Snow in Texas

Chapter Thirty-Five: Jenny. Colin. Candy.

Thirty-Five

Jenny

It seemed an eternity that she knelt in the dirt and retched. After it was empty, her stomach kept squeezing tight, terrible dry heaves that burned her throat. Just as they started to subside, she sat back and saw the blood on her hands, and it started all over again.

She was still gagging and gasping for breath when a shadow fell across her. Pup knelt down at her side and carefully slit the tape at her wrists with a knife. He had flecks of blood on his face, and his eyes were serious. Meeting his gaze was finally what allowed her to take a huge breath, stop puking, and sit down hard on her butt.

"You're not dead."

He shook his head. "They shot at me, alright, but I slipped past 'em."

"And you came back," she said, stupidly. Her throat was so raw it hurt to talk.

Pup shrugged. "Wasn't gonna let my VP's sister get killed, was I?"

"Shit," she said, because there were no other words, and flopped back, the loose soil of the yard catching her.

The sky arced blue and hard as a marble overhead, dome-shaped from her vantage point. Cloudless. Infinite. A sign? A reflection of her conscience?

No. Not that. Because she'd just killed the man she'd shared her life with for twelve years. Whether or not he was a monster had no bearing on the situation.

Crockett's face appeared above her suddenly, eclipsing her view, his broad features touched with an almost childlike grief.

Jenny sat up, and he sat down, so they were both cross-legged and shoulder-to-shoulder, staring out across the featureless stretch of his backyard. Pup watched them, but it didn't feel awkward, all of them too exhausted for propriety.

In a slow, careful voice, Crockett said, "Candy came home...came home...a while back."

Jenny knew he meant seven years ago, so she nodded. "He did."

"He was in New York."

"He was."

"And you...you..." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Riley hurt you, didn't he?"

The tears in his voice caused her own eyes to film, and she turned to face him, biting back the sob that welled in her throat. "He did. Every day."

"God, Jennifer, how did I forget?"

She put an arm across his wide shoulders and pressed her face down into his shirt. "It's alright, it's not your fault," she whispered, as the tears slipped down her nose.

~*~

Colin

An early autumn night was stealing over the landscape when Crockett's house came into view. The driveway and front lawn were full of cop cars and county vans. The street was lined with bikes. Whatever had happened...it was just that: happened. Past tense.

His stomach cramped and he thought he might be sick all over the fuel tank of his bike. Since the news had come through, they hadn't stopped long enough to check anyone's phone for an update. Candy had gone white when he'd taken the call from Talis a few truckstops up the highway.

"Something's happening with Jenny."

There was no more impotent a feeling than being a hundred miles away from your woman when she was in danger. Unable to help, unable to put himself between her and whatever threatened her. His child. Jesus Christ.