Curt turned around and stared at Tucker, exhaling a big breath. “I told you once before, Tucker… what we do is none of your business. You mind the business of your people.”
Joe climbed out of the water, his legs dripping wet, and stepped up next to Curt.
Jake’s eyebrows raised. “Curt, what’s with the divided crap? Tucker’s only trying to—”
“—Tucker’s trying to take over,” Curt interrupted. “Good to see you back in the ‘hood, Jake, but you weren’t here for the vote. You haven’t been here for days. You can’t just waltz in and think you know what’s going on now. How’d you get here anyway?” Curt gave him a suspicious look, and then glared at Grayson.
Jake answered him as politely as he could muster. “We drove here. We’re not staying—and before you ask, we don’t have much gas. Just enough to get home.”
Curt stared hard at Jake, and then Grayson again, and finally his eyes landed back on Tucker. “What do you guys want? Don’t you have work to do at your house?”
Tucker took a deep breath. He hated to ask now… already off on the wrong foot again. But he was desperate. “Look, Curt. We need your help. Sarah’s baby is really sick. It’s too young to eat yet. The little girl is literally starving to death. Are you sure you don’t have some formula? Or maybe some canned or powdered milk of some kind in your group?”
Curt put his hands on his hips. “I heard you’ve already been going door to door asking my people. You told me I couldn’t do that.”
Tucker slid his hands in his pockets only to avoid pulling his gun and shoving it down Curt’s throat. “I was asking for milk; not anything else. Only because… it’s a baby, dude. Come on. Do you have any or not?”
Curt exchanged a knowing look with Joe. All activity at the pool stopped and the air filled with a long, silent pause as Curt’s group looked on. For a moment, when his lips pressed together and he nodded, it looked like he was giving in… possibly remembering they did have some after all.
Tucker’s hopes soared.
“Nope,” Curt answered, with a sly smile.
He was lying… anyone could see that. Tucker lunged, one hand reaching for his gun. Grayson and Jake caught him, pulling him back. “You’ve got some! I see it on your face! You want her to die?” Tucker screamed.
Curt shrugged and Joe laughed.
Tucker lunged again, nearly breaking free from Jake and Grayson’s grasp. “What the hell is wrong with you two? Have you lost your minds? This is Sarah’s baby. You know her for God’s sake!”
The smiles slid off Curt and Joe’s face. Curt solemnly shook his head. “No, of course we don’t want her to die. I feel for Sarah. But like I said, I don’t have anything. Anyway, she chose to follow you, so let’s see how you handle the situation.”
Grayson kept his left hand gripped tightly on Tucker’s shooting arm, but took one step forward with his right hand hovering over his own gun. “Look man. I don’t know any of y’all. But if I had some, I’d give it to anyone here that needed it. This baby needs it. If you have it, speak up.”
Curt rubbed his fingers over his closed mouth from left to right, as though zipping it, and shook his head.
Joe stepped forward, his hand clearly hovering over his gun, too. “The man said no.”
Grayson looked at the ground and sadly shook his head. “That he did… that he did. Is that your final answer?” Once more he looked at Curt.
Curt nodded, a smug look over his face.
“Well, you’re about as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand, aren’t ya?” Grayson snapped at him, frustrated by his silence. “This is not going to end well, guys. I’m telling ya.” He pulled at Tucker, turning him around. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Jake helped him pull Tucker away, as Tucker looked back at Curt with wild crazy eyes, speechless. They have milk… or formula… he just knew it.
He dug in his feet, resisting. “We can’t let them—”
“You can’t get it this way,” Grayson whispered, and jerked him forward. “That man is on a power trip. He thinks he’s shittin’ in high cotton now and he won’t change his story. So, if this is a hill he wants to die on… let ’em.” He looked at Tucker humorlessly and winked. “You get my point?”
Tucker straightened up and shook off Grayson and Jake’s hands. “Yeah. I get it. Let’s go.”
As the guys walked away, Curt had the gall to yell, “Say Tucker, I hear Xander’s a good hunter. Think he’ll take me out and show me the ropes? We might need some fresh meat for our group soon.”
“Over my dead body,” Tucker mumbled under his breath. “Or yours.”
42
Grayson and Jake led the way back to Tucker’s house with Tucker dragging his feet behind them, his head bent low.
Jake slowed for his friend, to let him catch up. “Tucker, this isn’t your fault. Things are crazy right now. People are going to get sick. Maybe die. This has barely started. If the power doesn’t come back on… well, bad things happen. Not sure what you’re going to do about it.”
“It’s a baby, Jake.”
Jake patted him on the back. “Yeah, man. I know. This is harsh. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I do,” Grayson said.
Tucker looked to him, a spark of hope in his eyes.
“Kick leaves over that bastard. I’d bet their food is all stocked at his house—greedy little devil. Pop a cap in his ass and see what he’s got,” Grayson grumbled.
Jake looked at his brother-in-law in astonishment. “Great day, Grayson. You talking murder, here?”
Grayson shrugged. “If he’s got that milk and not giving it up, then he’s willing to kill. I’d say that baby’s life has more value that his.”
Jake answered, “Yeah, if he has it. And if he doesn’t… then what? Killed a man for nothing, that’s what. This ain’t Mad Max up in here.”
“Yet,” Grayson mumbled.
“Look,” Jake said. “What’s going on there?”
They were passing Neva’s house, which usually never showed any signs of life, but there were people lined up at her door ten deep; people from both sides of the neighborhood divide.
“Let’s check it out,” Tucker answered.
The guys stepped onto her lawn and Tucker asked the last guy in line what was happening.
“Neva’s some sort of doctor.”
Another woman turned around. “She’s not a doctor. She just knows a lot of natural remedies.”
“Rumor is she’s a witch,” the woman at the front of the line said. “But I’m hoping she can do something… other than voodoo or spells, to help me with my husband’s snoring. I haven’t got a wink of sleep since the CPAP machine stopped working.”
Tucker’s face lit up with hope once more. He pushed his way to the front of the line. “Sorry. Excuse me. It’s an emergency.”
A moment later the door opened and one of his neighbors walked out with a Ziploc bag of some sort of herbs, and a big smile on her face. IdaBelle was right behind her.
“Next!” IdaBelle said, smiling.
Tucker stepped up. “IdaBelle, does your aunt know of anything to give to a newborn child? The baby is very sick… maybe dying… she’s out of formula and her mom can’t make…” Tucker once again waved his hands around his chest, indicating breasts.