Just Close Enough

1

DRAW ME IN, MY SWEET MEDUSA

ALEXANDER

October

Revenge.

I was the kind of man who wouldn’t let my brother’s disappearance go unsolved. If the military couldn’t discover what happened to Kon and his friend Billy I would.

Whether Kon was dead or alive, the trail went cold in Crossroads.

Day after day, I searched every backwoods shanty and abandoned still in Billy Buford’s hometown and he was nowhere to be found. I should admit I’d come up empty-handed and chalk it up to another dead end. Over the last weeks, I’d convinced myself that I’d trekked into the armpit of Marshall County so I could continue my pursuit of Billy, but I had been sticking around to keep an eye on her. I adjusted the binoculars and cracked my neck as a drop of sweat ran down my sideburn.

She reemerged from the barn, foreign and beautiful, sweet and Southern, so unlike the women I’ve been with before. Maybe it’s her differentness making me yearn, maybe it’s the lack of female companionship, or maybe it’s as simple as the way she smiles. Perhaps it’s the way people smile back at her with their faces filled with happiness when she offers them a kind word. Or it could be their laughter when she offers a saucy reply.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I think I’d like mine hot, hot and bothered.

My car was parked behind a stand of cattails, just beyond the dilapidated-looking barn, so I could admire the muscles in her legs when she put her boot in the stirrup and boosted herself up into the saddle. Her breasts bounced when she landed, taunting me further. Her hair was as flaxen blonde as her horse’s mane and it streamed through the breeze behind her as she urged the horse into a gallop. She leaned over the horse’s neck and whispered words in the animal’s ear. I imagined her lying over me, her silky hair cascading over my bare shoulders as she murmured encouraging words to urge me on.

I’d discovered Polly Anna while in pursuit of my prey, Billy Buford, the man who certainly led my big brother astray. I’d only met Billy once over a beer with my brother. I thought of him as Billy goat gruff; he was thick through the neck and thick in the head, as well as a bruiser and bully. I couldn’t figure out what Kon saw in the guy; before Billy had finished his second beer he was chasing some skank. After he left with her Kon told me Billy was engaged to a beautiful girl — belle of the South — Kon called her. I gave my brother a double take — how could anything so shallow acquire anything of worth?

Dumb luck was the only explanation that made sense because she was the most tantalizing thing I’d come across in Alabama. But I’d never been desperate enough for female companionship that I’d stalked an unsuspecting female. I expelled a heavy breath into the humid air and the rearview mirror fogged up. I chuckled at the thought of her body hovering over mine, telling me what to do. When had I ever needed directions? Especially from a sweet little piece wearing frayed Daisy Dukes.

The binoculars felt slippery in my hands as I pushed them over the leather on the passenger’s seat. I had to stop this; I chastised myself as I rearranged myself in my seat. I was obsessing over her as much as what I’d come to this backwoods town for in the first place.

I was here for revenge. Retribution. I’d take it hot or cold, maybe I’d have a serving of each.

My tongue moistened my lips as she faded into the distance. Maybe she was a way to get even with him, even if I couldn’t find him. Everything I’d learned of her had shown her to be innocent and unaware of any of the things I wanted recompense for. Her family, on the other hand, well, they might be as guilty as her missing fiancée was. Maybe there was a way I could get just close enough to her to get the information I was looking for.

My head relaxed against the headrest, I closed my eyes and expelled another breath; the stagnant air was getting to me. My phone had no signal so there wasn’t a lot I could do except sit and wait for her to be clear of the road leading out of Pigeon Hollow. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to call anyway and I was content, as I often was with my own company.

I’d had the same argument with myself over and over again, it would be wrong to involve her in this. I’d give her enough time to take her horse off the main road before I headed back into Crossroads. Any nagging interest to meet her I’d fought off by rationalizing there was no need to find out up close if she was the reason a bright smile danced across the features of people when they spoke of her. I’d been watching her for weeks now, fantasizing . . . lusting after her since the moment I’d first laid eyes on her coming out of Billy’s house. She belonged to him and she might be the easiest way to pick up the trail of the bastard. Still, something about her cheerful, confident demeanor kept me from approaching her on one of her happy jaunts out to a cotton field just as easily as I avoided meeting her in town.

