No Mercy Part 12

"You can't. It's private!"

Private aspirin? I turned the bottle in my hands to the read the contents. A prescription. In the name Hope Arpel. For prenatal vitamins. Prescribed by Doc Canaday.

Two months ago.

My mouth dropped open. "You're pregnant?"

She wouldn't look at me. Sophie suddenly seemed mighty interested in the cow and chicken wallpaper border above the refrigerator.

Stay calm. "That is why you've been so sick? And you didn't think I deserved to know? Instead, you let me worry because no one could figure out what was wrong with you?"

"It's not your job to worry about me. I've been doing just fine without you." Her self-righteousness vanished, and her chin wobbled. "I knew you'd come back and take over everything."

"Someone had to."

"This baby's got nothing to do with you and is none of your business."

"Wrong. As Dad made me executor of his estate, everything that happens within this family or on this ranch is my business."

No smart answer from Hope.

"How far along are you?"

She and Sophie exchanged another look.

"Tell me, G.o.ddammit."

"Stop swearing at her," Sophie said sharply.

"I will when she answers the question."

"Three months or so."

My mind whirled. "Did Dad know?"

Hope shook her head.

"This Theo guy is the father?"

She glared at me.

"Am I the only person who doesn't know?"

"No. She didn't bother to tell me neither." Levi was sagged against the doorjamb separating the kitchen from the living room.

My anger escalated at the hurt look on his face. d.a.m.n my selfish sister.

"Levi, honey, I can explain-"

"Save it, Ma. Aunt Mercy is right. She ain't the only one who's been worried about you. But like usual, you don't care about n.o.body but yourself."

"That's not fair!"

"You know what ain't fair? If you think I'm gonna be your built-in babysitter once that brat is born. I won't stick around. You can't make me. You probably wouldn't notice if I was gone anyway. But I can guarantee you Theo ain't gonna be changing diapers. He'll expect you to do it since he follows the 'traditional' ways of the Indian, the separation of men's and women's duties within the tribe and home."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. I take his culture cla.s.s; you don't. And he's a different person around me than he is around you."

Sophie tried mediating. "Why don't we all just calm down and talk about this, eh?"

"Screw that. I'm outta here." Levi stormed out before anyone could stop him.

Hope jumped to her feet. I blocked the door. "Let him go."

"No. I have to explain."

"You should've explained long before now."

She blinked back tears.

I hated it when she cried, but I steeled my resolve not to let her off the hook this time. "Give him some time to sort through this. He's hurt, and he has a right to be upset."

"But I need to talk to him!"

"No, you need time to figure out why you kept something this important from him. He is your family. I am your family. What were you thinking, shutting us out?"

Her eyes thinned to malicious slits. "You don't have kids and you haven't been around him, so what makes you think you know anything about how he's feeling, huh?"

"It's obvious he's p.i.s.sed off at you. And how do I know that? Because you've p.i.s.sed me off more times than I can count, sis. So leave him alone. You'd better figure out a way to make this right with him, because he sure as h.e.l.l deserves better than you've given him lately. And so do I."

I slammed the door with enough force the screen popped out and bounced off the porch slats. I didn't care. It would still be there when I returned, just another d.a.m.n thing in my life I'd have to fix.

Levi peeled out across the pasture on an ATV, Shoonga racing alongside him, and he headed south toward Old Woman Creek. I could've let him go. But I suspected he's spent more time alone than he'd let on. I hopped on an older four-wheeler, trailing behind him. If he noticed me following and it made him mad, so be it. He could take his anger and frustration out on me.

He killed the engine beneath a cl.u.s.ter of cottonwood trees. Thin puffs of dust kicked up as he shuffled to the ledge of the steep bluff.

I doubted he'd do anything stupid, like pitch himself over, but I wondered how many teenagers' last thoughts before suicide were ones of remorse.

Levi backed away and dropped to the ground. He huddled into a ball and shouldered Shoonga aside until the dog flopped beside him. It reminded me that Levi might act tough and grown-up, but he was still young and vulnerable.

Shoonga panted heavily, too tired to bark at me as I climbed off the machine and ambled across the hard-packed soil.

"I ain't gonna kill myself, if that's what you're worried about," Levi said.

"I'm not."

"Then why'd you follow me?"

To see if you needed me. "To see your secret brooding place."

Levi straightened up. "How'd you know I had one?"

"All teenagers have them."

