Free The Line Book One: Carrier by Anne Tibbets

desperation. “You must bring me with you.”
    “I can’t,” I said, peeling her hands from me. “At least, not yet. I have to finish some things first. Just, look, give me a few months. Okay? Wait until I get settled. Then I can send for you.”
    I realized the moment I’d said it, it was the wrong thing to say.
    Evie’s face capsized under the weight of her pent-up emotion. To her credit, she cried in complete silence.
    I was just like her mother. Abandoning her all over again.
    My oath to never do that to anyone was crushed. It hadn’t taken me long to fail.
    “Then take me to the Line,” Evie pleaded. “I can’t sweep for Mr. Coleworth anymore. He’s...he’s...doing things to me, and I don’t want him to. I’d rather go to the Line.”
    “Doing things? You mean, like...?”
    Evie put her little hand on her crotch and squeezed, nodding.
    “You’d be doing the same thing on the Line,” I said. “It’s not a good idea.”
    “It’s got to be better than what Mr. Coleworth is making me do. Anything is better than that.”
    “No, it’s not.”
    “Fine,” Evie said, sticking out her lower lip and crossing her arms across her tiny chest with a snap. “Then if you won’t take me, I’ll go myself.”
    “No! Evie, listen. Maybe if you go work at the factory with Shirel or something.”
    “They don’t hire kids, dummy.” She rolled her eyes at me.
    “All right, then go find a different job.”
    “There aren’t any other jobs. Why do you think my mom left?”
    “Well, there has to be another choice, because going to the Line is not the answer.”
    “There is no other answer. Don’t you get it?” She was crying again. “He’s not paying me. He feeds me once a day, does things to me, then pays for another night here, and I have to go back just so I have someplace to sleep. At least on the Line I eat, have my own bed. Yes, I’d be doing the same thing, but there I’d be taken care of. Here, nobody takes care of me. Nobody...” Her voice trailed off. She sniffed loudly and wiped snot on the sleeve of her dress.
    I wanted to take care of her. And Margo. And Margo’s little brother.
    I honestly did.
    I wanted to save them all.
    But the realization that I had to take care of myself first, and my own children, was never more clear. And so far, I was doing a pretty awful job of it.
    “You’re not old enough to go on the Line,” I said, trying to end the discussion. “Think of something else.”
    “I’m twelve,” she lied.
    “Like hell you are.”
    “Do you think they really care?”
    She had me there. “No. I can’t do it. Just...go back to bed. We’ll figure something out in the morning.” I was stalling, and I could tell she knew it. But I didn’t know what else to do.
    “I’m going anyway.” She stomped to her cot and curled up.
    “No, you’re not!”
    She didn’t answer. She turned her back to me and stayed still.
    I watched her for a few minutes, waiting for her to continue the argument. “Evie!”
    She ignored me. After a minute or two, her breathing softened to regular and slow intervals. I hoped she’d fallen asleep.
    This was crazy. Taking an unpaid prostitute who I thought loved sex to the Line was one thing. But taking a ten—or eleven-year-old girl so she could escape her molester was something different.
    How had it come to this?
    There had to be a way to help Evie without messing up my own plans. I just couldn’t think what it was.
    I made mental note to ask Shirel in the morning. She seemed to know things and had helped Evie before. Hopefully she could come up with something, because I had no ideas. All I had was some credits.
    Credits.
    Maybe if I gave Evie some of mine, or got her out of Central. I could buy her transfer orders, get her a job in that commune Shirel had mentioned. But I didn’t know if the transaction would be approved by the Line, or if I did that for her, would I be giving up my only chance to get myself out of Central.
    The only thing I