The only right thing to do was to not cross paths with her. I didn’t need to see her blue eyes up close to know she still pined for Billy, the worthless piece of backwoods shit that I was certain he was. Maybe she didn’t know who he really was. Wherever the bastard was hiding, sooner or later, I would find him. Why ruin my Daisy Duke fantasy reel of us on the bed of a pickup truck in some ramshackle field? Why give up the idea of making her crazy for me if he wasn’t around to witness it? What I needed to do was to determine the location of my brother and then figure out a way to get him out of whatever mess he’d gotten himself into and stop focusing on a sexy Southern belle.

My Audi TTS purred over the red clay road when I shifted into first as I headed back to town. I’d stop right inside the city limits and wash the red dust off my car. Rolling the windows closed, I shifted into third, kicking up dust as I turned up the radio and blasted Mumford & Sons’ Snake Eyes. Scattered among the cotton fields were a few sun-bleached cornfields hanging heavy with feed corn. Even in its decaying state, the corn had grown so tall it made for blind turns in the rutted dirt road. I should slow down, but I was comfortable driving like a fiend in fifth gear since I never ran into another car along this stretch during the middle of the day.

I peeked at the clock to make sure I’d make it back to Crossroads before the first shift ended at my factory. When I glanced back up something large and blonde was right in the line of sight of my front driver’s side quarter panel. I tried to brake and veer away from the blur of a large blonde animal and a red checkered something, but the brakes locked up when I hit a pothole. The car spun out of control across the gravel road, did another donut, and slid in a forty-five-degree angle through the grass, impacting a huge tree that must have been here since before the Civil War. I swear I could hear someone whistling Dixie, or maybe that was my radiator fizzling out.

My seat belt cinched up. The air bags deployed, saving my head from the windshield, but showering me with powdery debris. Shit, I yelled through the smoke coming from the engine block. Managing to force my door open, I unbuckled my belt and fumbled out of the car to assess the damage. I looked back at the road, trying to place what had startled me in the first place. The red dust was too thick to make out much of anything, but I sucked in deep breaths of it trying to ease the constriction in my chest.

I wobbled around the side of the car. The front passenger’s side tire had broken off the axle. The passenger’s side door had slammed into a huge oak tree that now had a streak of yellow paint slashed across its bark like a caution sign.

A little late for caution now.

Staggering up the embankment through the settling dust toward the road, I tried not to suck in any more of the swirling debris. Once I reached the top, I heard a woman’s alluring voice.

God-damn rattlers! she muttered and then louder, God-damn maniac drivers. God-damn, my horse is already crazier than a nesting loon. Then she smoothed her voice out till it sounded as silky as my sheets. Tidings, come on Tidings, come on back to me, girl.

I spotted the body accompanying the sugary Southern voice, shifting between the plumes of smoke. Maybe I was a little dizzy because she looked more like a platinum blonde Medusa, than my fantasy Daisy Duke. The Medusa who was the beautiful and terrifying priestess of Athena before she’d been changed into a monster by the Gorgons.

You ran my car off the road! I bellowed as I continued storming toward her fine backside.

She barely acknowledged me as she glanced over her shoulder. That souped-up engine of yours gave Tidings a horsey heart attack, scared the stink out of her.

I almost totaled my car. I could have been killed.

Serves you right for driving a damn race car out here on a dirt road. She shrugged as she turned back toward the cotton field and called for the horse again.

Why the hell were you so close to the road with a horse to begin with?

She turned toward me and pointed at me with a fist full of something black, silvery, and slithering. Me and my horse were out on these country roads long before the likes of you ever came to town, and we’ll be here long after you and your fancy-dancy duvet factory are gone.

I cocked a warning eyebrow as I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to ease the restriction there, as I examined her closer. It’s one thing to admire a woman from a distance — usually the closer you get the more the illusion vanishes and the flaws reveal themselves — not this girl, she was as perfect as I imagined. I couldn’t help myself; I smirked. The horse must have tossed her in the middle of the cotton field in its hurry to escape because she had huge seeded cotton bolls tangled in her blonde hair like giant brown snake eggs. A huge ass snake hung from her fist and her knitted brow was every bit as angry as Medusa’s, unfortunately I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling.

What exactly do you find so flipping funny, carpetbagger?

You have cotton bolls in your hair, I offered with a wry twist of my lips.

She took her free hand and felt around the top of her head. God-damn Yankees, she said as she tried to pull the brown, prickly cotton bolls through her hair, only managing to tangle it further and increase the height of the scary hairdo. Tidings, come on back now. She stomped her cowgirl boots in the dirt as her voice carried across the field beyond.

