Chapter 2

C ameron returned to the emergency room, smiling at his head nurse. “Thanks for the call.”

“Hey, I wasn’t exactly sure what you wanted it for, but, when the doctor says to give him a twenty-minute warning call, hey, I’m happy to help out.” She looked over at him curiously. “Who was that woman anyway?”

He turned to her and smiled. “How long have you lived here?”

“All my life. Why?”

“Do you remember—” He stopped and shook his head. “Damned if I remember the woman’s name. But do you remember the woman who tried to kill her daughter—and slashed up her face pretty good before knocking her out?”

Her eyes widened. “Danica. Jesus, was that Danica?”

Cameron nodded slowly. “Yeah, it was Danica.”

“Good God,” she mumbled, her jaw dropping. “Why would she ever come back here?”

“I asked her that,” Cameron shared, with a headshake. “She’s here for her grandmother. Yet I’m not sure what she told me was the truth, at least not the whole truth.” He’d come back after his father had died, so who was he to judge? Still, coming home wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.

“Why would she? I’m sure she’s all about secrets.” He looked at her, surprised. She shrugged. “After what she went through here? I’m surprised she ever showed her face again.”

“How bad was it?”

She nodded. “It was bad. The people here were terrified of her.”

“She’s back. So, if they’re still terrified of her, they should all face her sooner or later.”

“Some people won’t face her at all. They’ll try to run her out of town.”

“Yet her grandmother’s here.”

She frowned, nodding. “That’s right. She is, isn’t she? That one’s pretty crazy too.”

“I don’t know about crazy. She’s my neighbor, you know.” At that, she tilted her head, surprised, and he nodded. “I own the land adjacent to her grandmother’s home. I bought it around the beginning of the year.”

“Good God,” she gasped, staring at him in fascination. “That’s pretty gutsy of you.”

He laughed. “Why is that?”

“Everybody says it’s haunted.”

“I don’t know about haunted,” he replied, with a smile, “but I’m building a house on my parcel. So, it’s not as if anything is left to haunt—at least on my piece.” Just then, his pager went off, alerting him that an ambulance was on the way. He headed back to work.

Several times throughout the afternoon, he caught his head nurse staring at him. When they got their next break, he asked, “What’s the problem? You keep staring at me, as if I’ve grown horns.”

“It’s not that you’ve grown horns,” she replied. “I’m just still stunned that Danica’s back.”

He frowned. “I think she’s had a tough-enough life here already. Yet she is here for her grandmother, who is getting up there in age. Regardless, I can’t imagine coming back was easy for her.”

“No, I can’t imagine it was either,” she acknowledged. “I’m just surprised.”

“Did you know her well?”

“Nope. Nobody knew her well. At least not after the attack. We were all friends up until then. Of course after that, I wasn’t allowed to hang out with her anymore.”

Cameron turned to face her. “What?”

She nodded. “Everybody thought Danica was bad luck or something. None of us were allowed to have anything to do with her.” He stared at her, and she shrugged. “What can I say? Small-town people got pretty unnerved over what happened to her.”

“She was victimized,” he reminded her. “Twice.”

“Sure, but that’s how life works,” his head nurse replied. “So don’t go looking at me as if I did something wrong.”

“I didn’t mean to. It’s just a surprise to hear that.”

“You went to school with her too. How did you treat her?”

“I was several years ahead of her, then off to college and med school. So I had no idea she was going through any ostracization.”

“She was, and believe me, that was for the best. Something was very worrying about that whole family.”

He didn’t say anything and just stared off into the distance.

She leaned back and narrowed her gaze. “I don’t like that look in your eye. I’m telling you that weird shit happens around those Hartling people. If I see her grandmother in the street, I cross to the other side.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely,” she declared, staring at him. “If you were smart, you would too.”

“I don’t know about that,” he replied, almost taking offense. “I can’t say I’ve ever given in to reactions like that.”

“Maybe you need to live here longer, and then you’ll probably find yourself doing exactly the same thing.” And, with that, his head nurse turned and stalked off, clearly irritated at him.

Throughout the rest of his shift, Cameron asked several other people on staff—those he knew had been around town for a long time—and got basically the same answer. Danica had been treated pretty roughly back then, and it didn’t seem that things had gotten any better.

