3
Six weeks. It had been an entire six weeks since she’d been hurt, and Tisha felt no better now than she had when.... Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She could move around in the wheelchair she had. There was the fact that she could eat semi-solid foods now. Plus, she was out of the hospital. It had only been two days, but she was home now, living with her dad as she recovered.
“Hello, princess. How are you today?” She looked at her dad and wondered what he’d say if she asked him once again to put her away. The nursing home that she’d looked into while in the hospital had very good ratings for caring for the broken. “Don’t. I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t want to hear it. I want you here. I need you here.”
“I know, Dad, but I’m also sure that you have a lot more things to do than to sit around with me all day, reminding me to take my pills and eat. Dad, this is not the way you should be spending all your time.” He took her hand in his, careful of the bruising that was still there, and kissed it. “Dad, please. This can’t be good on your heart either, worrying about me all the time.”
“You think you being in that home would make me worry any less? Honey, I’d be there every day too. Reminding you to eat and take your pills. Besides, I’d rather be doing this for you than to be sitting over your grave every moment of every day wondering what I could have done to prevent that attack.” He kissed her hand again. “Seeing you after the surgery, after that monster hurt my baby.... I need you here, Tisha. I need to know that you’re safe.”
Nodding, she decided not to bring it up again. He was right. She could have died. Tisha rolled her chair forward only to have her dad take over by pushing her to the kitchen. He asked her what she had on the horizon today, like she had a real life.
“I’m going to physical therapy at ten. Then I have this hot date for lunch.” He patted her head when he had her pushed up to the dining room table. “I’m trying to decide if I want mashed potatoes again, or should I go all out and have two colors of Jell-O for dessert.”
“I think two. And you’re supposed to make notes on what makes you feel sick as you eat it. Ice cream, that’s a no-no for now.” She shivered when she thought of how sick the heavy creamed dessert had made her. “I should have started with something lighter, like a cheaper brand, and not gone for that one. I guess that it being made with heavy cream is what got you. I’m sorry, darling, but I’m learning too.”
They both avoided the news now, and the paper. Alex was still out there, and to date no one had any news on where she was. But they were following the trail of trouble she was causing. Just last week she’d killed another teacher at the school, and had robbed a convenience store for cash. Tisha thought about the day she’d found Alex in her kitchen after hearing something fall over in her house. Before she could even enter her kitchen, a room that she hated more now that Alex had burst into her home, a blow to her head had knocked her to the floor, and Alex hadn’t stopped hurting her.
“You were supposed to open that box.” Alex had come out of nowhere, her shadow rolling over her like a dark cloud in the sky in summer. Then she saw it, saw what she’d been hit with…a sledgehammer. And there was a gun as well. Several knives had been laid out in front of Alex, like she was about to perform surgery on Tisha…which she supposed she had, in a way. There was also a long thick chain. And every piece of her weaponry, all of it, she’d used on Tisha.
Someone touched her arm, bringing her from her memories but not what she was feeling. Jerking away from the touch, not thinking about the pain it might cause her, Tisha tried her best to focus on the face in front of her, not the memories that had brought her to this point.
“Tisha?” She looked at her dad and tried to bring her fear and terror under control again. “Tisha, honey, she’s not going to touch you again. I promise you this. We’re going to find her and bring an end to this.”
Breathing in her nose and out her mouth slowly, she nodded at her dad. In and out, the therapist had told her. In with the good, out with the bad. It helped with the pain as well. In with thoughts of goodwill, out with the pain and bad thoughts. Sometimes it worked, others, like now, it did not.
“I’m all right now. I promise. And I know that you’re going to protect me.” But she didn’t, and she was pretty sure that her dad knew how she felt. Alex had been a friend. Not a good one, not even close, but they were friendly. Tisha would never have thought she would do any of the things that she’d done in the last two months. “It’s just hard, you know? To know that she’s still out there, causing all this to happen.”
“I know, love. I know. But as I said, she won’t ever be able to touch you again. I promise you this.” She knew her dad honestly believed that, however, he’d not seen her, not seen her face. But her dad was a man of his word and it meant a great deal to not just her, but to a lot of other people. “Before I forget, Emma is coming by this evening to see you. She said that she has a surprise for you. That girl, I tell you, she’s just a ray of sunshine, isn’t she?”