Tidings neighed in response, but otherwise tossed her head up and down as if she had no intention of returning.

Do you think she’ll come back to you with a snake in your hand? I asked.

I’ve been known to get the things I love to come home to me.

Those words were like a sucker punch in the chest to me.

She sighed before she looked at her fist and snorted. Afraid of a snake, are you?

I shrugged, examining the length of the shiny black and silver snake, its tail almost brushing her boots. Her shapely tanned legs sidetracked me on my return trip north.

Find what you’re looking for? she asked when my eyes neglected to reach hers again.

I didn’t bother looking at her face, I’d already memorized the fine cheekbones sprinkled with freckles and the sure chin, and instead I zeroed in on her chest. She had a rack I’d admired from afar, but up close she had a body worthy of immediate high priestess status.

She groaned as if disgusted. Although I can’t imagine why my legs would interest one of your kind.

I might have growled. My kind? I asked, taking another step in her direction. My eyes narrowed and refocused on her now cautious expression.

She held up the snake between us, warning me away. Rumor has it that you and your bowties are gayer than two Mormon missionaries humping Bibles.

My loafers took another step toward her of their own volition. I wanted to reach out and strangle her sassy little Southern mouth or at least put it to some good use.

She lifted the snake a little higher in the air to stop any further advance on my part.

I decided it was in my best interest if I didn’t touch her, so I shoved my hands in my front pockets and rocked back on my heels. I did spend one night with two Mormon girls, but it wasn’t all about the missionary position, I assure you.

She looked from my Italian cordovan loafers to my haircut and then snorted nasally as if in disbelief.

And bowties make fabulous gags, I said, reaching for my neck and yanking on the herringbone bowtie to relieve some of the constriction. I was hot, now whether that was the October heat or the priestess Medusa I wasn’t prepared to answer. Are you going to retrieve your horse?

If I go after her, she’ll take off. She rested her hands on her waist and cocked one hip for emphasis, the snake coiling along her left flank.

Maybe if you ditch the reptile, Tidings would be more open to reestablishing your relationship.

I’m not throwing this snake away, he’ll make a beautiful belt.

As long as you’re not planning on eating it, I said, letting the sarcasm drip. Moving toward the horse, Tidings looked up, locked eyes on me, and flapped her ears.

Of course I’m not going to eat it, but one of my brothers might. She whisper-hissed after me, Tidings doesn’t take kindly to strangers.

About halfway between her and Tidings, I turned back and smiled at her. Does the horse take after you in that regard?

Tidings can sense you don’t know a thing about riding, she called after me.

I raised an inky eyebrow and took another deliberate stroll up her body. All I needed was a hay bale and some chaps to make this one interesting fantasy reel. I assure you I know all about riding, especially the kinds that don’t require a saddle. Think bareback.

She grunted again and the sound wrapped around me and squeezed before settling below my belt.

Tidings pawed the dry earth in response but kept her head buried between the rows of cotton plants before chomping on a large weed. She ignored me except for flicking her tail at the flies buzzing around her hindquarters. Sladkiy, krasivaya devushka , prikhodi ko mne, I said as I reached the horse and took hold of her reins easily enough. Tidings neighed before I spoke the words to her over and over, stroking her head and then her mane. I vaulted myself into the saddle before I bothered to scrutinize Daisy Duke’s shocked expression, as I guided Tidings back toward her.

What did you say to her? she asked.

Sweet, beautiful girl, come to me, I whispered.

She snorted. Medusa that is, not the horse.

When I was about three yards away from her, I said, Yale, varsity polo.

I’m sure that impressed all your polo fillies.

Before she could move out of my path I leaned down, scooped her up, and had her in my lap. Her nicely toned backside collided with my groin, and the evidence was clear that I wasn’t riding for the other team. The tightness in my chest intensified.

Let me down. She twisted for a few moments, trying to un-align our bodies, but I had her exactly where I’d imagined having her for several weeks and with a lot less effort than I’d expected. The cuffs of my shirtsleeves skimmed her bare midriff as I maneuvered the reins, directing Tidings up the slight embankment and onto the road.

What are you up to out here, Polly Anna? I asked, pulling her into my aching chest.

She turned in my lap. How the hell do you know my name?

