Chapter 38

A sound in the back drew their attention and Sara touched Daniel’s thigh lovingly with her fingertips. “I’ll go and talk to her.”

Amanda sighed as her eyes fluttered open. She lay on the floor of the van still and she could tell that the van was still moving. Almost as soon as her eyes opened, she regretted it. The pain in her heart slammed into her with a vengeance. If anything it felt stronger now than it had when she had cried herself to sleep in Sara’s arms. Movement near the front drew Amanda’s attention and she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Sara settled onto the floor in front of her and smiled. “Hey there, are you feeling any better?”

Amanda shook her head slightly. “Honestly? No. If anything, I feel worse.” She crossed her arms over her chest and pulled her knees up to rest her forearms on top of them. “I’ve never felt anything quite like this. How could something hurt so much that it feels like you can’t breathe? It feels like at any moment I might just die from the pain. Does it ever go away?”

Sara reached out a hand and rested it upon Amanda’s arm. “It depends. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.”

Amanda blinked as tears threatened to fall once more but she managed to push them away and nodded silently. It felt like every mile they put between her and that town was another little chunk being ripped out of her already battered heart.

Sara’s voice came once more, soft and gentle as it broke through her silent suffering. “You haven’t told me your name.”

“Oh.” Amanda sat up and wiped her hands across her eyes quickly and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m Amanda. It’s nice to meet you, even if we did meet in a very unconventional way.”

“Amanda. Hello. We’ve actually met once before. Can I ask you why you were trying to get into that building back there?”

Amanda groaned softly and shrugged her shoulders, hoping the sullen teen act might dissuade Sara from asking any more questions along that vein. “No, we didn’t.” She tried instead.

Sara smiled like she knew something Amanda didn’t. “Oh, I believe we did.” Her eyes twinkled with youth and mischief that made her seem closer to Amanda’s age rather than her late twenties as Amada had first assumed.

“No. I don’t think we did.” She argued. It was working!

“And don’t think I’ve forgotten that other question. I still want to know why you were trying to get into that building. Those men didn’t look all that friendly to me, nor do they look like the sort that you would be spending much time with.”

Amanda wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. Damn! She’d thought for sure she’d distracted the other woman, but it seemed that Sara was not one to be tricked easily. “They killed my parents.”

Sara’s eyes widened. “You know about Jacob and Cara?” She asked in total shock. She’d never imagined that Amanda might actually know who her parents were, or about how they died. “So you know what you are then?”

“Yeah. I’m an orphan. Those men killed my parents and I aim to make sure they get what’s coming to them.” Amanda paused for a moment and her brow furrowed in confusion. “Who are Jacob and Cara? Did those men kill them too? If you think I’m their daughter I think you’ve kidnapped the wrong girl. Also, why did you kidnap me anyway?”