“I would never have believed her to take on being mayor of this town. I know that I’ve not lived here in a while, but I can see what kind of differences she’s made already. Did you see the way some of the older houses are being brought up to code and sold off? I’m telling you now, if I could, Dad, I’d want to tour all of them, and not just online.”
She’d not told her dad, not just yet anyway, but she was looking long term now. A house…she wanted her own place and she wanted a yard. It would be a little while before she could do much in it, but it was coming up on fall and there wasn’t a lot to do right now anyway. But soon, the doctor told her, she’d be able to shed this chair and walk with the assistance of a cane, but at least she’d be upright, not like she was now. Her mind skirted away from all the things he’d told her.
After she was loaded up into the car to go to her therapy, she pulled out her list of things she wanted to do while in town. As much as she wanted to go to the house she’d been inquiring about, it wasn’t the time for her to tell her dad. Instead, she told him she was going to head to the mall afterwards because she had things to get in the way of clothing.
“Burt can go with you.”
There wasn’t any point in arguing with him, really. But honestly, she liked having the big panther close. Man or beast, she knew that he’d keep her safe. Tisha still had moments where she was sure she could see Alex in every face she saw. “I have one meeting that I have to attend today. Then I’ll meet you someplace and we can have some lunch.”
After being helped back into her chair when they arrived at the doctor, her dad told her he’d send the car back for her. That was another thing she missed a great deal, being able to come and go as she pleased. Looking up at Burt, she asked him if he was ready for this.
“No, miss. I am not. I know that they’re helping you, I understand that, but my heart cannot get around the fact that they hurt you as well. If you don’t mind, after I check out the room, I’d like to wait in the lobby.” She nodded, smiling at the huge tender hearted man. “Your father, he loves you…you know that, don’t you?”
“Of course.” She eyed him as they waited to be called back. “Why would you say that? What’s he done now?”
“Done? Nothing that any other father wouldn’t.” She asked again what that meant. “There are people looking for that woman…you’re aware of that, correct? Well, he has his own men working as well. He wishes to find her first.”
“Will he?” Burt only shrugged. “He’ll have her killed, won’t he? Dad will take out his own sort of justice when he finds her by himself.”
“I would imagine. When the doctor told him what had happened to you, it was difficult for him to embrace. His heart couldn’t accept that someone hurt you and he’d not been able to protect you. It depressed him. Now? Well, now that he’s had time to see that you’re going to recover, he’s gotten angry.” It was like the stages of grief, she supposed. Much like she was going through right now with all the things going on in her life and body.
“Do you think him angry enough to carry out his own form of trial and jury?” Burt shrugged again. “I don’t want him to go to prison for this. Is there anything I can do to stop him?”
“What do you think?” No, there would be no stopping him. Once her father set his mind to something, it was as good as done. And she loved him for it. “As I said, he loves you. Very much. But I also wanted you to know that no one and nothing will harm you again, so long as I live.”
~~~
Zach pulled out the envelope and looked at it. He’d taken his boards ten days ago, and this was all that was left for him to do was pass. He was terrified to open the envelope, and with good reason. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone.
Getting to this point, the point of no return he’d been calling it, had been difficult. He was a good student, that wasn’t it, but with all the other things going on in his life, he’d had some moments when he wanted to just chuck the whole thing. Like two days before the test.
He’d been bringing in what would have been the first of many crops. As he was entering the barn—his mind not on what he was doing, but the stupid notes that were blasting in his ears via the recorder he had—he hit the side of the barn.
It hadn’t been that bad. Not as bad as it could have been, he supposed. Zach hadn’t been going all that fast, drifting really, but it was done in the front of every single member of his family. And they’d gotten the biggest kick out of it that he’d ever seen. Instead of laughing it off, as he should have done, he’d shifted in midair and gone after his brothers, and had gotten the shit knocked out of him in the process.
Zach knew it wasn’t the barn. Nor was it the laughter from them, but stress, pure and simple. He was doing too much and it hit him hard. It had taken a broken wrist, four broken ribs, and more cuts than he’d been able to see to bring home the fact that he couldn’t do it. And then his Aunt Georgie was there.