I increased my grip on her. What is a girl who looks like you doing out in the middle of tall cotton?

She sighed as if exasperated. I was checking this field.

For what?

It’s my first crop of organic cotton.

I coughed, my chest constricting again. You’re growing cotton?

For organic sheets.

My thighs tensed when I imagined slipping her between my sheets. Sheets, huh?

I planted this cotton! I intend on selling it for organic sheets. She tried to turn in my lap so she could look at me, which only made her bustline rub against my forearm. What do you mean, a girl that looks like me?

I let my fingertips brush the back of her hands and a spark shot through me. You look like a pinup girl for a Lonely Farmers dot.com ad.

She tried to elbow me, but it only amounted to her grinding her ass into my groin. You and your Yankee insinuation need to get the hell off my horse!

I assure you if you keep maneuvering like that, I won’t need much help getting off, I chuckled. I looked down the front of her red-and-white checkered blouse and into a field of white lace that was as pristine as a field of cotton in full bloom. Now I struggled for air.

Where in the Sam Hill are you taking me?

Home, as soon as you tell me where you live.

I don’t need help getting home.

But I need assistance getting my car towed.

She harrumphed and leaned around to look at me, making sure her breasts didn’t come in contact with my arm again. Listen, Alex the carpetbagger, I’m sure you’re used to having your way, but if you ride up to my house with me sprawled out on your lap like this, one of my brothers or my daddy is liable to shoot you.

I lowered my head so I could look her into her beautiful eyes. So you know who I am too?

As if everybody in Crossroads doesn’t know who you are and what you’re up to.

What I’m up to? I tried not to stiffen in the saddle. Or tried not to stiffen further.

Coming into town like a bull in a china shop and buying up a building at a time. Her snort rumbled in her chest. You plan on changing Crossroads into Alexanderville, or some other northern nonsense, but Revell might have a thing or two to say about that.

Revell? I asked.

Revell Marshall, as in the Marshall family of Marshall County.

I bought several of the properties with Revell Marshall’s approval. I tightened my hold on the reins, but I let the reins in my left fist rest on her bare thigh and moved my right hand to her hip, squeezing. She jolted at the connection between my bare fingertips and her skin. She sat up straight and bit her lips as if refusing to speak.

Placing my mouth above the collar of her blouse, along the delicate flesh below her ear, I let my threat wash her skin. Now, tell me where you live before I drag you off this horse and use some of my more persuasive methods of getting information out of you. I tried to steady my breathing because I felt breathless. I coughed and my labored exhalations washed her neckline. A soft breeze flowing over us sent back a whiff of her skin that smelled like fresh laundry.

She startled at my statement and dug her nails into my thigh, in order to keep herself seated. My whole body went on high alert. I almost launched myself out of the saddle, but said cockily, We can do this the easy way or the hard way, makes little difference to me.

Makes little difference to me either. She placed one of her hands on the reins in front of mine and with her other hand she squeezed the neck of the godforsaken snake, its mouth involuntarily opening. I didn’t catch the first look at its fangs before Polly Anna slapped the head of the snake across my wrist, and the snake instinctively latched onto my flesh. At the exact same moment the slick skin of the snake’s coiled body made contact with Tidings’ front quarter.

Tidings reared back. I loosened my hold on the reins as I reached for the snake and the painless suction at my wrist. Polly Anna elbowed me in the gut, causing me to land on my back in the red dirt, wrangling a four-foot snake.

I got the reptile off my wrist and flung it into the ditch before I looked up at her with venomous eyes. Are you crazy? I choked out.

That’s nothing compared to what I’ll do the next time you get fresh with me, Yankee boy. She nudged Tidings, who danced around me as I managed to get to my knees. Now listen, city slicker, you suck at that wrist real quick now or your pretty boy face is going to swell to the size of a good mush melon.

Did she call me a pretty boy? I reached out for one of the horse’s legs to pull myself up, but my vision blurred. The constriction tightened in my chest. I felt as if I had zero oxygen in my lungs. I tried to focus on my wrist, but I was winded from the fall. For some reason the whole world went fuzzy and my throat felt parched.

You need to nurse that bite. I heard her voice say, in spite of the fact that I was having a hard time focusing. I’ll send some help back for your car.

I raised myself to my knees, but the landscape went lopsided and a bubbling pressure fizzled in my ears. Don’t you dare leave me, Polly Anna.

