Break in the Storm (WeHo Book 2)

by Sherryl Hancock

  Xandy, having caught the shake of Quinn’s head, turned to look around the house. Quinn, noticing Sarah’s confusion at the silent conversation, had to hide her grin behind her hand.

  “Where’s Erin?” Xandy asked, looking around for signs of her eldest cousin.

  As if Xandy had just insulted her, Sarah’s eyes flashed in quick anger. “She’s not here.”

  Quinn’s eyebrows shot up as she looked over at Xandy, there was obviously something going on there.

  “Oh,” Xandy said, nodding, as if she hadn’t even heard the tone in her aunt’s voice. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to see her later,” she added moving into the room.

  In truth Xandy was dying to get away from her very hostile aunt. Sarah had once been a very happy person; Xandy remembered back to her childhood when life and a cheating husband hadn’t beaten her aunt down. Now it just seemed that Sarah was bitter and angry at everyone. Part of her wanted to ask her aunt exactly why she’d wanted to see her, but she knew that would only anger her aunt more. It was obvious Quinn didn’t want her to get into a confrontation with her aunt, so she was doing her best to keep things light, hoping they could get out of there quickly.

  Sarah put Elly down, and moved to sit down. Elly immediately walked over to Quinn, staring up at her in what appeared to be awe. Quinn knelt down, putting herself closer to the child’s level. It was obvious Elly was surprised by this action as her big blue eyes, widened dramatically.

  Xandy moved to sit down in the chair across from her aunt and nearest to Quinn. Quinn turned her head to look at Xandy, and suddenly felt a tiny finger on her neck. Elly was touching the tattoo on Quinn’s neck, her eyes blinking as she rubbed her finger across it then looked at her finger. It seemed like she expected the ink to come off.

  “It doesn’t come off, little one,” Quinn said softly, her accent clear.

  Elly’s eyes went to Quinn’s face again with the sound of her accent.

  “Sound funny,” Elly said, her tiny little voice the only sound in the room.

  Quinn chuckled softly. “I hear that a lot.”

  Elly nodded, as if confirming that Quinn should hear that a lot. Quinn laughed, her laughter rich and causing Elly to smile brightly again. Elly’s reaction made Xandy wonder if she heard laughter very often from the adults in her life, it made her a bit sad to think probably not.

  “She’s not used to people with them tattoos all over ’em,” Sarah said, her tone snide and meant to be insulting.

  Quinn’s emerald eyes glanced over at Sarah, her look amused, but she said nothing. It was obvious that Sarah was doing anything she could think of to pick a fight.

  “Aunt Sarah,” Xandy began, glancing at Quinn. She knew she was giving into Sarah’s tactics, but she was already tired of the palpable animosity in the room and wanted to get away from it. “Was there a reason you wanted to see me?”

  Sarah looked over at Xandy, surprised, then a mask of condescension descended on Sarah’s face. Quinn knew that Xandy had just walked right into the woman’s trap.

  “That’s what family does, Xandy Blue Hayes,” Sarah said, her tone preachy. “They don’t just come to town and not see their relatives.”

  Xandy’s face reflected her annoyance at being talked to like she was a recalcitrant child. She glanced down at Quinn as she felt Quinn’s hand giving her leg a reassuring squeeze. Sarah watched the exchange, clearly not liking what she was seeing. Xandy responded by giving her aunt a wintry smile. “Well, with this lovely reception, why wouldn’t I want to come see you?” Xandy asked, her tone wry.

  “Cousin Xandy!” Bobby exclaimed, walking into the middle of the tableau without even realizing it.

  He walked toward Xandy, a toy car in his hand.

  “This is my new car!” he said, shoving the toy at her.

  “That’s really cool,” Xandy said, happy for the distraction, “what kind of car is that?”

  “Guess!” Bobby challenged as he grinned, looking confident.

  Xandy contemplated the car for a few long moments, her eyes skipped to Quinn who was grinning.

  Bobby caught the look and looked at Quinn.

  “Can you guess?” Bobby asked Quinn, his look still cheeky.

  “I can,” Quinn said, inclining her head.

