The Deep Wood (Sunshine Walkingstick Book 2)

by Celia Roman

  I screamed bloody murder. Dear Lord, after ever thing she done to me, that shouldn’ta hurt, but pain burst into me anyhow, like it didn’t know I’d had enough for one night.

  My knife hand was pinned at an awkward angle between me and Betty. I wrapped my free arm around her neck, dug my fingers into the short fur covering her nape, and yanked, ripping her teeth outta my skin. Fresh blood spurted down my chest, and I knowed, this was it. No more chances. No more playing around. Next time she hit me, I was a goner, if I weren’t already.

  I tugged with the hand holding her nape and, at the same time, shoved with the hand holding Daddy’s knife, exerting a steady pressure on both against the rigid set of her body until she flipped over onto her back on the ground beside me. I rolled over on top of her and leaned all my weight into the knife, pushing it deep, deep, deep into her chest whilst she wiggled and squirmed, trying to break free.

  Fame and Trey rushed up to us from either side, both breathing hard, and it occurred to me that between Trey yelling and that moment, hardly no time’d passed a’tall.

  It’d seemed like a coon’s age in the doing.

  Betty’s struggles gradually eased into random twitches, and finally, she went limp beneath me. Her head fell back into the circle created by Trey’s flashlight, and her eyes, them what’d been cat green bare moments before, was the round-eyed brown I used to see in the mirror before Teus changed ‘em to suit his own ends.

  Human eyes.

  I slid off my grandma’s dead body and landed on my back. Somebody was sobbing, low and quiet. Weren’t ‘til Trey knelt beside me that I realized that somebody was me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A steady beep annoyed me into consciousness. Soon as awareness hit, pain throbbed through me, insistent as a swarm of mosquitoes stinging away my blood.

  Death by a thousand bites. What a way to go.

  I waited for it to pass, tried to breathe through it, and got a heap of side stitches for my trouble. A large, rough-palmed hand draped over mine, accompanied by a presence only vaguely familiar. I risked lifting one eyelid a slit. I was lying in one bed of a two bed hospital room decorated in upscale motel style. My granddaddy sat beside my bed. His silver hair was wove into two plaits hanging over a blue and green plaid shirt. I was so dadgum thankful he had clothes on, I coulda kissed him.

  Resigned to visiting, I opened both eyes and squinted into the room’s low lighting. “You here to kill me, too?”

  “Bah,” he scoffed. His hand patted mine once, jarring the IV needle dug into me. “I could’ve done that when you were a kit dawdling on my knee.”

  “I ain’t never dawdled on your knee, old man.”

  His wide mouth turned down ever so slight. “You don’t remember?”

  “Can’t remember what never happened,” I retorted. “Where’s Riley?”

  “Libby’s got him, safe and sound.”

  Panic reared its ugly head. That old legend about the hunter taking on too much of the painter nature probably held a kernel of truth. Last thing I needed was a boyfriend what could shift into a painter at will.

  “He ain’t gonna be no two-natured now, is he?” I asked.

  Johnny shook his head. “We were careful. He’s safe enough.”

  I relaxed into the pillow. “Yeah, but where is he?”

  “Far as I know, he’s at work.”

  “At ten o’clock at night?”

  “Sunshine, kitten.” He sighed, a heave of air shoved out of his lungs by a huge shrug. “You’ve been asleep for more’n two days now. Doctor kept you under for a day after surgery. You lost so much blood.”

  An odd note hung in his gravelly voice, like he was holding something back on me, something terrible I maybe didn’t need to know. I let it pass. Too much’d happened in too short a time. Weren’t no need to add nothing more.

  I softened my voice and reformed my first question. “Why’re you here?”

  “Why do you ask questions you already know the answers to?” His smile took the sting outta the memory of his wife asking me the very same question. “Doctor says we can only have a few minutes each. I reckon the rest of your family’ll want a piece of you.”

  He pushed himself outta his seat, far more spry than a man of his advanced years orta do, and shuffled to the closed door on silent feet. I let him get close to it, then said, “You my family, old man?”

  “I always was,” he said without turning.

  “Then why’d you let your wife come after me like she done?”

