She jabbed the pitchfork at him, but he dodged. Also, she wasn't entirely sure she could stab a human being with a pitchfork, even a sorry excuse for a man like Earl.
Lorraine picked that moment to come out from behind the other side of the barn, heading for the house, but she couldn't move very fast, and Earl darted over and caught up with her easily. Ruby headed for them at a run.
"I warned you about coming here, didn't I? Why do you have to make me hurt you?" His voice was almost tender, not at all matching the enraged expression on his face. He drew his fist back and Ruby saw it all, almost in slow motion, as she kept running.
She hadn't slowed down one bit when she slammed the tines of her pitchfork into Earl's back. The jolt traveled up her arm and made her stumble, and Ruby fell to her knees, her ears and mind and head filled with Earl's screams and Lorraine's cries and the pain in the ankle Ruby had twisted as she fell.
And it had all been for nothing, because when she looked up at them it was only to see Earl punch Lorraine in the face and Lorraine falling backward and down, her eyes already closing.
Ruby screamed out her anguish and tried to get back up to reach for the pitchfork Earl had yanked out and thrown to the ground, he was all bloody, but the last thing she saw was his boot coming for her face, so she turned her head and it caught the side of her skull like an explosion and the world went black.
After that, the next thing she knew was waking up to Mike screaming her name.
* * *
Aunt Ruby looked up, blinking rapidly as if she were coming out of a trance, and then she looked around at us and took a deep breath.
"Some water, please?"
I jumped up and ran to get her a bottle of cold water, passing Lorraine, who I hadn't realized had woken up and been standing in the doorway. When I got back, I hugged my badass, warrior-woman aunt. "I'm so proud of you."
"And of you too, Lorraine," I said. "What courage it must have taken to leave him."
Lorraine shook her head in dismissal. "All these years. All these years I thought Earl might come back any day to torment me. And Beau is myfriend. I even thought he might be sweet on me, once. How could he do that to me?"
Jack stood and gently ushered Lorraine to a chair. "With respect, if we could move past the emotions of the incident for a moment, let's look at the facts. The last time either of you saw him, ladies, he was definitely alive."
"Yes." Ruby nodded, but her lips were quivering. "But I really stabbed him with that pitchfork. Maybe he bled to death on the way home, and I'm actually a murderer."
"Not unless you forgot to mention that you shot him in the back of the head after he knocked you out," Uncle Mike said, smiling a little. "You're my hero, do you know that?"
Jack's gaze snapped to Uncle Mike. "Speaking of heroes, I can't imagine that you'd passively accept someone harming your wife. What happened when you got home?"
"Damn right I wouldn't," Uncle Mike said evenly, his eyes pale blue ice. "When I got home, maybe twenty minutes later, it looked like there had been a war in my yard. Eleanor had smashed her car into the tree—"
"Wait. What? When did Eleanor show up?" I looked at Aunt Ruby. "You didn't mention Eleanor."
Jack, who'd been petting Lou, suddenly put her down on the back of the couch. "Evie."
"What?"
"Remember what Molly's fan said? 'And ask your other friend in the back room about the car accident. It's important.'"
My mouth fell open. "Oh, my gosh! She did. What—how? Wait, how is it important?"
Uncle Mike gave me an impatient look. "What in tarnation are you talking about?"
"A possibly psychic part-Fae groupie of Molly's told us to ask Eleanor about the car accident. We ignored her, but now I'm wondering. Was there anything about the accident that was important?"
Uncle Mike shrugged. "Not related to this. Eleanor said she was worried about Lorraine when she didn't show up at Beau's and wasn't at home, so she came out to our place to find her. She lost control of that old Buick of her dad's and hit the tree."
"She kept crying and wasn't very coherent, but we just figured it was from being sixteen and being in her first car accident. She was still unconscious in the front seat when Mike got home."
"Yes," Uncle Mike said dryly. "I came home to three unconscious women. My wife and her best friend on the ground and Eleanor in the car. I was really glad a friend was with me in the truck so at least I'd have an alibi witness."
"I doubt you were that calm at the time," Jack said. "I would have been in a killing rage."
"And I was, young man, if that's what you're asking," Uncle Mike snapped.