"Even you?"

"Especially me."

"Where was yours?"

"Which one?" I plopped beside him and narrowly missed jabbing my a.s.s on a tiny barrel cactus.

"You had more than one?"

"Don't you?"

His cheeky smile was there and gone. "Yeah."

"I liked to keep people guessing. I thought they'd gnash their teeth and weep and wail, distraught with guilt if they couldn't find me in my usual spot."

We watched a red-tailed hawk perform a loop-de-loop and soar higher on a thermal.

"Didja ever tell anyone where you was going?"

"Nah. But I think they knew. How about you?"

"Not usually. Ma don't care. This is my favorite, but there is another spot with one old gnarled tree. It's like I can see for a thousand miles."

I knew that place, but was surprised he did, as it was fairly isolated. "How'd you stumble across it?"

"The person who showed it to me meets me there sometimes." He tossed a flat piece of toffee-colored sandstone over the edge. It made a hollow c.h.i.n.k. "She's cool. She listens to me whenever I'm mad at my mom. Which has been a lot lately."

"My brooding spots were directly related to who I was mad at. If it was Sophie, I usually stomped around the kitchen. Drove her crazier than if I'd taken off and left her in peace."

The corner of his mouth twitched.

"If I was mad at my dad, I hid in that grove of old elm trees. I'd climb to the highest branch so I could see far away, since that's where I planned to go."

"Is that the grove where you practice target shooting now?"

"Yeah." I fiddled with a k.n.o.bby cottonwood twig and peeled the bark away, revealing the whitish-green meaty wood. "If your mom p.i.s.sed me off, which was pretty regularly, I holed up down by the creek. I'd stand on that big boulder, shaped like a chef's hat, and whip rocks in the water."

Neither of us spoke. The hair on the back of my arms p.r.i.c.kled from the heat. The occasional insect buzzed past my ear. No wind meant the leaves in the trees were as quiet as the air between us.

"Why didn't she tell me?" He absentmindedly scratched behind Shoonga's ears.

"No clue. What she did was wrong, Levi. I've explained the reasons for her actions most of her life. I guess maybe it's easy for her to avoid taking responsibility for anything."

"See? You're still doing it. Making excuses for her."

Smart kid. "You're right."

"Well, I ain't gonna do it anymore."

"Do what?"

"Make excuses. And I'm sick of hers. She's gonna be p.i.s.sed, and Theo will give me a lecture on respecting my mother if I say anything, and I cannot deal with either of them."

"Does Theo do that a lot?"

"What?"

"Try to act like your father?"

"Shee. If he ain't yelling at me, then he's ignoring me. Whenever Ma starts crying, which is all the time lately, he starts acting like it's my fault... like if I were a better kid, she wouldn't be sad. I hate it. Makes me wanna run away like Albert had been doing." Levi nudged me with his shoulder. "Hey, maybe I could stay with you at Grandpa's house for a while. I used to stay there a lot. That'd be fun, doncha think? You and me hanging out? Like we did that summer you were here? When you showed me how to make those cool native friends.h.i.+p bracelets?"

Like I needed more friction in my life, especially between my sister and me, but Levi needed someone on his side. Truthfully, it touched me he'd remembered those funky, wildly popular friends.h.i.+p bracelets we'd made the year he'd turned seven. I'd been determined to reconnect with my nephew during the four short weeks I'd been on furlough. And because the "craft" gene skipped me, I'd secretly burned the midnight oil, learning to braid, just so Levi and I could do an activity together that interested him. Some people are scared of guns; I have the same reaction when faced with embroidery floss.

"So what do you say?" Levi prompted.

"Sure. But I want you to do one thing first. Go home. Talk to her. Tell her how you feel."

"About what?"

"About how she treats you. About your issues with Theo."

"In other words, make sure Ma knows it wasn't your idea."

"Pretty much."

"All right. I'll do it tomorrow. I won't be around tonight."

"Where you going?"

"Out." He sighed. "Trying to make new friends sucks, eh?"

Th.o.r.n.y silence again. No easy way to lead up to what'd happened to his friend, so I dove right in. "Speaking of friends... Do you think someone killed Albert?"

Levi looked at me strangely. "I dunno. Why?"

"His mom doesn't think his death was an accident."

He didn't seem surprised by that observation.

"She thinks someone killed him and dumped his body here," I added.

"Is she blaming me because he was found on our land?"