Dance Away with Me(104)

“You’d better do something about that hand first,” Freddy said.

“Later.” He grabbed Tess’s car keys.

Freddy followed him outside and hovered over the frightened eight-year-old. “If you were my kid, you wouldn’t sit down for a month.”

Exactly what Ian was afraid of.

*

Paul came running from the field as he spotted Ian’s headlights. “Eli!” He pulled open the car door and reached in to grab his son. “Eli! Where have you been? What the hell did you do?” He glanced over at Ian. “Is the baby all right?”

Ian nodded. “Yes. We need to talk.”

“Damn straight we’re going to talk.” He jerked his son from the car and toward the front door. Ian followed.

Rebecca stood with one hand curled over the back of the couch to support herself. “Eli!”

Eli ran to her, crying and apologizing, his words muffling as he buried his face against her.

Paul stood watching them. His clothes were worn, his hands dirty. The deep, sun-etched lines in his face made him look older than he was. Ian touched his shoulder. “Outside. We have some things to discuss.”

Paul didn’t protest. He was a man comfortable with hard work, not emotional displays, something Ian understood all too well.

The dogs sniffed at Ian’s feet as they went into the yard. Paul pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket. “I’ll make this up to you,” he said stiffly.

“There’s only one thing I want.”

“What is it?”

Ian gazed toward the ramshackle barn. “I grew up with an old man who beat the shit out of me. I want your word that won’t happen to Eli.”

Paul’s jaw tightened. “He’s going to be punished, that’s for damn sure.”

“Think long and hard about what that punishment is going to be.” Ian set his uninjured hand against one of the barn’s rough posts. “I’ll give it to you straight. What Eli did is on you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tess told you a week ago that your wife needs help. Hell, anybody could see that. But you haven’t done a damn thing about it, have you?”

“We take care of ourselves,” Paul said stubbornly.

Ian met his glare dead-on. “How’s that working out for you?”

Paul looked away. “She’ll get over it.”

“When? Eli believes his mother’s dying, and from the look of things, I can’t blame him. What he did was scary as hell, but it was the only way he could think of to help his mother. How does that feel, Eldridge? A kid trying to do what you won’t do.”

“You think I don’t love my kid? That I don’t love my wife? That’s why we’re here. So I can keep them safe from all the shit out there!”

“But what’s keeping them safe from you?” Ian said quietly.

Paul stared at him.

“You’re pigheaded and stubborn. Your wife needs counseling, medication—hell, I don’t know. All I know is that telling her to get over it isn’t working, and because of that, you put my family in jeopardy. You did it. Not your kid.”

Ian half-expected Paul to take a swing at him, but he didn’t. Instead, he ground out his cigarette and stalked back to his house.

*

Tess looked up at him as he came in. She was curled in the chair by the cabin window, her face pale and Wren asleep in her arms. She gave him a wobbly smile, a smile that quickly turned to concern. “Your hand . . .”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Bad enough.” Her forehead wrinkled. “The first aid kit is at the schoolhouse.”

He hated all her back-and-forth from the cabin to the schoolhouse. He needed her to stay put. With him. Where she belonged. “We’re going up there.” He pretended not to notice her hesitation and grabbed the diaper bag and Wren’s nest. “We’re leaving.”

Maybe she wanted to get away from the cabin as much as he did because she didn’t argue.

When they reached the schoolhouse, she made him check all the doors and windows, something he suspected she’d be doing for a long time. He retrieved the first aid kit and set it on the table, then washed his hands at the sink. It stung like hell. The wound wasn’t long, but it was deep, and it started to bleed again.

She couldn’t tend to him and hold the baby at the same time, but she couldn’t seem to put her down. He understood and took Wren from her. The baby stirred, opened her eyes, saw him, and closed them again.

He sat at the table, Wren in his free arm, and while Tess bandaged him up, he filled her in on everything that had happened. She inspected the final dressing. “I want to kill Eli, but . . .”

“I know.”

“Do you think Paul will hurt him?”

Ian considered how his survivalist neighbor was both different and similar to himself. “No. He loves his kid and his wife. He’s just stubborn and paranoid.”

“I’ll check on them tomorrow.”

“Of course, you will. I’m also sure you’ll be checking on Savannah and her baby. Then there’s Kelly and Ava. I wouldn’t be half-surprised if you went to see Winchester, too, just to lecture him.”

“The busybody of Tempest, Tennessee.”