  “What is it?” Bobby asked smugly, sure that this girl wouldn’t know.

  “It’s a nineteen seventy-five Chevy Camaro,” Quinn told him. “The first of the Camaros to have a catalytic converter installed.”

  Bobby looked stunned. “How…” he stammered, “how’d you know?”

  Quinn grinned, glancing at Xandy. “I kinda like cars. I drive a sixty-nine Mach one. Do you know what that is?”

  Bobby thought about it for a long minute. “It’s a Mustang, right?”

  Quinn smiled nodding. “Very good.”

  “What’s it look like?” Bobby asked.

  By this time, Elly had moved to sit down, her hand on Quinn’s leg, still looking up at this person with the strange voice. Quinn reached into her back pocket pulling out her phone and pulling up a picture of her Mach and handing the phone to Bobby.

  “Cool!” Bobby exclaimed, turning to show his mother the picture. “Look Mom, isn’t that the coolest car you’ve ever seen?”

  Sarah tried not to be affected by her son’s excitement, but she had to smile. This Quinn definitely had been a hit with her kids, and it bugged her no end.

  “Yes, it’s a lovely car,” Sarah said mildly, her eyes on her niece.

  Quinn raised an eyebrow at the term “lovely.” Her phone chose that moment to ring in Bobby’s hands.

  It was extremely ironic; Quinn had recently been cajoled into changing her ringtone from Queensryche’s “Walk in the Shadows” to Disturbed’s “The Vengeful One,” since that’s what she’d become famous for on YouTube.

  The lyrics that talked about being the hand of God rang out clearly in the room. Bobby turned as Quinn stood and handed her the phone. Quinn excused herself and walked toward the back door of the house as she answered the call.

  Sarah looked aghast by the lyrics, her eyes following Quinn out the door, then she wheeled to look back at Xandy.

  “What is wrong with you?!” Sarah practically spat.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” Xandy said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

  Sarah put her hand to her throat as if Xandy was choking her physically, as she gasped, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vein in front of my children!”

  Xandy looked back at her aunt, surprised that she’d managed to forget just how crazy her aunt really was with the religious rhetoric. Xandy’s immediate family had been Christians, but they’d never been crazed about it, not like her Aunt’s family. They attended church and prayed at meals, but that had been most of it. They had never judged people, not like her aunt had begun to after her life had turned so bad.

  “Your parents would be ashamed of you,” Sarah said, even as she watched her daughter get up from the floor and walked to the back door, standing at the window watching Quinn through it.

  Xandy could hear Elly saying, “Kin, Kin…” over and over, like a chant that would bring Quinn back into the house.

  Bobby had sat down and was playing with his car. It looked to Xandy like he was purposely ignoring the exchange, and it was obvious to her that he had heard his mother act like this before.

  Xandy’s eyes touched on both of Sarah’s children pointedly, the look on her face holding the irony she was feeling. Neither child seemed affected by anything, other than Quinn’s absence in Elly’s case. Then she looked back at her aunt, shaking her head.

  “You don’t care?” Sarah exclaimed, looking shocked again, she’d really expected that barb to find its home.

  Xandy looked back at her aunt for a long moment, indicating her disbelief that her aunt was actually pursuing the subject.

  “My parents would be happy that I’m happy, Aunt Sarah, like you should be.”

  “I can’t condone that abominati
on!” Sarah said, gesturing toward the backyard.

  “You’re calling Quinn an abomination?” Xandy asked, moving to stand in her need to exert her defiance of such an accusation.

  “I’m saying all of this,” Sarah said, moving to stand as well, her gesture taking in the space where Quinn had been and where Xandy stood. “This relationship you’re so proud of that is all over the news… besmirching our good name… flaunting such an abhorrent sin!”

  “Okay, yeah, I’ve heard enough,” Xandy said, moving to walk toward the backyard.

  Walking out into the backyard she saw that Quinn was leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette, an ashtray on a small table next to her. She had music playing on her phone and was singing to the song that was on.

  Sarah had followed Xandy into the backyard and once again gasped in shock.

