. That, combined with the food, was making her want to throw a screaming fit. The only thing holding her back was the embarrassment of making a fool of herself.
    Ax slid into the seat across from her. “Getting stir crazy?”
    “I don’t know if I could take one more day on this bus ,” Sawyer confessed.
    “It get s to us all. That’s why we have to take intermittent breaks. Without them, arguments start and it affects the performances.”
    “I can understand that . I feel like punching something myself.”
    “Don’t do well being confined , huh?”
    Sawyer shook her head. “No , it reminds me too much of my childhood.” She looked outside the window at the passing scenery. Unaware the others had stopped playing cards and were listening to her conversation with Ax. She had always kept to herself, but thinking about her childhood had made her melancholy, lowering her guard.
    “You r parents kept you confined on a bus?” Ax asked teasingly.
    “No , our apartment was smaller than this and definitely not as well decorated.” Sawyer’s lips tightened as her memories played in her mind. Her hand went to her hair, twisting a lock of her reddish gold hair around her finger over and over again.
    “ A— after my father was killed in a car accident, my mother became over-protective. She babysat other children to earn money, so I stayed home with her until kindergarten. The only friends I had were the other children she babysat. We thought we were sisters. We didn’t understand until we were four or five that we weren’t related.
    “ Because we didn’t live in the best neighborhood, she was afraid to let us go outside to play. As we grew older and went to school, we would always sneak and play for a few minutes before we went inside, because once we were inside, she wouldn’t let us back out. Vida, Callie and I learned to make the most of that time. We would drive everyone in the neighborhood and apartment building crazy.” Sawyer paused, blinking back tears. She missed those times so badly. Sometimes she looked back and thought that those moments with Vida and Callie were the best times in her life, and then her mother’s stern face had her thinking the opposite.
    “It sound s like you were all close.”
    Sawyer’s smile was sadly remi niscent.
    “We were. We were so different . Vida is a brunette, Callie had black hair, and me with my red hair always made it easy to identify the culprit of our crimes. They would, of course, tell our mothers. My mother would make me stay in for several days. Vida’s mom was laid back so she never got into too much trouble.”
    “How about Callie? Was her mom like yours or Vida ’s?” Ax asked softly, as if he knew she was lost in the past.
    “Neither. Brenda never let Callie out much . She never went to Kindergarten. Brenda kept telling social services she was too sick.” Unconsciously, Sawyer’s hand went back to a red curl, tugging and pulling at the tendril over and over. “When she would get in trouble, Brenda would beat her. She blacked her eye one time, and everyone in the apartment building knew it. Not one adult tried to stop her though.”
    “Did she get in trouble a lot?”
    “Oh, yes, but none of it was her fault. After Brenda blacked her eye, no one would help, but they made sure no one told on her anymore.” Sawyer took a shuddering breath. “We made plans to run away together when we got older. We borrowed books from the library and looked at all the places we dreamed of going.” A lone tear streaked her cheek. “I wanted to go to Disneyland while Vida wanted to live on a farm.”
    “Where did Callie want to go?” Ax’s soft question brought a smile to her lips.
    “She wanted to go to Alaska. I had told her about the Northern Lights and she wanted to see them. Vida and I researched it for hours for her. Did you know that sometimes, if the conditions are right,