Chapter 44 #2
“What do you mean?” Deb asked, bewilderment breaking through her intimidation. “What have you ever done for me?”
Jessie laughed and threw her apple over her shoulder.
There was still a lot of fruit left on it, and Jessie had just tossed it into the dirt.
That was yet another reason for Deb to despise this woman.
There were so many people on this property who were keeping themselves just above starving with the sparse rations the Chain Gang doled out.
Now here was Chainz’s partner in crime, just wasting perfectly good food.
Jessie scoffed as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I’m the reason you still have a husband,” she said, pointing emphatically at her chest. “I figured you’d be coming up to thank me.”
“What?” Deb asked, shaking her head in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” Jessie asked in mock confusion, seeming to take delight in Deb’s ignorance. “That’s why you haven’t come up to thank me. It makes sense. I figured maybe the trouble in paradise was more troublesome than I thought. If you’d like, I could just let Chainz kill him next time.”
“Wait. What?” Deb asked again, the fog of confusion she was lost in only getting thicker and more cumbersome with every passing second. “Chainz? What are you talking about?”
“He didn’t tell you who kicked the shit out of him?” Jessie asked with a shocked and delighted laugh. “Oh, that’s amazing. What the fuck did you think happened to him? He ran into a door? Fell down the stairs?”
“He said,” Deb started to say, her voice quiet and far off as the weight of this revelation settled down on her shoulders, nearly pressing her to the ground. “He said it happened on the reservation….”
Jessie broke into a fit of hysterical laughter, doubling over as she held her stomach. Wiping joyful tears from her eyes, Jessie smiled at Deb in the cruelest way possible, as though ripping through Sean’s lie to her were the highlight of her entire week.
“That’s incredible,” Jessie said, still chuckling at Deb’s admission.
“Nah, that’s not what happened, blondie.
Your man walked into the house with his tail between his legs after that mission on the reservation went south.
He was perfectly fine. He didn’t do jackshit on that mission except get Maverick killed.
So, my man opened up a major can of whoop-ass on yours.
It ended with his hands around Sean’s neck, ready to choke him to death. But I stopped him. You’re welcome.”
“You,” Deb said as the world spun uncontrollably around her. “You mean, you…”
“Saved him, yeah,” Jessie said. “I just reminded Chainz that we needed him to keep your riff raffs in line. And, of course, he realized I was right and let the poor fucker live. I figured you’d be happy.
Unless maybe you’re disappointed? Maybe you secretly want him to die?
Is that it? Are you a vicious, cold bitch after all?
I think there might be hope in us becoming friends if that’s the case. ”
Deb took a shuddering step back as Jessie’s words replayed themselves through her mind.
She had to be lying to her. This had to be another one of her cruel, horrible games meant to prey upon Deb’s psyche.
This woman was a horrible bully, one who delighted in the pain and misery of others.
She was an irredeemable piece of shit and wasn’t to be trusted.
So then why did Deb believe her?
She thought back to the day she had treated Sean’s wounds.
The reservation was several hours away by horseback, and yet Sean’s injuries were still very fresh.
She remembered the horrible bruising on Sean’s throat and that paired with Jessie’s description of Chainz wrapping his strong and powerful hands around Sean’s neck, nearly choking the life out of him before Jessie stepped in.
“Putting two and two together, sweetheart?” Jessie asked cruelly.
“Honestly, I can’t believe he didn’t tell you the truth.
I mean, I assume you’re the one who patched him up.
” She pointed at the first aid kit that Deb clutched it desperately with both hands.
“You’ve been working overtime as little miss fix-em up, haven’t you?
Your friends in the barn, your lying, piece-of-shit husband, even Legion seemed to get some expert dressing after Chainz laid a beating on his fat ass the other day. All you, I reckon?”
Deb had no idea what to say. There was nothing to say to this monster. But Jessie was far from the only monster in her life, and she certainly wasn’t the worst one either.
“Man, you do not look happy,” Jessie said.
“You gonna barf? Cause if you’re gonna barf, I should warn you that seeing other people barf usually makes me barf.
You’d figure I’d have a stronger stomach after watching my man kick the high holy shit out of yours.
I mean, there was a lot of blood, and his death gurgles were pretty sickening.
But yeah, I can handle that, yet the sight and sound of someone yacking? Does me right in. Isn’t that weird?”
Deb had no response. She imagined Sean lying on the floor of the ranch house they had once shared together, owing his life to the creature who had threatened to kill their son.
Her son, she realized. Someone who would lie to her and manipulate her like this, who brought this menace in through their front door in the first place, had no right to be Jimmy’s father. The man who was Jimmy’s actual father had died heroically while trying to save his life.
“I’m curious,” Jessie asked, tapping the blade of her knife against her chin, “did he tell you everything that happened at the reservation? Like…I dunno, anyone he might have run into?”
“What?” Deb asked, her heart clenching again. She couldn’t deal with more revelations right now.
Jessie practically cackled with glee. “Oh, this is the best fucking part,” she said, sliding her knife back into the holster on her hip. “I’m not gonna spoil that one. Go ask your husband what actually happened on the reservation. I’m sure you’ll find it enlightening.”
Jessie turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Deb to wordlessly watch her leave, too stunned to speak and too angry to move. Her entire body shook with the strain of her fury, which was breaking through her confusion and shock to become the primary emotion guiding her thoughts.
He had lied to her, preyed on her compassion and pity. She had dressed his wounds as though he were an injured puppy, her heart going out to him and how he had selflessly fought to defend them against a vicious enemy.
But it was all lies. All of it. He had done nothing to fight for them, suffered not one iota on the reservation. Then he had come back here and received a beating at the hands of Chainz and made up a sob story to gain her sympathy and tenderness.
This was it—the final straw. The EMP had shifted and warped reality, showing people for who and what they truly were.
It had changed everyone around her and exposed the darkest side of modern society.
Established institutions had crumbled and given way to a vicious scramble for survival.
But through it all, Deb had believed at the very least that she still knew and understood her husband.
She had been so painfully wrong, and now she was certain of it. Sean wasn’t the man she had married. Or perhaps he was and she had never truly known him. Either way, Deb was sick and tired of being pushed around and manipulated. She wasn’t going to take it anymore.
She looked out in the direction of the barn, where the actual people she cared about were waiting for medical care.
But that was going to have to wait for a few more minutes.
She needed to get back to the shack and collect Jimmy.
She wasn’t willing to leave him with that lying sack of crap for a second longer.
Once she had him, they’d provide some first aid to the wounded. After that, Deb had no idea what she was going to do or where she would end up. But she knew one thing, it was going to be far away from Sean Miller.