He still felt bad that he had let the two girls go out there alone. That’s not the way a man was supposed to act, not what his dad would have done.
‘What happened today divided our group in a way I thought nothing ever could,’ Lucas said. ‘That’s what the Weasel tried to do.’
‘I know.’ Ike looked toward the wood stove and tried to shut the Weasel’s face out of his mind.
‘Remember the Bleeds he gave us? You were late one day, and we all had to decide how the group would be punished.’
Ike stared down at his shoes. One of the laces looked loose. He tightened it until he could feel the stretch across his foot, and then he re-tied the other one for good measure.
‘You guys decided that we’d all have to get up at four thirty the next morning,’ he told Lucas. ‘Weasel thought the only way he could make us feel anything or force us to care about each other was through pain.’
‘That’s quite perceptive, Ike. And you know it’s why we had to get away from him. He tried to kill Wyatt.’
‘No, Lucas. We tried to kill Wyatt.’ Ike closed his mind and saw the fire in the cage that left those burns Wyatt – and he – still had today.
‘We were children – innocents.’ Lucas leaned forward. ‘The Weasel let it be known that the only way the camp would be shut down was if someone died. Wyatt was the smallest.’
‘The weakest,’ Ike corrected him. ‘You were the smallest.’
‘I was also younger than the rest of you.’ Lucas shot up from the chair. ‘What I know now, though, is that the Weasel can’t just run free while we’re all still cowering here.’
‘How can we stop him?’ Ike asked. ‘He’s the one with our records, the one who can tell all the things we did before and during that camp.’
‘He’d go to jail for what he did to us.’ Lucas marched back to the counter and struggled with a few shell casings. Then he walked back and stood above Ike. ‘You opened the door to the cooler for Sissy to escape last night, didn’t you?’
Ike felt sweat break out along his forehead. ‘What makes you think that?’
‘Don’t lie to me, Ike. I’m not judging, just pointing out what I know. You let her out the same way you broke Wyatt out of the Weasel’s cage that night after Jessica screamed and got all of the kids out there.’ He dropped his gaze to Ike’s gloves.
‘I’m glad they both got a second chance.’ Ike’s jumpy nerves kept him from saying more.
Just then, Katherine and Jessica came into the kitchen with Sissy between them. One of them had smoothed down Sissy’s hair and tucked it behind her ears, yet she still looked blank-faced and terrified. Katherine had pulled up her own frizzy curls into a ponytail. Jessica, as usual, had hidden most of her face with a knit cap.
‘Sissy needs a place to sleep tonight,’ Katherine told Lucas.
‘She has to bunk with the others,’ he said in a voice too sweet for Ike to believe. ‘I’ll make sure they look out for her.’
‘You’re not hearing what I’m trying to tell you.’ Katherine’s voice broke. ‘Sissy needs to be with us, Jessica and me. We need to be together.’
‘So you’re saying you’d like the same quarters?’ Lucas asked. ‘There’s the shed in back, but we can’t start repairs on it until next spring.’
‘We need a place where she’ll be safe,’ Katherine told him. ‘She isn’t herself, and once she wakes up, we’ve got to be there for her.’
‘Only one place I can think of that will meet that many demands.’ Lucas glanced over at the rug covering the basement door. ‘It’s pretty cold, but I’ll make sure you have quilts.’
‘No way.’
‘If it gets too bad, you can take breaks up here,’ he said.
‘I’m not going down there.’ Katherine seemed to shudder.
‘Sorry, then.’ Lucas shrugged. ‘I thought you wanted a place where you three women could spend the night. This isn’t a resort hotel, and as much as I’d like to help you …’ His voice trailed off.
Sissy swallowed hard, but she didn’t make a sound.
‘They can stay in my quarters,’ Ike blurted out.
‘Great idea,’ Jessica said. ‘I’ll get some quilts.’
She headed down the hall, and Lucas stepped back as if as much in shock as Sissy. Then, as if he had instantly recovered, he said, ‘Ah, yes, the noble treehouse. Are you girls up for that?’
‘It’s our best shot for tonight.’ Jessica stopped in the hall and looked back at Katherine. They both glanced at Sissy, who stared straight ahead without speaking.
