Lone Tree (28 page)

“Stay put,” he barked, sounding like a boot camp
sergeant, then he strode away to take care of the next order of business. She
stepped out of the closet into the hall to give a hard look to his back, but
she still wasn’t going to argue with Nelly or tornados.

When she ran out of envelope boxes to count, she
went to the dining room, which had turned into the waiting room. Miles tried to
interest her in a game of dominoes, but she couldn’t concentrate. She walked
the hall. At the front entranceway Nelly opened the door in her face.

His weathered countenance softened as his gaze fell on
her, and he cupped her face in his hands. “Don’t fret, little missy.” His voice
was a comfort in itself. “God’s storms are natural. We do what we can and we be
fine. It’s the man-made storms we got to be afraid of.”

She felt her brow double its wrinkling effort. What
did he mean? He knew something, saw a problem approaching between her and
Miles? “Uh...was that supposed to be reassuring?”

He chuckled. “I just tellin’ you I still uneasy.
This here storm I didn’t know nothin’ about till this mornin’. And I still be
afraid of somethin’ else, somethin’ bad, hittin’ us.”

Letting it go, she walked to the dining room with
him. Whatever problem he sensed would present itself in its own time, and she
had to get through this storm before she could contend with the next one.

He hobbled over to where Miles and Rosalie sat at
the table, domino blocks between them. Miles watched him approaching with a
resigned look. “Just as a matter of curiosity, Nelly, have you ever lost a
game?”

“Lost me a game over in Coleman County some years
back.” He settled in the chair between them, at the end of the table. “Man name
o’ Vernon, he was. One good domino player.”

With a heavy sigh, Miles drew his blocks. “He musta
been.”

Lainie watched until the second domino was matched
to the first one and then her feet just had to move. She turned to walk the
hallway again and found Reed behind her. It appeared he’d been there a while,
just studying her.

“So,” he said. “You were okay with the steaks? And
potato and cucumber?”

She wrinkled her forehead. “Huh?”

“Just wondering what you want to eat on the next
campout.”

“Oh. Well, uh...” She rubbed her forehead. She
couldn’t think, which didn’t matter anyway because he’d do the deciding,
packing and cooking. She walked around him. “Nice try. I’ll be okay, Reed. We
work through our nerves in our own way, I guess.”

She wished the hallway were longer. When she next
stopped in the dining room doorway, Reed sat on a chair sideways to the table
with his feet propped on another one, reading a paperback. He looked up, she
lifted her shoulders, and he went back to his book.

Randy stood next to Nelly’s chair, munching on an
apple and watching the domino game. Carter was on the phone with his wife in
the corner of the room, Glen Charles was home with his family, and Luke was
probably in the bathroom again. He was the only one besides Lainie who showed
nerves. The overall attitude seemed to be wait, see what happens, and deal with
it when it gets here. They weren’t totally nonchalant, however. Everybody seemed
to have an ear tuned to the battery-powered radio on the sideboard that was
issuing storm progress reports.

She had to find something to do besides pace.
Looking at Reed and his book, she thought of the whodunit she’d started last
week, but it was in her house. She ventured into the kitchen, looked outside
and thought she might get a little wet but that was no big deal. The volume on
the radio got louder the same instant she stepped outside but the sound barely
registered.

Wind and rain grew rapidly, and she had difficulty
negotiating the short distance to her house. When she reached her own door, the
wind took the screen away and it flew out of sight. She got inside the house
and used every pound she had to force the door closed.

She stood rooted in place, afraid to move. The house
had grown dark and the noise of the storm was accelerating at an alarming rate.
It sounded like a train approaching at full speed. Breaking out of her stupor,
she raced into the kitchen and ducked under the heavy pine table. She placed
her head between her knees and locked her hands at the back of her neck. She
prayed.

Windows exploded and rain poured into the room, even
reaching her beneath the table. Then the sound receded as rapidly as it had
arrived, and the room grew lighter. The puddle of water in which she sat got
deeper. She risked raising her head.

Shakily, she crawled out from under the table and
got to her feet, and then stared at the debris strewn over the floor. Her gaze
fixed on a round, black plastic ring with broken glass attached to it, then
finally she figured out it was the coffee pot. Cabinet doors were open; one
hung by a single hinge.

Rain pelted her. The shattered windows were allowing
a lot of water inside. She got the mop. Maybe if she was fast enough, the linoleum
could be saved. Then she stared at the floor. She needed a broom first, or a
rake and then a broom.

Miles burst through the front door, jerked to a stop
and stared at her. She shook her head at the mess, at him. She noticed he was
looking up, so she did, too—to dark sky and rain. She frowned. What had
happened to the ceiling? Where was the roof?

Reed was next through the door and then he froze in
place when his gaze lit on her. Randy was so close behind him he bumped into
him. Randy apologized, looked up and could only have seen sky and rain, but
pushed the door closed anyway.

“Lainie Sue, the main house is safest in a storm,”
Miles said, voice and face strained. “
Always
.”

“You could’ve thought for a year,” Reed said, “and
not come up with a stupider move. You got a brain in there anywhere?”

“Reed, I’m real sorry,” Randy said, “for tackling
you like that. But you were headed out smack-dab in the middle of that
twister.”

Reed ignored him and glared at Lainie. “If a house
was on fire, would you run into it or away from it?”

The door opened and Carter and Luke entered. They
looked up. “Well, now, how about that,” Carter said.

“Can’t do a dad-gum thing till the rain quits,” Luke
said.

“Reed shouldn’t have let you out of his sight,”
Miles said. “And Randy should’ve watched you better. Maybe I could’ve—”

“Reed,” Randy pleaded, “don’t be mad at me for
sittin’ on you like that. I’m real sor—”

“Lainie,” Reed said, “if you ever—”

“Stop it!” The storm continued to rage, but the
people got quiet. Everybody looked at Lainie.

