Читать книгу Home to Whiskey Creek - Brenda Novak - Страница 11

4

The house was quiet. But the lights in the kitchen and living room would’ve told anyone who really knew Milly that all was not as it should be. She never stayed up past ten o’clock and, other than on the porch, she never left a light burning when she went to bed.

Adelaide had hoped to slip into her room and put on some clothes before she disturbed Gran. She didn’t want Milly to see her looking so battered. But she heard her grandmother call out the second she returned the hide-a-key container to its place under the porch. Gran had probably been lying in bed with her hearing aids in and turned up high, praying for her safe return and listening for the door.

“Addy? That you?”

The worry in her voice upset Adelaide, made her even angrier with the man who’d thrown her down the mine shaft. She’d always live in the shadow of the past, but Gran had nothing to do with graduation night fifteen years ago. Stephen, Derek, Tom or Kevin—whichever one of them had abducted her—had no right to put Milly through the panic of finding her missing.

“Yeah, Gran, it’s me. Sorry to wake you.” Intent on getting into a pair of sweatpants, she started toward her bedroom, but her grandmother wasn’t in bed. Gran intercepted her at the hallway entrance, fully clothed, walker and all.

“Wake me?” She definitely had her hearing aids in. Addy could tell without having to look because Milly was speaking at a normal volume. “I’ve been absolutely frantic. Where’ve you been?”

She was carrying her eyeglasses, hadn’t put them on yet. Adelaide was grateful for that small reprieve, even though she knew it wouldn’t last long.

“I didn’t mean to give you a scare. I had a little...” God, Noah was right. No way could she keep this quiet. Not in Whiskey Creek. Her injuries, not to mention the timeline, refuted every excuse she could devise. “Mishap,” she finished weakly.

“What kind of mishap? What happened?” Her grandmother’s hands shook worse than Adelaide had ever noticed but, steadying herself with the walker, she managed to slip her glasses on her nose. Then she covered her mouth. “Good Lord!” she breathed through her fingers. “Who did this to you?”

Thanks to shock and righteous anger, Gran’s voice rang truer and stronger than it had in months. For a moment, Adelaide felt like the little girl who’d been so well cared for by this woman. Part of her wished she was still young enough to crawl into Gran’s lap for the love and solace she used to find there.

But Gran was almost eighty. It was Adelaide’s turn to take care of her. And she wanted to do that. Her mother certainly never would help out. She always had an excuse to be off doing whatever she pleased. “I don’t know,” she said. “Someone cut the screen on the outside door to my room and dragged me from my bed.”

Gran’s fingers, gnarled with arthritis, gripped Adelaide’s arm. “I saw that. Scared me so much I called Chief Stacy right away.”

There went Adelaide’s hopes for not involving the authorities. But, deep down, she’d known she wouldn’t be able to avoid it. “You’ve called the police?”

“Of course! Chief Stacy’s been as worried about you as I have. He started searching the minute he left here, him and the other officers.”

“All three of them?” It wasn’t a large force; it never had been.

“All three of them,” she confirmed, oblivious to Adelaide’s sarcasm. “But...how’d someone get past the door? Wasn’t it locked?”

Adelaide was embarrassed to admit she’d not only unlocked it, she’d left it open. Gran kept the house so hot she couldn’t sleep. “I needed some air,” she explained.

The skin below Gran’s throat wagged as she shook her head. “In this day and age, you can’t go to bed with your doors unlocked. Even in Whiskey Creek. I haven’t done it in twenty-three years, ever since your Grandpa passed.”

The house had no air-conditioning. During the summer, they had to open their windows—essentially the same thing, but Adelaide didn’t argue.

Gran’s gaze lowered to Adelaide’s bare legs. “The man who took you...he didn’t—”

“No.” She understood where her grandmother’s thoughts were going. Noah’s had just traveled down the same path. Anyone would think of sexual assault, especially since she wasn’t fully clothed.

“Then why’d he do it?” Gran persisted.

She needed to downplay what had occurred. Tell only as much as she had to so it would go away as soon as possible. And whatever she said had to be believable, first and foremost. “I think he intended to rape me but...I fought him off.”

“What took you so long to get home? You haven’t been with him this whole time, have you?”