I’d always loved solitude, but suddenly the idea of dying alone wasn’t all that appealing. I couldn’t die, I had to find Konstantin. I couldn’t leave my mother with lingering questions about where he was. More importantly, I had to make Billy Buford pay for whatever he’d done to my brother.

I’m not leaving, it’s too much fun getting the better of you.

I tried to get to my feet, but when my chest seized I swayed, making Tidings step farther away from me. My mouth filled with saliva as I crumbled to the ground. I barely managed to get my mouth on my wrist before the clouds overhead went dark as night. I felt suffocated and the last thing I thought before I died was that she was indeed the priestess Medusa, and she’d just turned me into stone.

2

WELL, I NEVER!

POLLY ANNA

Digging through my saddlebag I located my walkie-talkie to call the house, begging Mama to send an ambulance for help. I raced back to where Alex the crazy carpetbagger was slumped on the embankment, barely breathing.

I kept thinking of the, Do not attempt this at home warning that ran at the bottom of the screen of every bad reality show I’d ever watched with my brothers. You know the performances where idiots did things that anyone with a lick of common sense would avoid. A mock snake attack and knocking a man clear off the back of a horse were the kinds of stunts my brothers pulled, the kind that made the Coots family name notorious in Alabama. I knew better than to ever pull exploits. I’d been raised to be the better half of my wild brothers and their shenanigans.

More importantly, I was taught to be a better snake handler than this, but there was no way Alex would understand that the snake, Tillie, was just a pet. Glancing down at Alex struggling to breathe, his lips turning an unnatural shade of blue, I thought Tillie had scared him shitless.

I’d gotten so frazzled when Alex put his hands on me. His touch had set me on fire as if someone had rolled me in poison ivy and threw me in the burning bush. I wanted to scratch myself raw from head to toe. Nobody ever touched me anymore — at one time every male in the county was afraid of what Billy would do if he got wind of someone getting fresh with me and now I figured it was out of respect for someone presumed dead. Not that I’d been the target of much male flirtation to begin with, but something about the way Alex maneuvered both Tidings and me with such ease made my irritation with him spike higher and my thighs loosen. Angry at myself for such a primal reaction, I lashed out with the only weapon I had, the head of the snake.

All fifty-three inches of Tillie, the timber rattlesnake, was harmless ever since the Sisters had removed her fangs and all her venom. What I didn’t think of when I’d sicced her on Alex’s wrist was that if Tillie had escaped her pen, she’d have a hankering for a garter snake for dinner. Now if she’d swallowed one out in the cotton field she might have a wee bit of neurotoxic venom on her mouth.

There was no sound of sirens in the distance; the only noise besides Alex’s fizzling radiator was his labored breathing. I was going to have to put my mouth on his mouth. His breathing was too shallow. His pulse was slowing. I needed to breathe for him. I had some irrational hope that someone else would happen along and save him so I could avoid any further interaction. I put my mouth on his and gave him a puff of oxygen. I immediately startled away as if I’d received an electric shock and fingered my tingling bottom lip. I wasn’t opposed to putting my mouth on his because I was repelled by his dark brooding looks, but because I was afraid, afraid of what something so beautiful would taste like.

I closed my eyes and lowered my ear to his chest. Before I gave him another puff of my oxygen.

Even as I anticipated what his touch might awaken inside of me.

What it might unleash within me. Desires and dreams I’ve tamped down and hidden even from Billy, especially from Billy.

Billy had been MIA for over a year. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but our separation and possibly the loss of him only made me feel empty and, quite possibly, relieved. When I thought of him, I didn’t feel longing or anticipation, I felt fear.

Tilting Alex’s head back, I leaned over and in. The moment my oxygen became his again, it was like white lightning ignited in my veins. I was flustered, frenzied, and fired up all at the same time. I concentrated on counting breaths and keeping tabs on his pulse rate, which improved.

By the time the paramedics arrived, I had given him enough air to survive. He wasn’t swelling up the way he would have if he’d swallowed rattlesnake venom, but nothing I’d done should cause the weird involuntary, spontaneous localized quivering in his eyes. Served him right that his eyes were going wonky since he’d spent a considerable amount of time looking up my legs and down my blouse.

The paramedics set a stretcher down next to us and flipped open their toolboxes. What happened, Polly Anna? the one squatting next to me asked.

He crashed his car. I gave Alex another puff of air, pulled away, and said, He lassoed me up on Tidings and I accidentally knocked him off.

