Page 28 of Bishop

"I don't have much," the old man says as he comes out of the back room. In his hands are some blankets and clothes. He hands a pair of thick socks to Gabi and she quickly puts them on.

"Thank you again." She gives him a soft smile. It's the first one I've seen in quite some time.

"Now you want to tell me what you all are running away from? I'm Frank, by the way."

"Frank, nice to meet you. You've got no idea how happy we are that you were here. You might have just saved our lives." I reach out and shake his hand. "I'm Bishop."

"Ah, a God-fearing man?"

"Yeah, I'm known to read the good book every now and again." I don't want to get into the fact that I've never felt more abandoned than I do now. My faith has taken quite the hit.

"That's good. Not a lot of people do nowadays."

As I stand there in front of Frank, my vision blurs and the old man begins to tilt. It takes me a second to realize that it's not him tilting but me.

"Jesus, you lot are nearly dead on your feet. Stop being such a hard-ass and let me help you too." Frank threads his arms under mine and helps me further into the room.

The last thing I need to be doing right now is trusting anyone, but I don't have much of a choice. The guards must have notified Liam and Shade by now. There's no way they're just going to let us go. Even if they had no further use for us, we know too much about their organization. I know that they are splintered from within the group. I know how easy it'll be to take them down.

"We can't stay. We have to keep on moving," I mutter as Frank drops me into one of the chairs.

"Be honest with me, son. You out here slinging that mess through the forest?"

"Wait, what? You mean like drugs?" Gabrielle pipes up.

"Yeah. I know quite a few drug runners who chose this route. I tend not to help those that get lost, but you all don't look the sort."

"No, I swear to you we're not running drugs." I didn't want to give him too much information, mostly to protect him. If the guards did manage to get up here and ask him anything, he'd have plausible deniability. "There's a group of people who have a problem with some of my family members. They thought taking us would be the best way to get their revenge. I'm sure they're still out there looking for us now."

With every word that leaves my mouth, I watch Frank's eyes grow wider and wider.

"Wait, you mean the three of you were kidnapped?"

"Five," April responds before I can advise her against it.

"Five? Where are the—" The answer must have been clear on my face because Frank sucks in a breath before letting out a string of expletives.

"They won't bother you as long as they don't know we're here. They don't want those kinds of problems." I pepper in just to make sure he's at ease. At least as much as he can be.

"I'm not worried about me, son. I'm worried about y'all. You look like you've been through it. I don't have much here." Frank looks around the sparse room as if more aid would magically appear.

"A phone? Do you have one of those?" I ask, hopeful.

"No. There's never any use up here. They don't work this far in the trees. I can take you to the general store though, just a mile or so down the road."

I don't like it. We'd all be sitting ducks in the car, but I don't have much of a choice.

"You can leave the women here?—"

"No, they go where I go," I snap before Frank can finish his statement.

"Alright, I get it. I wouldn't let them out of my sight either. So how do you want to do this? Maybe we should go now and call the authorities," Frank asks.

"Water." I reach my hand over to Gabrielle and she quickly gives me some of the water she has. I take a few sips, just enough to get my mouth wet before I push myself back up to my feet.

"Yeah, I think we need to go make that call now." I reach my hand for both Gabrielle and April to come with me. They don't even hesitate or question my command. These women really trust me with their lives.

"Okay, let me get my jacket." Frank rushes off to the back while I pull both April and Gabrielle closer to the door. Everything about this feels wrong, but I can't tell if I'm just wary of the situation because I don't trust anyone or if Frank really is going to try and hurt us. I doubt it. Even in my beaten-down state, I'd be able to break that man's neck with my bare hands.