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“You lost your leg too. And your foot on the other leg. You’re lucky that you didn’t lose them both to the thigh. How much will that cost for you to pay me back?” It was cruel, and he hated himself for saying it like that, but his brother was hurting him too. “Would you like to see?”
Instead of waiting for him to answer, Joel stood up and jerked the tent off his bed. There was blood on the little blue padding on the bed, and the stumps where his foot and leg had been were bleeding through. Saul just stared at them, like he was trying to take it all in.
“You did this to me.” Joel wanted to point out that he’d done nothing to him at all. “You left me out there to die, and when you had the chance, you had them operate on me so that I’d be a cripple all my life.”
“You did this to yourself, Saul. You knew that you were a diabetic. They told you about it ten years ago. The prison knew it, and that’s why you were on a diet there. They said that they even gave you a prescription to get filled to make sure you were okay. But you never once picked it up. Why? Why would you do that to yourself?” Saul pulled his eyes away from his body to glare at him. “You can be upset with me all you want, but we both know this was all your doing.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you? A man with a wife, money to burn, and you have not one thing to give to me. All your life you got whatever you wanted, while I was left in the dust. Mom even made you cakes for your birthday. All I got was a single cookie.” He asked him if Mom had known what his health was like. “Of course she did, you moron. That’s why she hated me so much. I had to have everything special to eat. But I wanted everything to be special for me all the time, like new clothing when you didn’t get some, a new coat instead of the used one that Dad had outgrown, I never got anything because Mom and Dad hated me.”
“Because we were broke, Saul. Didn’t you understand that?” Saul asked him why that should matter to him. “Because to give you everything that you wanted, we would have had to go without. Don’t you see that?”
“Again, how is that my burden to carry? I’m special. And everyone needs to see that.” Joel sat back down after laying the cover over Saul. “Like that’s going to make it any better, you fucking idiot. You had them take me apart so that you think you’ll be safe from me. But you won’t be. Not ever. I want you to go out, kill someone, and bring their legs to me. The doctor will just have to put them back on me.”
“You can’t be serious.” Saul asked him why he thought that he wasn’t. “Because first of all, I’m not killing anyone for you. Ever. And secondly, there isn’t any way that anyone is going to put you back together. This is what you did to yourself by not taking care of your body.”
Joel stood up.
“Sit your ass back down. I’m far from finished with you.” Joel started to sit—it had been ingrained into his head to obey Saul or face the pain. But he stood his ground, lifting his chin up, feeling like a better man. “You sit that fucking ass of yours down and do what I told you. I will not be a cripple, Joel. I’m not a man that can deal with that sort of thing. Do what I told you, now.”
“No.” Joel felt better for that, standing up to Saul and standing his ground. “No, I will not be your whipping boy again. You’ve been set up to go to a nursing home after here. They’ll make sure that you’re on a diet that won’t kill you off. And they’ll help you acclimate yourself to being unable to walk. After that, I believe you’ll go back to prison, one that can care for your needs. I hope you have a good life, though if I was honest with you, I could care less if you do or not. I’m going to tell the desk not to contact me anymore. I won’t come here again; none of my family will visit you. And you’ll be all alone. The way you should have been all along.”
Joel left Saul then. After stopping by the desk and telling them what he wanted, he made his way to his family. Hugging them to him, Joel could hear Saul down the hall, still screaming for him to come back and kill someone for him. And to pay him.
“Let’s go home, all right?” They did, talking about anything but Saul on the way there. “After we get the truck to go to the storage unit, I’d very much like to have dinner and make plans to go on a long trip with my favorite girls. Then, when we return, we’ll set up the nursery.”
“Sounds like a wonderful plan.” Mercy kissed him and held him before they went into the house. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I think I am. I’m not going to see him again. I can’t do that. It’s too much.” Mercy said she understood. “Thank you. For everything. I love you.”
“And I love you.”
Chapter 11
The storage warehouse that they’d used over the decades needed some repairs. Mercy was just looking at one of the smaller pieces when she spied a cracked window. Yes, she decided, it was time to get this thing updated. Perhaps even put in a bathroom or two. She was forever having to pee nowadays.
They found the jukebox right away, even plugged it in and listened to the old tunes on it as they searched for anything they wanted. It had been a long time since anyone had been in here, and there was a memory with everything they uncovered. She found the canopy bed just as she was thinking about it. Miley squealed with delight when Piper, who had owned it, said she could have it.
“But what about if you have a daughter? Won’t you want her to have it?” Piper laughed and uncovered the second one. “You have two of the same bed? What on earth for?”
“I forgot that I had it. You have to remember, we have been around for a long time. That one that I gave you was in the castle when we raided it. Dante, I think, would have loved for you—the first of many grandchildren, I’m betting—to have it. It’s all hand made. But I do think you’ll need to have a mattress special made for it. It’s very wide and long.”
There was a dresser that went with it, and a high boy. Things for Miley were set, as far as the little girl was concerned. Mercy was still looking for the queen’s bed when Joel unearthed a large trunk.
“Do you have the key to it?” Mercy told him to touch it, saying special words. “Seriously? That’s all I have to do?”
“Yes, keys were basically the same back then and forever coming up missing. So Dante came up with a way for it to work without one.” Joel asked her what the words were. “Falcon, hawk, eagle, phoenix, vulture, and owl. Us.”
“Why not your names?” Esme said that they didn’t have names back then. They had picked out their own. “So, you thought of Mercy?”
“Yes, well, there’s a gory story that goes with that.” Mercy looked at Blaze when she said she wanted to tell it. “It’s not true, just so you know.”
“It is true. She would forever be begged for mercy while we were fighting. One man begged her for mercy over and over until it sort of stuck with her. So, whenever anyone saw her great falcon coming for them, they’d start begging. Mercy wasn’t much given back in those days, so you know.”
The trunk was opened, and Mercy watched as Miley and Joel took out several of the pieces and marveled over them. Some of the pieces of jewelry she remembered, but most she didn’t. There were bejeweled knives, as well as a couple of crowns that they’d won in victory. Also, some very pretty gems, none of which had meant anything to them at the time.
“I’d like to take one of these and put it in my room. If that’s all right with you guys.” They all agreed that Miley could have it. “I know that it’s expensive and I will take care of it. But I’d like to wear it sometimes. Just to feel like a queen.”
“Well, that one is a male crown.” They all laughed when Miley put it back in the trunk. But Piper bent and picked up a smaller one, one that was much more ornate than the rest. “This one, I believe, was taken from a woman that had stolen it from the castle we were raiding. She had tried to buy me off with it. Of course, like Mercy, we didn’t take it. What use would a giant bird have with a crown anyway?”