“You done?” He said nothing, his cat laying on the ground, defeated. “I want you to change back, dress, and come in the house. And if you try and sneak off and go home, so help me, Zachery, I will hunt you down and beat you to within an inch of your life.” He glanced up at her, ready to argue, but he saw that look. One that he’d not seen in all his life, at least not directed at him. She was pissed off, and rightly so.
As soon as he entered the dining room, he nearly turned and left. But his brothers and their wives stood up, all of them, and looked ready to finish what they hadn’t in the yard. Even Landon and Katie were there to be a part of his humiliation, he thought. Sitting in the only open chair, he hung his head, knowing that he was done.
“You feel better now that you’ve had your ass handed to you?” He nodded at Mason. “Look at me, Zach. I want to see your face.”
“I’m finished. I was stupid and I’m done.” He asked him finished with what. “Everything. I’m in over my head. I’m exhausted, and I hurt in more places than I can even remember having on my body. Not from today…I deserved that, I know. But I’m just not doing that well on anything.”
“Finally.” He looked over at Landon when he spoke. “Been telling you for two weeks to get you some help. You kept right on telling me that you had it. Well, even a fool could see that you had nothing. You’re burning that candle at both ends, and right split down the middle too. What you trying to do, boy, die at a young age?”
He felt his anger shoot through the roof at Landon’s words, but held on to his temper. It was getting harder and harder all the time to just be around them, much less have a conversation. Right now he wanted to lash out at his friend and tell him he was a part of the problem. He wasn’t, but it was easier to blame someone else than to realize he was a failure.
“I took on these responsibilities on my own and I needed to get them done. I should have realized sooner that I’m not nearly as smart as others think I might be.” Aunt Georgie asked him what responsibilities he had that were that important that they needed his undivided attention. “The shelter. The houses and the work on them. Beth driving me crazy with the permits and money that she wants to get the men working again. Then there is the grain and the farm work. I’m only going part-time at the university now. The classes that I’m taking aren’t hard, but I don’t have a lot of time to study like I should. I’m just.... I don’t know if I can do this anymore. Like you said, I’m burning up too fast from everything. I’m losing it all.”
“You lost it weeks ago if you think you can keep this up.” He looked at Mason to argue. “Don’t even try to say that you haven’t. You’re working too much and too hard. Any or all of us would have dropped anything to come to your aid. But you turned us down.”
“I have it handled.” They all shook their heads, and he could feel his temper getting the better of him again. “All right, so you’ve made your point. Are we done here?”
“We’re not done. Not even close to it. Tomorrow morning I’m going to come over and learn how to drive the tractor. Then when you think I have it, you’re going to go with Landon to look at a house. Not work on it, but look. After that, you’re going to have a decent meal with your family—”
“I’m not four years old.” Emma told him not to act like he was then. “Look, I’ve taken on too much. I’ll just get better organized about things.”
“No, you’re going to get some help, and we’re going to help you with it. We’re family, Zach, it’s how we get things done.” Emma continued as he started breathing the way he’d been told to do before speaking, a way to get his words in order and not confrontational. “I’ve got Beth handled. Had I not gone into labor, she would have been gone long ago. But now that I’m going back in a couple of weeks, I’ll be able to take care of this. Not just for you, but for everyone that comes to see me. You let me handle that bitch, all right?”
Zach wanted to tell her that he had it, that he had it under control, but he knew that they’d not listen to him, and they’d continue to treat him like he was a child.
He wanted to lash out at them all, tell them that he was doing just fine, when he looked over at Katie. She was the only one that hadn’t said a word to him during this entire lynching. Or at least that’s what it felt like to him. As he stared at her, she got up and moved to him as the rest of them left the room.
“Do you want to die?” He shook his head. “Have you in your head that you can do a better job all by yourself than you could with the help of the others? Perhaps you think they’ll fail you? I’m thinking that you’re not nearly as dumb as you think believe you are, but a man with a good, too good, of a sense of responsibility. Just like my Landon. So, what do you think, Zach, do you feel we’d fail you if you gave us a chance?”
