I pedaled faster, away from my stepfather’s El Patio Restaurant, darting a glance over my shoulder. My fingers clenched the money pouch with three hundred and six dollars against the handle bar. Two p.m. sun cooked my scalp and shoulders. I pumped harder, my progress...
I jerked upright out of a sound sleep. My newly broken ankle squawked in complaint. I peered at the sliver of streetlight slitting through the window and stilled my breath. Nothing. Well, nothing but the sound of Ralph sawing sequoia-sized logs in the next room. I...
Mom scooped us from the sailboat we lived aboard in Miami, grabbed a new husband, and tossed us into a new town. I landed on cat feet in Stuart, Florida, because I wanted freedom from Dad and our life on the Annie Lee almost as much as Mom did. But freedom came at a...
