The hairs on my arms stood, and my throat throttled my voice.
“Hey,” Gabe yelled. “Did he lock us out? Why are you in the road?”
Lane stood when he noticed our approach. I tailed several steps behind and watched as he turned to face Gabe and place his hat on his heart as if he was waiting for us to make some kind of decision.
“Jeez. What’s with you?” Gabe called.
Lane shook his head slowly. The chopper moved in. I grabbed onto Gabe’s waist and pulled at his shirt. Lane turned and looked back through the gates. He made me nervous. I feared what I would see. I had a terrible, sinking feeling as my stomach rolled unpleasantly.
We stopped walking when Lane held his hat out in warning. “Brace yourself, little brother. It’s gonna hurt you to swallow.”
Gabe stormed past his brother and the stone wall, and looked through the gate. I glared with wonder as he jerked forward and set his hands on his thighs, hunching as though he was going to be sick.
My voice came out in a strangled hush. “Gabe?”
Gabe’s chest rose and fell as if he had finished running a race across the entire state. He tipped his head down and let the cap fall to the ground. I knew it was bad. Lane set a hand on Gabe’s shoulder and glanced at me. He jerked his chin to get me to come closer, but I couldn’t make my feet move. The helicopter passed over the front gate.
“That’s not real,” Gabe shouted into the ground. “That’s not real.”
The chopper circled above us, taking pictures of Gabe and Lane, no doubt. I wanted to shake my fist in fury. Lane caught my eye and waved me over again. I forced my feet to walk to Gabe. His fingers pulled at his hair. Lane placed a hand on my arm, and I looked up to acknowledge his horror-filled eyes.
That’s how I saw it.
I shut my eyes fast. I didn’t think it was real either. When I opened my eyes again, my knees buckled. I placed my hands on Gabe’s back to catch myself as I fell. My bloody jeans scraped the gravel. I made myself look up.
Gabe fell backward and sat in the wet road with his arms around his knees.
“Where did it go?” I asked sluggishly, completely distrusting that I was looking at the property but the mansion wasn’t there.
“I don’t…holy crud,” Gabe stuttered. He placed his head on his knees and pounded his legs with angry fists.
I regarded Lane’s blank stare and ashen face. He looked close to tears as he studied lumber, stone and rubble strewn all over the great lawn. My eyes followed the lengthy driveway to a massive heap of debris where the mansion previously stood. A wrecking ball had swung from the skies and demolished the Halden’s multi-level, multi-building, multi-million dollar estate.
“This is a joke. I grew up here. First my truck gets stolen and wrecked, then I find out I have a sister and my mom is alive, and now my house is steamrolled to dust. This is bat shit crazy!” he shouted. “This isn’t real.”
“It’s real,” Lane said as he shook his head. “That was our house.”
I didn’t know what to do. Gabe wouldn’t lift his head. I had an alarming realization that everyone was missing.
“What about Meggie and your father and Josh? The baby!” I yelled into my hands. “I can’t breathe.”
“They got out. I’m sure of it,” Lane said with promise in his voice. “Lieutenant’s people would be all over the place if they didn’t hear from him. There’d be ambulances and rescue everywhere.”
“So this is why we couldn’t get calls through. Maybe they got out fast and left their phones,” I offered.
“That would explain it,” Lane said, huddled over me. “Wait a minute. What did you say about a sister?”
“We got one,” Gabe blurted. “Mom had her all this time.”
“We got a what? Mom what?” Lane shouted.
“I’ll fill you in later. It’s a freaking loony story,” Gabe answered.
“Those are media vans down there.” I narrowed my gaze on the line of trucks with satellites propped on their roofs. Guards wearing orange and white vests were holding people back. I heard shouting. Neither of them was listening to me.
“I guess I don’t gotta clean my room anymore. My books, my guitars. Eli’s guitar. Dammit all, I should’ve taken it. I gotta go get it.”
“It’s just stuff, Gabe,” I hollered over the chopper’s roar. “It’s not there.” I pointed to the demolished mansion and silently questioned how the fence and walls surrounding the property stood hardly untouched.
