“You gon’ whoop my ass?” His smile widened.
His father laughed, like real belly laughter, which caused Emilia and Thibideux to snicker. “Boy, you done got all swole and think ya can take ya ol’ man on, huh? You been gone a good while, so you don’t know but let me tell ya, I still whoop ass like it was my calling. You done had ya moment, nowI’mtelling ya, this hea our home now and I don’t reckon we leavin’ any time soon.”
“Nobody come save ya this time, lil’ Luc. Keep on and we’ll mourn ya when you dead yeah…maybe,” Thibideux said as he squared up.
Stormy’s heart was pounding a mile a minute, her body so tense that her breaths came quick and shallow. She forced herself to yawn, a natural relaxant which moved oxygen deep into her lungs, and exhaled slowly, deciding to appeal to whatever sense of decency remained in Lucas’s parents. “Don’t make him do this; you finally have a chance to do something right for him, leave and let Merlee come home, it’s the least you—”
The slap was swift and hard.
Stormy stumbled back and it took a few seconds for her to comprehend that Lucas’s father had hit her, and a few seconds more to accept that there wasn’t going to be a nonviolent end to this day.
Pressing the tranquilizer gun against her thigh, she reached out with her other hand, pressing it against Lucas’s chest, ready to tell him that she was okay, to beg for him not to lose himself, to stay here—
“He hit you.”
“Somebody gets out of line with me, I snap ’em back in, longstanding rule that don’t go away just ’cause you did, boy,” his father said. “Now, unless you wanna get whooped on worse than the last time, I suggest you take this black bitch and run away like you did with the first one who took you.”
“Couldn’t run. Leg was broke in two places,” Lucas said as he reached up and cupped Stormy’s stinging cheek. He caressed it with his thumb.
His hand was so cold…
“I’m okay, Lucas,” she whispered.
“If I’da done a right and good job I’da broke ya lousy neck,” his father taunted.
“It could’ve ended all right if he hadn’t touched you.” Lucas’s voice was flat, empty. It hurt her heart to lose him this way. “It could have ended…”
She knew the rage was clawing itself free, filling the void that Lucas was falling into.
His hand fell to the side and she reached for it, held it tight, praying the physical connection would anchor him, but he was so cold. She rubbed his hands between hers as if he was going into shock.
“Women can’t be left to pick up the pieces,” Lucas said. “We take this outside, see who wins the right to stay.”
His father’s smile turned greedy as he passed them and went to the back door. Shouting into the storm as he stepped out, Thibideux trailing behind him like a trained animal.
“Look at mabon bebe, big and strong, still fighting ova his Belle Mère. I knew ya’d end up a better man thanton pere,lil’Luc, I just wish I coulda been there to watch as you grew into your manhood,” Lucas’s mother said as she walked to the back door, loud enough for her husband to hear.
It was all a manipulation to stoke Julian’s anger, and it seemed to be working.
The woman was vile.
“Use the weapon, Stormy,” Lucas said before following his mother out of the house, his voice barely human. “Even on me. Especially on me. Don’t want to hurt you. Don’t let me live knowing I did.”
She shook her head. She wouldn’t shoot him.
“Please.”
The agony in his voice forced her to concede. She was going to lose him. With all her training, there was nothing she could do to stop it. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she wouldn’t let them fall. He didn’t need to worry about her, he needed to worry about staying alive.
Lifting the strap of her bag off her shoulder, she brought it over her head and placed it diagonally across her chest so she didn’t have to worry about it falling. She helped Lucas remove his shirt and placed it inside the bag, pushing it deep so it wouldn’t obstruct her access to the tranq gun.
“Okay,” she breathed out. “Let him loose. And when you’re done, me, you, and Bubba, we’re going to start a whole new adventure, all right?”
His gaze was empty as he looked at her, not recognizing who she was or even what she was to him.
He turned and stepped out into the elements. Heavy rainfall obscured Stormy’s vision, making Lucas no more than a dark shadow stalking the more distant forms of his father and brother. Stormy walked into the storm, unaffected by the torrential rain soaking her skin, the mud sucking at her feet as she struggled to move forward.
“Lose the gun, boy,” Lucas’s father called out.
