Chapter 28
VANESSA
The next few hours are a blur of doctors and nurses and machines and what feels like endless poking and prodding. And through it all, Daddy holds me, tells me what a good, brave girl I am, and just generally keeps me sane as we wait to be discharged.
“Daddy, I wanna go home,” I whine for what feels like the millionth time since we got in the back of the ambulance. At this point, I don’t even care who can hear me, I just want to go.
And just like the other million times, Daddy presses a soft kiss to my hair. “I know, baby. Hopefully soon.”
“The doctor already said I was fine! Why do we have to wait?”
“Paperwork,” he says with a bitter tone that actually makes me giggle. “We’re wrapped up in red tape, little fox, with no one to help cut us free.”
“Well, go find us some scissors, then.”
Behind me, he sighs and presses another kiss to my head. “All right. Let me see if I can find someone.”
Just as he’s slipping out of the very uncomfortable bed I’ve been placed in, the curtain separating us from the rest of the emergency room is pulled back, revealing a stern-looking sheriff.
Her dark hair is pulled back from her face in a tight ponytail and her pale eyes are flat.
Cop’s eyes, I’ve heard them called in books, though I’ve never really known what that term meant until right this second.
Beside her is a woman who couldn’t be more her opposite. Shorter, with wildly curly bright red hair that reminds me a bit of a certain orphan from a very famous musical, her face is a mask of worry rather than the stone-cold nothing of the cop beside her.
“Oh my gosh!” The girl who looks like Annie rushes forward to stand beside the bed, clasping my hand in both of hers. “We came as soon as Reese got the call. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
“I…”
“She’s okay, Poppy.” Daddy’s voice is warmer than I think I’ve ever heard it and tinged with amusement. “Just a very mild concussion, a small cut on her forehead, and some bruising. Doctors say she should be just fine in a few days.”
“You’re a very lucky Little girl,” the stern woman says as she steps closer to the bed. “I’m Sheriff Donnelly. If you’re feeling up to it, I have some questions I’d like to ask you.”
“Why?” It’s the first response that comes to mind, and fear makes my tone sharper than usual. But it doesn’t seem to bother the Sheriff, who only smiles politely in response.
“Just procedure. Making sure we have the… full picture of what went down in those woods.”
Maybe the concussion has made me more sluggish than I realized, because it takes several long seconds for the implications of what she’s saying to click in.
This is it. My chance to run, to get help for my friends trapped on the mountain. All I have to do is tell the sheriff lady what happened and we’ll be rescued.
Even though my heart feels like it might actually pound right out of my chest, I manage to nod. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
Her smile warms a fraction before she turns to Poppy. “Persephone, I could use a soda. Would you mind having Dane show you where the vending machines are?”
I can feel Daddy stiffen, but he doesn’t argue against what is blatantly an attempt to get him out of the space so we can talk alone. “Sure thing. Do you want anything, baby?”
“Um, maybe some chocolate?”
“Sure thing. Come on, Poppy, let’s go get some snacks.”
Eyes narrowing slightly, Poppy stabs a finger in the sheriff’s direction. “Be nice.”
The sheriff only stares back, one dark brow slowly raising to her hairline. “I’m always nice.”
Poppy snorts and rolls her eyes. “And pigs fly.”
“Persephone…”
“All right, all right, I’m going.”
Daddy climbs off the bed, giving me one last lingering kiss to my temple. “I love you, little fox,” he whispers in my ear. “Whatever happens, I will never stop loving you.”
With that cryptic message, he turns to leave, with Poppy trailing behind, peppering him with questions. Once they’re out of eyesight, I look up at the sheriff.
“What do you need to know?”
Dane
Fucking Sheriff Donnelly. She’s been a thorn in our side from the day we all settled in Forbidden Pines. For the most part, we’re all able to ignore her, though for some reason she gets under Gray’s skin more than the rest of us.
“Some reason” being the fact that Gray is wildly, madly, hopelessly in love with Reese Donnelly, though if any of us said that to her face she’d send us to the ER herself.
Doesn’t make it any less true.
Right now, though, I find myself sympathizing more with my sister than I have in the past. She’s always been hypervigilant when it comes to us being found out, especially by the tenacious sheriff, and with every step away from the makeshift room my babygirl has been set up in, that same worry grows heavier and heavier in my own stomach.
Alongside that worry is the fear that I’ll never see my babygirl again.
I don’t care about going to prison, but I do care about losing my little fox.