Adelaide wished she didn’t have to mention the mine. She didn’t want it connected to her, didn’t want anyone to be reminded of Cody and his graduation party. But even if she lied about that part, Noah would give away the truth when he said where he’d found her. She hadn’t been able to offer him a single compelling reason not to share that information. She couldn’t, not without raising his suspicion as to why she wanted it kept quiet. And, other than Chief Stacy and maybe his father, he was the last person whose curiosity she wanted to arouse.

Left with no choice, she told Gran what’d happened, and who’d saved her.

“Noah’s such a nice boy,” she said.

Not if he was anything like his brother. Adelaide owed him for what he’d done tonight, but she didn’t have a positive impression of him from high school. He’d been one of those senior “gods” she’d worshipped, one who’d acted as if he owned the school. Never had she known him to be aware of the plight of those around them or to care. She told herself it was a miracle he’d bothered to come to her rescue.

“Thank goodness he was in the right place at the right time,” Gran was saying. “That’s one of the Lord’s tender mercies. But why didn’t he take you to the hospital?”

“I wouldn’t let him.”

“Then we need to go now.” She moved her walker forward as if intent on getting her purse, but Addy caught her arm.

“There’s no need.”

“Of course there is. You’re bleeding!”

“I’m fine, Gran. This looks much worse than it is. Trust me, it’d be a waste of time and money. Nothing’s broken.”

“We should still—”

“I wasn’t raped,” she insisted. “What can they do other than clean my wounds? We can do that here.”

Gran’s concern warred with the practicality of Adelaide’s argument. She’d always been frugal. “You’re certain?”

Adelaide mustered a reassuring smile. “Positive.”

“Okay, but I should at least let Chief Stacy know you’re home. He’ll be anxious to talk to you—”

“Not tonight,” she interrupted. “There’s no need to wake him. I’m too exhausted to answer any questions at the moment.”

“But you’ll want to give him a statement as soon as possible, while you can remember the details.”

“I don’t know anything that will help figure out who did this, Gran. I can’t even provide a description. The man was wearing a ski mask.” She actually had four men to choose from, but she couldn’t make a determination by body type alone, not when they’d all probably filled out and changed so much. Chances were she’d recognize their faces if she happened across them, but the person who’d dragged her from her bed last night had been careful to hide his identity.

“There’s his height, his weight—”

“Both a blur to me. Can’t it wait until tomorrow? Please? I’m not up to being grilled.” She managed a pleading expression. “Even by you.”

Empathy etched deeper grooves in Gran’s wrinkled face. “Okay, we’ll wait, if that’s what you want. Maybe you’ll remember something important once you’ve had a chance to recover.”

Or not. “Thanks.”

“I’m so glad you’re back, honey. I don’t know what I would’ve done if...if this had ended differently. You’ve always been my Addy, my pride and joy.”

Hearing the tears in her voice, Adelaide gave her another hug. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Milly was a proud woman, not one to cry easily. With a sniff, she straightened her spine and motioned for Adelaide to follow her to the kitchen. “Come in here so we can get you cleaned up.”

“Shouldn’t we do that in the bathroom?”

“There’s more room in the kitchen. More light, too.”

That was true. Gran’s house was one of a handful of local homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As was the style a hundred years ago, it had tall ceilings, thick molding, elaborate cut-glass windows and—the one downside besides the old plumbing and wiring they’d had to replace—small bathrooms. “I’ve got to shower first.”

Reluctantly, Gran let her disappear into the bathroom, and Adelaide took her time stripping off Noah’s sweatshirt and her filthy clothes before standing beneath the hot spray.

Blood and dirt ran off her body, circling the drain and taking the last of her energy with it. When she’d finished scrubbing, she could only stand there and stare as the last of the soap bubbles disappeared.

“Addy, you coming?”

Gran’s voice brought her out of her stupor.

“Be right there,” she called, and turned off the water. She’d hoped her grandmother would give up and go to bed, allow her to recover on her own. But she should’ve known better. Gran would never leave her like this.

“Can you grab the bandages from under the bathroom sink before you come?”

“Sure.” Her body complained at the movement but—even injured—it was easier for her to crouch than Gran. Tossing her towel aside, she sorted through the laxatives, extra soap, Listerine and bath salts.

She found a small box of Band-Aids, but she wasn’t sure what good they were going to be. Abrasions covered most of her arms and legs.