“No, I don’t think that.” He was almost afraid to tell her what he’d been thinking. But he also knew that of all the people here, she’d be the one that would understand him. “They have families. Jobs that mean something to each of them. They...I have my fields, but we both know that they only buy my crops from me because I’m their brother.”
“Do they? I suppose you could be right. I’m sure if you had an inferior product, they’d go ahead and feed it to their animals, regardless of whether or not they got sick or died. That’s what family does.” He felt foolish and his temper rose again. “But then again, they could know, just as I overheard Mason tell Landon, that you have not only the best prices they’ve ever had, but a product far superior to any that they’ve used before.”
“See, I am doing a good job. By working hard and getting the job done.” She asked him at what cost. “I need to make a name for myself. I need...I need to prove to them that I’m just as good as they are.”
It was out there now. His biggest fear. That he was, and he felt this deep in his heart, not nearly as good as them. He was just a farmer with barely enough money to pay for what he needed, much less the things that he would like to have.
“Do you suppose that when Landon and I were first married that I thought him a fool for spending all our hard earned cash on a ranch that he no more knew anything about running than I did? I didn’t. I thought him brave, smart, and a man that I could depend on to not only take chances, but one that would work his hardest in keeping us safe and provided for. You are just like him.” She took his hand in hers and continued. “He loves you. Sees himself in you a great deal. A man who’s not afraid of taking a risk, which you know it was for you to leave the nest, so to speak, and become something different than a rancher. You knew not one thing about grains and hay. Nothing at all about tractors or getting a good deal on one. This project with the shelter? You saw a need and moved in a way to make sure that it was taken care of, another great risk to yourself. Then there are the houses. My goodness, I walked through the one that the two of you are working on, and I nearly begged him to let us live in it. It’s far and away better than any I’ve seen to date. And according to Landon, the two of you have contracted to do six more. Oh, Zach, you are far from being a failure. You’ve become a man to reckon with. A man of value in a great many areas.”
“I don’t know about all that. But the houses, it’s fun. Hard work and expensive, but fun. I’m not contributing much to that part of it, but I’m working on it.” She nodded and squeezed his hand. “What did you mean when you asked me if I wanted to die, Katie?”
“You are a young man, strong and smart, but you’re overworking yourself, aren’t you? How much weight have you lost, Zach? Twenty? Twenty-five in the last few weeks? You’re not resting enough either, are you? Nor are you eating properly. I think if Landon didn’t bring you food once in a while, you’d not be eating a single decent meal at all, would you?” He pulled his shirt from his belly. He had lost a lot of weight, and had taken to cinching his belt as tightly as he could just to keep his pants on. “You’re going to have a massive heart attack if you keep this up. It will either kill you, which would hurt me profoundly, or it will put you in a position that will have your family not just doing for you, but you will not be able to do a thing for yourself at all. You will be confined to a wheelchair or worse. Just because you thought that you were invincible. That’s a terrible way to hurt us, you getting injured and ill simply because you didn’t want our help when you needed it. Don’t you think?”
He sat there long after she left him. Zach had thought about not just what she’d said, but what she’d not said to him. Katie was disappointed in him. And he was pretty sure that had hurt him more than anything. After that and over the last few weeks, he’d not only asked for help when he was in over his head, and that was a lot of times, but Katie had agreed to help him study for his realtor’s exam.
Zach looked around at his family and wondered why he’d been so incredibly stupid to not have them help him. Not that he didn’t have days where he would get to the end of it and realize that had he gotten help, he might have accomplished more, but he was learning. And it was a big learning curve he was on.
“Are you eating or just going to stare at us?” He looked at Susie when she hugged him to her. “I have it on good authority that the baked beans are better than that crap at the deli, and the cole slaw is just good, but not great.”
“Landon.” She nodded at him. “He and I were taste testers for some of the things that Katie brought in. I think she’d do a better job with a blindfold on with some of them, but then, I got free food out of it and was happy to help. By the way, don’t try the broccoli bacon salad if she went that way. According to Landon, and I have to agree, if even bacon can’t make it good, there’s no hope for it.” They both laughed as they made their way to the buffet table. “What is this all about anyway? Just a way to get us all together?”
