"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."
Rumi
Tami and Tyra sat silently in the SUV, waiting for Eric to come back after paying for gas.
"Tyra, are you okay?"
Tyra hesitated. Tami was looking straight ahead; she hadn't turned in her seat and wasn't looking in the mirror at Tyra. "Yes ma'am."
Eric came back to the SYV and got in the driver's side door, then handed Tami a cup of coffee and a bottle of ice tea. He turned in his seat. "Here." He passed Tyra a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. "That'll help calm you down a little, at least your stomach."
"Thank you, sir."
Eric pulled the Explorer back onto the road and they drove for a while in silence, every so often Eric glanced over at Tami then at Tyra and he opened his mouth a couple of times then shut it.
"Mr. and Mrs. Taylor….umm thank you for coming and getting me and. I-I'm sorry if I messed things up for you tonight, like if y'all were at dinner."
"That's all right; the important thing is that you're safe. Did you leave anything back at the hotel?"
"No ma'am, in fact I took one of the towels with me."
"Who is that guy?"
Tami glanced at Eric and mouthed, "No," at him, he caught it and frowned and sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"He's….his name is Cash, he's a guy I…I guess I was dating him, we were seeing each other.
"Does he know where you live?"
"Yeah, he's been to my house a few times."
"Is anyone home?"
"What?"
"At your house. Is anyone home?"
"I….I'm not sure. My mom went to see one of my aunts in Dallas and my sister is probably over at the Riggins."
Eric snorted and Tami shot him another look.
"Did you give this Cash guy a key?"
"Eric."
"Yes, a couple of weeks ago."
Eric held his hand up towards Tami. "Listen, this guy, the only things I know about him are that his name is Cash, he has a key to her house," Eric tipped his chin towards Tyra, "going by what she told you on the phone he was not being very nice towards her and when we got to the hotel, he looked to be gettin' out of hand. If he has a key and his temper keeps up he might be of a mind to go over and trash the place and it wouldn't be good if you were there when that happened. What we're gonna do is swing by your place, we'll go in and you can get some clothes and you'll stay at our house for a couple days while we sort this out."