When Love's Gone Country (Sequel two of the Embracing Love Trilogy) by Merri Hiatt Page B

remember, if you don’t do what I say, I’ve got little Jeremy to go to,” something snapped inside Jacob.
    He endured the rest of his dad’s physical torture. He slapped him on the butt for the last time, leaving a red hand stain, then left the room.
    Jacob found him in the recliner in the living room drinking a beer and watching Cops. It hadn’t been hard to find the gun. Paul Reese made no secret of where he kept it, or where the bullets could be found.
    Jacob held the fire arm with both hands. No sign of hesitation. No quivering. No regret in his heart.
    When his father saw him, he laughed. “Be careful now, son, you might put your eye out with that thing.”
    His father was laughing when Jacob pulled the trigger. He’d been aiming for his heart, but ended up skimming his kneecap.
    “Son of a bitch! You shot me. You little mother fucker! You shot me.”
    Jacob ran into his room, stuffed his and Jeremy’s clothes in a bag along with a few other items, then woke Jeremy. “Come on. We’re leavin’.”
    “Where we goin?”
    “Away from here.”
    “Are we comin’ back?”
    “Never.”
    “What the hell’d you do to your knee?” Amanda Reese asked her husband.
    “Your damn kid shot me.”
    Amanda laughed callously. “He better learn to aim better.”
    “Call 911! I’m bleedin’ to death here.”
    Amanda surveyed the damage. “It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll get some bandages.”
    “I need a doctor.”
    “You’ll be fine. Drink your beer.”
    Amanda saw the boys in the hallway. “If you’re goin’ to shoot someone, learn to do it right. You can’t even kill somebody decent. Such a piece of shit. Go on, get out of here if you want to go. Good riddance if you ask me. I don’t ever want to see your sorry asses again. Worst two days of my life was when I had you kids.”
    Jacob and Jeremy ran out the front door without looking back. They went to the park near their home and hid in the bushes.
    “Did you kill Dad?”
    “No. I missed and hit him in the knee.”
    “You think she meant what she said about the worst day of her life bein’ when you and me was born?”
    “I think she’s had a lot of bad days in her life. I don’t know how she could pick just two.”
    They sat in silence for several minutes.
    “Do you have a plan?”
    “Of course I do.”
    “Good.” Jeremy sighed and relaxed. “I don’t got a plan.”
    “You don’t need one. I’ll take care of you. You never have to worry about that. You’re my brother, my only family. We’ll be together forever.”
    “Promise?”
    “Promise.”
    He’d made a promise to Jeremy that day. A promise he was about to break. He threw back the blankets, grabbed his backpack and left the barracks. He needed air, space. Sometimes it seemed like the entire world was on his shoulders and he couldn’t breathe from the crushing weight.
    The ranch was lit every hundred yards or so, making it easy to walk the pathways at any time of day or night.
    Jacob found himself near the cow paddock within five minutes. He dropped his backpack and climbed onto the fence, straddling it like he imagined cowboys used to do in the old days. He looked up at the sky. It was so dark, or maybe it was that the stars were so bright. They were endless.
    He lowered himself from the wooden structure, wrapped the wool blanket around his shoulders and hunkered down by the fencepost and his backpack.
    He couldn’t have been asleep more than half an hour when he felt something tugging on his arm. Jacob jumped when a tongue aimed at his face came through the space in the fence. It was a calf. Jacob looked around to find the mother. She did not appear amused by her baby’s playful antics.
    “It came to me,” Jacob tried to explain, then stopped. “I’m explaining to a cow.”
    The creak and squeak of the paddock lock being removed and the gate swinging open captured his attention. Jacob squinted. The light that was so prevalent everywhere else seemed to be absent here. He