‘You’re right,’ Katherine told Jessica. ‘Ike, can we really stay there?’
‘We’ll need to help Sissy up the ladder,’ he said.
‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’ Lucas asked. ‘Katherine’s limp seems to be getting worse.’
‘It will be fine,’ she said. ‘I just put too much pressure on it when we were looking for Sissy this morning.’
‘And if this one should walk in her sleep or even attempt to jump …’
Sissy jerked around and glared at him. Katherine put her arm through Sissy’s and squeezed her hand.
‘She wouldn’t do that,’ Katherine said. ‘Besides, she’s exhausted, and the sooner we get her up there, the better. Jessica and I already decided to take turns sleeping.’
‘Is that all right with you, Sissy?’ Lucas moved closer and lowered his voice. ‘Will you feel safe enough to spend the night in Ike’s quarters with these two girls?’
She drew back against Katherine.
‘Considering where she spent last night, I’m sure she’s just fine with this arrangement,’ Katherine snapped back.
That wasn’t smart. Ike would have to look out for Katherine now too. Lucas never forgot an insult.
‘Thanks for supporting Sissy,’ Lucas told her in that voice he must have pulled up from his childhood. ‘If you’ll take responsibility for her tonight, I’ll be comfortable putting her in your care.’
‘I took responsibility once I left your kitchen and went looking for her,’ Katherine said. ‘That’s not going to change.’
His cheeks grew rosy, and Ike guessed it wasn’t from the heat of the fire this time.
‘I’m going to take the girls up now,’ he said.
‘I’ll wait for you here,’ Lucas told him. ‘Oh, Katherine.’ He nodded toward the stacked towers of shells. ‘Do you like to play Jenga?’
‘Not really. Besides, I need to get Sissy out of here and to bed.’
Ike stared at her and thought, Shut up, Katherine.
Lucas turned to study her as well. ‘Just out of curiosity, what do you have against the game?’
‘It’s all right for kids,’ she said, ‘but before you make the first move, you know you’ll destroy whatever you build. How stupid is that?’
‘As stupid as life, maybe?’ He walked over and extracted a shell from near the bottom. ‘You can also look at it as extending life.’
‘Or playing God.’ She shot Ike a look that said they needed to get going. ‘Come on, Sissy,’ she said.
Ike felt bad for Sissy. More than cold, more than tired, she looked as if she were disappearing little by little, as if she needed to distance herself from them, from life, any way she could.
Ike knew that feeling. He had left it behind at the Weasel’s camp. He hated that it had followed them here and tried to take Sissy. He wouldn’t let it, though. He and Katherine – Jessica too – they would help bring Sissy back to them.
Just to give Lucas a little reminder that he shouldn’t push Katherine around, Ike walked up to him at the counter, pulled himself into his tallest self, and looked down. ‘I’ll be back as soon as they’re settled,’ he said.
Lucas glanced up at Ike and then down at his own boots. ‘Do that,’ he said. ‘I think we have some cookies around here somewhere.’
Helping Katherine and Sissy up the ladder was a slow process. Ike went first with the two girls, and Jessica followed behind in case anyone slipped. He
couldn’t help thinking about how his granny would be praying for him if he told her he had three women in his bed. Only his bed was a sleeping-bag-covered floor in a carpeted treehouse. And not one of these women belonged to him. He could protect them, though. And he would.
He made sure they were as safe as they could be. If Sissy didn’t get better by tomorrow, they would have to consider other options. Ike was the only one who knew that Lucas hid the one working phone in the foil-covered box in the basement. If worse came to worst, he’d liberate that phone and get help for Sissy.
He set up his tent below again and made it ready for another night in the uncertain weather. In spite of the dropping temperature, Ike felt he had given these women their best chances, if only for one night.
Katherine sat on his sleeping bag next to Jessica, both of them with blankets covering their laps, both of them wide awake. Actually, the thing was big enough for an elephant or two. Ike had always liked plenty of room. Sissy curled up on the smaller bag beside them, two quilts over her, sleeping soundly, as she had the moment she had settled into the nest of covers.
‘Please don’t go far,’ Katherine said, as if sensing what he was about to do.
‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
‘Please,’ she said. ‘You know what he did to Sissy last night. I don’t want to be up here alone with no way of getting help.’
‘I understand, but I have to go talk to him now. I promised I’d be back.’
He left them, hurried down the ladder, and went into the house. Lucas would try to distract him with a cookie, maybe part of a leftover enchilada that he’d hidden from them somewhere, but, regardless of how hungry he was, Ike wasn’t about to act like some slobbering idiot. Once he realized Lucas was giving the stolen roses off that cake to Jessica, he didn’t care if he ever again ate the sweets they brought into this place.
When he walked into the house, he smelled the sugary scent of coconut. His favorite. He wondered if Lucas, in all of his spying ways, had somehow found out about the coconut cream pies Ike’s granny made every summer. No, that was impossible even for Lucas, wasn’t it? Still, Ike wasn’t going to touch whatever treat had filled the room with its scent.
Lucas had set an open box on the tile counter beside his Jenga game.
He turned when Ike walked in. ‘You must be feeling pretty good about yourself,’ he said. ‘About those girls, I mean.’
‘It’s the best I could offer them, and I need to get back.’
‘I’m sure they’re sleeping safely.’ He grinned. ‘It’s kind of you, although we all know Sissy needs more help than anyone can give her.’
‘She might be OK,’ Ike said.
‘Time will tell. Want a cookie? Wyatt liberated them from an elementary school in town.’
Wyatt hated liberating things, so that was probably another test, another video for the files. Still, Ike’s mouth watered. ‘Maybe later,’ he said.
‘That makes more for me.’ Lucas took one from the box and bit into it. ‘Almond Joy bars. They’re good.’
‘I need to go now.’ Ike reminded himself that they were only cookies, as meaningless as the Jenga game.
‘You’ll feel better now that you’ve helped Sissy – knowing it was your fault she escaped and lost her mind, I mean.’
‘Don’t, Lucas,’ he said. ‘I’m tired, and I’m not looking forward to sleeping in that fucking tent again.’
Lucas flinched at the word. ‘Your choice. Sit down, please.’ He patted the battered hassock. ‘We need to figure out how we’re going to get the Weasel.’
‘Let’s discuss it tomorrow,’ Ike said.
‘I asked you to sit down.’ Ike nodded toward the hassock. ‘We need to make some decisions now that Sissy is in such a bad place. The Weasel needs to be punished, and you and I need to figure out how right now.’
‘We can figure out anything you like,’ Ike said, ‘after I’m sure the girls are safe.’
‘Got it.’ Lucas headed to the kitchen sink and the bullet game again. Ike followed.
‘Glad to hear that,’ he said, ‘because this is how it is, Lucas.’
‘I’m impressed.’ He glanced over his shoulder with that smile that seemed both innocent and sneaky. ‘And do tell me how it is, Ike.’
‘Let’s start with this.’ Ike walked up to him and stepped about a foot away. ‘That ragged piece of shit you call a hassock is too small for someone my size.’
‘Indeed?’ Lucas frowned at the threadbare thing.
‘Try it sometime,’ Ike said. ‘I’ll never sit on it again. I’m never driving blindfolded again either, and I’m never going to help burn up some poor old lady’s house just because you don’t like her.’
‘Got it.’ Lucas lapsed into Weasel speak once more. ‘We do need to make a plan, friend. When might that happen?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Ike breathed in the freshest air he could remember. ‘Right now, I need to check on the girls, and you need to stop talking to me like I’m an idiot.’
‘Whatever floats your boat, my friend.’ He said it in the same tone the Weasel had, the same way, word for word, with the same bland smile. His idea of a joke.
Ike didn’t bother responding.
TWENTY-THREE
Kit woke up terrified. She had to get out of here. Ike’s quiet, glowing heater had warmed their small space. For a moment, she was grateful for that alone. Heat. She glanced over at Jessica, still asleep, her hair smashed to her head. At that angle, she resembled Richard. Kit turned toward Sissy, who seemed too tiny and too vulnerable on her sleeping bag.
