Chapter 20. The Outlaw King's Chains

Josie's POV

The door banged open so hard it bounced off the wall, and a man filled it.

He was huge. That was my first thought, a stupid one: that he was the biggest man I'd ever seen, bigger than Walt, bigger than Hollis, with a gray-shot black beard and shoulders that touched both sides of the frame. He'd been running. His chest was heaving and his boots were wet to the knee from the creek.

He looked at my mother first. Then he looked at me.

Nothing happened on his face for a long moment. It just stopped, the way a clock stops.

"Opal," he said. His voice came out of him like something torn. "Opal, who is this."

"You know who it is, Jonah."

"Don't." He put one hand on the door frame as if the floor had tilted. "