The Reckless Oath We Made - Bryn Greenwood Page 0,122

crunched the beer can in her fist and leaned her head against the doorframe like it was too heavy to hold up.

“That’s the way of the world. If there ain’t nobody in the world you care enough about to do something crazy for, that’s gotta be an empty feeling. What I did for Tess, it was dumb as hell, but it come from how much I loved her.”

“And you think that makes it okay that LaReigne abandoned her family for that bastard. That she helped them, and those prison guards got killed?”

“No,” I said. “But it means something that you love your sister so much you done what you done.”

CHAPTER 46

Zee

When I’d parked the truck the day before, the dog had walked out to the end of his chain to look at me. On Monday morning, after I said goodbye to Uncle Alva, the dog was standing in the exact same spot, waiting. As close to the truck as he could get. When I opened the door to get in, he took a step closer, so that his chain was stretched tight. I put out my hand the way Gentry had, and the dog sniffed it.

“Are you hungry? Did anybody feed you while Dirk was gone?”

When I touched his scabby head, he squinted his eyes but didn’t move. Before I could change my mind, I took ahold of the hook on his collar and thumbed it open. The chain hitting the ground spooked him enough that he tucked his flanks and rolled his eyes at me. I jerked my hand back, but the dog didn’t do anything except scuttle a few feet away from the chain. Then he trotted straight to the truck and hopped up in the cab.

I headed back up to the house, leaving the truck door open. When I walked into the kitchen, Uncle Alva was sitting at the table with his glasses up on his head and his eyes closed.

“Tell Dirk I’m taking his dog,” I said. “And tell him not to get another dog if all he’s going to do is chain it up out there.”

“I been thinking about getting me another beagle. You know, them Snoopy dogs. We used to have one. You remember?”

“Yeah. Beelzebub. You told us you stole him from the devil.”

“That wasn’t no story, girl. They’re good little guard dogs.”

“Well, you can get you one now.” I unzipped my backpack and took a stack of cash out of the envelope. I laid a few bills on the table. “This is for Dirk, so I’m not stealing his dog. Plus, he needs new boots because we tossed his.”

“So you didn’t lose the money?” he said.

“Do you want it back?”

“Lord, no. Ain’t no good to me. Only thing I ever wanted it for was your aunt, and she’s long gone. Besides, you’ll need it. Lawyers ain’t cheap.”

I nodded, but I slid the rest of that bundle of bills across the table to him. That left me with eighty-four thousand dollars.

“You should keep this, just in case,” I said.

“I’ll hang on to it for you. Or for LaReigne’s little boy.” He didn’t pick it up, though. I wondered if I’d ever get to a place where I could be that indifferent to ten thousand dollars.

“Okay. Thank you. And I’m sorry.” It was what I’d said when I left five minutes before. Thank you. I’m sorry about how things turned out.

“Take care, girl,” he said, just like he had before, but as I was walking out the door the second time, he added something else: “Don’t be a stranger.”

The dog was still in the truck cab, standing in the seat. On the drive through town, he hung his head out the window. When I pulled onto the highway, though, I rolled up the window, and the dog settled down in the passenger seat.

I drove all the way through to Parsons without stopping, but I figured the rest area on the other side of town was as good a place as any to let the dog out to pee. He stuck with me, even came inside when I went to the bathroom. It surprised me, because I hadn’t exactly made friends with him, but maybe he figured if I was driving Gentry’s truck that made us friends by association. We walked up and down a little so I could stretch out my hip, and I stopped to look at the historical plaque about the Bloody Benders. Nice to know there was at least one family in