  “I don’t allow smoking around my children!” she exclaimed, outright hostile at Quinn now.

  Quinn raised her head, lifting her cigarette to her lips and taking a long drag as she looked around her, and then back to Sarah.

  “That’s why I’m doing it in the yard, where your children aren’t,” Quinn said mildly. Then she looked around, her eyes pointedly settling on the cigarette butts all over the ground in various areas. “It doesn’t look like I’m the first to smoke out here.”

  Sarah’s eyes flared in anger at what she considered an accusation. “This is my house! And no matter how you were obviously raised, you will respect my wishes in my house!”

  Quinn looked back at the woman as if she were insane, taking yet another drag on her cigarette, her look considering through the smoke she blew out a couple of moments later. Her emerald-green eyes glanced around her again, then clenching her cigarette between her teeth she spread her hands.

  “Technically, I’m not in the house,” Quinn said, raising an eyebrow at the woman, an amused grin on her lips. “However…” she said, taking one last drag on the cigarette and then stubbing it out pointedly in the ashtray, her eyes on the butts on the ground again. Then she turned back to look at Sarah as she put a booted foot up on the wall behind her, crossing her arms in front of her chest as if to ask, are you happy now?

  Sarah’s eyes fell on the cell phone lying on the table, still playing rock music. “I don’t allow my children to listen to that Satan worship either!”

  Quinn’s eyes touched on Xandy’s for a moment, then they trailed around the yard again, the yard still devoid of said children. Then she reached down and turned the music pointedly off without a word.

  “You obviously don’t respect anything or anyone!” Sarah railed, her voice strident in her need to assert herself in the face of Quinn’s calm acceptance of every edict she made.

  Quinn simply looked back at the woman with her lips pursed slightly, then she looked at Xandy.

  “You ready to go, babe?” Quinn asked Xandy.

  “Definitely!” Xandy said, relief clear in her voice.

  After a very unhappy Elly was pulled away from Quinn’s leg, Xandy and Quinn made their exit. Quinn flipped Bobby a quick wave, but it was obvious the boy was afraid to make an exhibition of himself like his little sister was, even though he looked extremely unhappy too that Quinn and Xandy were leaving. Sarah stood at the door watching them leave and doing her best to quell Elly’s cries.

  On the way back to the hotel, Xandy looked over at Quinn. “I’m so sorry!” she said, shaking her head.

  Quinn smiled mildly. “For what, babe?”

  “For that, for having to put up with my aunt’s bullshit.”

  Quinn chuckled. “Babe, she’s not the first Bible-banger I’ve dealt with in my time.”

  Xandy looked over at her. “But how do you keep from losing your temper with them?”

  Quinn shrugged. “Nothing I’m gonna say is going to change how they think, so why bother?”

  “I can’t believe she acted like that.”

  “She seems like she’s very unhappy, babe.”

  “Well, that’s no excuse,” Xandy said angrily, “she’s got no right to treat you like that.”

  Quinn grinned, shaking her head.

  “What?” Xandy asked, seeing that Quinn didn’t see it the way she did.

  “Babe, she’s afraid for you,” Quinn told her.

  “Afraid for me?”

  “She thinks that you’re doing something that’s wrong, and she probably thinks I’m the one that led you down this path. That’s why she’s leveling all that hate at my head.”

  Xandy folded her arms in front of her chest. “Well, it’s not okay, and I’m done.”

  Quinn grimaced, shaking her head again. “You can’t do that babe.”

  “What do you mean?” Xandy asked, trying to understand, but afraid she was never going to catch up in this conversation.

  Xandy had expected Quinn to be furious with her aunt for the way she’d acted and she’d fully expected Quinn to take it out on her since Sarah was her family member. But Quinn wasn’t acting angry in the slightest and now she was saying that Xandy couldn’t cut Sarah off?

  “I mean,” Quinn said, reaching over to touch Xandy’s hand, “that she’s the only family you have, her and your cousins.”

  Xandy shook her head, not willing to accept that answer. Quinn glanced over at the younger girl, her look searching.

