Sudden Independents (23 page)

“S
o you broke up with her, huh?”

Hunter rested his head on his folded arms; it was a lousy substitute for a pillow. He sat at the dining room table that also doubled as a hospital bed for his immobile brother. Jimmy’s face resembled tenderized hamburger and yet, he kept up with the questions.

“Why did you have to do it today?”

“I didn’t. It was yesterday.” Hunter closed his eyes. The darkness was nice. He drifted into the solitude and smoothed out a quiet spot to lie down. Twelve hours in this dark spot would be awesome.

“When are you leaving?”

“Hmm? What?” Hunter’s eyes fluttered open. The light in the room, though dim, was horrible. He focused on Jimmy’s face and the coals of fury rekindled in Hunter’s heart. He wrapped his rage in a tight package, waiting until he found the kid that did this to his brother; then he’d deliver.

“You guys should probably get going.”

“We will as soon as Scout rounds up enough help.”

“Nobody under fourteen goes.”

“We know. Don’t worry about it. There’ll be plenty of volunteers.”

Slowly, Jimmy rolled his head over so he could look into the adjoining living room. Gauze and tape covered his various injuries, giving him the appearance of a partially wrapped mummy. Only time could heal him now.

Hunter scratched his shoulder blade and yawned. The fire in the hearth crackled as the logs shifted, filling the house with needed warmth. Ginger and Luis dozed where they’d fallen on different ends of a sofa.

Hunter followed the line of his brother’s sight. “You and Ginger, huh?”

Jimmy smiled carefully. “Yeah. Somehow Catherine knew. Now it’s as if Ginger and I were always meant to be, you know?”

Hunter gave his recent relationship with Molly an inner glance and found their final moment together displeasing. The way he’d dumped her depressed him more than he was willing to admit. He shoved a quick answer into the silence. “Not really.”

Jimmy eased his head back toward Hunter. “You and Molly didn’t feel the same way? You guys seemed pretty inseparable.”

“It wasn’t like I had a choice. That’s why I broke up with her. She was clingy, and bossy, and a pain most of the time. To be honest, the only good thing was her looks but that doesn’t replace a decent personality.”

“Better keep comments like that to yourself. I think Mark is shaken up more than anyone right now.”

“She’s seriously twisted. Why didn’t I notice that before all this happened?”

“Who isn’t twisted right now? We’re lucky to be halfway sane after everything we’ve lived through. Top that off with the plague and were lucky someone’s not burning down a different house every night.”

“Maybe it would be better if Mom and Dad were here to tell us what to do.”

Jimmy sighed. “Even without parents, no one has the right to be reckless. Everyone needs to be accountable”

“That’s asking a lot of some people.”

“Those are the ones we help.”

“How?”

Jimmy closed his eyes. “We need to learn that before it’s too late.”

Hunter leaned back, struck by a sudden ugly thought. He squinted hard at his brother. “Were we just talking about me?”

Jimmy cracked a smile through his busted lips. “Were we?”

“Damn, Jimmy, that’s not funny.”

After a chuckle rolled from Jimmy’s chest, he coughed a little blood onto his chin.

Hunter swabbed the blood away with a damp towel and gave him a sip of water. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch after we track him down.”

“Why?” Jimmy asked. “He causes pain to escape his own.”

“What are you trying to be some kind of Saint?”

“I’m just saying. So this kid beat me up. It’s over. He’s gone. I’m not dead.”

“But we’re going after him, aren’t we?”

“No,” Jimmy said, looking like a possessed raccoon with his matching set of black eyes. “You’re going after Catherine and that’s it. I don’t want you fighting that Patrick kid for me. If you have to go through him to get to Catherine, make sure you have lots of backup with you. It was all I could do to keep that guy down as long as I did.”

“What about Molly?”

“She made her choice.”

“What about Mark?”

“He’ll have to make his. I wish he wasn’t going, but I understand why. I’d be going if it were you.”

Hunter ruffled his brother’s hair. “Aw, you’re so sweet.”

Jimmy winced. “Careful, that’s where your girlfriend whacked me.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. At least she didn’t burn your house down. I still can’t figure out why she’d hit you like that though.”