  “Betty was…sick. And she was strong.”

  “So you couldn’t stop her?”

  “Only a few people could. We were waiting for you to grow into your heritage, Sunshine, and she was waiting for you to be vulnerable.”

  I mulled that over for a bit and finally settled on the one question I couldn’t quite hold back. “She killed my boy, didn’t she?”

  His shoulders went rigid under his shirt. “He was dead before I knew she meant to do it.”

  For some reason, I believed him. “Weren’t your fault.”

  “Yes, kitten, it was.” He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at me, small and sad and knowing. “I’ll be back to answer the questions burning you up inside, Sunshine. When you’re ready for me, I’ll be there.”

  He slid out the door past a petite blonde. Seeing Riley’s mama emptied my mind of all them questions my granddaddy accused me of having, and numbed most of the hurt of knowing I done wrong all them years ago by killing that pooka the way I done. I finally righted it, though, the only way I coulda, but that was a nugget I’d have to dwell on another time.

  “Mrs. Treadwell.” I stuffed an elbow under me and tried to push myself up. Agony ricocheted down my side and I flopped back onto the mattress. Weren’t gonna try that again anytime soon, no sirree. I mustered up polite for my visitor instead. “How you doing, ma’am?”

  Anne sat down in the metal and leather chair Johnny’d vacated, her posture perfect and straight about like ever other aspect of her. Riley’s mama was a beauty, she was, from the top of her blond bob to the tips of her ballet slipper shoes. She wore an elegant beige shell under a pink jacket over black slacks and settled a matching day clutch in her lap.

  “Sunshine, dearest.” She attempted a trembling smile and fingered the antique cameo laced around her pale, delicate throat. “We were all so worried about you.”

  “Ain’t no need to worry about me, Mrs. Treadwell,” I said, gentle as I could. “I can take a licking the same as anybody.”

  “Oh, but you shouldn’t, honey. You—” She cleared her throat and her smile firmed up real smart like. “Riley wanted to be here when you woke. I shooed him off to work and told him I’d call just as soon as you woke up.”

  I had a hard time hiding the grin tugging at my mouth, about the only part of me what didn’t hurt a wink. “You do that, he’s liable to come charging in here like a bull in a red rage.”

  Anne laughed then, a tinkling, refined sound what lifted the room’s sterile, antiseptic mood. “He always did try to rescue you, but you. You were always the one to save him.”

  “Aw, now.”

  She clucked her tongue, silencing me as effectively as a hand clapped over my mouth. “As soon as you’re well, you’re coming to dinner. Riley told me how much you enjoyed the coconut cake I sent you.”

  I did my best not to scowl at her, but truth be told, it was hard. That Riley was a scamp and a scalawag all rolled into one for telling his mama we was stepping out together. Weren’t no call to worry her like that, was there, when his daddy hung onto ever scrap of hatred for the Carsons he could muster, ‘specially for me and Fame, seemed like.

  My uncle stuck his head in the door and said, “Nurse wants to take her vitals, Anne.”

  Speak of the devil and there he was. I opened my mouth on a wry comment and let it die. Anne twisted around in her seat, and whatever passed between her and Fame, it lasted a mite too long for two people what’d bound their lives to other
s, legal or not. She stood slow and regal, ‘bout like Missy, and Fame eased into the room, them wild blue eyes of his stuck on her.

  I cleared my throat, snapping the spell ensnarling them two. “When’re you gonna break me outta this gin joint, Fame?”

  He glanced at me and grinned. “You’re stuck doing time, little missy. Best get used to it.”

  I groaned and rolled my eyes, and accepted the prim kiss Anne touched to my cheek, but in my head, I replayed that moment and wondered if maybe my granddaddy weren’t the only one holding something back on me.

  My doctor turned out to be the very same one what’d grounded me a coupla weeks back. I shoulda knowed when the nurse come bustling in my first day awake and told me I weren’t going nowhere fast, confirming Fame’s pronouncement.

  Doc and Riley was colluding. I just knowed they was.