  “Babe,” Quinn said, her tone beseeching, “you can’t expect her to change her mind about something she’s probably believed for decades now. Certainly not in the span of an hour.”

  Xandy looked back at Quinn, her look defiant, but after a few moments she blew her breath out, looking defeated. She gave Quinn a mocking annoyed look. “You know, you could at least try to act like an asshole sometimes.”

  Quinn grinned, then chuckled. “I’ll work on that.”

  “Good,” Xandy said, as the first splats of rain hit the windshield.

  Clouds had been gathering in the area that day. There were thunderstorms predicted for that evening. As they made the twenty-eight mile drive back to Wichita, the rain began in earnest. They were relieved to be out of it when they pulled into the garage of the hotel.

  They had dinner in the room that evening and watched the lightning light up the sky. Later they watched a movie and when Xandy got tired, Quinn took her in to bed.

  “You’re not coming to bed?” Xandy asked sleepily.

  “I got some things I need to do to help Mackie out with security for the show,” Quinn said, leaning down to kiss Xandy softly on the lips. “I’ll be in soon.”

  “Okay,” Xandy murmured tiredly, reminding Quinn of little Elly.

  A couple of hours later, Quinn was working on her laptop, listening absently to the news that played on the TV when a Breaking News story was announced.

  “An F four tornado has just touched down in Harvey County. The tornado touched down in Halstead and traveled east, before veering northward into Newton...”

  The reporter continued, but Quinn was out of her chair in a flash, striding into the bedroom.

  “Xandy, we gotta go,” Quinn announced as she turned on the light.

  “What?” Xandy, groggy, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

  “We have to go, babe, get up and throw on some clothes, make sure you wear closed-toe shoes,” Quinn said, reaching into her duffel to pull out her leather jacket, and her knife before grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom. Emptying out her duffel she started shoving in things like towels and blankets, as well as the gear, including her gun.

  “What’s happening?” Xandy asked, even as she did what Quinn had told her.

  Quinn stopped packing the bag, and looked over at Xandy. “Newton just got hit by an F four.”

  Xandy paled instantly. Newton was the town her Aunt lived in.

  “Oh my God…” Xandy whispered.

  “I know, babe, but stay with me here okay? We need to get there.”

  Xandy swallowed convulsively, but nodded continuing to dress hurriedly.

  Ten minutes later, they we
re in the SUV speeding down the freeway. Quinn was figuring there was going to be some difficulties getting to the town, but she had every intention of getting to what was left of Xandy’s family. As it turned out, the news story must have broken really quick, as there were very few emergency vehicles in the immediate neighborhood when they arrived. Quinn imagined many had gone to Halstead to start with since that had been where tornado had originally touched down.

  She was stunned by the devastation before her. The neighborhood they’d been in earlier that day no longer existed. Quinn couldn’t see even one building standing from the road. There was so much debris in the street that Quinn parked in what was supposed to be the parking lot for the local church, but was now a pile of debris. It was a couple of blocks from the house, but she didn’t want to risk ending up with a cracked axel or flat tires.

  There were power lines down and many of them were sparking wildly. There was surprisingly little movement which only served to scare Quinn more. She hadn’t listened to the newscaster after Newton had been mentioned, so she had no idea how many people were thought to be dead. All she knew was that she needed to get to Xandy’s family. Regardless of their encounter with Xandy’s Aunt Sarah earlier in the day, they were still the only family Xandy had left. Quinn refused to even think about how hard it would be on Xandy if she lost them too.

  Getting out of the SUV she reached into the back seat to grab her duffel and her jacket. Glancing over at Xandy as she got out, she nodded her head in the direction of her aunt’s house.

  “Keep your eyes open,” Quinn told her. “Watch out for downed wires, and stay close to me.”

  Xandy nodded, looking very haunted. Quinn reached out her hand, grasping Xandy’s, then began striding toward where the house had been. As they got closer, Quinn could see some movement, and she heard a woman screaming. As they approached, Quinn could make out a woman in a white cotton nightgown pacing and crying out. It hit Quinn almost physically when she realized it was Sarah. Letting go of Xandy’s hand, Quinn literally sprinted to Sarah’s side.