-runaway Love - Alexis Love- Veronique Vega- Lindsey Meadows- Kis- (2026)

Veronique froze for a half-second. Her hand went to the pocket of her hoodie, where she had a crumpled letter from her little brother—the only family she had left, who Meadows had forbidden her from calling. The memory of that cruelty solidified her spine.

Alexis felt a flutter of something that felt dangerously like hope. She’d learned not to trust hope. Hope was a shiny thing that Meadows would snatch away and sell for a bottle of cheap wine. Veronique froze for a half-second

The bus hissed to a stop. The three of them moved as one, a small, ragged army. They weren't friends, not in the beginning. They were just three girls who shared a bathroom with a moldy curtain and a terror of the dark hallway. But fear had forged them into something harder. Sisters of the road. Alexis felt a flutter of something that felt

The Nevada sunrise painted the mountains in shades of orange and pink. The bus crested a hill, and below them lay a valley with a rambling, honest-to-goodness ranch. A sign read: Second Chance Stables – Help Wanted. The bus hissed to a stop

Veronique knew. She’d been there a year longer than Alexis. That’s why she had the plan.