Not a Drop to Drink (22 page)

“Only if he’s a good shot,” Lynn countered.

“Assume he is. Put down the gun.”

She didn’t move. “They’re not taking my house.”

“I’m guessing they don’t want it,” Stebbs said evenly. “They didn’t meet any resistance coming in. They have the advantage but aren’t pressing it.”

“So what do they want?” Eli asked.

“We go find out.” Stebbs gave Lynn a hard look and peeled her fingers off the gun. “You going to keep your head on straight?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Don’t look like it. You go out first, keep your hands up where they can see them. I’ll follow her, and Eli you come last. Be calm, no reason to upset Neva just yet.”

Lynn glanced back at the cot before leaving. Water from the cloth on her forehead was streaming down Lucy’s face, matching the tears on Neva’s. “Hold on, kiddo,” she said quietly. “We’ll be right back.”

She climbed the stairs stiffly, every nerve in her body protesting the absence of her gun. The door creaked open and she walked into the sunlight, both hands open and visible. Three armed men stood in the yard, a woman kneeling in the mud in front of them, a noose around her neck. Lynn walked forward cautiously, highly conscious of the man on the roof and the prickle of hairs on her neck telling her that his crosshairs were focused there.

“Get off my roof,” she said.

One of the men spat on the ground and smiled at her, showing off gaps in his teeth. “That the way you greet your neighbors?”

“Neighbors that drag a woman around by her neck, yes.”

“Lynn,” Stebbs said quietly in warning as he stepped from the doorway. Eli emerged behind him, his hands held up as well. His eyes were on Lynn, a mute entreaty to keep her mouth shut, until he spotted the woman.

“Vera!”

She jerked at the sound of her name, raising her head and allowing Lynn a good look. She didn’t need Eli to tell her this was Neva’s mother. Her black hair was streaked with gray, the lines in her face were delicate and flattering, a perfect image of what Neva would look like in the future. Except that the light flashing in her eyes was fierce, the determination to live imprinted clearly.

“You got nothing to say to her just yet,” Gap Tooth said to Eli. “I’m the one talking right now.”

“I got a thing or two to say to that one,” a man wearing a blue coat said, nodding at Lynn from his position by Neva’s side. “She killed two of my friends.”

“I see you brought me more.”

“Enough,” Stebbs said sharply. “What do you want from us?”

“Don’t want nothing with you, old man,” Gap Tooth said. “We went to make a trade with your pretty boy there, but he wasn’t home. Thought maybe he was making time with the girl, and here we are.”

One of the men standing with Vera, who wore a green hat, spoke up. “Where’s the little one?”

“She’s busy dying,” Lynn said coldly.

He looked down at his feet, but not before she caught the flicker of shame in his eyes. “I’m sorry for that.”

Vera moaned and her eyes moved to Lynn, a pleading question there that she couldn’t answer. Lynn looked away, swallowing hard. “What’s your trade?”

“Our business ain’t with you,” Gap Tooth said.

“You’re on my property, and I’m the one asking.”

“Goddamn girl, you ain’t learned friendly yet, have ya?”

Blue Coat fingered his crotch. “I’ll teach her, before we leave.”

Eli crossed the distance between them before the men had the chance to cock their guns and delivered a chop to his neck that brought Blue Coat to the ground, gasping. The guns turned on Eli, and he put his hands back in the air. “You came to trade, make a trade. He talks with his dick again, he loses it.”

Gap Tooth considered his comrade, still fighting for air and curled into the fetal position. He lowered his gun. “We want your fancy girl. Even trade for her momma.”

“No,” Lynn said without hesitation. “I won’t trade a friend for a stranger.”

“Ain’t your call, girlie.”

Eli stood shivering in the chill, his hands still in the air. “She isn’t mine to trade. I don’t own her.”

“I’ve got food,” Stebbs said quickly. “Vegetables, fruit, water. Whatever you need.”

“We got water and I ain’t hungry, not in that way.”

The back door burst open, all guns changed their positions, and Vera yelped at the sight of her daughter. “Her temp is a hundred and four, I need—” Neva jerked to a halt when she saw the men.

“Neva,” Eli said carefully, “we need to—”

“Mother!” Neva cried, lurching toward her despite the guns pointed at her. She fell to her knees beside the older woman, tears falling openly. Her fingers wrapped around the noose and began pulling it over Vera’s head.

