wife what you did to those white women.' He grinned as Toby fought against the rope and gag. 'Only I bet I can make her like it. And when she's yelling for more, we're going to hang you.'
'I don't hold with raping no woman,' Wood said, firmly this time. Snarling, Billy T. whirled, bringing the gun up with him.
'You just shut the fuck up, then. It ain't rape, it's justice.'
'I can't stop this bleeding.'
Billy T. glanced over to where one of the men tried to staunch the wound on his brother's shoulder. 'Well then, let him bleed for a goddamn minute. Won't kill him.' He was losing them. He could feel it in the way the men were shifting their feet, shifting their eyes away from the woman who lay bleeding on the ground.
He set his gun down and unbuckled his belt. He was already hard at the idea of taking a woman by force. Once they saw how it was, what kind of man he was, they'd be behind him again.
'Somebody's coming, Billy.'
'Probably that Will. Always was a day late and a dollar short.'
He stepped over to Winnie, straddled her. He hooked a hand in the bodice of her nightgown when the car fishtailed to a halt, kicking dust as rifle fire split the air.
'I got this pointed right at your balls, Billy T.' Tucker stepped out of the car, skin twitching at the idea of having guns aimed at him. 'It's got more of a kick than I do, I guarantee.'
'This ain't your concern.' Billy T. straightened, cursing himself for setting his weapon aside. 'We come out here to do what should have been done already.'
'Yeah, burning crosses is your style. Like killing an unarmed man.' He saw the blood on Winnie's face and was sickened. 'Hitting women. It takes a lot of guts to come out here, what, six of you against one man, a woman, and a couple of kids.'
'This nigger's been killing our women.'
Tucker merely lifted a brow. 'For all I know, you've been doing it.'
'We're hanging us a killer tonight. You think you can stop us? You and your drunken brother?' He hauled Winnie up in front of him and took two backward steps to reach his gun. 'Seems to me there's six of us and two of you.'
Another set of headlights sliced the dark, and Delia's Olds cruised to a halt. Three women stepped out with rifles.
'Remind me to give them all hell later,' Tucker muttered to Dwayne. 'Looks like the odds just changed,' he said to Billy T. 'Evened up quite a bit.'
'You think we're worried about a bunch of women?'
To show her feelings about that, Delia let off a shot that plowed the earth between Wood's feet. 'Y'all know I can shoot. And these two ladies here, well, they're liable to get lucky. Caroline, you aim that Winchester at that asshole bleeding by the porch. He ain't liable to be moving around too much, so you should get a clean shot.'
Caroline swallowed, then shouldered the rifle.
'Fuck this.' Wood tossed down his gun. 'I ain't shooting at no women any more than I'd be raping one.'
'Then you might want to step out of the line of fire,' Tucker advised him. 'Looks like it's five to five.' His lips curved as he heard the siren. 'And that's about to change. Now, if I were you, Billy T., I'd set that woman down, real gentle like. Otherwise, my finger's going to slip and I'm going to blow a hole through your brother.'
'Jesus Christ, Billy, put her down.' John Thomas scrambled back against the steps.
Billy T. licked his lips. 'Maybe I'll put one through you.'
'I expect you could. But since you can't work that rifle one-handed, you'll have to put her down just the same. Then we'll take our chances.'
'Put her down, Billy,' Wood said quietly. 'The gun, too. This is crazy business here.' He turned to the others. 'This is crazy business.'
In agreement, they tossed down their guns.
'You're standing alone now,' Tucker pointed out. 'You can die alone, too. Doesn't make a damn bit of difference to me.'
In disgust, Billy T. dropped Winnie to the ground, where she began to sob and crawl toward her husband. After tossing his gun aside, he started to walk toward his car.
'I'd stand where you are,' Tucker said quietly.
'You won't shoot me in the back.'
Tucker squeezed off a round that shattered the windshield. 'The hell I wouldn't.'
'Go ahead and do it,' Cousin Lulu suggested. 'Save the taxpayers money.'
'That's enough.' Caroline wiped sweaty hands on her jeans and hurried over to Winnie. 'There's nothing to worry about now.'
'My babies.'
'I'll go to them in just a minute.' She fought the knot loose from Winnie's wrists, hoping to free her before the children saw it. But they were already racing out of the house, Jim still carrying the butcher knife stained with John Thomas's blood, and the little girl tripping over the hem of her nightgown.
'Here now.' Caroline dragged the noose over Toby's head. Her vision wavered with tears as she took the bloody knife to cut his bonds. 'You're hurt.' Her fingers came away wet as she touched his side. 'Somebody call the doctor.'
'We'll get him to the hospital.' Tucker knelt down. Burke and Carl were already reading Billy T. and the others their rights. 'What do you say, Toby? Up to a ride?'
He was holding his family, his good eye leaking tears as he gathered them close. 'Guess I could stir myself.' He tried a wan smile while Winnie wept against his chest. 'You driving?'
'You bet.'
'We'll get there fast anyway.'
'There you go. Dwayne, give me a hand here. Delia, you take the kids on down to Sweetwater. Caroline.' Tucker looked around as she stood and walked away. 'Where are you going?'
She didn't look back. 'To get a hose and put out this obscenity.'
Chapter Twenty-Six
Screams shimmied on the hot air. High pitched howls echoed, chased by shrieks of wild laughter. Colored lights flashed and blinked and whirled, turning the fallow Eustis Field into a fantasy of motion.
The carnival had come to Innocence.
People readily dug out their spare change to be caught by the Octopus, whirled by the Zipper, and scrambled by the Round-Up.
Kids went racing by, their shouts and squeals rising above the piping calliope music, their fingers sticky with cotton candy, their cheeks puffed out with corn dogs or stuffed with fried dough. Teenagers scrambled to impress one another by knocking down bottles, ringing bells, or-in the words of one daredevil-riding the Scrambler till they puked.
Many of the older set settled for bingo at a quarter a card. Others touched by gambling fever lost their paychecks trying to outsmart the Wheel of Fortune.
To anyone traveling over Old Longstreet Bridge, it would look like an ordinary summer carnival on the outskirts of an ordinary small, southern town. The lights and the echo of that calliope might bring a tug of nostalgia to the travelers as they passed by.
But for Caroline, the magic wasn't working.
'I don't know why I let you talk me into coming here.
Tucker swung his arm over her shoulders. 'Because you can't resist my fatal southern charm.'
She stopped to watch hopefuls pitching coins at glassware that could be had at any respectable yard sale for half the price. 'It doesn't seem right, with everything that's happened.'
'I don't see what a night at a carnival's going to change. Unless it's to make you smile a little.'
'Darleen's going to be buried on Tuesday.'
