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Back Surrender Your Sons Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. Author’s Note with Content Warnings
  2. CHAPTER ONE
  3. CHAPTER TWO
  4. CHAPTER THREE
  5. CHAPTER FOUR
  6. CHAPTER FIVE
  7. CHAPTER SIX
  8. CHAPTER SEVEN
  9. CHAPTER EIGHT
  10. CHAPTER NINE
  11. CHAPTER TEN
  12. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  13. CHAPTER TWELVE
  14. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  15. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  20. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  21. CHAPTER TWENTY
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  31. CHAPTER THIRTY
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  41. CHAPTER FORTY
  42. EPILOGUE
  43. Acknowledgments

I should’ve listened to Marcos.
The clinic door opens from the outside, and everything gets worse. Through the slats in the closet, I catch the Reverend entering, almost floating like a vampire, his bearish face and raven’s body a perfect, genetically engineered machine of intimidation. “How long has Connor been missing?” Miss Manners asks without greeting the director.

“Fifteen minutes,” the Reverend reports. “You haven’t seen or heard anything?”

How does he know? How does the Reverend always know?!

“Did you tell on me?” I mouth to Marcos, who returns a silent, horrified, “NO.”

I have to believe him. He wouldn’t snitch me out, only to come running after me and end up in the same hot-closet situation. These people need to get lost before I faint from heatstroke. I’d check on how Marcos is holding up, but I can’t afford to miss anything from my peephole. Luckily, the tittering of rain on the metal roof muffles our breathing.

“Connor’s making a run for the beach, then,” the Reverend surmises.

“He can work the boat on his own?” asks Miss Manners.

“Don’t ask me what that hillbilly is capable of. He’s delinquent trash. No parenting whatsoever. He does whatever he feels like, and”—the Reverend pivots a suspicious scowl around the lobby—“and thanks to Ricky, now he’s scared and acting recklessly.”

Oh, I’m the hillbilly? The Reverend’s chicken farm stinks up the whole town for miles.

“What does Connor know about Ricky?” Miss Manners asks.

“Nothing,” the Reverend answers. “We need to find him before he gets himself hurt. And where the hell is Briggs? He’s not answering his walkie.”

“You know where he is.” Ramona and the Reverend exchange long, narrowed looks as if the same unpleasant thought is occurring to both of them. And to me. Drew—they know he’s with Drew. “Keeping Briggs on the team is a mistake—”

“Really not the time for office gossip, Ramona.”

“It’s not gossip.”

“ENOUGH. What did I say? Focus on the kid. I need him back here.” Miss Manners nods, while Marcos and I struggle not to exhale. “Connor Major does not leave this island.”