Hunter tracked Jimmy’s gaze again to Ginger curled up on the sofa. Hunter liked Ginger. She was sweet, good natured, and attractive in different ways than Molly. Molly talked bad about Ginger, but she talked bad about everyone so that was nothing new. He guessed Molly’s main problem with Ginger was jealousy. Ginger was far and away more talented at sewing than Molly, but he’d known better than to track down that conversation with his former girlfriend. That would have been suicidal.

“So why did she hit you?”

Jimmy looked at Hunter, and then at the ceiling. “The night you found Catherine, I went out to make sure Molly was all right after the little blowout she had with Vanessa.”

“Yeah, I heard something about Ginger making baby clothes. Typical Molly crap right.”

“Yeah, well. When I found her… Look, let’s just forget about it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s typical Molly crap.”

Hunter sat back. That was about as close to profanity as his brother ever walked. “What happened? Did she throw herself at you or something?”

Jimmy continued staring at the ceiling.

“You got to be kidding me.” Hunter laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You aren’t exactly her type.”

“And you are? Who did she run to after I told her I liked someone else?”

That thought swam around Hunter’s mind until it surfaced like a hungry shark ready to take a massive bite of gray matter.

Jimmy played lifeguard and kept him afloat. “Like you said, it’s typical Molly crap.”

“So you’re saying the only reason she—”

“I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, that’s all right. Really it’s okay. It’s kind of cool.”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow.

Hunter smiled. “I was used. That’s awesome. I don’t feel nearly as bad for dumping her the way I did. Now I realize she had it coming. I mean really, hitting on me because my big brother shot her down. How twisted is that?”

Someone across the room coughed. “Uh, guys, we’re ready,” Scout said from the door.

Mark stood beside him, looking like an axe murderer wishing for a chainsaw. He crossed the room, snatched Hunter from his seat and pinned him to the wall.

Hunter gasped as the air was forced from his lungs. He couldn’t breathe from Mark shoving him against his chest and his back hurt from where it slammed into the wall.

Mark’s heated face loomed an inch away. “Why don’t you tell me just how twisted my sister is, Hunter? I really want to know since you’re the one who’s been sleeping with her for the past three months! Did she put out enough for you? Did you like turning my sister into a slut?”

“It wasn’t like that at all! Get your hands off me!”

“Then tell me what it was like! You were the last one to talk with her before she torched your house and knocked Jimmy across the head!”

Hunter slapped Mark’s hands away and shoved him back; his anger rippling through him like a turbulent red tide. “I’m not telling you shit!”

Hunter dodged Mark’s fist that sailed over him and punched a hole through the drywall. Scout arrived with Samuel and they wrapped Mark up and hauled him back struggling and reaching to get another shot at Hunter before finally giving up and going limp. He slumped on the sofa, hid his eyes with a trembling hand and cried. His body shook. His legs kicked in a spastic fit.

Jimmy managed to sit up and was hacking blood onto his chin. Ginger and Luis rushed over and coaxed him into lying back and settling down; tending to him before he made his injuries worse.

Hunter straightened his sweater into place and brushed his fingers through his hair. He stared at the floor, ashamed of playing a part in Mark’s pain. Mark resembled his sister so much it was eerie in a way that made Hunter even more sympathetic. A part of him ached for Molly despite his thoughts on her personality. He never considered how their relationship affected Mark. Obviously, Mark had never approved.

Everyone waited, allowing Mark enough time to work through more of his grief. After a while, Jimmy broke the silence.

“You better get going. Take care of each other before anything else.”

Hunter snatched his leather jacket off the chair and crossed the room. Scout handed him his ski mask, gloves, scarf, and goggles. A gust of cold air slapped him in the face as he pushed through the doorway. Two SUVs waited at the curb with eight different boys packed inside, everyone wearing grave expressions. Hunter and Scout would ride their motorbikes so they could track and follow the trail of Catherine’s kidnappers.

Scout walked up behind Hunter as they both slipped on their winter gear. “Those clouds aren’t going to hold for long, and when they dump, we’ll lose everything.”

Hunter pulled down his goggles and swung his leg twice before sliding onto his new motorbike. Mark passed him without comment.