Chapter 9
NINE
Jack
“They’re coming!”
I barely had time to register the sound of Elliot’s voice before Asia pushed out of her chair.
She swept her gaze across the table, pointedly ignoring me. “You all know what to do.”
She moved around the kitchen methodically, opening cabinets and depositing canned goods into a bag, but I saw the slight tremble in her fingers. I moved to stand next to her and gripped her wrist. She cut her eyes at me, but didn’t immediately pull away.
Progress?
I wasn’t sure. She stared at me, her gaze distant and unreadable in a way that made me want to claw out of my skin.
I stared down at her, her wrist still in my hand. “What’s going on?”
She finally pulled away. “No time. Grab that,” she said, gesturing towards the large canvas bag on the counter as she tightened her grip on the other, the metal cans clinking against each other.
“What is this?” I asked as I picked it up.
She refused to meet my gaze. “Flour. Take it out on the porch.”
I wanted to press the issue, but decided not to when I saw just how frantic everyone else was.
“Miles, go sit with Tío Levi,” Lourdes said.
Caitlin rummaged through the cabinets Asia had just gone through, while Elliot looked around nervously.
I grabbed the bag and guessed it weighed about ten pounds.
At least a week’s worth of the knockoff spoon bread Lourdes told me Asia liked to make, even though she wished she had corn meal instead.
I put the flour on the porch, then looked out towards the horizon and saw plumes of red dust rising in the distance as a vehicle sped towards us.
I didn’t have to think too hard to figure out who it was. “Fucking Hayes,” I muttered.
Asia cut her eyes at me, but didn’t say anything else. She just stood up ramrod straight, centered at the middle of the porch stairs, watching as the truck approached.
I clenched my teeth and stepped two steps closer to Asia. She didn’t acknowledge my presence, but I saw her back stiffen ever so slightly. I hoped that it was because of Hayes, though I didn’t know that to be true.
It reminded me of the first time I’d been here, the caravan pulling up to the rescue. But as I let my gaze sweep Asia and the others who gathered out front, this certainly didn’t feel like a rescue.
I focused on the two girls, Ellie and Evie, who stood right out front. Neither of them would even look in my direction. They hadn’t since Travis.
I probably should have cared.
But if this world taught them nothing, I hoped they learned that swift retribution for wrongdoing was the only option. A tough lesson for everyone, especially a couple of traumatized tweens, but the world being what it was, coddling wasn’t an option.
“What’s going on, Asia?”
“Not now.” Something in her tone shook me. It took everything I had, but, at least for now, I’d let it lie.
I looked at the others who had gathered, and my gaze stuck on Ellie and Evie’s mother.
It would be easy to mistake her for one of the zombies, her frame impossibly thin, her dark blonde hair matted and dirty. But even she had managed to pull herself out of whatever place she let her mind go to for this occasion.
Which meant we were fucked.
I wanted to scream at them, scream at Asia and figure out what was going on, but when I glanced over at her, she still stood straight, eyes forward, absolutely no emotion in her expression.
It wasn’t her at all, and seeing that sobered me in a way that rage couldn’t.
I grasped her fingers. For a split second, her hand tightened in my hold, but she relaxed it slowly, though she still didn’t look at me. I expected her to pull away, but she stayed right where she was, my hand covering hers.
The truck rolled to a stop, but instead of Sheriff Hayes, that fucking weasel Christopher stepped out.
“Howdy, folks,” he said, making a show of looking at every face before finally settling on Asia.
“Asia, how are you doing?” Christopher asked.
“Fine, and you?” Asia lifted her cheeks in a grotesque imitation of a smile.
Christopher smiled, genuine amusement lighting his eyes. “I can’t complain. And who do we have here?”
So he’d decided to acknowledge me.
“Christopher, you remember Jack, don’t you?” Asia asked.
It was a stupid question.
Christopher would never forget me, and this bullshit posturing pissed me off. But I remembered Asia’s stricken expression and felt the tension in the atmosphere, so I had to keep my cool.
Christopher scratched his stubbled jaw. “Oh yeah, that friend of yours who helped you get out of Atlanta, right?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Asia said.
“Guess it’s good to see him back. You need all the helping hands you can get out here on the farm.”
He looked at Asia, then looked in my direction but not at me. He smiled, the tight collar of his brown shirt pressing into his neck. I was sure I saw the pulse underneath his skin. Could imagine that soft flesh giving way as I buried my fingers in his neck.
He was standing on the third step of the porch, but then stepped up, stopping close enough to Asia that his body touched hers. He reached out and put a hand on her waist.
