The Crimson Brand

by Brian Knight

  “He’s a big fish in a little pond,” Katie said, and smiled. “That’s what Dad calls him.”

  “And Morgan Duke …,” Penny prompted, wanting to get to the point before the bell rang for first period.

  “I don’t know how much money he has,” Katie said with a shrug, “but he owns land all over the country … all over the world. He lives on a private island in the Florida Keys.”

  “Ohhh,” Zoe intoned, clearly getting it now.

  “So if Ernest Price is just a big fish in a little pond …,” Penny said, but Katie finished for her.

  “Then Morgan Duke is a shark.”

  Penny stood silent for a moment, absorbing it all, coming to the same conclusion Katie already had.

  “Price is working for Duke!”

  Katie shrugged, then nodded reluctantly. “Probably.”

  The first bell sounded. Katie swore under her breath, then bent and grabbed her bag.

  “There’s more …,” Katie said, but Zoe interrupted.

  “More?” Zoe sounded nervous. “What?”

  “Later,” Katie said, dashing off without a backward glance.

  Zoe looked like she might shout after her, but Penny grabbed her arm and tugged her into motion. “Come on … we’ll be late.”

  Zoe reluctantly followed, and they ran up the now-deserted steps, past the disapproving gaze of the office receptionist, and joined the throng in the hallway rushing to beat the last bell.

  * * *

  In Social Studies, Katie had reverted to her polite indifference to Penny, offering a single apologetic look when Penny caught her eye on their way to their seats.

  Math with Miss Riggs was mostly unchanged. Miss Riggs’s unwanted attention seemed a little less focused than during the previous weeks, but when she did glance in Penny’s direction, which was still too often for Penny, her dislike was as strong as ever.

  Ellen gave her a weak smile and a distracted wave by way of greeting and didn’t talk to her during or after class. She gathered her books and fairly ran from the room when the end-of-period bell rang.

  Penny gave a silent thanks for Mr. Cole’s fourth-hour English when it arrived. Mr. Cole gave her his standard smile as she passed his desk, always a nice balm for Miss Riggs’s scorching scrutiny. She took her seat, already looking forward to lunch at Susan’s shop, and Zoe arrived a few seconds later. Before the bell could ring and Mr. Cole called the class to order, she leaned in close to Penny.

  “So?”

  “So … what?”

  “Did Kat tell you anything else?” Zoe seemed frantic with impatience.

  “No.”

  Zoe slammed her English book onto her desk, drawing eyes from all around.

  When the bell rang for lunch, she seemed to have calmed a little.

  They hurried through the halls and out onto the grounds.

  “Hey, there’s Kat and Ellen!” Zoe looked from them to Penny, then back to them.

  Penny sighed. “Go on. I’ll meet you at Susan’s.”

  Zoe dashed off to meet Katie and Ellen without another word, and Penny started toward the street.

  “Ooops, sorry, Little Red.” Someone had slammed into her from behind, almost knocking her over. She turned to find Rooster standing behind her, grinning happily. A few of his friends stood behind him, laughing in amusement.

  Tucker “Rooster” Price had abandoned the Stetson he used to wear and had gained a few more inches on Penny, but he was otherwise exactly the same as the day she’d first met him. He had the same perpetually greasy mullet, the same dirty cowboy boots, and a sweat-stained T-shirt. He took a step closer to her, well inside her personal space, and crossed his thick arms over his pudgy chest.

  Penny shot a quick glance at Zoe, who had just joined Katie and Ellen and appeared to be dancing in place like a kid who needs to use the bathroom. In their own little huddle, they didn’t see Penny and Rooster.

  “Not so brave without the gang to back you up,” Rooster said, grinning unpleasantly down at her.

  “I don’t need help with you,” she said. If he took another step toward her she was going to kick him where boys don’t like being kicked.

  His grin widened a little and he unfolded his arms, his hands clenching into fists.

  “Hey, little bro!”

