When she looked up at him her eyes widened.Then she whispered, “Tannin?What the hell are you doing here?You left the swamp...”Her voice cracked.“You just up and left.”
Tannin shook his head.“You were leaving too.You told me you wanted out.You wanted to see the world beyond this place.”
Bethy scoffed.“Yeah well, plans change, don’t they?”she growled.
Finally, he noticed what she carried in her arms.Then when the small face turned to look up at him, Tannin gasped and stepped back.“Who and what the hell is this?”he whispered.
Bethy sighed hard and looked down at the child in her arms.“This is my son Micah.”She snapped her head up to glare at him.“You’ll notice I saidmyson, right?”
Tannin tore his eyes away from the child and looked at her.“He might be your son but he’s got my eyes, doesn’t he?IS he mine?”
The boy buried his head in his mother’s neck and whimpered.
Tannin reached out to Bethy and she hesitated for a moment then she reached out to take his hand.He lifted both of them to her feet and then he hauled her out of the brush.
Colt stood there in the wide path and when he saw her, his eyes widened as his gaze went from her to the child in her arms.When Micah raised his head and looked around, Colt froze at first then he looked from Micah to his brother.He noted the similarities between Tannin and the child.He slowly shook his head in confusion.
Chapter Four
Moments later, hiscousins joined them.
Leeza nodded at Bethy.“Hey girl, long time no see.”Leeza paused, then asked, “I didn’t know you had a child?”
Bethy sighed.“Nobody did, my daddy didn’t want anyone to know about Micah.I brought shame down on the family name, you know.”
Tannin shook his head.“I don’t understand.”
Bethy turned her head and stared at him.“We need to get somewhere safer than here.I finally got away from him and I’ll be damned if I’m going back.”
Colt nodded.“Then come back with us to Maudie’s place.She had a bad feeling about something happening in the north of the swamp.We came out here to see if we could find that something.”
“Yeah we did.”Rhetta smiled.“I guess we found you.Maybe that’s what she was talking about.”
Bethy held her son closer to her but she stared at Tannin, he could see that the trouble wasn’t just her or her son.
Tannin turned his head and stared at the path going north.Then he carefully scanned the rest of the area and slowly shook his head.Tannin looked back at Bethy and noted the look on her face that told him she knew much more than she was saying right now.And this fact bothered him.He motioned to her and the others to start back to Maudie’s.
