Tennessee Whiskey

by Donna K. Ford

  “Not this time, Emma. I’d rather let this one die.”

  “Okay.” She sat on the edge of the bed, pulling one leg up so she could face Dane. “Have you seen Curtis?”

  “Nope. He hasn’t been here.”

  Emma sighed. “He came into the bar right after you left. He talked to Trevor for a while and left.”

  Dane looked at her, her eyes sharp. “What did he say?”

  “Nothing really. He just said everything was fine and he’d see me later. Trevor was his usual smug self. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell this was bad for Curtis. I hoped he would be here when I got home.”

  Dane reached for Emma’s hand.

  Emma leaned over until she was lying on the bed next to Dane. She wrapped her arm around Dane’s waist and rested her head on Dane’s thigh. She was tired and worried sick. She was used to being in control. This thing with Curtis was out of hand and she was terrified.

  Dane placed her hand on Emma’s shoulder and squeezed. “Give him time.”

  “I just don’t know how much time he has left. I have a bad feeling about all of this.” Emma’s voice shook when she spoke.

  Dane combed her fingers through Emma’s hair, wishing there was something she could do to ease her mind. Trevor was an evil son of a bitch. Had he really thought she would work with him after learning what his father had done to her mother? Screw DNA, he was not her brother.

  She gazed down at Emma. “You should get some rest. I doubt Curtis will be back tonight.”

  “No, I don’t think so. He said he’d be here, but I know Curtis and his promises are usually meant to get him out of something uncomfortable instead of a real commitment to something. I should have known. He’s always been that way. When he was little, he would run off down by the creek or wander off into the woods. It didn’t matter how many times he was grounded or scolded—he would always promise not to do it again, and the next day he’d be right back out there. As he grew older, those decisions grew more dangerous. He would fall for the pranks the boys pulled, often getting hurt in the process. He jumped off a bridge once because Trevor promised to take him to the movies. He got a broken leg instead. Mom and Dad tried everything. Curtis would promise not to play with those kids anymore, and of course the first time one of them pretended to be nice to him he would fall for the trick again. I can’t help but wonder what kind of lie Trevor has told him this time to get him to follow him. What will be the cost?”

  “Curtis isn’t a little kid anymore. He’ll be okay.”

  “I wish I could believe that.”

  Emma took Dane’s hand in hers, pulling Dane’s arm around her. She ran her fingers over the hard ridges of scars along Dane’s hand. She traced the damaged skin up Dane’s forearm as if following lines on a map that led to Dane’s past.

  “Do they hurt?”

  Dane swallowed the last of the whiskey in her glass. “Not anymore. It took a long time for the nerve endings to settle down, and the skin was thin and tight for a long time.”

  “How long?”

  Dane was silent for a moment. “It’s been eighteen months.”

  Emma rubbed her finger over a deeper scar that ran along Dane’s wrist. “This one is different.” She hesitated. “Did you…?”

  Dane understood the question. She didn’t blame Emma for asking. She had been witness to her emotional scars too. “No. I thought about it a million times, but I never wanted to end my life. That was from the fall during the bombing. A piece of glass or metal or something cut me. I don’t really know exactly how it happened. I didn’t even notice the cut until we were at the hospital and one of the nurses grabbed me.”

  Emma stared at the wound. “That’s when you were burned?”

  Dane nodded. “There was fire everywhere, but most of these were from trying to get Michelle out of the car.”

  Emma closed her eyes against the image and the pain she felt for Dane. “I don’t understand why people hurt other people. What gives one person the right to take so much and cause so much pain?”

  Dane tightened her hold on Emma. “I don’t know. Greed, maybe. Hate. It’s hard to say what drives people to do these things.”

  “Revenge,” Emma added.

  Dane waited.

  “I used to dream of getting my hands on the person who killed my father. Hate and anger ate away at me for years. I finally gave up on revenge. Nothing will ever bring my parents back. But this thing with Curtis has me all twisted up inside. I feel those old feelings growing in me again.”

