Rage flashes in Ladonna’s eyes, and she glares at my stepmother. “I guess my boys are right. You really are a motherfucker.” To my surprise—and low-key amazement—Ladonna rears back her hand and slaps my stepmother across the face. “Shame on you.”
“Are you proud now?” my father barks at me. “Your stepmother just got slapped in the face, all because you’re a goddamn queer.”
“You don’t get to talk to him,” Bubba growls, but I shake my head, because even with as scary as it is, maybe we need to finally have this discussion. Maybe I need to air out some of my hurt. Maybe in doing so, I can heal the ache that’s festered in my heart.
I stare into Bubba’s eyes, because I know he can make things better. “He killed my mom,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “I think I repressed it, but he did it. He stabbed her and said she slipped.”
Bubba’s eyes widen with rage. “I’ll kill him.”
I think he’s waiting for me to argue, but I’m not arguing. “Please,” I whisper. “Please, Bubba?”
He nods, and then he looks over at Johnny. “We doing this?”
Johnny stares at Pete. “Wood chipper?”
“It still works,” Pete says.
Dad starts hollering, suddenly begging forgiveness, and my stepmother looks horrified.
“Just him, though, right? I’m just an innocent bystander in all this,” she pleads.
Dad glares at her. “Innocent bystander? It was your fuckin’ knife! It was your idea.”
My heart drops, and I can’t bear to look at them, so I hide my face in his neck. “Daddy. Please?”
“I’ll handle it,” Pete says. “Ain’t the first time I’ve had to use it for this. Miss Earline kidnapped Maybelline a couple of years ago, and she tried to use my girl as a human sacrifice. I threw her through face-first.”
“Jesus,” Bubba says.
“Feet first for his Daddy,” Johnny says, putting his hand on my back. “Let the motherfucker feel it.”
Pete guides them both around the house, and Bubba covers my ears, kissing my face all over to distract me from the momentary screams. When it’s done and tears are pouring down my cheeks, I cup his face. “Where were you? I waited.”
He continues kissing my face like he’s scared it’ll disappear if he doesn’t. “That’s a long story,” Bubba says. He’s got an arm around my waist, and he pulls me even closer against him. “It seems you landed yourself a stalker, baby. I can’t say I blame the guy, because look at you, but I didn’t like the way he was behaving. He had a shrine dedicated to you and everything.”
I blink at him. His words are idiotic. I look at Johnny. “Translate.”
Johnny snickers. “After we saw Mom and Pete take you, we tried to get to Dunsberry, but it was raining really bad. Apparently ClitMasterHarold didn’t take to being blocked too well. He was looking for you, but he found us after we crashed, and he kept us in his house. I’m sorry, baby. I wasn’t well enough to escape at first. I had to be sure we could get to you safely. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I sniffle. “That’s the stupidest third-act breakup I’ve ever witnessed.”
He kisses me again. “I know, but it’s like that book I told you about, remember? It doesn’t have to make sense, it’s Murder Daddy.”
“I still don’t know what that means. What did you do to the Hare-bear?”
Johnny blushes. “He tried to stab Bubba when we escaped. No one touches Bubba.”
My eyes widen. “Did you kill him?”
He shakes his head. “I tied his ass up, and I carved the word ‘Pedo’ across his forehead with a hunting knife. We found out some disturbing shit about him while we were there, and I felt like the world needed to know so no one would bring their kids around him. Ofcourse, we brought him with us and dropped him off on the streets of Chicago, completely naked, forehead still bleeding, so who knows what happened to him in the end.”
“He’s probably dead in a ditch,” Bubba agrees.
I shrug. “Too bad, so sad for him, I guess.”
Johnny swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Will you tell us now?”
“Huh?”
