“She hasn’t said anything,” Michael chimed in, folding his arms across his chest. “Like barely a word. Is she normally so quiet?”
Bobby shrugged his shoulders, “I have no clue. I’ve only met her once and talked to her on the phone a few times about Jedda. She looks different than the last time I saw her. She dropped some of the edgy stuff she was wearing last time. She seems much more casual, less the tortured artist this time. Other than that, I don’t really have a baseline. Last I heard, school was great. She was making friends, loving it.”
“Did someone assault her or she assaulted someone?” Jedda asked, pacing around the porch and feeling his heart starting to race again.
“Jedda, take a seat. You can’t get yourself worked up. Whatever it is, she’s safe now. We’re not going to let anything happen to her,” Michael assured him.
“Well I dug around and everything has been retracted. Someone had the report wiped out, and that’s what the call was about. Wanting me to let Willow know that the charges were not being pursued. I couldn’t find out who else was involved. I’m going to call in some favors, and see what I can uncover.”
“No,” Michael said, heading back for the screen door. “This is ridiculous. The only person here that’s at a real risk of anything is Jedda and no one seems to realize how dangerous any kind of trouble can be for him. The girl is a grown-up, she can fess up to whatever the hell is going on.”
He stormed back into the house, Jedda and Bobby following closely behind, but neither said anything.
“Willow.” Michael’s voice was rough again and the conversation that was filled with the buzzing of excited women cut off quickly. “The assault charges in New York, what happened? What are they about, and why were they dropped?”
“They were dropped?” Willow asked, her eyes wide. She shook her head to center herself back in the moment. “I mean, how do you know about that?”
“Because Bobby got a call from a detective up there today asking if you were here.”
“Shit.” Willow stood quickly, sliding into her coat and trying to make her way closer to the door, before multiple people blocked her way.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked, gesturing that she sit back down.
“If they’re calling that means he already knows where I am. I’m sorry, Jedda, but I’ve got to go. I’ll call you soon,” she promised as she tried again to get back toward the door.
“Sit down,” Michael said in an oddly paternal voice that he apparently had grown into overnight now that he was on the cusp of being a father.
Willow stopped in her tracks but didn’t make a move to sit back down. Jedda’s heart was thumping hard again as he tried to piece together what was happening.
“Excuse me?” Willow asked, raising an eyebrow in indignation. “Who the hell do you think you are? I’m free to come and go as I damn well please.” This was a side of Willow Jedda hadn’t prepared for. He still had the image of her meek body and small voice burned into his mind. A grown-up Willow with loads of attitude was quickly shattering that memory.
The stunned silence of the room was broken by Betty’s cool voice. “She’s right, Michael. She’s a grown woman. You let her go. Do you plan to walk, sweetie?”
“Yes,” Willow said, shrugging her shoulders. “I can find my way back to the bus stop.”
“I don’t doubt that you can. It’s about an hour and half walk. The sun is setting now, too.”
“I run cross country. I’ll be fine.”
“You might run cross country, but you ain’t never run cross this country, so let me get you a couple of things.” Betty moved to a drawer in her kitchen. “Here, take this whistle. It’s not a foolproof way to keep the bears away but it’s better than nothing if you come across one. Blow the dickens out of it and you might be okay. The whistle won’t work for the coyote though, them being dogs and all, they seem to like the sound of it. You’ll need something like this,” Betty said, handing her a pot and wooden spoon. “If you whack this hard enough you should scare it off. Now, if there is a pack of them, they tend to be bolder, so don’t hold it against me if one flanks you while another chases you and the pot doesn’t do enough to keep them at bay.” Willow took the pan and spoon but it seemed to be more out of shock than an acceptance of the fact that she’d need them. “Here is a flashlight. The road back has quite a few drops off the side. If you find yourself running from the wildlife the worst thing that can happen to you is taking a tumble into a ravine. It could be days before someone finds you.” Betty tucked the flashlight under Willow’s full arms. “Now do you have any pepper spray or anything? The only thing more dangerous than the bears is some of the highland folk here who don’t come down the mountain too often. They see a pretty girl like you walking alone, I don’t want to think what they could do.”