  It took an hour and several visitors for me to piece together most of what happened after I killed my grandma and passed out right there in the middle of the deep wood. Seems that last crash I heard was Libby chasing down a painter coming to finish me off if Betty didn’t do the trick. Libby took care of him right quick, she what’d been my grandma’s most trusted confidante next to my grandpa. After that, my family, human and two-natured alike, carried me and Betty outta the deep wood and made sure we each got the care we deserved, me to the regional hospital in Gainesville and Betty in a grave in the middle of Snowbird territory.

  That feud Fame told me about? Turned out Libby’d wormed her way into Betty’s good graces ‘long and along so she could get revenge for her grandma’s death. I didn’t much like being the instrument my cousin used to get even, but I weren’t gonna hold it against her neither. Family was family. When one member was wronged, it was up to the rest of the clan to uphold justice, ‘specially when the customary law didn’t apply.

  Libby didn’t come to see me herself, but a coupla Cherokee cousins I never met before sure did. They each had an odd glint in their eyes. Between that and the itchy feeling crawling under my skin when they was near, I reckoned they was two-natured. I was beginning to learn ‘em, I was. Whether that was a good thing or not, I never could ken.

  What did it matter? Seems like I been accepted back into the family with my grandma’s passing. Weren’t something I could dwell on, so I let it simmer in the back of my noggin along with all them questions Johnny hadn’t answered.

  I did call Libby soon as I could hold a phone and ask her to see to Miss Jenny’s Ew’ah problem. She promised to set herself to solving it lickety split, and I believed her.

  Riley come to visit ever chance he got. Lordy, that boy was underfoot so much I finally had to make up a list of chores to keep him occupied. That lasted the entire week Doc confined me to my bed like I was too helpless to take care of myself.

  Since I had a concussion, a couple cracked ribs, slash wounds in places I didn’t remember getting ‘em, and a mess of other cuts and bruises besides, I let it slide.

  Was Riley what picked me up on the day Doc finally set me free, just two days before turkey day. Me and my feller, and I reckoned he was, now that he been used as a hostage on my behalf, swung by Rabbittown Café not too far from the tower of my confinement. After I was good and sated on the best darn buffet a body could find, I made Riley take me to a very special place to fulfill a debt I owed.

  Didn’t take long to pick out exactly what I was looking for, a half growed mutt what’d been dumped at the animal shelter, but that thing squirmed and licked and yipped the entire drive from there to his new home.

  Riley called ahead and warned Dory. She met us out in the yard, followed by her son who was wearing the most curious combination of hangdog and suspicious I ever seen. Soon as Riley stopped his SUV and that puppy stuck his nose to the passenger’s side window, ‘twas a different story. Billy’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree.

  I slid outta the car and set the puppy down, and ignored all my aches and pains as them two sized each other up.

  Finally, Billy glanced up at me from where he knelt beside the pup. “Can I keep him, Miss Sunshine?”

  I squatted down beside him amongst the twinges and pulls of muscles used too hard and laid a hand on his dishwater blond mop. “You sure can, Billy. See you keep him inside the back fence, wouldja?”

  “Yes’m,” he said, and flung himself around me while the mutt danced around us, yipping up a storm.

  I held on with my best arm and squinched my eyes tight against the tears clogging my sinuses. Blue eyed, blond headed Billy Kildare what favored his mama in looks and manners, he didn’t look a thing like my Henry, but them boys’ hearts was the same inside and out. When I done for Billy, it was almost like I was doing for my boy, too, in some way I could define only as a twang in my heart of hearts, deep down where a woman’d be foolish to look too hard.

  Riley knelt beside me and wrapped himself around us both. Dory laughed and went to fetch a good chunk of fresh made sour cream pound cake, and I reckoned weren’t nothing better in the whole wide world than the moment I was in, ‘specially with the promise of cake and ice cream to come.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Took me another week to get where I could move around without my side pulling. I give in to common sense and eased off on the chores for a spell, including letting Trey and Gentry help Missy with Thanksgiving dinner and clean up. The critter kept me company when this folk or that wasn’t dropping by, though darned if I could get it to talk again. It just sat there looking at me like I was crazy for chattering away at it, and maybe I was. All I knowed was talking to it was better’n letting the fact that I killed my own grandma tumble around in my noggin.