  Penny and Rooster turned in unison to see his older brother James, tall and lean but with the same hostile eyes and unpleasant grin, standing beside his car in the senior parking lot. It was no surprise that his was the newest and best in the entire parking lot. His black Charger had been the envy of the school since the end of Christmas break.

  Rooster seemed to deflate a little at the sight. He lowered his fists and forced them to relax, but when he turned back to Penny his cocky grin was still in place.

  “You should watch where you’re going, Little Red. You don’t want to go bumping into the wrong people.”

  He turned and walked back to his friends.

  Resisting the urge to jump on his back, grab a handful of that greasy hair, and ride him around the school grounds like an upright pigmy bull, Penny continued to the sidewalk.

  She had to pause before crossing, giving an approaching car time to pass her on the otherwise deserted main street. It slowed as it passed her, and she recognized the black Charger. Loud rock music blasted through the open windows. James Price gave her a quick disdainful look. The man in the passenger’s seat watched her without blinking, his unpleasant scrutiny making her skin crawl.

  It was Joseph Duke.

  He faced forward again as they passed.

  “Come on, James, show me how fast this thing can go.”

  The Charger sped away, chirping its tires as it rounded the bend in the road leading out of town.

  Penny watched them go out of sight, not wanting them anywhere close by when she finally stepped out onto the road.

  * * *

  “Hey, kiddo!” Susan’s spirits seemed too fine for a Monday, Penny thought, but that was just Susan.

  Penny glanced surreptitiously at the table in the reading corner, to see if Susan was sticking with the new lunch menu.

  Sandwiches again, but Penny saw two chocolate doughnuts sitting on a second plate next to them. Penny sat down and tore into her sandwich with genuine enthusiasm, grateful for Susan’s ability to compromise.

  “Hi, Susan. Hi, Jenny!” Zoe practically sprinted to Penny’s side, the light of unshared news shining in her eyes. She saw her lunch and forgot everything else. “Thanks, Susan!”

  Zoe tore at her sandwich with indecent enthusiasm.

  A few seconds later, Susan glided up to them and sat next to Penny.

  Penny surprised herself by not cringing away from Susan’s lightning-quick embrace.

  “I hope you’re not making any plans for spring break,” she said, beaming at Penny. “Morgan is taking us to Long Beach for the week!”

  Penny felt her jaw drop as she tried to formulate a reply.

  Zoe spluttered and choked on her first bite of doughnut.

  “What?” Penny managed at last.

  Susan’s smile faltered, then faded. Clearly this was not the response she had expected.

  “I thought you’d be excited,” Susan said, looking a little deflated.

  Zoe was concentrating hard on the next bite of her doughnut, as if wishing she could get up and go somewhere else, but not quite daring to.

  “I …,” Penny managed but got no further.

  “Don’t you like Morgan?” Susan tried but failed to hide her disappointment.

  “I … uh.” Penny realized she had hesitated too long.

  “Well, I like him.” Susan rearranged her face into a weak smile. “And I know he likes you. He was really hoping to get to know you a bit better next week.”

  Penny felt a slow blush warming her cheeks and prayed that she wouldn’t burst into flames during Susan’s peak business hour.

  Zoe had risen to her feet and wandered to the magazine rack.

  Coward,
Penny thought.

  “It’s not that, it’s....” But what was she going say? That Morgan Duke was just playing with Susan’s emotions? That he was working with Price?

  That wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in public.

  “Well, what is it?” Angry thunderhead lines creased Susan’s forehead.

  Penny’s blush deepened.

  “Well, you haven’t known him that long.”

  Susan stared blankly at her for a moment, then burst into laughter.

  Of all the reactions Penny could have predicted, this was not one of them.

  “Little Red,” Susan said, and Penny felt the tension between them ebb. “We would have separate rooms. One for the girls, one for the boy. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a boyfriend, but I’m not going to be a total pushover.”

  “Susan! A little help, please?” Jenny called from the counter, nodding at a growing line and rescuing Penny from the uncomfortable conversation.

  “Just think about it, okay?” Susan gave her another quick squeeze. “We’ll talk about it tonight.”