They motioned me away, as one of them put an oxygen mask over Alex’s nose and mouth while the other one took his pulse.

Is he going to be okay? I paced around them while they got an IV going.

Polly Anna, you pull the damnedest shit. Officer Marbry chuckled as he walked onto the scene, his flashing squad car lights reflecting in his wraparound sunglasses. He looked me up and down as he held Tillie’s lifeless carcass in his hand. Why the hell is one of your snakes out here?

She must have escaped her pen, I said as I latched onto a chunk of my barely contained side ponytail to give my hands something to do. Is he going to be all right? I asked the paramedics again.

Did the snake bite him? Officer Marbry asked.

The snake has no fangs and its been milked, it shouldn’t have had enough venom to put a mouse to sleep, I snapped, trying to wrestle a cotton boll off the top of my head.

So says the granddaughter of the dead snake charmer, one of the paramedics said. I think it was Charlie, but I couldn’t be certain because his identical twin brother gave me the same look of derision. Come on, hop on board, we’ll take you with us, the doctors will have questions.

Officer Marbry’s Smokey the Bear hat tilted toward me; if there was a chance I could strike a deal, he’d be the one to let me go. I batted my lashes and gave him the optimistic smile I was known for, but he said, You go on with the paramedics and the patient to the hospital. I’ll send Tidings home and give Tillie a police escort in case the doctors want to examine her mouth.

The paramedics lifted the stretcher onto the back of the ambulance. What’s wrong with him? I asked the twins. Did I kill him?

Charlie wrapped his stethoscope around the back of his neck. Respiratory episode brought on by allergens.

He’s allergic to snakes! Oh Lordy.

The paramedic chuckled, which ticked me off since I’d just incapacitated a man with a venom-less snake. I started to panic breathe. I’d never gotten into trouble before and Daddy wasn’t going to happy about this little escapade.

No, he’s probably allergic to the powder deployed from his airbag, Charlie said as he pulled me up and into the ambulance.

But he walked around just fine for a while after the accident. To tell the truth he was an arrogant know-it-all. A beautiful, arrogant know-it-all!

It would take a while to trigger the asthma attack, Danny grimaced.

But— I looked at Officer Marbry, trying to stop him from closing the rear door to the ambulance.

Go on now, I’ll tell your folks what you’ve gotten yourself into. We’ll have to hope the mill owner won’t press charges, Officer Marbry said. I’ll see if one of your brothers will tow his hot rod into town too, that might soften him up a bit.

What are you going to charge me with? Assault with a dead snake? I asked a little more smarmily than I had a right to.

You better hope he wakes up, Danny hopped out of the back of the ambulance, closing the second door behind him. Once he’d situated himself in the driver’s seat of the ambulance, he smirked in the rearview mirror. Lights and sirens? he asked his brother.

Charlie’s freckles scrunched together in amusement. "Lights, sirens, and action. Maybe our harrowing rescue can make the front page of the Crossroads Gazette tomorrow."

Harrowing rescue my Aunt Tizzy’s ass. I’m the one who sucked face with him to keep him alive until you got here.

Charlie winked at me. Billy always said you were good with mouth-to-mouth.

I slipped back into the bench seat and ignored that. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard of something Billy said about me out of turn. It didn’t hurt less, though I tried to forgive him these lapses in tact since he was missing in action, but it got harder and harder not to face the facts. Billy had never been the right man for me. I didn’t know if I was more terrified he’d return in a body bag or if he’d come back and have me fitted for one. I needed to decide how I’d react to either. Right now I was torn between frightened and scared shitless.

If he didn’t come back I wouldn’t have to forgive him his indiscretions, and maybe someday I could forgive mine. If he did come back or if he was already here, I might not have time to make any decisions of my own.

Officer Marbry stepped into the waiting room with Tillie in a huge clear evidence bag and handed me what must be Alex’s cell phone. He chuckled and patted my head before he sailed along to the nurses’ station, belting out an excellent rendition of The Frowning Clouds’ Snake Charmer. I slipped into the bathroom and screeched when I saw my reflection. I look like some backwoods banshee, I thought as I started pulling the brown cotton bolls out of my hair.