He jumped up and towered over me. “It’s all I had of my brother.”
“But it’s not there, Gabe. Your stuff is gone.”
“It’s not just stuff!”
“Hey, you two,” Lane yelled. “We don’t need a scene here.” He pointed at the mechanical bird in the sky.
“Can we please go to the hospital? Do you know what hospital Meggie was planning to use?” I asked Lane as my stomach knotted and a bubble of a sob tried to escape my throat.
“Pretty sure I do,” Lane replied. “There’s nothing we can do here. Dad probably hired those trucks down there to cordon this off. I wouldn’t put it past him to have hired the moving van to lay across the road and block it. He got everybody out safe.”
“We shouldn’t stay here.” I stood and brushed at the dampness and gravel on my jeans. It took everything in me not to break down. The air reeked of devastation.
“We’ll come back. Nothing’s going anywhere, okay?” Lane said to Gabe.
“I’m not leaving until I fetch my rifle and land that damn chopper on top of the heap.” Gabe hollered into the air and took off down the road to his truck. “I’m gonna find my guitar.”
* * *
Lane charged down the road and caught up with Gabe. I don’t know what Lane promised to get him to leave, but Gabe climbed in his truck and started it up afterward. I kept my comments to myself when I reached the cab, grateful that Gabe didn’t run back to the property to excavate. I tried to take his hand, but he acted as if he needed it to drive, which I knew wasn’t true. His angry expression frightened me. The bruises on his neck and cheek swelled. He had to be in severe pain—not just physically.
We followed Lane through town where traffic was unusually heavy. We waited in line at a stop. It reminded me of Williston’s oil traffic, except I witnessed every national news channel and every imaginable rescue vehicle caravan by instead of water tankers and gas pipe haulers.
Lane honked his horn when we passed the ravaged Biggiemart.
“Biggest heap of rubble in the state of Texas,” Gabe muttered. “Now they’ve got something big to brag about.”
We toured the aftermath of the tornado warzone. Muddy water flooded the streets. I caught a tow truck pulling a bus out from the debris at the bus depot. My hand covered my mouth until we cleared the town square. We had few words between us. I let Gabe brood. There was nothing I could say that would bring back his house.
For miles, I spotted oil derricks sprouting out of cattle ranches and brown fields. Gabe found a local radio station, and we listened to accounts of tornado damage and casualties. When the commentator mentioned the palatial estate of the Halden-Remington CEO in Benjamin, Gabe hit the dash with his knuckles.
I leaned against the black pickup after we followed Lane into the hospital parking garage and navigated the busy levels. I picked at my dirty fingernails while glancing over the wall into the chaotic emergency entrance. I needed a shower, but there was little chance of that happening. Gabe stood at Lane’s door and watched him make a call.
“Third floor,” Gabe’s voice echoed through the garage when he returned. Lane took off for the elevator.
“You found them? Who’s here?” I asked.
“Don’t know. Meggie had the baby, and Caleb said third floor is all.”
“Do they know what happened?”
“I don’t know, Av’ry,” he snapped.
I ran my finger over his bruised jaw.
“Get a quick look at the baby and then we’r
e taking off.”
“To where?” I asked.
“The beach. You could use a big bathtub. As soon as I go fetch my guitar,” he answered.
A smile crept across his face. I knew he was kidding. His smile was fleeting, but I saw it. I slid my hands around his waist and pressed my head into his chest. “I love you,” I told him.
“I’d love you in a bikini. I’d forget all my troubles.”
I could hardly process what his troubles were or how he was going to recover from the abduction, his mother’s appearance, and the tornado.
“You need to get looked at first, okay?”
He scowled and rolled his eyes and then took my muddy hand and led me into the hospital. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding about the bikini. His moods bounced around like rubber balls.
The elevator door opened just as Gabe’s hand crept up the back of my shirt and exposed my bare skin. I had to push him away for fear someone would step inside and catch him. When he didn’t get out, I reached for his arm before the door shut.
Lane had his back to us, and when he turned, I saw Josh standing behind him.