“I know what you’re doing,” Willow said, rolling her eyes and huffing. “You’re not going to scare me out of leaving. There are things scarier in the world than what you just listed.”
“Willow,” Piper said, stepping forward. “What’s scaring you? If you’re in some kind of trouble, we can help you. You’re safe here, but you need to tell us what’s going on.”
“Actually, I don’t. I don’t even know any of you. I’m happy for what you’re doing for Jedda, but I can assure you that I don’t need the same thing. I’ve got a completely different life than him. My parents, they’re doctors. We live in, like, a giant house, and I have everything I need already. I’m different than him. So help him and let me go.”
“Please,” Jedda pleaded as he stood between Willow and the front door. “Just stay tonight and if you still want to go in the morning then I’m sure someone will drive you back to the bus.”
Betty extended her hands to take back all the supplies she’d given to Willow. Reluctantly the girl dropped them back into her arms. “I’ll stay tonight, but I’m leaving in the morning.”
After a moment of nervous silence in the room, Betty spoke up. “Who’s hungry? I’ve got a roast to put in the oven. Everything looks better on a full belly. Maybe you’ll feel like chatting once you’ve eaten.”
“I’m a vegetarian,” Willow said with an air of superiority.
“Oh, well then, the bears probably would have left you alone. They like their snacks with more flavor.”
* * * *
Jedda knew he should be sleeping. That’s what people did at three o’clock in the morning but all he could think about was his sister being assaulted. He thought of what might have happened to her, and the only thing that bothered him more than that image was the free-fall of crazed, uncontrollable anger he felt seething inside of him. He paced the small living room where he was supposed to be sleeping, but each lap he took made him feel more like a caged animal. He needed air. He needed space.
He slammed the palms of his hands against his sweat-covered forehead, willing his mind to stop spinning. He felt like his senses were completely overloaded. He’d gone from having so little to deal with to suddenly having far too much. Grabbing his sweatshirt, he headed as quietly as possible for the front door. Flashing for a minute to Betty’s warnings about bears and coyotes, he grabbed a flashlight and the whistle, just in case there was any truth in her words.
He went down the front porch steps and stood out in front of the house staring up at the sky. So many people took the sky for granted. They could go outside and stare up at it any time they wanted. He stepped out farther and farther from the house, never looking down, staring straight up to the bright and pitted surface of the moon.
When he heard a rustling to his left, he immediately clutched the whistle tight in his hand. He was a fast runner, prison had given him plenty of time to become incredibly fit, but he was no match for a bear as far as he knew. As he shifted on his feet, ready to head back to the house, he heard a voice.
“I could shoot you right now and be well within the law,” a man said as he stepped forward out of the shadows, a gun dangling in his hands.
>
“I don’t want any trouble,” Jedda assured him as he raised his hands, showing they only held a whistle.
“My house is just over that hill and down the road a ways. I was out walking my dog and came across this crazy man wandering around. He attacked me and I shot him,” the man said with a whistling speech impediment. “Once they realize you was that killer, they’d know I was telling the truth.”
“I was just out for a walk myself,” Jedda said as he took two tentative steps back. “I’m heading back to the house now.”
“Ain’t nobody wanting you here. We don’t need no more trouble in this town than Betty’s already brought us. You ain’t welcome.”
Jedda hadn’t fully recovered from the rage he’d been feeling in the house at the thought of Willow being hurt again. His muscles were still tense and jumping from the urge to dismember whoever it was that had his sister so scared. He could tell even now, as the man with the gun glared at him under the moonlight, that given the chance he could easily lose control and find himself back in jail. While he should have been afraid of the man with the gun, he felt only fear for his own capabilities, his own reactions.
