She was a weird little girl who Molly avoided ever since their first meeting when the town council had gathered to discuss the healings of both Hunter and Vanessa. Catherine walked into the room and headed straight to Molly. The girl’s blue eyes held her captive.
Those blue eyes gazed up at her now. Molly spun around to regard the dismal, neutral-colored horizon. “Would you just leave me alone?”
“No. Be careful with Chase.”
Kessie stared at them. Catherine tugged on the bottom of Molly’s coat.
“What?”
“I forgive you,” Catherine said. The little girl started pawing at her, but Molly was in no mood for hugs.
“Let go of me.”
Molly moved away from the brat and followed Kessie over to where Chase stood watching the clouds. A frost worked through the air, biting flesh and brightening cheeks and noses. The clouds were rolling up dark and gray, as though they were attending a funeral.
“Chase, we can’t leave Raven,” Kessie said. “We have to rescue her.”
“I got what I came for.”
Chase’s dark eyes resembled a savage animal seeking prey. Molly was not crazy about the way they made her cringe.
“But they’ll force her into telling where we’re going.”
“It won’t matter.” He patted Kessie’s shoulder with a gloved hand. “She got caught. What can we do?”
Kessie didn’t offer any suggestions. She crossed her arms and looked back the way they’d driven in from.
Molly smiled her way into the conversation. “That’s one less mouth to feed, right? You wouldn’t have anything to eat, would you?”
The sky exploded, sending huge sparks of pain though her nose. She hit the ground at Chase’s feet.
“Say one more thing!” Kessie yelled at her, “and I swear I’ll beat you to death!”
Chase chuckled while Molly lay in the dirt, hurt and embarrassed. “Welcome to the club, Molly. You can ride in the back until you learn your place and keep that mouth of yours from getting you into trouble.” He stepped over her again. She stretched out for his ankle, but he kicked her loose and took Kessie’s hand, leading her away. “Boys, help our new member into the truck and keep her warm.”
Molly slapped the first one that touched her and stood up on her own. She climbed into the truck bed and watched Kessie, Chase, Catherine and Patrick nestling warmly inside the cab. She slumped against the rear window down to the bed as she lightly touched her nose. The five boys piled in around her. Molly glanced up into the face of the leader, who showed her his new smile, minus one tooth. Her eyes swelled with tears and all the boys laughed at her expense.
The truck engine belched dark smoke out the tailpipe and her butt quickly went numb from the frozen metal surface she was forced to ride on. Soon her entire body became one giant receptacle of pain and cold.
The boys huddled together under blankets, and it wasn’t long before she slid into their midst for whatever warmth she could gain. Molly slapped the first one that touched her.
TWENTY-FIVE
“So you broke up with her, huh?”
Hunter rested his head on his folded arms; it was a lousy substitute for a pillow. He sat at the dining room table that also doubled as a hospital bed for his immobile brother. Jimmy’s face resembled tenderized hamburger and yet, he kept up with the questions.
“Why did you have to do it today?”
“I didn’t. It was yesterday.” Hunter closed his eyes. The darkness was nice. He drifted into the solitude and smoothed out a quiet spot to lie down. Twelve hours in this dark spot would be awesome.
“When are you leaving?”
“Hmm? What?” Hunter’s eyes fluttered open. The light in the room, though dim, was horrible. He focused on Jimmy’s face and the coals of fury rekindled in Hunter’s heart. He wrapped his rage in a tight package, waiting until he found the kid that did this to his brother; then he’d deliver.
“You guys should probably get going.”
“We will as soon as Scout rounds up enough help.”
“Nobody under fourteen goes.”
“We know. Don’t worry about it. There’ll be plenty of volunteers.”
Slowly, Jimmy rolled his head over so he could look into the adjoining living room. Gauze and tape covered his various injuries, giving him the appearance of a partially wrapped mummy. Only time could heal him now.
Hunter scratched his shoulder blade and yawned. The fire in the hearth crackled as the logs shifted, filling the house with needed warmth. Ginger and Luis dozed where they’d fallen on different ends of a sofa.
Hunter followed the line of his brother’s sight. “You and Ginger, huh?”
Jimmy smiled carefully. “Yeah. Somehow Catherine knew. Now it’s as if Ginger and I were always meant to be, you know?”
Hunter gave his recent relationship with Molly an inner glance and found their final moment together displeasing. The way he’d dumped her depressed him more than he was willing to admit. He shoved a quick answer into the silence. “Not really.”
Jimmy eased his head back toward Hunter. “You and Molly didn’t feel the same way? You guys seemed pretty inseparable.”
“It wasn’t like I had a choice. That’s why I broke up with her. She was clingy, and bossy, and a pain most of the time. To be honest, the only good thing was her looks but that doesn’t replace a decent personality.”
“Better keep comments like that to yourself. I think Mark is shaken up more than anyone right now.”
“She’s seriously twisted. Why didn’t I notice that before all this happened?”
“Who isn’t twisted right now? We’re lucky to be halfway sane after everything we’ve lived through. Top that off with the plague and were lucky someone’s not burning down a different house every night.”
“Maybe it would be better if Mom and Dad were here to tell us what to do.”
Jimmy sighed. “Even without parents, no one has the right to be reckless. Everyone needs to be accountable”
“That’s asking a lot of some people.”
“Those are the ones we help.”
“How?”
Jimmy closed his eyes. “We need to learn that before it’s too late.”
Hunter leaned back, struck by a sudden ugly thought. He squinted hard at his brother. “Were we just talking about me?”
Jimmy cracked a smile through his busted lips. “Were we?”
“Damn, Jimmy, that’s not funny.”
After a chuckle rolled from Jimmy’s chest, he coughed a little blood onto his chin.
Hunter swabbed the blood away with a damp towel and gave him a sip of water. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch after we track him down.”
“Why?” Jimmy asked. “He causes pain to escape his own.”
“What are you trying to be some kind of Saint?”
“I’m just saying. So this kid beat me up. It’s over. He’s gone. I’m not dead.”
“But we’re going after him, aren’t we?”
“No,” Jimmy said, looking like a possessed raccoon with his matching set of black eyes. “You’re going after Catherine and that’s it. I don’t want you fighting that Patrick kid for me. If you have to go through him to get to Catherine, make sure you have lots of backup with you. It was all I could do to keep that guy down as long as I did.”