“Josh, you’re okay?” I walked over so I could check him out. “How’s Meggie?”
“She’s fine now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. He had dark circles under his eyes. I studied his outfit, striped pajama pants and a T-shirt with the hospital logo. He was barefoot.
“She had complications,” he told me.
“Let’s go in and find out. Caleb wouldn’t say much on the phone. He’s waiting in there,” Lane told us.
He pushed past Josh, and then I heard him speak forcefully at the reception desk as the swinging door closed. Then I watched through the waiting room window beside the door as he turned around and froze.
“Did you get out before the storm hit?” I asked Josh while continuing to watch Lane. Caleb was in a chair. He had his head in his hands.
“Yeah, we got out. I heard the house get hit. Poof—and it was gone,” he snapped his fingers. “Joel made us run out in the middle of the night. Sounded like a train came barreling through the woods. I tried to stick my head out of the roof of the limo, but everything went completely black, so I couldn’t see what happened.”
“Let’s go find Meggie,” I said hastily to Gabe.
“Uh not now. You don’t wanna go in there, Avery. Believe me,” Josh warned.
“Why can’t I go in?” I placed my fists on my hips. Gabe placed his hands on Josh’s shoulders, moved him aside, and then disappeared through the waiting room door.
Josh slid right back in front of the door and spread his arms out.
“What the heck happened to Gabe? Who won that fight?”
“I’m going in there with him. What’s gotten into you?” I asked.
“You want to know what’s wrong with me? You couldn’t handle it,” he said. “Don’t go in there. I promise you’ll thank me. This is me protecting you.”
“Josh, seriously. I don’t need any protecting. I can handle just about anything right now. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen.”
Gabe addressed Lane in the other room as Lane continued to glare at whomever was sitting on the wall in front of me. Caleb’s lips began to move, and he addressed the same unidentifiable person.
“I need to talk to you. Cousin to cousin,” Josh said in a tremulous voice. I hadn’t noticed his hands were shaking until that moment.
“Fine, but first, I want to see Meggie. Is something wrong in there?”
Lane walked to the wall, bent down, and slipped out of my sight.
“I did bad things,” Josh admitted. “Really bad.”
I stepped back. Lane stood. The pained look on his face alarmed me. I couldn’t see Gabe.
“Joel’s going to send me to prison,” Josh told me.
I was having trouble focusing on both sides of the wall. I returned my gaze to Josh. “You’re kidding. Come on. Let me by.”
Josh slid his foot out to block me. I swallowed hard. He wasn’t acting normal. “Ma doesn’t know, but he does and I’m going down. Me and some guys got played, and I’m in really deep shit. He told me if I run, he’d find me. After he tells her, you’ll never see me again.”
“Is this about the tattoo you got on your arm or about what Gabe was talking about back in Williston? How you got arrested?”
He hung his head. “Way worse. Way, way worse.”
“Whatever it is Gabe and Caleb will help you get out of it. It can’t be that bad. I’m sure you’ll be okay. You won’t go to prison, Josh.”
“It’s bad, Avery.”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad. Please, let me through. I want to see the baby and Meggie. Then we’ll figure out what kind of trouble you’re in, okay?” I set a hand on his arm. “Move, Joshie. I’m tired. I’m going in there.”
He shook my hand off his arm. I’d had enough. My shoulder rammed into his and pushed him out of the way. He grabbed my hand as I swept by. “I tried to warn you.”
I broke into the room as he let go and the door hit me on the back.
Gabe breezed past me without saying a word and bolted to the elevator. I couldn’t place the look on his face. I stood rooted in the middle of the waiting room, confused, wondering what happened. Was he taking off without me?
Caleb sat silently in a chair and returned his head to his hands, his cap beside him. He didn’t look up to greet me. I couldn’t see his face.
I spun the other way when I noticed the whimpering and felt as though I’d just found myself starring in an episode of the The Twilight Zone. My first thought was to escape as fast as I could make my feet move. I considered running after Gabe. Josh had warned me more than once, but I didn’t listen. I never listened.
