“I know, Milly, and I’m truly sorry. I should have just come out and told you that I was gonna stay the night with Tommy, and just so you know nothing happened last—” she was explaining when Milly interrupted.

  “What business happens behind closed doors is between you and Tommy, but me not knowing where ya are in the middle of the night is mine. Until this baby is born, I would appreciate ya lettin’ me know next time ya have a hankerin’ to sneak out of the house.”

  “Yes ma’am. I do have some good news,” Crystal said, happy to change the subject.

  “I thought you comin’ out of the bunkhouse was pretty good news…that is until ya said nothin’ happened,” Milly replied with a wink.

  “Oh, Milly,” Crystal said, blushing even more. “Tommy asked me to marry him.”

  “‘Bout time,” Milly said standing, giving her a hug. “I knew it was just a matter of that boy findin’ the right nerve.”

  “I never thought I would ever love again after James and especially not this soon, but I love him, Milly, I really do love him.”

  “The heart holds no measure on time, honey. Remember what I told ya about time? Ya just have to let it take its course.”

  They talked the rest of the morning on everything from the birth of the baby, to planning a wedding that they could have in Milly’s living room after the baby was born. They both laughed as they saw Tommy avoid the house and breakfast all together, heading out to his place on his motorcycle with not so much as a backwards glance. Milly told Crystal she would have her fun with him when he came in for supper, because she knew he wouldn’t pass up two of her meals in one day.

  Chapter Ten

  The week was coming to an end and the three were inseparable, except when Tommy was out in the fields. Milly had taken Crystal for her checkup this particular morning and the doctor said he didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t do a few hours of shopping. So, she and Milly bought as much of the final baby items that they needed in the amount of time they had. Crystal was getting tired, but knew they still needed to get things from the market. Milly didn’t want to leave Crystal in the truck and wasn’t taking no for an answer. She drove her home and unloaded the truck, making sure Crystal had her feet up and glass of cold tea in her hand, then headed back into town.

  Crystal was sleeping so hard that she never heard Devon Black opening the living room door. He watched her sleeping on the couch from the foyer entrance and stared as her chest rose, drawing air into her lungs. He found it to be beautiful the way she laid with one hand on top of her stomach, and grossly ironic that it was the very position he needed her in to do the deed that he was paid to do.

  Devon heard the sound of a motor coming in from the back area of the property and disappeared into the depths of the house. Crystal also heard the motor of Tommy’s motorcycle and woke up as Devon stepped out of sight. Tommy parked in front of the house and came in through the front door, not paying any mind to the fact that the door wasn’t locked. Crystal walked around the corner of the living room and scared Tommy into cursing, causing Crystal to start laughing.

  “That was not funny, young lady. I thought you were in town with Milly,” he said, still holding his chest.

  “She brought me home because I got tired after all the shopping we did, then went back to the market. You know Milly, she wouldn’t even let me wait in the truck,” she explained, walking up to give him a kiss.

  “I like this,” Tommy said smiling, holding her around the waist.

  “Like what?”

  “Coming in from a hard day of work with you meeting me at the door, like this.”

  They hugged, then went into the kitchen so Tommy could wash up. Afterwards, they waited on the veranda for Milly to get back from town. After supper, Tommy said goodnight to the women, giving Crystal her nightly kiss and Milly her nightly hug, and then excused himself. Milly and Crystal finished cleaning the kitchen and headed upstairs. Milly went straight to bed, worn out from the long day she’d spent in town, but Crystal wanted to soak in a bubble bath.

  Devon waited for the house to become quiet before he ventured out of the basement. He opened the door that led into the hall by the staircase and slid out without a sound. He could see a dim light coming from the second floor, right before he heard the water turn on. He decided to wait downstairs until whoever was in the bathroom went to bed. Thirty minutes later, the bathroom door came open, illuminating the upper hallway.

  Devon stayed in the shadows downstairs, watching as the figure moved around on the second floor. When the figure started making its way to the staircase, he saw by the silhouette it was the woman he was there for. He moved silently back into the hall, opening the basement door and ducking in as Crystal came down the stairs. She turned and walked past the basement door that stood open just a crack, not knowing she was being watched, and went into the kitchen for something to drink.

  She held her glass of tea in one hand and turned the kitchen light off with the other, then headed back down the hall. She walked past the basement door, only this time it was closed tight and Devon was gone. She walked to the front door, making sure it was locked, and looked out, taking a drink of her tea. She started to turn to go back up the stairs when Devon stepped up behind her and put a gun in her back.

  “If you make a sound, I’ll kill you where you stand,” he whispered in her ear.

  She became so numb with fright that she dropped the glass, shattering it on the hard wood floor. Devon grabbed her with his free hand around the throat, still standing behind her, and spun her around, pushing her toward the door with the hand holding the gun, pressing it firmly into the middle of her stomach.

  “That was a very stupid thing to do,” he said, gritting his teeth.

  “What do you want?” she struggled to ask, pushing her voice past the pressure he had on her throat.

