“Just this.” He kissed her again, and this time he lingered for just a few seconds. When he’d stopped here, there’d been an empty space in the center of his chest. But now he felt whole again. He was still exhausted, but she’d recharged him enough to get through the next couple of hours.

What would he do when she was gone?

Jewel curled on her side and put her arm over her ear to drown out the sound of Penny snoring from the next cot. The girl slept like the dead. Jewel would love to turn off her brain like that. As it was, she was too tired to keep her thoughts from straying to the past, to what happened six months ago in Toledo. To the beginning of her nightmare.

Jenna contemplated the rows of candy. Boxes and boxes lined up on the convenience store shelves. Not the most nutritious food in the convenience store but small, compact, and easily slipped into a pocket. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday. Her stomach grumbled as pangs of hunger turned to demands.

Her gaze swept the store. A guy was paying for cigarettes at the counter. The door buzzed as another guy came through it. The clerk’s interest was divided between making change and watching a tiny TV on the countertop. No one was paying her any attention.

She angled her body away from the security camera that hung from the ceiling. Her hand swiped three packs of peanut M&M’s. She walked up to the register and dug into her pocket. She plunked one bag of candy and a dollar onto the counter. The other two bags nestled in the front pocket of her hoodie. The clerk rang her up, his eyes drifting to the old TV, where a rerun of Friends played on the six-inch screen.

She pushed through the glass door out into the parking lot and zipped her hoodie against the cool air. Dawn was only a few hours away. In another few weeks, the temperature wouldn’t drop so much when the sun went down, but so far this May, the nights had remained cool. Pausing at the curb, she ripped open the top of the bag and shoved a few pieces of candy into her mouth. Sugar and chocolate burst on her tongue. She ate the rest of the small bag in three handfuls. She’d ration the rest. Where now? She needed a place to hide, to sleep. At night, staying out of sight was easy. But in the daytime, she was too visible. Not that her mom would be looking for her. She was busy with her new boyfriend, Lenny. Her last words had been “You’ll be back.” Then Lenny had called Jenna an ungrateful little bitch.