Once I sorted out my appearance I paced the hall between the emergency room’s waiting area and the room they’d taken Alex into. I needed something to do. I looked down at his phone, wishing I knew someone to call for him. Alex must have someone he’d want to know, but I couldn’t figure out who that would be, since everything in the phone was written in Russian; at least I assumed it was Russian, it had all those weird ΨΧΦ symbols and I couldn’t make hide nor hair of his contact list.

No one said Alex was Russian, but I knew he was after the first time I’d heard his last name: Volkow, because I’d gone home and looked it up on the Internet. Volkow was Russian for wolf. The name suited him; he had blue-gray eyes that changed color when he focused and he was predatory like a wolf, always watching. Every time I’d ever seen him from a distance in town, he’d stared a hole right through me, never once speaking a single word to me or acknowledging me in any other way, and it felt as if he was lying in wait, or maybe that was my paranoia.

Like most men, I assumed he found me lacking in some way, but at least all the locals found reasons to be friendly to me. Between the warning in his name and his standoffishness, I stayed clear of Alexander Volkow. Once before, I’d tangled with a man who was as distant as a prowling animal, and I didn’t feel the need to be fitted for another cage of my own making.

Scrolling through the phone again, I sighed, unable to make any more from the call list than I had the fifteen times before.

Polly Anna? Dr. Woodham gestured me toward her. Her long silver hair fell over the breast pocket of her white lab coat, where she stuffed one of those light pens.

How is he? I asked.

Oh, he’ll be fine. You can go in and see him. I think it might be best if you speak with him before I let Officer Marbry interview him.

Me? I squeaked.

He’s angrier than a skunk out of spray. She picked up my hand and patted it affectionately. Maybe you can get him to calm down.

I don’t think a visit from me is a good idea. The nurses who were gathered at the nurses’ station were bumping shoulders as they eyed the door to Alex’s room, the doctor and me. I lowered my voice. It is kind of my fault that he ended up here.

You go on and talk to him, he isn’t any worse than any other wild thing you’ve nursed back to health.

I hoped my eyes hadn’t grown as wide as they felt. I never could leave a wounded animal alone once I discovered its ailment; I always had to nurse it back to health. But I already figured out Alex was a wolf with a bad attitude and sharp teeth that I was going to stay clear of, otherwise he’d gobble me up whole. I’d already tried to save a man once before, and nothing good came from it.

Dr. Woodham smiled. Use the Southern charm you’re famous for, even a bear can’t resist honey as sweet as yours.

Dr. Woodham was right, everyone knew I was the good Coots, the one who never caused trouble for anyone. I went out of my way to be pleasant and accommodating.

She isn’t as sweet as she appears. Alex stood in the threshold of his room with his arms crossed over his bare chest. I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible, he snarled at the doctor before he disappeared into the room again.

I frowned at Dr. Woodham. I don’t think he’s a bear, I think he’s a wolf, and one should never trust a wolf.

Dr. Woodham snickered as she encouraged me onward with a nod of her head. The best place to corner a wolf is in his own den.

Can’t never could, I murmured to no one in particular, but all the nurses gave a nervous twitter from the nurses’ station. Please don’t let him have rabies.

Alex stood bare-chested on the other side of the bed near the window with his back against the wall, adjusting his wristwatch. My eyes flew from his sculpted abs to his chiseled face. His presence filled the room; no, he commanded the room. I wanted to back away to give him his privacy, but his look of utter disgust stopped me cold. Come to finish me off?

I swallowed. If I’d wanted him dead, he’d be dead, but I decided it was time to resort to my everybody-loves-Polly-Anna routine.

How are you feeling? I asked in my sweetest singsong voice.

Like Tidings sat on my chest. He scratched his sideburn before brushing his long bangs away from his stern brow. Or like a giant rattler decided to suck all the sunshine out of my lungs.

I’m sorry you had an asthma attack. I took a few steps into the room, but I stayed on my side of his bed. I extended my hand over the mattress, holding out his slick iPhone. I went through it trying to find an emergency number, but I couldn’t read whose number was whose in Russian.

I don’t have asthma, he said with a sharp tone as he snagged the phone out of my hand, making sure his skin didn’t come into contact with mine. I pulled my hand away, the way one would when feeding a wild animal.

But Charlie said it was an asthma attack, I insisted.

"Sooka! he barked as he tore one of the white and silver EKG stickers off his chest. He had a sprinkling of chest hair and he must have pulled some off with it, but he didn’t even flinch. I. Don’t. Have. Asthma."