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“Alex loves her,” Hoyt stated. “You should see them together, Mother. I think we’re wrong about her. ”
There was a hint of misery in his expression as he turned away from her. “And Natches, he’s her brother.
He loves her like a brother. She doesn’t act like Dayle. ”
“We can’t take the chance. ” Augusta shrugged her jacket off, revealing a man’s flannel shirt and jeans.
She wore military boots, and there was a handgun holstered at her side. “Besides, I didn’t agree to
anything. ”
“You didn’t take your medicine. ”
“Get off my back about the medicine, Hoyt,” she snapped, brushing back her brown hair. “I told you, we can’t let her infect the lives of those we care about. Alex is almost like a brother to me. He hasn’t even come to see me because of her. ” A thin finger pointed accusingly at Janey. “And the gossip is already flying. He’ll never make chief of police with that bitch on his arm, and you know it. ”
Janey watched Hoyt. She kept her eyes on his face, pleading. He looked saner than his mother, but he looked resigned. As though he knew he couldn’t keep Janey alive.
“Oh, Mother. ” Hoyt raked his fingers through his hair as he sat down on an abandoned kitchen chair and glanced back at Janey.
His gaze flickered to her waist, and misery was reflected in his face. He saw the communications device.
She knew he did. Her heart was in her throat as he shook his head sadly.
“Hoyt, you know what’s going to happen. We’ve discussed it. ”
Augusta meant to kill her and Janey knew it. She could feel her stomach cramping with the fear. Fear for Alex, because she knew he was looking for her. Fear for the child she might be carrying, because if she died, so did the baby Alex wanted so desperately. Desperately enough to pledge himself to her.
“You promised you would let it go. ” Hoyt sighed wearily. “After you nearly got caught tossing those bombs in her house, you swore you would let it go. ”
“I can’t let it go,” she yelled furiously, her lined face twisting in anger. “I waited at his house with the tranquilizer gun. I wasn’t going to hurt him. He would have slept right through her death. But he had to try to trick me. Him and those queers he’s running with. You saw the pictures, Hoyt. She’s making him just like those two men are. Fucking her ass like some fairy. He’s losing his manhood. ”
Augusta paced the basement now. She tried to push the fallen strands of brown hair into the clip at the top of her head, but they kept falling free. Her face was flushed with fury, her hazel eyes were flat, dead.
The anger was more a show for Hoyt. The woman facing them was cold. Hard.
“You’re nothing like your father, Hoyt,” Augusta sneered then. “When Jimmy and I were in the Army, he was the strongest man in his group. He taught me everything he knew and he tried to teach you. I tried to teach you. What happened to you?”
Hoyt shook his head. “I’m not a killer, Mother. ”
“Your father wasn’t a killer; he was a patriot,” she yelled.
Hoyt stared around the basement, his expression so filled with grief that Janey felt tears fill her eyes. She had always liked Hoyt. He was a hard worker, quiet. But he’d never seemed crazy; he’d never seemed devious.
“Mother was in the Army for a while,” he told her quietly. “Her and Dad worked together sometimes.
They were a helluva team. ”
Pride transfused Augusta’s face. “Jimmy was so strong, wasn’t he, Hoyt?”
Hoyt nodded. “Yes, Mother, Dad was very strong. ”
“Until he died. ” Her face twisted in grief, her hazel eyes finally lit with emotion, with pain. “They took him away from us in Iraq. Bitches like her!” She pointed a sharp, thin finger in Janey’s direction. “Traitorous sluts. ”
Hoyt looked back at Janey. “They made it look like Father was having an affair. ” Bitter knowledge glittered in his eyes. “He was found in a bed in a filthy little hovel with a young Middle Eastern woman.
They were both dead. ”
Janey swallowed back the bile in her throat.