“We need gauze,” she muttered, but she wasn’t about to go to the store—or let Gran attempt to drive there. The only drugstore open this late would be halfway to Sacramento.

Gran had a cup of tea waiting for her when she entered the kitchen. Adelaide could smell the mint. She normally liked tea, but tonight she didn’t have enough strength to hold the cup. And she had another problem. While pulling on a pair of cutoffs and a tank top she’d figured out why her legs hurt worse in back. Thanks to the fact that she’d slid down the wooden supports of that mine shaft when whoever it was had shoved her in, she had as many slivers in her butt and thighs as she did on her hands.

They had to come out and she couldn’t do it on her own, so she’d brought the magnifying glass Gran used for reading and a pair of tweezers, along with the Band-Aids. She hoped her grandmother would be able to help because Adelaide couldn’t wait to crawl into bed and block the past twenty or so hours from her mind. Everything from that first terrifying image of a man looming over her bed to the shocking realization that it was Cody’s brother who’d pulled her out of the deep, dark hole. The hole that might otherwise have become her grave.

* * *

The lights were still on at Milly’s house, only now the blind in the kitchen was down.

Conscious of the late hour and that he’d be intruding, Noah hesitated on the stoop with the bag of supplies he’d brought from his place. He knew that Adelaide, who’d tried to avoid even incidental contact with him in his truck, wouldn’t be happy to see him. She’d disliked him instantly. But most people didn’t have the kind of first-aid supplies he kept on hand for mountain bike spills. And Adelaide had refused to go to the hospital, so...he figured she might need them.

Telling himself he was going the extra mile largely for Milly’s sake, because he knew how much her granddaughter’s injuries would upset her, he took a deep breath and knocked.

The curtain moved; someone was peering out at him. After what’d happened, he was relieved to see they were taking precautions.

He raised the bag to show he’d brought something. Then he heard the bolt slide back.

“Noah!” Milly exclaimed as soon as she got her walker out of the way so she could open the door. “How nice of you to come back.”

Surprised by the intensity of her relief, he looked over her gray head to find the living room empty. Was Adelaide in bed? “She okay?”

Milly lowered her voice. “Who knows? She refuses to see a doctor. Do you think I should make her?”

He’d already tried and was sure it wouldn’t work. In his estimation, they were better off going with the “do-it-yourself” method he held in his hand, unless her injuries were worse than she’d let on. “Have you found anything serious?”

“Not really. She says nothing’s broken. And I’m doing all I can to get her cleaned up, but...it’s not easy when your hand shakes like mine.” She motioned to the sack. “What do you have in there?”

“Iodine, painkiller, large bandages.” He didn’t mention that the painkiller was prescription-strength, a couple of pills he had left over from when he’d broken his jaw in a free-ride bike race six months ago.

“That’ll come in handy.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But what I need right now is another pair of eyes and a steadier hand.”

“For what?”

He’d expected her to take the bag and say good-night. Instead, she drew him inside. “Come see what you can do.”

“With?”

She didn’t clarify because Adelaide called out. “Gran, who is it?”

Milly used her walker like a cattle prod, herding him into the kitchen. “It’s Noah. He’s here to help. Isn’t that nice of him?”

“Noah!” Adelaide was at the sink, rinsing out a cup. But she whirled to face him, and he immediately jerked his gaze up to her face. She was dressed in a tank top and cutoffs that weren’t even fastened. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the cutoffs were very short, the sort a girl might wear around the house but not out in public. Obviously, she wasn’t prepared for company.

“We’ll be up all night without him,” Milly said, oblivious to everything except her worry. “I’m not much help. And you can’t keep standing there. You’re about to collapse.”

Adelaide glared at her grandmother as if she was trying to convey a deeper message—something closer to “Hell, no!” than the words that came out of her mouth. “Gran, I’m fine. And if you’re not, we can take a break. Or finish in the morning.”

Milly shook her head in defeat. “I don’t think I’ll be much more use to you in the morning. I’m too old for this, honey. So unless you’d rather go to the hospital—and Noah will carry you to the car if need be—you’ll hold still and let him finish up so we can all get some sleep.” With that, she managed a smile for Noah. “Can I make you some coffee?”