  “Shh…” Dane soothed. “It’s all right to be scared and protective of those you love. That doesn’t make you a bad person. There’s a big difference in wanting to kill someone and wanting them dead.”

  Emma sat up and turned her face to Dane. She laid her hand on Dane’s chest, seeking reassurance through the touch. She pressed her lips to Dane’s mouth in a gentle kiss. Dane’s lips were warm and tender. Her arms were strong wrapped around her shoulders, offering Emma strength she didn’t have on her own.

  “Thank you for being here,” Emma whispered.

  “Where else would I be?”

  Emma shook her head, not wanting to talk about the future and the time when Dane would leave. She pulled away. “We haven’t talked about what happened between us.”

  Dane didn’t move. She just looked into her eyes waiting for her to say more.

  Emma held her hand out to Dane. “I know we need to talk, but right now I just need to sleep, and I don’t want to be alone.”

  Dane took Emma’s hand, lacing their fingers together. She pulled Emma to her until Emma’s head rested on her shoulder. “You’re not alone, Emma. I’m right here.”

  Dane held Emma in her arms, listening to her breathing as she drifted off to sleep. The thought that it was her family hurting Emma made her sick to her stomach. She thought about everything she’d learned about her family since coming to Jellico. If Thomas was Trevor’s father, then that meant they were related, no matter how she looked at it. She could never escape the truth of what Thomas had done to her mother. She had come here wanting to be a part of a family. But these people would never be her family. Her mother had been better than them, and she’d chosen a different life. Dane pictured her mother’s smile and remembered the sweet sound of her laughter. Her mother was better than all of them. She was her mother’s daughter. That was the legacy that mattered.

  Emma moaned softly and shifted in her arms. Dane pressed a kiss to Emma’s head. Emma didn’t deserve to be dragged into the evil web her family had created. She had already been hurt enough.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dane looked out over the mountain through the lens of her camera. The hill where she sat looked down over the valley, offering a unique window into the scene below. She set her gaze on a small white church with a blue metal roof nestled in among the trees. The first of the autumn leaves had turned and were starting to fall. It reminded her of old fairy tales where the ornate little cottage in the woods lured children in for the witch to eat for dinner. She laughed at the thought, then shivered, deciding that was a little too close to true.

  A glint of light caught her eye. A faint trail of smoke drifted up from a stand of trees down by the river. She studied the spot, trying to make out the source. She trained her camera on it, using the lens like a scope. Whatever it was lay hidden among a thick grove of trees. She glanced back to the farm. The spot was only a couple of miles’ walk through the woods from Emma’s place. Dane frowned, her curiosity growing.

  She gathered her things and jumped into the Jeep. She had a hunch, and if she was right it would answer a lot of questions.

  She slowed the Jeep at the farthest point she could safely take it along the overgrown path. She looked around the area for signs that anyone had been there recently, but the rain, walnut husks, and falling leaves had hidden any traces that might have been there. She would have to go on foot from here.

  She pulled her pack onto her back. She couldn’t risk leav
ing her camera gear here. She looked around and listened to see if anyone was nearby. Satisfied she was alone, she set off. The path was little more than a dry riverbed, the rocks paving the way through the woods, the hillbilly version of the yellow brick road. The thought made her laugh. She was no Dorothy, and she knew her destination would be a far cry from Oz. Her skin prickled, and she looked around, realizing she could be getting herself into trouble if she stumbled onto something someone didn’t want her to see. She pushed off the road, choosing to follow a deer trail across the ridge, which made it less likely she would be seen and gave her a better view of the river.

  Slowly she began to make out the shape of a camper. She walked closer. No, it wasn’t a camper. It was an old school bus someone had painted over in a camouflage pattern. Her skin prickled. Her pulse raced. She remembered Curtis saying something about an old bus the night they met. Could this be the place he was talking about? Most of the windows were painted over or boarded up. A small fire ring had been built close to the river, and the area around the bus was littered with trash. Tendrils of smoke still wafted up from the dying embers of a recent fire.