When he made it home, he pulled into his front driveway, parked in the garage, and stepped out of his vehicle. As far as houses went, his was pretty decent. He liked building houses, and he’d gotten the basics of this one contracted and done. He decided he would do the rest as part of his therapy routine for destressing from work. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but, every once in a while, he wondered if he’d bitten off more than he could chew. It was a job that never ended. He didn’t mind doing a lot of it, but working two shifts back-to-back at the hospital all too often, like today, all he wanted to do was crash.

As he stepped into his living room, he was surprised to see his brother Jace was here, sanding down one of the balustrades going up to the second floor into the main bedroom area. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you today. Where is your truck parked? Did you walk here?”

His brother popped his head over the handrail and smiled. “You’ll never get this house finished at the rate you keep putting it off.”

“It’s not that I’m putting it off,” he explained, with a smirk, “but I’m tired, and the hospital work I do isn’t exactly easy, not to mention all the extra hours.”

“They need to get more staff in there,” his brother agreed. “The thought of your being the only other doctor is just ludicrous.”

“Meaning, if you get hurt or injured again, you’re not coming in?”

“Nope, I’m sure not,” he declared, with a laugh. “Anybody with a brain in their head would realize that you’re overworked, underpaid, and you shouldn’t be there by yourself.”

“Maybe, but I don’t exactly have that option. So overworked is what it’ll be.”

“Ah,” Jace responded, then popped back onto the railing job again. “I won’t worry then.”

“Besides, you’re doing a great job with the house and all.”

“Yeah, but I’m only doing this to help out a little. You’re the one who wanted this as your project,” his little brother reminded Cameron.

“I really would like the chance to do just that, but you’re right. Finishing the house is taking forever, and that’s time I don’t have. It’s also taking energy I wish I had but don’t.”

He walked into the kitchen, and his brother called out, “Please tell me that you at least have a plan for food.”

Cameron closed his eyes briefly and called back, “I can rustle up something.”

“Good,” his brother hollered, “because, if you can’t pay me, the least you can do is feed me.”

With that, Cameron headed to the fridge to take a look at what was there. His brother was right. The least Cameron could do was feed him. Since Jace’s wife had left him and had promptly filed for divorce, that was also partly why his brother came—to be fed—and right now the last thing Cameron wanted to do was prepare a proper meal. Yet his brother probably wouldn’t eat otherwise, and Cameron wasn’t sure he would either.

With that, he reached for the pack of ground meat in the fridge and called out, “You okay with a burger?”

His brother called back, “I’m always okay with a burger but make it two. I’m starving.”

Soon the barbecue pit was on, and Cameron popped open a beer. As he sliced the fixings to go on top, his brother showed up a few minutes later, slowly stretching his shoulders. “How’s that arm?” Cameron asked.

“Sore, still stiff,” he admitted, his tone curt, hating questions about the accident that had set him back physically.

Jace seemed to be looking at Cameron’s house as his own therapy too, just like Cameron. “We’re a hell of a pair,” Cameron noted, as he handed his brother a beer.

“Speak for yourself,” Jace ordered. “My life is fine.”

“If it were fine, you wouldn’t be hiding out at my place.”

Jace snorted and didn’t say anything more.

Cameron flipped the burgers, then looked back over at Jace intently. “Do you remember that woman who tried to murder her daughter?”

“Yeah. Who was that? Crazy Daisy and her daughter, Danica? Yeah, something was weird about them. And something went wrong. And Danica got slammed afterward.”

“I didn’t realize she had it so hard back then. I guess I didn’t see much of her after I moved away.”

“You were at college. I wasn’t. So I saw her, and this whole town treated her like shit.”

“I don’t understand that,” Cameron admitted. “I was talking with a couple nurses today at work, and they both told me the same thing. They were more or less saying that, if Danica were to show up at the hospital, they wouldn’t even treat her.”

“They’re all superstitious as hell, the whole lot of them.”

“Yet what sense does that even make? Danica didn’t even do anything, so why be so superstitious?”

“Her mother tried to murder her, but she survived, and it seemed that it would have almost been kinder if she hadn’t lived. That scar?” Jace gave a shudder. “I’m sure she’s gotten it fixed by now, but jeez.”

“She hasn’t fixed it though,” Cameron stated, his tone short. “What difference does it make?”

“That scar was visible, like seriously visible. You couldn’t even talk to her without your gaze locking on to it.”

Cameron winced. He hoped Jace would have been better behaved than that, but it had been such a shock to Cameron to see her, that he wasn’t sure he had reacted any differently.

“Why the questions? And what do you mean, she hasn’t had it fixed? Did you see her?” Jace asked, staring at him in shock.

Was that fear underlying Jace’s tone? Surely not. Cameron explained the strange visit.