“Asia has really stepped up while you’ve been gone. With Levi being sick and all, she’s really handled things, kept focused on what’s important.”
I felt Asia’s gaze burning into the side of my face. I ignored it. “Step back, Christopher.”
His eyebrows arched, and Asia stiffened, but she didn’t interject.
“Beg your pardon?” The fucker even stepped closer, his hip brushing Asia’s.
“You heard me.”
I moved to reach for him, but Asia gripped my hand tighter.
“Christopher, we have a few things to share,” she said.
Her voice was smooth as silk, but I heard the tension in it. The falseness.
I also heard the two men with Christopher chamber rounds.
“What do you have this time?” Christopher asked.
His brows were furrowed, but he stepped away from Asia.
Caitlin jumped in. “Lots of things. Elliot figured out how to make vinegar for canning and…”
She droned on, but I kept my gaze focused on Christopher. My other senses were dedicated to Asia and her reaction, or lack thereof.
A moment later, Asia cleared her throat. “Thanks, Caitlin. Christopher, we also have some flour and canned goods.”
He looked down at the two bags she’d set on the porch. “That it?”
“Yes. We’re still perfecting the process, but we’ll get it.” She swallowed, then slanted her gaze to Christopher. “Do you have the medicine?”
Christopher scratched his jaw. “Those pills? The ones you say are for Levi?”
She nodded, her aura calm, but her grip on my hand tightened.
Christopher looked at the bags again. “That’s not much, and the only way this works is if everyone pulls their weight.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Christopher reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled plastic bag. “I know you’re trying to pull your weight and we’re all in this together.” Asia reached for the bag. Christopher held it for a split second before he let it go.
“Four pills?” Asia looked at Christopher, a deep crease between her brows.
“That’s all we could spare. Not trying to get him high or anything, just make him a little more comfortable. Maybe y’all can cut them in half, or thirds, to make ’em last. We all have to be resourceful.”
Christopher looked at Asia expectantly, but she stared back at him without responding.
“Well, anyway, we appreciate the hospitality and your contribution to the community we’re building here. We’ll be back at the regular time to check in.”
Christopher tipped his hat, grabbed the bags, and then he and his men loaded back into the trucks and left.
There was silence in their wake, even the animals seeming to cooperate as the truck fled out of sight. When they were finally gone, the atmosphere seemed to collapse. It was as if as one, the group decided to exhale.
Asia moved away from me, and I immediately missed the contact with her. But for the moment, that was a secondary concern. “What the fuck is that?”
It was Caitlin who answered.
“Things have changed since you left, Jack,” she said.
Asia said nothing at all. Just clutched that plastic bag and stepped off the porch. I followed, grabbing her hand to stop her in place.
She turned to look back, but wouldn’t look at me.
I grasped her face, held her until she looked into my eyes. “What is going on here?”
Her dark eyes were clouded with sadness and with resignation. I barely saw my Asia at all. Knew I didn’t even have the right to call her mine, not that it would stop me.
“Caitlin already told you,” she finally whispered, her voice, quiet, weary.
I stroked my thumb against her cheekbone. “I’m asking you.”
She shaped her lips to speak, but said nothing.
“I’m surprised Sheriff Hayes let his little boy off the leash,” I said.
“I don’t know that he did, but it doesn’t matter, I suppose.” She shrugged.
I tilted my head. “Meaning what?”
“Sheriff Hayes is gone. No one’s seen him in weeks,” she said.
“What do you mean gone?”
“What I said. Gone,” she responded, her voice tight.
“That fucking scumbag had something to do with it,” I said.
Asia huffed, a soft smile on her lips. “You miss Sheriff Hayes?”
There was my Asia, able to crack a joke in the midst of all of this bullshit, but I wasn’t joking when I answered. “No, but Christopher is more dangerous.”
The amusement of moments ago disappeared, and this time when Asia looked at me, there was no doubt that she meant what she said, and that she was serious about it.
“I know.”
The resignation in her voice ripped at me like a lash. I grabbed the plastic bag out of her hand. Four oval pills, stamped with a “50.”
“These for Levi?”
“It’s a fight to get him to take them, but sometimes the pain gets so bad…”
She sighed, looked off towards the bunkhouse. Her shoulders sagged, and I ignored the way she flinched when I reached up and caressed her cheek.
She lifted her eyes to me. My breath rushed out of my lungs at how fragile she looked. Not a word I would associate with Asia, but in that moment, I saw it.