  A rock dislodged beneath her foot, sending her stumbling down the bank, and she tumbled down the hill until she crashed against the shore below. So much for keeping quiet. She groaned and dragged herself to her feet, brushing leaves and dirt from her clothes. She rubbed a sore spot on her hip. That was going to leave a bruise. She heard a noise from the bus and thought she caught a glimpse of a shadow moving inside.

  “Hello?” she called, pulling her pack off her back, hastily looking inside to make sure her camera was okay. She glanced around nervously. She was sure she’d heard someone. “Hello.” She tried again. “Curtis, are you in there?”

  The back door opened. A boot appeared on the makeshift steps with a faint thud. Then came another. Dane held her breath, hoping she hadn’t made a mistake by coming here. At last the figure made the final step to the ground. The door swung closed and Curtis stepped into view.

  Dane let out a relieved breath. “Dammit, Curtis, you scared me half to death.”

  Curtis grinned at her. “What are you doing here?”

  Dane shrugged. “Looking for you, of course. Do you have any idea how worried your sister is right now?”

  Curtis looked at the ground.

  “Look, man, I didn’t come here to give you a hard time. I want to help, but I need to know what’s going on if I’m going to be able to do that.”

  Curtis sighed. “I can’t go home right now. Emma will be okay if I just stay away.”

  Dane put her hand on his shoulder. “That isn’t true. Every day she doesn’t know where you are, or if you’re okay, hurts her. If you won’t go home, at least let her know you’re all right.”

  Curtis shrugged. “It isn’t like I have a phone. The cell service is dead here.”

  Dane looked at her phone. Sure enough, there was no signal. “Okay, then tell me what I can do to help. Why are you staying out here?”

  Curtis sat on a large rock and rubbed his head. His shoulders were slumped. “I tried to make things right with Trevor, but he didn’t believe me that the cops had taken all the stuff he gave me. He got real mad. I’ve never seen him like that before. I asked him about those people that died, and he went off. He said he needed to know who had been taking from him. He said he had to let people know he meant business. He said he was taking care of the bad seeds.”

  “He killed those people because they were skimming from him?”

  Curtis shrugged. “I told him I didn’t take nothin’, that he could trust me. He hit me and threw me on the floor.” Curtis looked away. “He never hit me before. We were friends. But Trevor said it didn’t matter now.”

  Dane decided to push Curtis a little. “I’m sorry he hurt you.” She hesitated. “You still have the drugs, don’t you?”

  Curtis looked up.

  “The police didn’t find everything, did they?” Dane guessed.

  Curtis shook his head. “No. I hid it before I went out that night. I don’t like to carry that much around. Something seemed different about this drop, so I only took what I had to. I was going to deliver the weed, but he gave me some other stuff that was different. I just didn’t think I should carry it around.”

  Dane sighed. “What do you mean it was different?”

  “It was a dirty looking wax, kinda oily. It didn’t make sense.”

  “What do you plan to do now?” Dane asked, hoping Curtis was ready to go to the police.

  Curtis shrugged again. “Trevor said if I don’t come up with it, I’ll have to answer for it. Said he couldn’t have people thinking they could rip him off and get away with it.”

  Dane shook her head. “You have to go to the police. That’s the only way out of this.”

  Curtis frowned and looked away. “I can’t. They’ll think I killed those people.”

  Dane wanted to argue, but he was right. He had played a part in this mess even if he hadn’t known about the fentanyl laced in the K2.

  “What if you give the drugs back to Trevor?”

  Curtis frowned. “I can’t do that. What if he sells it to more people and they die too?”

  “Maybe you can do it in a way that he can’t. You can work with the police to set him up. If you lead him to the drugs, the police can catch him red-handed.”