“Hold on there, missy,” Blue Coat said, his hand stopping hers. “We ain’t done negotiating.”

“Negotiating for what?”

“Neva, honey,” Vera said calmly. “Listen to me—”

“It’s simple, fancy lady,” Gap Tooth said. “You come with us, and we leave your mother.”

Neva held her mother’s bound hands in her own, her face blank as she stared back at him.

Lynn edged toward them, hands still in the air. “Neva, you don’t have to—”

Blue Coat swung his gun on her. “Shut it.”

“I’ll go,” Neva said, glancing at Lynn. The rush of energy from Neva that Lucy’s sickness spurred had turned into a cold determination, and Lynn barely recognized the eyes staring back at her from the other woman’s face.

“Eli, get my coat,” Neva said.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he answered.

“Get her coat or she goes cold,” Gap Tooth said.

“Lynn,” Neva said, her eyes boring into Lynn’s, “take care of my sick baby.” Every word punched through the protest Lynn had already formed. Lynn’s rage had kept her from seeing what Neva knew too well; Vera was a doctor, and Lucy needed her badly. More than she needed her mother. If the men knew Vera’s skill they would never trade her, no matter how badly they wanted Neva.

“Eli,” Lynn spoke slowly, disbelieving her own words. “Get Neva’s coat.”

When he didn’t move, Lynn broke Neva’s gaze and glanced at him. He searched her face for a moment and Lynn knew he was weighing the fates of Lucy and Neva in the moment before he went to get Neva’s coat, head down. Neva bent to take the noose off her mother, but Blue Coat jerked her to the ground and began tying her hands before she could. Lynn winced, fury at her inability to stop them boiled over.

“You should know that I’ll kill you all, and soon,” she said.

“Them’s big words, little girl, when I’m up here,” the man on the roof said.

“My voice carried though, didn’t it?”

“Now that looks good on you, Fancy,” Blue Coat said to Neva as he tightened the noose around her throat. “Don’t go running off on me now.” He kicked Vera in the ribs and she fell to her side in the mud. “Been nice knowing you, looking forward to getting to know your daughter just as well.”

Vera remained facedown in the mud, refusing to look at him. Neva kept her eyes on the ground, ignoring Eli as he put her coat around her shoulders. The man on the roof clambered down the antennae, keeping his rifle on Stebbs and Lynn as he backed away. The three others followed, Blue Coat dragging Neva to her feet; Green Hat steadied her when she tripped.

“Tell Lucy I love her,” Neva said to Lynn as she walked past. Lynn’s throat closed up, not allowing her to speak. She only nodded in response, and the figures grew smaller as they moved away, the man from the roof continuing to cover them with his rifle.

“Ma’am, I know it’s been a hell of a morning,” Stebbs said, kneeling in the mud next to Vera, “but we’ve got something to ask of you.”

“Lucy’s sick,” Eli said. “Bad.”

Stebbs cut the rope holding Vera’s hands together, and she rubbed her wrists. “Where is she?” she asked.

“Downstairs.” Stebbs helped her to her feet. “It happened overnight.” He explained as they moved into the basement and gathered around Lucy’s cot. No one noticed when Lynn quietly picked up her rifle and left.

The four figures were easy to spot from the roof. Gap Tooth led, with Blue Coat dragging Neva behind him, and Green Hat walking beside her. The man from the roof had turned his back on the house, assuming he was clear of her range. He wasn’t, but Lynn knew she couldn’t make four clean shots before one of them got to Neva to retaliate. All she could do was watch.

Neva stumbled awkwardly over the rough fields, lost her balance, and fell on all fours. Her coat slid off her shoulders as she struggled to her knees. The noose pulled tight, and Blue Coat turned around just in time to see Neva put the derringer to her temple. Lynn saw her body slump sideways before the sound of the gunshot reached her, a flat snap that could have been mistaken for the breaking of a twig.

Blue Coat turned in time for blood to spray his jeans, and he kicked Neva’s lifeless body. Wrath rose in Lynn’s throat so thickly she nearly choked on it as the other men pulled him off Neva. He turned back to the house, drawing his finger across his throat in an unmistakable gesture. Lynn’s finger curled around the trigger, the need to add a dead body next to Neva’s so deep that it almost won over her common sense. Mother could have taken them down at that range, but Lynn wasn’t confident and a wasted bullet would bring all four of them fanning back around the house, and trouble to Lucy’s bedside at a time when every second counted.

