The Dead and the Dark(75)

“Can I go home?” Ashley asked. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes until the backs of her eyelids spotted with color. “I just wanna go home.”

“Ah, um … you seem pretty shook up.” Deputy Golden checked his watch. “Paris didn’t think you’d be okay to drive yourself. And with some of the legal stuff, he just wanted to make sure nothing bad happened.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed. She prayed he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying. “I’m eighteen. I’m a legal adult.”

Deputy Golden gave her a thin grimace, then glanced over his shoulder. As Paris pulled away from the lake and drove down the highway, a white Land Rover parked along the shoulder in its place. It wasn’t just any mammoth-size vehicle; Tammy Barton’s car was complete with a WORLD’S BEST MOM decal and a license plate frame that read OWYHEE COUNTY FARMER’S UNION. She threw the beast of a car into park, climbed out, and thundered down the gravel shoulder toward the picnic bench.

Ashley braced herself.

“Is she okay?” Tammy demanded.

“Yeah, she wasn’t hurt,” Deputy Golden said. “Paris is taking the other one back to the station, but Ashley’s free to go.”

“She’s not being arrested?”

Ashley gripped her blanket. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Tammy turned on her with a fire in her eyes Ashley had never seen before. This wasn’t like with Bug. Her mother wasn’t just happy she was alive. Tammy turned back to Deputy Golden and softened. “Well, I appreciate the call. We’ll head home. Call me if you need anything else.”

“Will do.”

Tammy motioned Ashley toward the car and Ashley followed.

The ride back to Barton Ranch was quiet as the night outside. Ashley sank into the passenger seat and watched the hills streak past her. Usually, they listened to Christian hits on the radio with the air conditioner on full blast, but tonight, the car was silent. Even the sound of Tammy’s breathing was subdued. This Tammy Barton was the one Ashley feared. She wasn’t soft and supportive. She seethed with a smoldering anger that was slowly working its way to the surface. Ashley felt it like a brand against her skin.

They parked in the driveway and Tammy threw open her door. She stormed into the house with Ashley at her heels.

“I’ve never been this embarrassed in my life,” Tammy barked once they were both inside. She swept into the entryway like a hurricane, tossing her purse at the console table. The key dish clattered to the floor, but Tammy didn’t give it even a second glance. She turned to face Ashley. “In my life.”

Ashley stood in the open doorway, eyes fixed on her mother’s face. A warm, sickly breeze gusted into the hallway, but Ashley had long since forgotten how to breathe. The Tammy Barton Ashley knew was a monument—she was carved of marble, unshakeable against the storm—but now, bathed in sallow half-light, she slouched against the kitchen counter and peeled off her black heels, discarding them across the room like they’d just been caught kissing the town pariah. Like they’d disgraced the Barton legacy she’d worked so hard to cultivate. Tammy’s voice was small in the same way a star was small moments before exploding.

But this wasn’t fair.

The fear and guilt that’d been bunching up in Ashley’s stomach since the lake began to unfold into something else. It crawled up Ashley’s throat, forcing her to bite back angry tears. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. “You’re embarrassed of me?”

Tammy considered.

“You know what? Yes. I mean, am I the last person in town to know about this? People have probably been talking about it behind my back for weeks.”

“Behind your back?”

“Yes, behind my back. We’re the backbone of this town. And you turned us into a joke.”

Ashley wiped her eyes. “Me and Logan aren’t a joke.”

“If it was serious, you would’ve told me.”

Ashley shook her head. Because telling her mother about Logan wasn’t like telling her about Tristan. It wasn’t like telling her about a failed test or a party she felt guilty about going to. There was an unspoken rule in Snakebite that said that this truth was different and dangerous. It was self-exile. It wasn’t the kind of thing Snakebite knew how to forgive.

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“Really?” Tammy asked, incredulous. “Why not?”

“I saw how you treated Logan’s dads.”

“Oh, you saw how I treated them? I guess you were a really observant toddler, then.” Tammy exhaled and her rage transformed into a bitter chill. Her perfectly maintained blond curls bobbed at her shoulders. “If you knew anything about it, you’d know I saved them.”

“You kicked them out.”

“And they’re lucky I did.”

Ashley arched a brow.

“You think they would’ve had a great life here?” Tammy asked. “You think they would’ve been happy?”

“It’s their home.”

“I love Snakebite, but I know what it is and it was never gonna be home for them.” Tammy leaned against the kitchen island, grip tight on the edge of the counter. “They were so stupid. They thought because they were from here it wouldn’t hurt them and they could just do whatever they wanted. People were ready to literally kill them and they wouldn’t leave. They have no idea how many nights I spent convincing people to put the pitchforks away.”