  “I don’t know, Dane. Things are really messed up. I can’t figure out how Trevor knows the cops don’t have all the drugs. That night they got me didn’t feel right. I swear someone told him something. I can’t trust the cops with this, and I don’t want to put it on you or Emma.”

  “You’re going to have to trust me, Curtis. We have to do something before Trevor finds you. I don’t know much about this place, and I figured it out. It’s only a matter of time before he shows up here.”

  Curtis kicked rocks around with the toe of his boot. He wouldn’t look at her.

  “Come on, Curtis. I know you’re scared, but we have to do something. Trevor has threatened Emma. You’re running out of time. You can’t hide from this and you can’t do it on your own.”

  Curtis looked up at her, his eyes heavy with sorrow and regret. “Promise to leave Emma out of it. I don’t want this getting to her. I don’t want her to get hurt.”

  “I’ll do my best to protect Emma. I promise.” Dane clasped her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I’m your friend. You can trust me. I won’t do anything to hurt you or Emma.”

  Curtis looked hopeful for the first time. “Okay, but I can’t go home. I can’t do that to Emma.”

  Dane nodded. “Do you need anything? Food, water, anything?”

  Curtis pointed to a trail a few feet up the creek. “I sneak into the house sometimes when Emma isn’t there and take a shower and get food.”

  Dane nodded. “I’ll put some things together for you and leave them in the hayloft.”

  This made Curtis smile. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it.” She held his gaze. “You should tell me where the drugs are hidden.”

  His brows knitted together. “I can’t.” He started to pull away.

  “Hey, it’s okay. I thought you’d say no, but I had to try. I’ll do what I can. Okay?”

  Curtis nodded.

  Dane pulled him into a hug. “Hang in there. We’ll get through this.”

  “All right,” Curtis said sheepishly as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

  Dane hated to leave him, but the longer her Jeep sat at the end of the road, the more exposed he was.

  “I’ll leave some things in the barn tomorrow. I’ve got to go before someone sees my Jeep. We’ll use the path through the woods from now on.”

  He nodded again.

  Dane dug into her bag and pulled out the handful of granola bars she kept around in case of emergencies. The truth was, they were there to curb her sweet tooth. She handed them to Curtis.

  “This is all I have for now.”

  He grinned. “Thanks.”


  She took off down the river path, turning once to wave back at Curtis. She looked back once more before stepping out of view, but Curtis was gone. Dane took a deep breath. She had a vague idea how she was going to get Curtis out of this, but she had a bigger worry on her mind now. What was she going to tell Emma?

  * * *

  Dane stored the food and supplies in the barn like she promised, but the more time she had to think, the more uncertain she became about her plan. She didn’t know where to turn or who they could trust. She would have to tell Emma. It was the only way, but she had some work to do first.

  The weeks she had spent researching her family tree had paid off. She found it much easier to find information on the living than for the dead. It only took a few hours’ searching and she’d found everything she ever wanted to know about Thomas Stewart and the seven children he had sired. Trevor has already made his claim, but the other six had been a mystery. She was just happy not to find her own name on the list. That didn’t mean she was free of him—it just meant there could be more children out there that no one knew about. She ran a quick search of the names through social media sites to see what she could learn. She was shocked at what people would post about their lives on the web for the world to see. She was particularly interested in one name that popped up with some photos that matched the description of the man who attacked her and Curtis. Milton Grimes. She printed copies of the photo. It looked like she was going on a little road trip.

  Rain pelted against the windshield as Dane pulled the Jeep into the muddy gravel parking lot of the Miner’s Light Bar. There were more ATVs parked in the lot than trucks, and even they were equipped for off-road use. She shook her head. Coalfield made Jellico look civilized.

  She took a deep breath and stepped out into the rain, pulling her cap down over her eyes and tugging the hood of her jacket up.

  As expected, the noise level dropped a notch the moment she entered the bar. She shook the rain from her shoulders and took a good look around. She didn’t recognize anyone, so she went to the bar and ordered a beer.