“No, thanks.” She could barely get around; he didn’t want to put her to the trouble. He was too distracted to think about eating or drinking, anyway. He saw a dish towel on the counter, speckled with blood. But it wasn’t until he noticed the magnifying glass and tweezers beside it that he began to understand. “You’re extracting...slivers?”

Milly frowned. “I removed the ones in her hands. Problem is she’s got them all up and down her backside, too.”

“But we wouldn’t want to inconvenience you,” Adelaide interjected. “It’s late and...I’m sure you have better things to do.”

He did. Like going to bed. But he couldn’t leave such a tedious job to poor Milly.

“I’m happy to help,” he said. “Just not in here. Come lie on the couch before you drop.”

“You don’t need the light?” Milly asked.

“One lamp will be fine. I’ll pull it close.”

* * *

What were the chances? Adelaide wondered. It wasn’t bad enough that she’d been beaten and thrown down a mine shaft? Now she had to suffer the embarrassment and indignity of having Cody’s brother remove myriad small splinters from the backs of her thighs?

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad in the middle of the day. But with the late hour, the quiet of the house and Gran sleeping so deeply in the chair across the room, it all felt very...intimate.

“You okay?” he asked when she shifted.

She’d taken the two Percocets he’d given her. Gran hadn’t caught on to the fact that they weren’t aspirin, but Noah had made sure she was aware of it. She’d been in so much pain she’d tossed them back almost immediately, and she was glad she had. He’d done all he could with the tweezers. Now he was using a sterilized needle to dig out the deeper slivers. “Yes. You?”

He cleared his throat. “I’m not the one who’s hurt. But...what am I supposed to do about the ones that are...a bit higher?”

He’d studiously avoided touching her anywhere that could be considered inappropriate, but her butt had as many slivers as her legs. That was part of the reason she’d agreed to self-medicate. She’d needed something to get her through the embarrassment as much as the pain.

“Maybe I should’ve gone to the hospital.” The fewer people who saw her beaten up, the better. But she’d never dreamed that her plan to avoid medical care could be thwarted by slivers. When she was in Noah’s truck insisting he bring her home, she’d been hurting but hurting everywhere. She’d assumed all the injuries would heal with time, had no clue she’d need this kind of help.

Relaxing into his chair, he sighed. “’Bout time you said that. Come on, I’ll take you.”

Somewhat dazed by the drugs, she rose up on her elbows. Did they really have to go to the hospital? They’d made it this far.... “How much longer do you think it’ll take to get the rest?”

“I haven’t seen what I’m up against, of course. But I’m guessing...twenty minutes?”

Did it really matter that they were on her butt cheeks? Gran was sitting right there. She was asleep, but Noah wasn’t hoping to touch anything he shouldn’t. Chances were the E.R. doctor would be a man, if they did go to the hospital.

“That’s not long.” Twenty minutes would certainly be shorter than going to the emergency room. She didn’t think she had the strength to get up. She definitely knew she couldn’t walk, not without staggering. And how would they explain that she was doped up?

That could get Noah in trouble.

“No...but you’d have to take off your shorts,” he pointed out.

She didn’t plan on ever seeing Noah again, anyway. They might pass each other once or twice over the next few months while she was in town, but she could muster a wave and move on, couldn’t she? Forget that this ever happened?

Gathering her nerve, she reached beneath her to undo her cutoffs. Then she wiggled them, along with her panties, down over her hips.

“Hurry,” she said. As innocuous as her actions were, she didn’t want to add to her humiliation by having Gran wake up to such a sight.

She’d taken him by surprise. His sudden silence and stillness told her that.

“You don’t have a problem with finishing, do you?” Was the painkiller she’d taken affecting her decision-making ability? Maybe. She felt sort of...distant and relaxed, despite what was going on.

He cleared his throat again. “I’m thinking...maybe we should wake Milly and let her do this part.”

“Except she couldn’t see well enough to do the other part.”

Tension hung thick and heavy in the room—awkwardness, embarrassment, hesitation. She’d already bared her ass and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

“It’s just a butt, no big deal.” She kept her face turned into the couch because she didn’t want to look at him. He’d changed since high school, but not enough that she couldn’t recognize him—or see the resemblance to Cody. There was also the hero worship she’d once felt. This was worse than walking up and congratulating him on a good baseball game....