“So, you spoke to her?”

“I got a call from her and told her that, if she needed to see me, she was welcome to stop by,” Cameron shared, “but I wasn’t exactly thinking in terms of real estate.”

Jace’s gaze went back to the window. “Good God, I can’t believe you talked to her.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Cameron asked in exasperation, frowning at his brother. “It’s not as if she’s got some contagious disease.”

“The hell she doesn’t,” Jace argued, with a bark of laughter. “She has the ability to empty a room faster than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

“Now you’re making me feel bad for her.”

“Oh no, no, no, don’t you go on that kick,” his brother countered, raising his hand. “There’s no joy possible from having any relationship with them.”

“Who said anything about a relationship?” Cameron asked in exasperation. “They are my neighbors, but you’re making me realize that she’s had a pretty raw deal, and maybe people should be nicer to her.”

“Now why would you want to?” Jace asked, with a headshake. He motioned at the burgers. “Come on. Aren’t those suckers ready yet? I’m starving.”

Ignoring his brother’s unusual attitude, Cameron proceeded to check the burgers and flipped them one more time, before plating them. As soon as they dressed their burgers, they sat outside on the back deck—which wasn’t finished either, but was getting there.

Cameron looked out at the surrounding property and smiled. “That’s the piece she wants to buy back.” He pointed off to the side. It was a piece that Jace had already told Cameron that he should sell, if for no other reason than to get some cash, which could be used to hire people to get things done on his house and then some.

“I wouldn’t want you to sell it back to her,” Jace noted, shaking his head in protest. “That’s just bad news.”

He rolled his eyes at his brother. “You keep saying that, like she’s some pariah.”

“She is,” he stated flatly. “Don’t you make the mistake of getting involved with her.”

“I didn’t say anything about getting involved. She asked me about the property. That’s it.”

“The answer is no,” his brother declared, glaring at Cameron. “That’s all there is to it.”

Cameron stared, as Jace put down his burger. “What the hell does that mean?”

“You know what that means. You would be absolutely crazy to let that freak live beside you.”

Cameron had never heard his brother talk like that before, and he let out his breath in a gush. “Oh my God, are you serious?”

“Of course I’m serious,” he snapped. “You sure as hell won’t see me around this place if you sell to her. The last thing I want to do is look out the window and see that.”

“ That ?” Cameron sat here, staring at his brother in shock. “ That , as in a woman injured through no fault of her own? Do you even hear yourself?”

“Me? Do you even hear yourself ?” Jace stared at him. “Good Christ, Cameron. You can’t just take in every orphan off the street.”

Cameron bit down hard on his burger. He didn’t fight with his brother often, but, man, when they did, it could end up being a doozy. And this one was heading that way. What he didn’t know was why. Something must be behind Jace’s attitude, and Cameron would not likely get it out of Jace easily. His brother was typically private where his personal life was concerned, but something had to be there. Cameron looked over at Jace. “Were you sweet on her or something?”

His brother jerked back hard. “Christ, no.” He raised his hands in protest. “No way.” He glared at Cameron. “What about you? Were you sweet on her?”

“No,… well, maybe. Yet I was years ahead, then left. I did my schooling and residencies all over the place, but I eventually came back. And, funnily enough, I’d barely heard about her since being back.”

“I wonder why?” Jace asked, staring at him. “Don’t you even go down that pathway. I’m warning you.”

“Don’t threaten me, Jace,” Cameron stated, striving for a mild tone. “I don’t know what your problem is with her, but I don’t have one with Danica, or Harriet.”

“Good. That’s fine. I’m glad you don’t have a problem with her and her grandmother, but do not sell her your property.” And, with that, Jace threw back the rest of his beer, popped the last bite of his burger in his mouth, and announced, “I’m going home.”

Cameron didn’t want to say it, but on the tip of his tongue had been a hearty Good riddance . This was not the brother he knew, nor the issues Cameron had expected to discuss over a burger tonight. On the other hand, it gave him his house back sooner, as his brother left much earlier than he typically did, and tonight Cameron needed that. He was tired, worn out, and more than a little confounded at the attitudes of everyone around him. It made no sense to him at all. Surely Danica was just another victim.

He didn’t mean it in that way. It wasn’t that she was just another victim , as if she had no value. Of course she had value. A lot of things could cause people a tremendous amount of pain, and he didn’t want to be one of them for Danica. He also didn’t understand what any of this had to do with his brother and why he was so angry about it. It was the fear underlying the anger that surprised Cameron, and he knew something had to be behind it, but it would take a while before his brother would loosen up enough to talk.