  Then she was off, leaving Penny alone with her mixed thoughts.

  * * *

  Thoughtfully, Zoe had not broached the subject of Susan’s planned spring vacation with real-estate shark Morgan Duke.

  They crossed the street in a rush, falling in behind the students streaming toward the school. Zoe spoke hurriedly, almost frantically, while they walked.

  “Duke’s son, the creepy one, he works at the town dump now.” Zoe’s expression was almost triumphant. If there was any spectacular revelation to be gained from this knowledge, however, Penny was missing it.

  “Okayyyy …” Penny waited for the conclusion, if one was forthcoming.

  “Ernest Price owns the property the dump is on,” Zoe said. “He leases it to the town for almost nothing.”

  “That’s very generous of him,” Penny said sarcastically, still not getting the point.

  “Come on … it’s like having a brother as sheriff. The city council wants to keep him happy so he doesn’t raise their lease.”

  Penny paused in midstride, then rushed to catch up. Now she was beginning to understand. Ernest Price had been using the same tactic to try to bully Susan into selling Clover Hill, only Susan had not given in.

  “Mr. Price made the city council hire Mr. Creepy?”

  “I doubt it,” Zoe said. “He probably only had to ask. But yeah, we think Mr. Price got him that job.”

  They slowed now, putting a little more distance between themselves and the nearest lunchtime stragglers. Once again they would be the last in the building, though, and they’d have to run to make it in time.

  “But why?” Penny felt like she was still missing something. If she was, so were Katie and Zoe.

  “I don’t know. Maybe to keep him out of trouble or out of the way.”

  They slipped inside a few steps behind the last of the lunch crowd, and the door swung shut behind them.

  “Michael says there have been a lot of complaints about him.”

  “What kind of complaints?” Penny was grasping for any missing detail that might shed a bit of light.

  “Nothing he can get in trouble for,” Zoe said. “Rudeness, tardiness, giving people the creeps.”

  Penny couldn’t think of anything else to ask, which was just as well. She made it through the door of her next class just as the bell rang.

  * * *

  They met at the hollow almost immediately after school, while Katie’s dad and Susan were still at work and Zoe’s grandma was enjoying an afternoon nap. Ronan was, thankfully, absent. Penny wanted to warn him about Duke’s plans to lure Susan out of town, but she didn’t want him to guess that they had been investigating the Dukes behind his back.

  “You have got to tell Susan!” Katie almost shouted in her alarm at Penny’s latest news. “He’s up to something …!”

  “I know, Kat,” Penny interrupted, not wanting Katie to build momentum and launch into a full-blown rant.

  Of course I have to tell her, Penny thought.

  But I don’t want to.

  She could already imagine the look of hurt, the betrayal in Susan’s eyes. She didn’t even want to be there to see it, let alone be the one to cause it.

  Zoe maintained a distracted silence, working on her new wand while Penny filled Katie in on Morgan Duke’s plans for Susan.

  “Almost finished,” Zoe said in a painfully obvious attempt to break the tension.

  They turned to find her fitting her prized silvery Ruthenium crystal into the tip of her new wand and twisting it into place.

  “What do I do now?” Zoe asked Katie, finally satisfied with her work.

  “Just point it at the sky,” Katie said. “It’ll do the rest.”

  Katie turned back to Penny, not content to let the subject drop. “Tonight?”

  “Okay,” Penny said. “I just hope she believes me.”

  “Why wouldn’t she?”

  “Because she likes him, and she knows I don’t.”

  “Maybe Michael could back you up,” Zoe said, resigning herself to the debate now that she had nothing else to distract her from it. “She’d believe him.”

  “No!” Penny spoke more sharply than she’d intended. She made herself calm down before elaborating. “Susan’s already going to be embarrassed. I don’t want her thinking the whole town knows.”

  And with those words she convinced herself that it would have to be her, that it would have to be that night. Better a small hurt now than a big one later. She cared for Susan, and she owed her the truth … or at least as much of it as she could safely share.