She had almost gotten Jessica to leave with her yesterday, but the girl was still too tied to this place or just too afraid to return home. Once she and Jessica had talked out there on the road, Kit realized that John Paul was right. Kit had come here to try to reunite Jessica with her mother and with Richard. If Jessica had told her the truth, Sarah didn’t deserve her. That would mean all this was for nothing. But maybe not. Richard did want Jessica; he wanted a family as much as – maybe more than – he wanted Kit.
And she cared about these kids now – Jessica and Ike especially. Whatever they did after here was up to them. But one way or another, she had to help them break free of Lucas.
She tried to sit up quietly, but Jessica stirred and sat as well. Heads propped against the back wall, they said nothing for a moment.
Finally, Kit whispered, ‘She looks better.’
‘She couldn’t have looked any worse,’ Jessica whispered back, ‘unless she was dead.’
‘We’ve got to get her out of here, to a hospital.’
‘How?’ Jessica asked. She reached around beside her, found her cap, and pulled it over her head. ‘Lucas has videos of all of us breaking the law. I told you that.’
‘Don’t you have any of him?’ Kit asked.
She shook her head on the pillows she had propped against the wall. ‘Lucas never breaks the law. He doesn’t smoke, drink, or swear.’
‘Yet he did that.’ Kit nodded toward Sissy’s twisted body. ‘She can’t stay conscious. If we get her out of here, we might save her life, and we can expose Lucas.’
‘We can’t prove he had anything to do with it. Besides, we’d expose ourselves too.’
‘Are the lives we left behind worse than what’s going on right here?’ Kit asked. ‘Because maybe there’s someone – an old friend or family member – who can help us.’
‘Not my family member.’ Jessica pulled the fake patchwork quilt up to her chin. ‘The woman wanted me dead.’
‘Your mother?’ Again, Kit tried to remember Sarah at the farmers’ market and the way she had seemed to care about her daughter. It had all been a lie.
Jessica nodded. ‘She sent me to that camp knowing I didn’t need to be there. And only so she could get the money and keep her new boyfriend from hitting on me any time he felt like it.’
‘That can’t be right,’ Kit said. ‘The doctor would have screened you out at some point when he fou
nd that you weren’t like the others.’
‘He was happy to have me.’ She sank down into the sleeping bag. ‘That was the big secret. I wasn’t emotionally disturbed, or whatever they called it, like the rest of them. I was just screwed-up because my mother wanted to get rid of me. Remember, the shrink had gotten a grant for this study. He had no time to decide how crazy I was.’
‘Weaver let you in that camp without any medical records?’
Jessica pulled back as if she had been struck. ‘What did you just call him?’
Heat flooded Kit’s face, and she realized this was the first time she had spoken his name.
‘Isn’t he the guy on the dartboard?’ she asked.
Jessica squinted at Kit in the early light as if trying to see what she was hiding.
‘You know he is.’
Kit scrambled for an answer. ‘Well, his name is right there. Doctor Weaver. Can’t remember the first name.’
‘Yes, his name is there.’ Jessica didn’t seem convinced. ‘In very small type. We always call him the Weasel.’
‘I can see why you named him that. He does have that ferret vibe going on.’
Jessica’s smile was guarded.
‘And he let you in without seeing your records?’
‘I didn’t have records,’ she said. ‘I had nothing but a dead father, an uncle who wanted nothing to do with me, and that woman I refuse to call my mother. She sent me to get rid of me and to get whatever kind of stipend she could.’
Kit wanted to tell Jessica that her uncle did want her and always had, but she couldn’t, not now. ‘You must have told the Weasel that you didn’t belong there,’ she said. ‘You did, didn’t you?’
She shook her head.
‘But why?’
‘Because, in a way, I felt that I did belong there. It might have been the first time I’d ever belonged anywhere.’
Kit knew she was telling the truth, and she suddenly understood the reason Sarah had been so hesitant when Richard asked Kit to find Jessica. Sarah didn’t want Jessica found, and she never had.
‘But Lucas can’t be any better. He’s a monster.’
‘I hadn’t counted on that.’ Jessica spoke softly, even though no one but Sissy could hear them, and she still slept fitfully. ‘He was so young before, so smart. He had this great idea and, after his dad died, the money to pull it off.’
Goodbye Forever Page 18