  He didn’t respond, only pushed her back into the wall while he tried to unlock the door and keep her in place at the same time. He saw Crystal’s eyes widen as she looked behind him, then saw a glint in the glass on the front door and ducked down right before Milly’s shotgun went off over his head. He turned around, running at Milly, hitting her in the head and face several times with the butt of his gun, dropping her to the ground like a rag doll. Crystal picked up a vase and hit him over the back of the head, screaming for him to stop when he turned on her, knocking her to the ground with two hits of his fist.

  Tommy came running out of the bunkhouse half-dressed at the sound of Milly’s shotgun, and was at the back door within seconds. He pounded his fist on the door a few times, then took off for the front door. When Devon saw Tommy run up on the front porch, he carried Crystal’s unconscious body toward the kitchen. Tommy saw Milly lying in the foyer and slammed his shoulder into the heavy wooden door, not budging it an inch. He put his fist through the small window on the door and called out Crystal’s name, receiving no response.

  Adrenaline took over and Tommy picked up a chair from Milly’s veranda, smashing it through the plate glass window. He was through it and by Milly’s side in a single leap. He checked her pulse when he still couldn’t get a response out of her, and called out Crystal’s name again. He ran up the stairs, skipping every other step and stumbled into her room. He called out her name in desperation, then turned and all but jumped back down to the bottom floor.

  Tommy slid into the kitchen as Devon was taking Crystal out the back door. Crystal opened her eyes as Devon dropped her legs and raised his gun, firing it in Tommy’s direction. She screamed out, tearing her nails down the side of Devon’s face and kneeing him in the groin. He bent over, hissing at the pain, grabbing himself with one hand and pointing the gun at her with the other. She looked down at the gun in his hand, then back to where Tommy lay with the upper half of his body in the hall and his lower half in the kitchen, blood spreading across the right side of his shirt.

  Crystal stumbled back at the devastating sight of Tommy’s lifeless body. She had gone into deep shock, so deep that she had no reaction when Devon set the gun on the cabinet and grabbed her by the arm, backhanding her so hard her knees buckled. She just kneeled there staring at nothing, while blood poured from her nose.

  “That’s for the face, bitch, I’ll pay you back later for the jewels,” Devon said, glaring down at her.

  Tommy stood up dazed as Devon was dragging Crystal’s limp form up by her upper arms, shaking her violently when she refused to stand. Tommy took a running leap toward the table, rage filling his eyes with red flames as his foot hit the seat of the chair, pivoting him forward. His other foot took the top of the table, making him completely airborne in one push, right in the direction of the only thing Tommy could see in his moment of rage, and by the time he crashed into Devon, he was nothing more than an animal that had claimed its prey. Tommy started swinging his fist into the top of Devon’s head as soon as the two crashed into the back door. Devon stayed bent over and pulled a knife out of his boot, then swung it out, catching Tommy across the upper thigh.

  Tommy jumped back holding his hands out in front of him defensively, trying to block the swings of Devon’s swift moves with the blade. A loud discharge of a gun rang out next to Tommy’s ear and he froze as Devon fell up against the back door. Devon’s body slid down, leaving a trail of blood from where Crystal had shot him in the head. Tommy looked over at Crystal who was still pointing the gun at the place where Devon had been standing, shaking uncontrollably.

  “Baby? Baby, can you hear me?”

  Tommy gently put his hand on top of hers, taking the gun from her and dropped it to the floor. He put his hands on each side of her face and looked into eyes that were open, but weren’t looking back. He said her name softly several times, but shock had taken her mind. He picked her up, carried her to the living room and laid her on the couch, covering her with the shawl that hung on the coat rack. He checked to see if Milly was still alive, and then called the police, making sure that they sent an ambulance and begged them to hurry.

  The police arrived at Milly’s and put Tommy in cuffs first thing, using the excuse that until they had Milly’s story, he would stay at the station. Tommy had told the police that it was he that shot the intruder after the two had fought and struggled over the gun. He told them everything from the time he heard the shotgun blast, up until the time he called them and still they chose not to believe him. He even brought up the fact that they had seen the threatening letters that Crystal had been getting, but they no more cared to hear what he had to say than they cared about those letters.

  Milly was the first to be rushed out. She had been beaten so badly with the butt of Devon’s gun that she was almost unrecognizable. Crystal’s face didn’t look much better, as she had taken several punches from Devon’s fist. The paramedics were concerned about the baby, but more so about her frame of mind than anything. When they asked what her name was, she just sat there, looking out at nothing. Tommy was enraged because he wanted to hold her, show her he was with her, but the sheriff wouldn’t allow it.

  The paramedics were taking Crystal out of the house on the stretcher, passing in front of the area where the sheriff had Tommy sitting by the foyer. Once they got close to him, he stood up, rushing to her side. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips, “I love you, Crissy. It’s gonna be okay, baby.” She blinked and said his name just as Sheriff Davenport hit him in the back of the head with his police baton, knocking him unconscious.

  Tommy wasn’t taken to the hospital like Crystal and Milly were, he went in the back seat of a patrol car. The gunshot wound on his shoulder was a clean shot that went straight through. The knife wound on his upper thigh had been wrapped by the paramedics on the scene, but as far as the shoulder wound, the sheriff refused to allow them to un-cuff Tommy to treat it. Apparently the wound wasn’t bleeding profusely enough for the good ole sheriff and that Tommy had been, in his words, “involved in previous unsolved murders.” He just couldn’t take the chance.