“Uh...” she said. She blinked, swallowed. Carefully,
she leaned the mop handle against the wall. “Excuse me.” She looked at the wet
sky, then at her audience. “Yes, the roof’s gone.”

She looked at Miles. “Yes, I was wrong.” She looked
at Reed. “Yes, I was stupid.”

Next was Randy, but he hadn’t scolded her for
anything. Her gaze moved on to Carter, who gave her a bland look. Luke appeared
uneasy, tipped his hat at her.

She was drenched, cold and scared, and didn’t know
what to do or where to go.

Reed’s expression lightened a fraction. “Go to my
place. Get warm.” He frowned. “Think it’s safe over there. Maybe I’d best check
first.”

“Main house just lost a couple kitchen windows,”
Miles said. “It’s safe.”

Lainie closed her eyes. She knew exactly how stupid,
and how incredibly lucky, she’d been.

*

Fortunately they’d got only the edge of the storm,
not the brunt of it. It had swiped by on Lainie’s side, leaving everything
else, except for the kitchen windows and the screen door, intact. She moved in
with Reed while repairs were made on her house. “My place or yours?” was a
question that no longer needed asking.

Today she’d taken his truck into town and left it to
be serviced while she’d visited Jackie. He was clearing the table after supper,
and she was searching her purse for the garage receipt, when she said,
“Confound it!”

Chuckling, probably at her use of the phrase, he
looked at her. “What?”

She held up Jackie Lyn’s credit card.

“So?” It must’ve looked like an ordinary card to
him.

“Jackie’s card. I didn’t have mine—it was in my
other purse—and I found a good sale,” she paused, decided she didn’t have to
admit that the sale was on sandals. “So she let me use hers—and then of course I
had to bring it home with me. Shoot, anyway. Now I’m going to have to go back.”

“Can’t it wait?”

She hesitated. “I won’t be in town again for a week.
She might need it, and it’s my fault.”

“Why don’t you call her? If it can wait, maybe Randy
can drop it off for you.”

She reached for the phone. “Yeah, maybe.”

*

When Jackie Lyn’s phone rang, her gaze shot toward
the man sharing the kitchen with her. He grabbed her wrist, making her drop the
egg turner. She was frying eggs for him and now they’d burn and then he’d hit
her again. She already hurt everywhere. Everywhere.

He jerked her arm behind her back and twisted. She
bent almost double as she tried to relieve the pressure and wondered helplessly
at what point the bone would break.

“Gonna be your boyfriend, is it?”

“No. I told you, I don’t—”

“And I told you how much stock I put in your word
now, didn’t I?”

When he increased the pressure, Jackie couldn’t hold
a whimper back. He’d allowed her to put a robe on in order to cook his eggs,
and the fabric hanging from her shoulder was perilously close to the gas flame.

“You got one of those answering machines?”

“Yes,” she gasped. The phone rang again.

“Where?” He exerted more pressure.

She squinted against the agony in her shoulder. “Front
room,” she rasped out.

The phone rang a third time. He let her go with a
shove toward the doorway. She stumbled and had to grab the doorjamb for
balance. “The eggs,” she said.

He spun, jerked the skillet off the stove and threw
it across the room. It hit the wall, splattering eggs and bacon grease, and
clanged to the floor. He shoved her again, making her collide with the living
room wall. The phone rang for the fourth time and the machine kicked in.

Jackie’s recorded voice told the caller, “Wait for
the beep and then tell me a story.”

“Hi, this is Lainie. Just found your charge card in my
purse. I’ll drop it off tonight if you need it. Jackie, are you anywhere
around?” A short pause, then, “Okay, I’m on my way out anyway—”

Jackie heard Reed’s voice in the background. He
didn’t sound agreeable.

“—to pick up a movie for tonight. I’ll slide your
card under the door if you’re not home, so you’ll have it if you need it. See
you soon. Bye.”

Carl Henry’s head slowly swiveled toward Jackie.
“And who might that be? Might that be the cute little blonde I saw you with
today? She was a looker.”

Please, Reed, talk her out of it. Get
her to stay home.

The grin on Carl Henry’s face was ugly. “She’s new
around here. Who is she?”

Jackie’s gaze flitted around the room, mind working
furiously for something, anything, to distract him. At her silence, he charged
across the room and slapped her open-handed. She staggered and was brought up
short by the door. He pinned her against it, one hand cupping her throat while
the other slapped her back and forth as he fired questions. “Who is she?
Where’s she from? Talk to me, damn you!”

“Lone Tree,” she gasped.

He let her go. His attention seemed directed inward
now, on his thoughts, not on her. But she knew better than to think the
reprieve would last long.

“Lone Tree,” he breathed, then repeated the words,
stretching them out almost lovingly. “So it’s payback time—big time—tonight.”

*

“I don’t understand why this can’t wait,” Reed said
for the third or fourth time.

She reached for her coat. “Be there and back in an
hour. And I’ll get a movie.”

“What’s the hurry? Tomorrow or the next—”

“Action adventure okay? What do you want?”

“I want you to stay home.”

Lainie liked action-packed adventure, the more
unbelievable the better. Reed enjoyed something more realistic, with more meat
to it. “Come on, tell me. My kind or your kind?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Though his aggravation didn’t
ease, he seemed to give up. “Get both.”

“We’ve been together too long.” She zipped up the
black parka and searched her purse for car keys.

He gave her a frowning, sideways look. “How do you
figure that?”

“We didn’t used to need two movies to get through an
evening.”

“Uh-huh.”

She found her keys and headed for the door.

“Lainie?”

“Hmm?” She paused, hand on the doorknob.