But they went south instead of carrying out the threat. Now that Lynn had the high ground and they’d lost the element of surprise, the odds were against them. Green Hat waited until the other men had put some distance between themselves and the body before he knelt down and covered Neva’s face with her coat.

Lynn was numb as she fumbled with the door, the image of Neva’s lifeless body lying alone in the frozen field stamped on her brain.

“Stebbs,” Lynn called down the steps. “I need you out here.”

He came to the bottom of the stairs. “What?”

“Up here,” she said. He climbed the steps and shut the door behind him when he saw the look on her face.

“Neva’s dead.”

“How?”

“Did for herself, with the derringer I gave her. Not long after they walked off. They left her out in the field.”

Stebbs sat down on the stone steps, resting his head in his hands.

“What do we do?” Lynn asked.

“We’ll have to go get her, but right now we’ve got worse problems.”

“How bad is Lucy?”

“I don’t know much about sickness, but by the look on her grandma’s face, I’d say it’s bad.”

Lynn sat beside him, ignoring the freezing water that soaked through her jeans. “What do we do?”

Stebbs put his arm around her, and she leaned into him. “Kiddo, you and me don’t do so well in situations we can’t control. There’s nothing you could’ve done for Neva, and we can’t help Lucy now. It’s not up to us.”

She rested her head on his shoulder, tears of futility pricking at her eyes. “Don’t think I care for that.”

The door burst open behind them, and Vera ripped past, Lucy’s shaking, naked body clutched in her arms.

“Jesus, woman!” Stebbs yelled.

“She’s seizing!” Vera screamed, and disappeared over the bank of the pond. They ran after her, Eli on their heels, and crested the bank to see Vera plunge the white form into the icy blackness of the pond.

Lucy’s eyes snapped open and she screamed, scratching frantically at the strong arms holding her body under the water. Lynn grabbed Vera and yanked her backward, but her strength was outmatched by the older woman’s determination. She landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her.

“Get off me!” Vera yelled. “We break the fever or she dies.”

Lucy kicked weakly, her efforts sending ripples through the water that broke against the ice still covering the depths. Vera pulled her out, and her limbs fell limply to the side, spraying Lynn’s face with freezing droplets.

“Take her,” Vera handed her off to Eli, who raced back inside.

Vera slumped next to Lynn on the bank, clutching her wet arms to her sides. “It was the only thing I could think of,” she said. “Once the fever gets past a hundred and five there can be serious brain damage. I had to cool her, fast.”

“Did it work?” Stebbs asked.

“She stopped seizing, but it will spike again.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Lynn asked.

“I’m guessing it’s a bacterial infection, though it could be viral. Her medical history makes me think the former; she’s always been susceptible to the bacterial kind.”

“Neva said Lucy’s fevers always went real high,” Stebbs said.

“Some people’s bodies burn higher than others.” Vera rose to her feet, looking at the ice crystals re-forming where she’d broken through with Lucy’s frail body. “It’ll spike again, and I’ll have to dunk her.”

“I have some medicine,” Lynn said. “It’s mostly expired, but there is some aspirin. That can bring down a fever, can’t it?”

“It can, but if it’s old it can’t do much against what she’s facing. It’s probably too much to hope that you have some antibiotics?”

Lynn shook her head and followed Vera as she started back to the house and her patient, wet arms clutched against the rising wind. The older woman kicked in anger at a frozen clod of dirt. “I smuggled some medicine out of the city when I went, but I hid my pack when I ran into those men on the road.”

“Is it far?”

“Too far on foot to do Lucy much good. They picked me up in their truck and we drove a while before we got to their camp.”

“How long?”

Vera gave a shudder that had nothing to do with the temperature. “Long time.”

“Did you have a general sense of direction? Could you find it again?”

Lynn opened the door for Vera and they descended into the basement together. Eli had wrapped Lucy in the extra blankets and had her lying in the cot near the fire. Vera put her hand on her forehead, frowning. “I had a compass on me, and a map. They took them both. I know we traveled east to get here, and I could recognize the area again. By the time we found the meds and came back though, it would be too late.”

“I have a truck,” Lynn said. “I’ll drive you.”

Vera tucked the blankets tightly around her granddaughter, her decision made the second she put her hand against Lucy’s burning flesh. “We leave now. Eli—stay close to Lucy. If she seizes again, you’ll have to dunk her. I know it’s ugly, but it’s the only way to keep her temp down. Let me see those aspirin.”