Never hearing her laugh or watching the way her chin jerks up when she’s settling in to be stubborn about something.
The thought of living the rest of my life without her feels like all the oxygen has been sucked right out of the room.
“Uh, Dane?”
Jerking slightly, I look down at Poppy, who’s staring up at me with a mixture of concern and amusement on her freckled face. “What?”
My tone is sharper than I intend for it to be, and Poppy’s eyes widen in response, making me feel a bit like I’ve kicked a puppy. But she doesn’t cry or even pout, she simply raises a hand and points at something behind me. “We found the vending machines.”
Twisting around, I bark out a laugh at the sight of the three machines behind us. “So we did. All right, what do you think we should get?”
An almost maniacal glimmer lights Poppy’s eyes, leaving with the suspicious feeling that I’ve just let a Little girl loose in a candy store.
A suspicion that proves to be right. Poppy insists on getting every single type of chocolate available “so Vanessa can have choices”, along with multiple bags of chips and a bottle of soda for each of us.
Laden with our selections, we make our way back to Nessie’s “room”. The sound of laughter greets us before we even pull the curtain back. And when we do pull the curtain aside, I can only stare at the scene that greets me.
Sheriff Donnelly is seated in a chair she has procured from somewhere, her feet up on Nessie’s bed. Both of them are grinning widely, and when Nessie turns to look at me, there’s a hint of mischief in her gaze that has my blood pressure rising.
From her seat in her chair, Reese raises both brows. “Did you buy the entire vending machine?”
“All three of them,” I confirm, dumping our booty onto the bed.
“Chocolate!” Nessie squeals, diving forward into the junk food pile.
“You can pick one candy for right now, little girl.”
“Aw, man.” Pouting prettily, she flutters her eyelashes at me. “But I almost died! You can’t deny a girl chocolate when she’s just escaped the clutches of Death herself!”
“She’s got a point, Dane,” Reese says with a smugness that has me turning to glare at her. “Let the baby have some chocolate.”
“I never said she couldn’t—oh, for fuck’s sake. Fine. Three pieces of candy and then that’s it until we get home, Vanessa Dawn.”
“Yay! Thank you Da—Dane,” she corrects herself, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
I wonder what she’d think if she knew that the sheriff already knows all about our lifestyle. But since Poppy is here as well, I decide to hold off on letting her know she’s free to call me Daddy if she wants to.
Besides, it’ll be more fun to tease my babygirl the next time we run into the sheriff if she doesn’t know. I can already see her, blushing furiously and glaring at me as I ask her if she needs her diaper changed in the middle of town.
Unless, of course, Sheriff Donnelly is just playing along until she decides to arrest me and my entire family. That might put a damper on any future outings.
“Persephone, you do not need all those chips.”
From where she’s climbed up onto the bed beside my babygirl, Poppy scowls. “You’re not the boss of me, Reese Donnelly.”
Judging by the way Reese’s eyes narrow, she does not agree with Poppy’s assessment.
Interesting.
“Owie.” Nessie presses a hand to her forehead and squeezes her eyes shut. “All this arguing is hurting my poor little head.”
I try to hold back my laughter, I really do. But when I snort, Reese turns her glare on me and I lose the battle. And once I lose it, so do Nessie and Poppy. Soon, the ER is filled with such loud laughter a nurse has to come by to shush us.
“On that note,” Reese says dryly, pushing up out of her chair, “I need a moment alone with Dane, and then Persephone and I should get going.”
“Awww.” Poppy’s bottom lip puffs out into a pout. “But we’re having so much fun!”
“I’m sure once Vanessa is feeling better, her… Dane will bring her into town to visit. For now, finish your snack and then we need to go.” Turning, Reese cocks an eyebrow and jerks her head to the side.
My heart leaps into my throat as we step outside the curtain. “Everything okay, Sheriff?”
“You tell me.” Any trace of softness or amusement has fled her eyes, leaving them flat in a way that turns my blood to ice in my veins. “I got Vanessa’s side of the story, but I’d like to hear yours, as well.”
“She was running and playing, and she took a tumble down a big hill.” That was the story I gave the EMTs on the way to the hospital and Nessie went along with it. Hopefully she gave the sheriff the same story and I haven’t just landed myself in a lot of hot water.
Reese nods slowly, and some of the knots in my stomach loosen.
“Yeah, that’s what she said too. But see, the thing is…
I’ve been to your property, Dane. There’s a bit of a grade, yeah, but nothing like what she describes.