  Poor Henry. My poor, dear baby boy.

  One day, Missy come by carrying one of them big, fancy department store boxes.

  I set aside the book about building websites I was reading and eyed that box real suspicious like. “What’s that?”

  She plopped down onto couch beside me and set the box down between us. “I picked this up special for you the last time I was out shopping.”

  “It ain’t another dress is it? ‘Cause I got plenty now, thanks.”

  “Sunshine,” she said in that patient voice she used when me and the boys was about to dig ourselves into trouble. “I know for a fact you only own two dresses. One more isn’t going to kill you.”

  “It might,” I muttered, low enough where she couldn’t make it out. I raised my voice a tad and added, “You don’t gotta do for me now, Missy.”

  She leaned forward and cupped both hands over mine, and held on like she never meant to let go. “Of course, I do, darling. You’re mine as much as you are Fame’s.”

  For no reason a’tall, tears welled up in my eyes. Missy’d always been a good friend to me, right from the day she stepped up on Fame’s porch claiming to’ve lost her way in the deep wood. Me, I figured we was the ones what was lost and she was the one doing the finding, but what’d I know?

  Missy squeezed my hands, then tucked hers away on her lap. “Go on and get a shower, then you’re putting this on and I’ll fix your hair.”

  I sniffed back tears and let her chatter on whilst I got up and did as I was told. I might be a woman full growed, but even I knowed when to mind my elders.

  An hour later, I was dressed in a slim fitting black dress, hose I hadn’t knowed I owned, and low heels to match the dress. Missy done my hair up good in a loose French braid. Riley banged on the front door and marched right on in, a habit he took up right about the time he brung me home this last time. He was dressed up right smart in a sports coat and slacks with his hair slicked back and a serious expression on his face.

  “Better get a move on, Missy, or you’ll be late,” he said.

  Missy jumped up like a cat on a hot tin roof and skeedaddled outta there.

  I patted the edge of my bed where she’d abandoned me, silently inviting Riley to sit. Soon as he settled down beside me, I said, “What’s going on here?”

  “You’ll see soon eno
ugh.” He draped an arm around me and tucked me against his chest. “Have I thanked you for making sure the panthers didn’t eat me alive?”

  I snorted, but couldn’t quite make myself pull away from his warmth. “About ever hour. When you gonna cut that out?”

  “Am I embarrassing you, baby?” he teased, and I fell in with it and teased right back ‘til he said it was time to go and ushered me out to his Range Rover for a drive.

  When we pulled into the church where me and Henry’d gone, God rest him, I turned toward Riley and pointed at the parking lot full of cars. “You gonna tell me what’s going on now?”

  He waited ‘til he wedged the Range Rover in between Fame’s old beater and a shiny new Mercedes and cut the engine before saying word one. “We wanted to do something special for Henry.”

  My gaze drifted to the crowd mingling in the neatly trimmed cemetery attached to the church. It was a sunny day and unaccountably warm. A light breeze blowed through the trees surrounding the field of stones, easing the sun’s sting on the folks gathered there.

  “We who?” I asked.

  Riley shrugged. “All of us. You do so much—”

  I snorted, and he clapped a hand on my thigh, gentle in deference to the bruises still blooming bright and ugly and bone deep.

  “You do a lot for all of us,” he said, his voice firm. “It’s past time we did something for you.”

  I shook my head at that. Don’t know where he got the notion I did anything for anybody outside of what needed doing, but when he come around the side of the SUV and helped me out, I kept my lips glued together. Weren’t gonna argue with him on holy ground. Besides. I was curious as to the whos and whats of the goings on.

  As he led me through the parking lot, I had plenty of time to get a good gander at who all was gathered there. Fame and Missy and the boys, of course, and some of my kin on that side of the family. Miss Jenny was there with Teus at her side, and in spite of the mourning dress she wore, she couldn’t quite hold back the smile decorating her lovely face. David was there, too, accompanied by a feller I knowed not a’tall. The Kildares stood behind him, Billy wearing a frown above his starched shirt and tie.