My mother looked up from her spot on the bench.
My mother? How did my mother get to Texas?
She didn’t look mad. I wasn’t sure what she looked like. I had to ask myself if this person was even my mother sitting in a hospital waiting room looking at me or if I was so tired I got her mixed up with somebody else.
I had no intension of going back to Syracuse until I was ready. I’d made my decision. My first real adult decision that would affect my future with Gabe. I just hadn’t taken the opportunity to clue him in yet.
“Hello, Avery,” she said in her normal voice.
I must have been hallucinating.
Then I noticed Deliah. She lifted her head from my mother’s shoulder and something twisted in my stomach. Her face looked splotchy and red and wet from tears. Her body shook while her bottom lip quivered. My mother rubbed her back as though she cared about the strange girl.
“Avery!” Deliah cried and jumped out of her seat. Her hands wrapped around my middle, and I hugged her as she convulsed with guttural sobs. “Oh, Avery.”
I couldn’t hold her up. She slumped in my arms, and I tried to lift her as her knees nearly hit the ground. I helped her fall back into the seat beside my mother.
My tongue swelled to the size of an orange and my hands trembled at my sides.
No one spoke. Caleb didn’t look up or spit his usual wisecracks at me. Lane crouched against the wall, hiding his face in his hands.
“Is it Meggie? Deliah, why are you crying?”
She couldn’t have cared about what happened to the mansion or Meggie’s well-being. She didn’t know Meggie or Josh or even Joel.
Josh told me Meggie was okay. My eyes darted from person to person, looking for clues, answers.
“Lane?” I said.
Behind me, my mother hushed Deliah’s whimpering. I thought I heard Caleb choke down a sob, and I almost lost my stomach I was so worked up with dread.
“Please tell me what happened.”
Deliah blurted into her hands. “My mom died! She was killed!”
I froze. My eyes glued to Deliah.
“Oh no. I should find Gabe. He told me he’s leaving Texas,” I whispered.
“That’s damn selfish,” Caleb said under
his breath. I didn’t know if he was referring to my comment or Gabe’s actions. I placed a hand on his arm and he pulled me down, dropped his head into my lap, and covered his face. Lane reached around me and rubbed Caleb’s shoulder.
“After two whole minutes, the kid’s already got middle child syndrome. I’ll go look for him,” Lane told me. He crossed the room to Deliah and touched her head. I saw a look of disillusionment cross his face. “I’ll be back to see you, okay?”
“I had to watch the lieutenant tell her that our mom died. The least Gabe could do is stick around and partake in this circus,” Caleb hissed.
I ran my hand over his hair at his forehead and stopped when I realized what I was doing. He lifted his head and put his face in mine.
“By golly, legs, you look just like your mamma.” He breathed on me in that way he always did that tangled my good judgment into a knot.
“Folks,” the deep voice greeted. “Miss Ross?”
Deliah leapt out of my mother’s arms and ran to the door to avoid Mr. Halden.
“Mona Deliah!” Caleb shouted and scowled at his father’s presence. He jumped up and chased after Deliah.
I turned around to find Gabe’s father standing in the hallway with a hospital bassinet. His hair stood on end, and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved in days. I realized there was no one else in the waiting room except for the family. We were in a private wing.
The cart was decorated with pink hearts. “Is this her?”
“Yes, Miss Ross. She’s a girl,” he drawled. “Positively perfect.”
I leaned over the sleeping baby. “She’s tiny. She looks just like Brianna. Oh my god. How is Brianna?”
My mother stood and rubbed her hands together. “She’ll be fine, Avery. Your father has the rest of the week off, and she’s responding well to antibiotics. She’s been asking for you. What happened to your cast? What on earth did you do?” she exclaimed. “You’re filthy.”
“How did you get here?” I countered. “When are you leaving?” I wasn’t going to answer her. If I told her Gabe and Caleb wrestled me onto a pool table and held me down with a chainsaw to remove my cast, she would hyperventilate. I just wanted her to go home.
Just as Stubborn Page 23