  Tommy knew he was being taken for another trip back in time, different story with the same meaning behind it. He sat there watching the commotion from the backseat of the patrol car, with his shoulders slumped forward, tapping his foot with the rhythm of his heartbeat. His anger grew every second that the sheriff took to “investigate the scene,” as the sheriff had put it, knowing that he was taking his time just to be cruel. Tommy’s mind swam in forty different directions, concern ripping pieces of his common sense away with every passing moment.

  Tommy looked out the window, strands of hair covered in dried sweat and blood, hanging loosely over his face. His blue eyes glared at the men standing around, wasting time that he could be with his family and madness drove his next move. Tommy laid over in the seat, pulling his knees to his chest, and rolled to his back. With his hands still cuffed behind his back, he started rocking himself to gain momentum. He brought his knees to his chin, then kicked out as he rocked back down, shattering the window of the door.

  Every man that stood on Milly’s veranda fought to get out of the one screen door, thinking the same thing—that Tommy had taken off…escaped out the window. Three officers had their weapons drawn when they reached the vehicle. The first man that looked in the window screamed out that Tommy was in the car and every officer on sight pulled his weapon. Jessie Davenport came charging through the middle of the herd of nine, and told one of the deputies to get the prisoner to the station and behind bars.

  Two officers removed Tommy from the patrol car that he’d vandalized and started to put him in another one when Jessie told them to hold up. Tommy rolled his eyes as they turned him around to face the man that hated him the most. Jerry Davenport was the young man that died in the tank that day in the desert—Jessie Davenport’s twin brother. Tommy had stood in this same position many times before with the same man telling him that he should have died and not his brother. This time, Tommy thought, things had to be different.

  “How many times is this good town gonna have to be smeared with the likes of you?”

  “Jessie, this is more important than what you think of me. Milly and Crissy could be dying and you’re still so pissed at me, you can’t think of anything but things that can’t be changed. He was my best friend, Jess...you both were,” Tommy explicated in full sincerity.

  “He was my brother,” Jessie said, turning around. “Get ‘im out of here.”

  Tommy was first taken to the station to be booked, and then drove over to the back entrance of the hospital to be x-rayed and stitched up. Once Tommy was at the hospital, he started asking questions about Milly and Crystal, but no one would talk to him. He was cuffed to the bed by his left ankle and wrist, and couldn’t get loose no matter how hard he tried. The doctor ordered him a shot of pain meds mixed with a little antidepressant to calm him down, knocking him smooth out ten minutes after he was injected.

  Crystal was in a private room for observation. Her face was swollen and bruised, but otherwise physically she was fine. The baby’s heartbeat was strong and steady. The only thing that gave the doctor’s concern was Crystal’s mental state. She remembered part of the night, and that part matched what Tommy had told the police in his statement at the station, but because her memory was not complete, Tommy was going to be held until the sheriff had Milly’s side of the story.

  Milly was in a drug induced coma to keep her as stable as they could with the swelling she had inside of her head. The blows she took on the head had fractured her skull and bruised her brain, causing it to bleed. Her left arm was broken above the elbow from when she collapsed in the beating and her hip was badly bruised. Milly was in ICU on the third floor and Crystal was in the maternity ward on the second floor. Tommy waited, lost in the world of narcotic dreams, to be transferred back to the police station.

  Chapter Eleven

  Three days went by and Crystal was giving the hospital nine kinds of hell. She wanted to be moved to a room where she could be closer to Milly and she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Milly had been taken out of ICU the morning of the third day, with all signs looking toward the plus side. She was still held in the induced coma, because the doctor wanted to be sure the bleeding wouldn’t start back up before removing the drain tube and stopping the meds. Crystal went to Milly’s side every time she was allowed in the ICU and now that Milly was out, she wanted to be where she could be with her as much as she wanted.

  Crystal had called the police station so many times that she had her phone removed from her room. She was diligent about wanting to talk to Tommy, even swearing she would get up out of the hospital bed and go down there if they didn’t let her. The sheriff put an officer outside of her hospital room, with strict orders to follow her wherever she went if she left the room. When the doctor finally came in that afternoon, Crystal was determined to get her way before he walked out.

  “Please, doc, if you won’t move me up with Milly, then release me, so I can be with her on my own.”

  “You are doing surprisingly well,” he said, looking through her chart. “But, we both know Sheriff Davenport won’t be pleased if I release you, so I’ll make sure you and Milly are put in the same room by tonight.”

  Crystal crawled out of her bed and gave the doctor a hug.

  “Thank you so much, Dr. Evans. I know she’ll do better with me by her side.”

  “I completely agree. Milly’s MRI looked better than I could have hoped for. I never thought she would have done this good, not with what her body went through, and especially not at her age. We won’t know until she wakes up if she’s out of the woods, but everything is looking real good,” he explained, leading her back to the side of the bed.

  “Why can’t everyone in this town be like you, doc?” Crystal asked, sliding her legs under the cover.

 

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