“Rumor has it you got a sister here with you. Can’t imagine what she’s into. Likely as much of a degenerate as you. She ain’t welcome here either, and I’ll be happy to give her that message when I see her too.” The man smiled, showing his yellowed and missing teeth, as though he’d just won a battle.
Jedda had been standing on the edge of out of control and those words had just shoved him over. “You want to see me attack you?” he growled as he lowered his hands and changed his stance from a running one, to a fighting one. “You don’t threaten my sister. Gun or not, I’ll make you regret it.” The man’s face blurred in front of Jedda’s eyes. He flashed back to many years before, to the marks Willow had the day he found her at their parents’ apartment. He didn’t care if this man shot him, because in his mind he wasn’t even here, he was miles away, years ago, and he was full to the brim with blind hatred.
The flash of another light drew his eye out to the woods behind the man with the gun and out stepped R.D., one hand on his hip just above his weapon, the other shining a flashlight they way only cops do. “Darren, don’t make me shoot you. It’s late and I don’t feel like doing the paperwork.”
“R.D., this man is threatening my life. You see that look in his eye, he’s crazy.”
“Well he’s crazy on the property where he’s a guest. While you, on the other hand, must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
“I was walking my dog,” Darren hissed as he tightened his grip on his gun.
“I don’t see a dog,” R. D. said as he walked up and stood next to Jedda. “I do however see your gun. Put that damn thing away and get on out of here. This ain’t the Wild West, and you sure as hell ain’t no cowboy.”
“He’s a killer. You want him just roaming around this close to your land at three o’clock in the morning?”
“At this point I’m more worried about the fact that I’ve got your stupid ass as a neighbor. Jedda hasn’t done anything wrong that I can see. Any friend of Betty’s is a friend of mine,” he said, knowingly parroting back Betty’s words from earlier that day. “If I see him break the law, I’ll be the first one to put him away. Until then, you and all your buddies will leave him alone. You hear?”
Darren grunted his acknowledgement and turned on his heels to head back toward his own property.
“You shouldn’t be out here wandering around this late,” R.D. said as he folded his arms over his chest and watched Darren disappear into the woods.
“I needed some air. Adjusting to being out is harder than I thought. I figured if I could get out here maybe it would make some sense.”
“I find that whether you’re coming out of prison or not, life don’t make too much sense. The more time you spend trying to figure it out, the more you start feeling like you’re losing control. I heard what happened down in town today, and Bobby briefed me on what’s going on with your little sister. I don’t know what you plan to do with all that, but I can tell you one thing, these folks are all standing around waiting for you to screw up so they can kill you or have you tossed in jail . . . and they’d rather kill you if they had their choice.”
“I almost lost it on that guy,” Jedda admitted as he kicked at a stone.
“I know, I was watching. I wasn’t going to let him shoot you but honestly I was more interested in how you were going to react. I know Darren; he’s a moron and a coward. He doesn’t have the stomach to follow through on his threats. But I could see you on the other hand look perfectly capable.”
“I should go back in,” Jedda said, rubbing at his burning tired eyes. “Thanks for . . . well thanks.”
“I live across the way there,” R.D. said, pointing up over the ridge. “I was just finishing up my shift, on my way home, and saw that moron leave his house with a gun. I thought there was a chance he was heading your way. But I’m not always going to be around to jump in. You need to figure out if you can stop yourself. They aren’t going to stop hounding you. Can you walk away?”
“Hopefully.” Jedda swallowed hard as he thought of what he had almost done to Darren, and the fact that R.D. would have been watching. He was a split second away from finding himself back behind bars, back away from Willow again. Leaving her out here with whatever problem she was facing. “I can,” he said, nodding his head again. “I have to.”
As Jedda stepped back into the house he was shocked to see Clay standing in the kitchen making a cup of tea.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” Jedda asked, slipping out of his sweatshirt.