Lots of branches and rocks and stuff. So I’m thinking she wasn’t just playing in your backyard when this happened. ”
Fucking Reese Donnelly, with her nose for bullshit. Like a goddamned bloodhound. “I don’t know what to tell you, sheriff. That’s how it went down.”
“Dane. I’m going to ask you this once, and if I get even a hint you’re lying to me, I will drag your ass down to the station and throw every charge at you I can think of until something sticks. Did you hurt that Little girl?”
That, at least, is something I can answer honestly. “Sheriff, I would rather cut off my own arm than ever put my babygirl in harm’s way.”
Silence stretches between us, so heavy it seems to fill the entire room. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, Reese nods. “All right. But I’m watching you. All of you.”
“We wouldn’t have it any other way, Sheriff.”
With a grunt of what might begrudgingly be called approval, she turns back toward the curtain, but I can’t resist the urge to poke at her a bit. “So… you and Poppy, huh?”
Reese’s eyes narrow dangerously. “It’s not what you’re thinking. I just happened to be at the bookstore when I got the call.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I’ll be sure to let Gray know you were here. With Poppy.”
“Go right ahead. There’s nothing between me and your sister. Or me and anyone else, for that matter.” Jerking back around, she yanks the curtain aside. “All right, Persephone. Time to go.”
“Fine.” Poppy drags the word out, sounding so much like one of our own Little girls I have to swallow a laugh. “Bye, Dane! Be sure to bring Vanessa into town with you the next time you all come down. Josie and I still have some work to do to get ready for her signing.”
“I’ll promise to do that if you promise to get the stick out of Sheriff Donnelly’s butt for her.”
While Poppy erupts into giggles, Reese shoots me a glare that leaves me checking myself for open wounds. The pair say their goodbyes and head down the hall to the front door.
Stepping back around the curtain, I narrow my eyes at the naughty girl in the hospital bed as she shoves what looks like her fifth candy bar into her mouth.
“Hi, Daddy,” she mumbles around a mouthful of chocolate.
“If you think I won’t be keeping a tally of all the times you’re naughty so I can spank your bottom when the doc gives me the all-clear, you are seriously mistaken, little girl.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Oh, I absolutely would. And will. That’s two tally marks already, so I suggest you watch yourself for the next week, my naughty little fox.”
Bottom lip pushing out, she swallows the chocolate in her mouth. “You’re mean.”
“The meanest,” I agree as I settle on the side of her bed. “How did your conversation with Sheriff Donnelly go?”
Vanessa drops her gaze and lifts her shoulders in a small shrug. “I dunno. Okay, I guess.”
“What did she ask you about?”
“Just how I got hurt and stuff.” She peeks up at me through her lashes while she picks at the blanket covering her legs. “I didn’t tell her I was trying to run away.”
Despite the pounding of my heart, I somehow manage to sound completely normal. “Oh? Why not?”
“I don’t know.” Poor thing sounds so frustrated, all I want to do is pull her into my arms and tell her it will all be okay.
But this is clearly a conversation she needs to have, so I resist the urge and wait her out.
“I wanted to. Or I thought I wanted to. If I told her what really happened with me and the other girls, we’d get to go home. We could be free.”
“Probably. The sheriff has kind of always had it out for us. It’s gotten better recently but I have no doubt she’d still jump at the chance to put us all behind bars.”
“Yeah, I kinda picked up on that. She was really thorough.” Nose scrunching slightly, Vanessa tilts her head to the side. “She had a lot of questions about Auntie Gray, which seemed kinda weird.”
“That sounds about right,” I say with a chuckle. “Your auntie and the sheriff have a… complicated relationship.”
“I knew I wasn’t imagining it!”
“You were not. But we’re getting off track. Why didn’t you tell the sheriff the truth? She could have given you everything you wanted, but you didn’t take it. Why?”
Vanessa rolls her eyes, and then winces, pressing a hand to her head. “Because I love you, dummy. Why else would I lie to the cops so I could stay with you forever?”
“You love me.” Emotions I haven’t felt in a very long time swell inside me, pressing against my chest cavity with such pressure it feels like I might actually burst.
“Yeah. It doesn’t really make any sense to me, either.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I should ask for a seventy-two-hour psych hold because clearly I’ve lost my mind.
But I’m not gonna do that, because against my better judgment, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you and your crazy-ass family.
So now will you please figure out what’s going on with my discharge paperwork so you can take me home, Daddy? ”
“Your wish is my command, little fox.”