*

Oddly enough, at work the very next day, after a surprisingly good night’s sleep, Cameron got more answers than he expected.

When he walked in, Jenny, the oldest nurse on staff, looked over at him and nodded. “I hear you saw Danica.”

He turned to her warily and nodded. “I did.”

“Good,” she stated in a flat tone. “How is she doing?”

Surprised at the worried tone in her voice, he shrugged. “Adjusting slowly, I think. Seems it’s been hard coming back.”

“It would be. The town wasn’t very good to her.”

“I just don’t get that,” Cameron admitted, a bit of exasperation in his tone. “I went to school with her, but I was a few years ahead. Then I went off to college and into med school, and all of that with Danica seemed to have happened while I was away.”

“It was pretty rough, and especially hard on her,” Jenny shared, giving him an odd look. “As you know,… people here have long memories.”

“They might have long memories, but I don’t understand why they would hold anything against her. Surely she was the victim in this case.”

“She absolutely was a victim, and the problem with being a victim, particularly in circumstances like this, is that it scares people.”

“I talked to my brother briefly last night, and he flat-out told me to stay the hell away from her.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?” Jenny said, with a laugh.

Cameron stared at her, puzzled.

A look of realization dawned on her face. “You don’t know, do you?”

“What don’t I know?”

“They were sweet on each other at the time right before the accident.”

Cameron stared at her, as if unsure. Deep down, he noted a grain of truth to it though, and it would partially explain how Jace had acted. Yet contradicted what his brother had told Cameron last night.

She nodded. “But he ditched her. I don’t know how quickly afterward, but they certainly weren’t an item beyond that. Now, it was a pretty new relationship,” she added cautiously. “So, I’m not trying to paint him in a terrible light.”

“Anything you’re saying comes across as putting him in a terrible light,” he pointed out.

“I know. So why don’t we just stop the conversation and leave it there?”

“No. How about we don’t? How about you just tell me what you know, and then I can talk to him about it because he was really upset. Over-the-top, you know?”

She shrugged. “All I know is that they were dating. I don’t know for how long or even how serious it was. I have no idea how close they were. After the attack—and nothing else to call it,” she declared, “and after her mom died, Danica was in the hospital—trying to recover. She arrived DOA. You know that, right?” She sent him a sideways glance.

He frowned. “Sorry?”

“Danica was dead when she arrived. Her mom succeeded in killing her. Then somehow”—she glanced back to the first cubicle—“somehow she came back again.”

“ Somehow ?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded, with a small smile. “Yeah. At the time, several people questioned why anyone would revive her because her face was pretty badly mangled.” He stared at her, and she nodded. “I know. I know what you’re thinking. She at least deserves a life. She at least deserves to have a chance. And I’m all for it,” Jenny declared, raising her hands, “but I’m just telling you that, back then, people thought they should let sleeping dogs lie. And then suddenly she was alive and breathing again.”

“As in she was so badly damaged that she couldn’t be treated?”

Jenny shrugged. “People aren’t always the nicest,” she murmured.

“Yeah, I’m finding that out,” Cameron muttered. “Honest to God, I thought I knew the people in this town, but—”

She laughed. “Not when you bring up something like that. Then you start to know the people of this town a little better.”

“But you’ve lived here all your life,” he protested. “Surely you love it here.”

“I have lived here all my life, and, yes, there is a lot that I love here,” she agreed, “but also an awful lot that I don’t love. Some of the people here, their attitudes, their ingrained superstitions, all of that makes a big difference as to who these people are on the inside.”

“So, you think some superstition affected my brother?”

“I don’t know. Would you have said he was superstitious?”

“No, I wouldn’t have said that at all,” Cameron replied, thinking about it. “And I also didn’t think he would break up with her either, not after something like that had happened.”

“But what a man does and what a man’s family thinks he does are two separate things,” she declared pointedly. “You might have expected him to stand by her side and all that jazz, but they were young and pretty innocent.”

“But she was a victim. She was also innocent. Or am I missing something else here?”

“No, you’re not missing anything,… except you may not be aware of the rumors. Supposedly she wasn’t attacked, but she tried to murder her mother herself, and her own wounds were a result of her mother fighting back.”

Cameron stared at Jenny in shock, unable to swallow that alternate theory.

She nodded. “That’s really what’s behind it. The townsfolk are all afraid that we saved a murderer and that she got off scot-free.”