the floor. Then his gaze shifted, and filled with a bitter fury that was
much too adult in his young face.
"You bastard." There was loathing in the tone as he snapped at Ethan,
then disgust as his eyes locked on Grace. "I thought you were
different."
"Seth." She took a step forward, but he turned on his heel and ran. "Oh,
God, Ethan." When she started to rush after the boy, Ethan took her arm.
"No, I'll go after him. I know what he's feeling. Don't worry." He gave
her arm a squeeze before walking out. Still, she followed him to the
steps, worried sick. She'd never seen such dark hate in the eyes of a
child.
"Damn it, Seth, I told you to hurry up." Cam slammed in the front door
just as Ethan hit the bottom of the steps. Cam glanced up, saw Grace,
and felt a grin tug at his mouth. "Oops."
"I don't have time for lame jokes," Ethan shot back. "Seth just took
off."
"What? Why?" It struck him even before the word was out. "Oh, shit. He
must have gone out the back."
"I'm going after him." He shook his head before Cam could protest. "It's
me he's pissed off at right now. It's me he figures let him down. I have
to fix it." He glanced up to where Grace sat on the steps. "Look after
her," he murmured to Cam and headed for the back door.
Ethan knew Seth would have headed into the woods, and he had to trust
that the boy wouldn't run too far into the marsh. He was a survivor,
Ethan thought. But relief shimmered through him when he heard the rustle
of brush and old leaves.
It was simple enough to spot where Seth had veered off the path. Ethan
pushed through tangled vines, the prickle of briars, and followed. The
leaves on the trees that arched overhead blocked the glare and the worst
of the sun's heat. But the humidity was immense.
Sweat ran down Ethan's back, dripped into his eyes, as he patiently
walked, and waited. He was well aware that Seth was evading him, keeping
a few yards ahead. Finally he sat on a fallen log, deciding it would be
easier to let the boy come to him.
It took ten long minutes, with gnats swarming in clouds and mosquitoes
sniffing for blood, but finally Seth emerged from a thicket and faced
him.
"I'm not going back with you." He all but spat it out. "If you try to
make me, I'll just run again."
"I'm not going to make you do anything." From his seat on the log, Ethan
studied him. Seth's face was filthy, streaked with dirt and sweat,
flushed with heat and fury. His legs and arms were thoroughly scratched
from pushing through briars.
They were going to sting like fury, Ethan knew, when Seth cooled off
enough to notice.
"You want to sit down and talk this out?" he asked mildly.
"I don't believe anything you say. You're a liar. You're both fucking
liars. You gonna try to tell me you weren't screwing each other?"
"No, that's not what we were doing."
Seth flew at him so fast, Ethan was thrown off guard enough to take the