“I think she needed this more than anything. Tomorrow would have been Dirk’s birthday, and I think this is her way of dealing with it.” Zach hadn’t known that and was sorry for it. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through, can you? I mean to have your own son try and kill you would be hard enough, but the way that Dirk acted about everything must have about broken them all.”
Dirk had been Landon and Katie’s only son. He’d been.... Well, to say that he’d not been right in the head would have been grossly understating it. Dirk had been horrible, taking what he felt should have been his and making demands on two of the nicest people Zach knew for no other reason than Dirk thought he was entitled. To everything. And it didn’t matter who he had to hurt or kill to get it.
He filled his plate and sat down next to Katie. As casually as he could, he shoved the still unopened envelope under her plate. Picking it up, she asked him if he’d read it yet. Shaking his head, he told her he was afraid to. Standing up, she made an announcement while holding onto his test results.
“Excuse me, everyone. I would like to read you a letter for the state boards.” He tried to pull her back to her seat. With a small tap to his hand, she opened the letter. “Congratulations, Mr. Douglas—”
They all started yelling and clapping at those three simple words. He was stunned. Not only that, but when she got to the results of his test, a perfect score, he couldn’t believe it. He’d passed. He was a realtor. Holy Christ, he’d done it. He stood too when his family finally quieted down.
“I think I owe you all a great apology.” Mason asked him what he’d done now. “Nothing. I mean, I’ve done plenty, but this, this right here, I couldn’t have done it without all of you. And I know what you’re thinking, you still don’t believe it. But you guys, my family, you made me see that I can do just about anything I want, so long as you’re right there behind me kicking me in the ass.”
His aunt cleared her throat but said nothing. Zach told her he was sorry. He could tell that neither of them believed he was, but he smiled at her, giving her his most charming smile of all. After that, the party was bigger, louder, and more fun for all of them.
On his way home, he stopped by the first house that he and Landon were working on. In two days he would have an open house and hopefully they’d sell it. It was going to make someone very happy. Going inside, he turned on the lights to see what had been set up to display the place.
The kitchen, of course, was his favorite room. The appliances were all new and state of the art. The big stove had earned them a pretty penny, and they’d used that money to buy décor, something they could use in all the houses if they needed to dress them up a bit.
The kitchen table had been salvaged and cleaned up from an auction. The chairs, the same place. Cabinets were plentiful, high in places that they could make them, and also a great many of them low enough for anyone to reach. Even the bar in the room had been set with some bar stools that he was sure had come from an actual bar. He’d found the dishes for it himself, getting an entire box of them for just a buck.
Zach moved to the big dining room. The walls, once they had taken down some of the ugliest paper he’d ever seen, had been beautiful. And after adding some salvaged wainscoting from another part of the house, it gave the room something they’d not expected…a homey feel that was functional at the same time. It was still hard for him to believe that it had only needed a good scrubbing and a coat of varnish to make it look this good.
They’d had to replace two of the windows in this room, and had gone to the local high school to see if they could get the pattern in the front door duplicated in those windows for the dining area. Zach thought they’d turned out really well. And it had helped a few kids show off their talents.
The floors were all hardwood that had been discovered under layers of not just carpet, but linoleum as well. Again, just a good cleaning was needed, and a sander run over them to bring out the lovely pattern of the wood. He loved the warm feeling it gave both here and the living room. He entered the latter now.
The fireplace had been saved, which he and Landon had had their doubts about when construction had begun. But with a little work from a couple of his brothers, not only had they got it working again, but the mantle had come out better than he’d imagined it would. All the rooms, he thought as he made his way up the stairs, had turned out beautifully.
There had been five bedrooms on this floor when they’d started out, but only one bathroom. After a few days of tearing out a couple of walls and reworking the rooms, they’d ended up with four nice sized rooms as well as two baths, one for the master suite. They had also found a large ornate elevator that went from the basement to the upper levels.
After making sure that everything was ready in the house, he made his way home. Tomorrow he had a lot of crap to get done to free himself up for the open house, but he felt that he’d get it done. And he had people to cover for him if he didn’t. But instead of going into the house, as he should have, he supposed, he stripped down and shifted to his cat. He’d been neglected too of late.