But finishing what they’d begun seemed the most direct route to accomplishing their goal. She’d get through it and then she’d forget about it. Noah wasn’t part of the life she’d built since leaving Whiskey Creek. He didn’t matter. No doubt he’d forget this by tomorrow, too. He hadn’t even remembered her, and she’d watched him for two years with such longing....

“I know you can’t be shy,” she prodded when he didn’t move.

“I’m definitely not shy, but I’ve never touched a woman who...who’s been—”

“Noah, I wasn’t raped last night.” She wondered what he’d think if she told him the only rape she’d ever suffered had been instigated by his brother and carried out by his teammates, that the man who’d thrown her down the mine shaft was one of those teammates. “Just get the job done, okay? I understand the difference between removing a few slivers and...and other activities.”

“Maybe it would be easier if you didn’t cringe every time I touch you.”

After everything he’d been in high school, and she saw no reason his status in Whiskey Creek would’ve changed, it probably came as a shock that she didn’t want his hands on her. As far as she was concerned, a dose of indifference now and then would be good for his ego. “This isn’t exactly a pleasurable process.”

“I’m not talking about now. I’m talking about earlier when I was trying to get you out of the mountains.”

Because of who he was. He was the twin brother of the man who’d caused her so much pain. They weren’t identical, but there was a strong family resemblance and that was a hurdle she had to clear whenever she looked at him, even if it was merely a glance.

But he didn’t understand that, of course, and she couldn’t tell him. So she cut to what mattered at this particular moment.

“Don’t worry. I’m not that fragile.” Not anymore, anyway. It’d been fifteen years since she was raped by a handful of Whiskey Creek’s most popular athletes. She’d slept with two men since, men she’d cared about and hoped to have a deeper relationship with. The last one she’d married. With three years’ therapy in her early twenties, she’d gotten past the trauma.

Anyway, having Noah help her out with a medical problem had nothing to do with sex or rape, even if it dealt with the same general region of her body. “Can you please, er, hurry? You’ve already gotten an eyeful, and you’re holding the needle. It doesn’t make sense to stop.”

“Right.” Despite his reluctance, his hand, when he touched her, was warm and firm. She jerked as he went after one of the deeper slivers, and he cupped her bottom. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to soothe her or hold her still, but he immediately realized what he was doing and let go.

“You hangin’ in?” he murmured after several minutes.

For the most part, Adelaide couldn’t feel pain anymore. She seemed to be floating somewhere up near the ceiling, looking down on the scene. “Yeah.”

She wasn’t sure how much longer it took. She didn’t care. She was too tired to care about anything except drifting off to sleep....

She woke because something had changed. He was rubbing antibiotic ointment on her, which felt good despite all the reasons it shouldn’t. Somehow she’d lost her anxiety. Pure exhaustion, and painkiller, had carried her beyond that.

“You ready for bed?” He helped get her shorts up. Then he woke Gran and walked her into her room. When he returned to find Adelaide unable to drag herself off the couch, he offered to help her, too. She said no, that she’d be fine right where she was, but when he lifted her in his arms and brought her to bed, she didn’t argue.

“Thanks,” she mumbled as he laid her on the soft mattress and covered her. “Your sweatshirt’s on the bedroom floor. I—I’ll repay you for what you’ve done. The burger, too. I won’t forget the burger.”

She could tell she was slurring her words, but her unwieldy tongue couldn’t do any better. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, except that she was home, out of the damn mine and even the slivers were gone.

“I don’t want your money, Adelaide.” He checked to make sure the door leading to the porch was locked.

“Then I’ll give you something else.” What? A homemade pie? A meal? She felt she had to compensate him, if only to keep from thinking of him too kindly. She definitely didn’t want to feel she was in his debt.

“What exactly did you have in mind?” he drawled.

She heard the teasing note in his voice and covered a yawn. “How about my firstborn child?”

He hesitated at the foot of her bed. “Your future husband might have a problem with that.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t ever have another husband.” She frowned as she followed that thought to its obvious conclusion. “Oh! And that means I probably won’t have a baby, either.” Somehow that seemed sad, but she was flying so high she refused to worry about it.

“So...what would you like?” Her eyelids drooped and she felt herself slipping away. “I’ve got to...have something...you want.” That hadn’t come out right. It sounded suggestive even though she didn’t mean it that way. Surely he’d interpret it correctly.

“After the past half hour, that’s not a fair question to ask me,” he said, and then he was gone.