  “Go on, Zoe.” This time it was Katie’s turn to provide a tension breaker. “Try it out.”

  “Okay … here goes,” Zoe said, and steeled herself as she pointed her new wand skyward.

  The First Magic spell worked and Zoe’s new wand filled the hollow with an ultraviolet black light that they could hardly see but that made everything within glow like the interior of a discotheque.

  “That was awesome,” Zoe said, and laughed with pleasure.

  * * *

  Penny was waiting for Susan when she walked through the door, a fresh cup of jasmine tea in hand—Susan’s preferred after-work drink—and lasagna cooling in the kitchen. It was not going to be a pleasant night for either of them, but it was going to be harder on Susan. Penny would do anything she could to make it a little easier.

  “Hi, Susan,” Penny said, stepping from the kitchen as Susan shut the door.

  Susan jumped, startled by the unexpected greeting. Penny was almost never around when Susan came home from work, and, if she was, she was usually upstairs. It wasn’t her habit to greet Susan at the door.

  “Penny, you startled me.” She laughed and kicked her shoes off, then regarded the tea with surprise bordering on suspicion. “Thanks.”

  “Dinner’s done, too … lasagna.” Penny gestured over her shoulder into the kitchen. “It needs to cool down but it’ll be ready soon.”

  “Okay,” Susan said, taking the tea from Penny’s hand. She sniffed it with obvious enjoyment, but the look she turned on Penny a moment later was dubious. “What are you softening me up for?”

  “What?” Penny endeavored to sound innocent but knew that the hot blush rising in her cheeks wasn’t helping her case. “I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

  “Hmmm,” Susan considered her for a second longer, unconvinced, then made her way into the living room. “Well, whatever it is, give me a chance to get off my feet and relax for a few minutes before you spring it on me.”

  Indignation won out over embarrassment. Penny crossed her arms and followed Susan. “Maybe I was just trying to be nice.”

  Susan set her handbag down next to her recliner and settled in slowly. She gave Penny her dubious look again, then smiled.

  “Thanks Penny. It smells great.”

  Penny relaxed a little.

  “I hope you made enough f
or three, though.” She winked at Penny and took her first sip of the jasmine tea. “I invited Morgan over for dinner tonight.”

  “He’s coming here … tonight?”

  “We were going to make tacos, but lasagna is fine … great actually.” She winked at Penny. “Especially since I don’t have to cook now.”

  Penny settled into the sofa across from Susan’s recliner, suddenly at a loss for words.

  “Oh, Penny, just give him a chance.” There was a plea in Susan’s voice that made Penny’s task even more unpleasant. “I know he’s a little old for me, but he’s sweet, and I like him.”

  Penny turned her eyes away from Susan’s agonized face, chewing her lip, trying to pick her next words with as much care as possible.

  She hated this!

  “Are you afraid he’ll make me choose between you?”

  Penny’s head snapped up and saw true concern on Susan’s face.

  “No,” Penny said, and, though that wasn’t the point, knowing it made her love Susan even more.

  “Why don’t you like him, Penny?”

  Anger flushed her face, and for the second time that day Penny was terrified that her inner fire within would overwhelm her.

  “He’s working with Mr. Price.”

  For a moment Susan regarded her with unblinking eyes, her fair face paler than usual. Then slowly the pleading expression melted away, shifted into a guarded, neutral one.

  Penny couldn’t hold that gaze. She looked down at her feet and had to clench the edges on the couch cushion to stop herself from running from the room.

  “How do you know that?” Susan’s voice was cold, without inflection.

  Penny tried to speak but couldn’t. Her mouth was too dry, her throat locked up. She could barely breathe.

  “How do you know that?”

  Penny swallowed, cleared her throat, whispered.

  “Penny…?” Susan was clearly struggling to control her anger.

  “Kat’s brother,” Penny croaked. “Michael overheard the sheriff talking about some land deal his brother was working on with Morgan.”

  Penny dared to look up and wished she hadn’t. She stared down between her feet again.