Free One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) by Danielle Dickson Page A

your friend’s truck. We need to go, son, please!” Her pleading made me momentarily snap out of it. Wait? What?
    “I can’t leave, Sammy needs me!” She squeezed my hand before getting up and heading for my drawers again.
    “And I need you to pack that duffel, Connor Hartley, right now.” I’d never seen my mom like this before, it spooked me so I did what I was told. She wasn’t the forceful type and it hit me that this was more serious than what she was letting on. Just then, I noticed she was limping and had blood running down from her knee.
    “What did he do? What did he do, mom? He won’t get away with this again, we’re not leaving.” He hadn’t touched me since my seventeenth birthday three weeks ago when he realized I was getting far too big for him to be trying to push around. The day he tried and I stood almost three inches taller than him, was the day he never tried to physically control me again, he’d backed off on my mom a little too but seeing her in this state made the anger rile back up.
    “Connor! Please! You don’t understand, he took his gun out with him and he’s been drinking! I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you, you’re getting your ass in that truck if it kills me!” I flinched and Tommy’s lifeless face was all I could see. I stumbled back into my wall and started to hyperventilate.
    “Connor, sweetheart, it’s time to go. Give it a few days and you can contact Sammy, I promise. We can stop when we’re far enough away and I can help you but right now I need you to help me get all of this into the truck and drive. Can you do that?”
    I finished packing the rest of my things and we took it all outside. Lifting the tailgate down and throwing all the bags in the truck bed, we heard a familiar engine. I panicked and jumped into the driver’s seat, not stopping to put on my seatbelt. I watched my mom pull herself into the passenger side and started the engine. “Connor! Go!”
    As I pulled out the driveway, I narrowly missed the mailbox but I didn’t care. All I knew is that I needed to keep going to keep my mom safe. I couldn’t risk him following us, I didn’t know what would happen if he did.
    As we passed the town borders, my heart seized and tears started falling down my cheeks. Get it together, Connor, you’re seventeen-years-old and it isn’t forever, get mom to safety, then come back for Sammy, I chanted in my head.
    Getting my mom out of there was the task at hand so I focused all my mental energy on that until we finally pulled over at a motel five hours away.

Her words stung me to my core. I didn’t follow her, hell, I didn’t even have the guts to move off that very spot. I felt like she’d chewed me up, spat me out and stomped all over me. I didn’t blame her but it didn’t make it hurt any less.
    My beautiful, strong Sammy. She was a force to be reckoned with but I was determined I wasn’t leaving this town until she had heard me out. If she only knew why I had to leave, I was sure she would see the situation differently.
    Finally shaking myself out my haze, I walked off the dock and started making my way through the sand. I needed an early night and a shower to wash the sting off my skin. I had so many emotions running through me but I knew I needed her to hear my side and make her understand if it was the last thing I did. Leaving her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do and I wasn’t about to do it again willingly.
    Driving back to Sharlington, I started to think about putting a plan of action together. I really needed Sammy to hear me out without shutting me down again but I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t want to turn up when she was working, then suddenly it hit me.
    I couldn’t help but think that Keeley may be my way in. I decided I needed to visit Lewis again first thing tomorrow to get the ball rolling, I had to meet with Keeley and make her listen to my side of the story without her flipping out too.
    Arriving back at the