“No you didn’t wake me.” He offered a cup to Jedda. “That idiot Darren woke me up. I heard him running his mouth. He’s always causing trouble around here for one reason or another. He came down and gave me hell about how I was smelling up his yard with my fancy food.”
“Fancy food?” Jedda asked wondering what kind of meal could be enough to be considered a nuisance by the neighbors.
“I was making a corn beef roast out in my smoker. He was acting like I was cooking skunks or something.”
“Smoked corned beef? I’ve never had that before. The one they serve in prison on Saint Patrick’s day is like shoe leather with soggy cabbage. I always wanted to try it with this recipe I saw. Roasted brussels sprout in balsamic vinaigrette. That’s how I used to pass the time most days. Dreaming up and reading about ways to fix the food in there. It bordered on inedible.
“He’s just lucky Betty sleeps like a corpse. She would have taken his knees out with her shotgun if she’d seen him giving you a hard time. She can’t stand the man.”
Jedda took the mug of tea and breathed in the hot earthy steam. “I’m worried about Willow leaving tomorrow.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Clay said, pulling out a kitchen chair and gesturing for Jedda to join him.
“What do you mean? She’s dead set on going.”
“Betty doesn’t want her to go, and Betty always get’s what she wants. One way or another she’ll figure out a way to get her to stay, and more than that, she’ll probably make her think it was her own idea all along.”
“How did Betty get so incredibly . . .” Jedda hesitated, not knowing the right word.
“Stop right there,” Clay said, halting Jedda’s attempt with his hand. “There is no adjective. No word. You’ll wrack your brain all night and never come up with one. I’m not sure how she got the way she is, but it’s fun as hell to sit back and watch it. She marched into the kitchen of my very upscale New York restaurant and asked me to jot down my recipes. That’s how we met. In that very moment I knew I loved her, and we’ve spent nearly every minute together since. I gave up everything I had up in the city, all my tenure in that position as a head chef to come down to this little town and open a restaurant that most people will probably not even understand down here, but do you know why I did that?”
Jedda shrugged, “Why
?”
“I have no goddamn idea. That’s the point. She wanted me down here and somehow in the face of all better logic, here I am. I don’t know exactly how she did it, I just know when that woman has her mind or heart set on something, it’s a forgone conclusion. So your sister isn’t leaving tomorrow,” Clay said, shrugging his shoulders. “Now do you think you can sleep?”
Jedda put his tea down on the table and rubbed his eyes. “Actually, yes,” he smirked as he stood and headed back to the living room.
“And Jedda, one more thing,” Clay called over his shoulder. “Even though I’m not sure how I ended up here, I’ve never been happier. That’s the point. She doesn’t do these things lightly, or for her own pleasure. When she moves a chess piece on the board, it isn’t so she can win; it’s to move the game forward. She’s just keeping us all moving forward.”
Chapter Five
“I really do appreciate the hospitality last night, Betty,” Willow said as she stuffed her clothes back into her bag. Jedda nodded his approval at his sister’s attitude adjustment. “Do you know when Michael will be back to take me to the bus station?”
“He said in a couple hours. He had a meeting he couldn’t skip,” Betty answered, trying to busy herself with the dishes.
“Now, Willow, I hear you’re a singer. Would you be so kind as to give us a little song this morning?” Betty asked, pulling up a chair next to her.
“I don’t really sing much lately. It’s something I have to feel, you know what I mean? And I don’t feel it right now. Sorry.”
“That’s no problem. I know what you mean,” Betty said, patting her hand lightly. “My husband used to play guitar and sing around the fire.”
“Clay?” Willow asked, fiddling with the zipper on her bag.
“No, Clay and I aren’t married. I’m livin’ in sin. Something I thought I’d never do, but you get to a certain age and you just can’t see the point in a big wedding and putting that pressure on yourself. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and there ain’t nothing broke between Clay and me.”
Finding Freedom (Book 4) (Piper Anderson Series) Page 5