“I’ve been telling you she was trouble for years.” Tate’s somberness hurt him more than any words.
“She was wearing a daisy shirt.”
“She was in the fucking sixth grade. You’ve been chasing that sign since you first saw it. Dustin and I both told you she wasn’t the one when I caught her making out with Asher during one of your football games.”
“Why does it matter what Diane was wearing?” Sutton placed a hand on Tate’s leg.
Tate raised a brow, leaving the choice to him whether or not to answer her question.
Going to the window, he stared out at the front yard, remembering the vision as if it had happened just yesterday. “Tate ever tell you that, when our pa thought we deserved an ass whipping, he would make us go wait out in the barn?”
“Yes.” From the softness of her voice, he was sure Tate had told her more than he had expected.
“One day, he got drunk when Ma was in town cleaning a house …”
“He wasn’t drunk. He was obliterated,” Tate broke in.
“He was piss-ass drunk,” Greer agreed. “Ma had kept me and Tate home from school that day because we were sick with the flu. Pa dragged us out of bed as soon as Ma left, telling us if we were going to stay home, we were going to work. He had made a batch of moonshine and wanted us to ride our bikes to old man Carter’s house. It was freezing outside, but our pa didn’t care. Filling our baskets, he told us we better not break any of them or we’d get an ass whipping. I almost made it before I wrecked. I still see those jars shaking right before I rode over a patch of ice.”
“I do, too.” Tate’s rough voice was filled with his own memories of that long ago winter morning.
“When we got home, Pa was waiting at the barn. Old man Carter had called him and told him that he was only paying for ten jars.” He had ridden the long road home, knowing what was waiting for him. “Tate tried to take the blame so only one of us would have to take the whipping, but I wasn’t going to let him take the blame for something I did.
“He gave me the worst beating of my life, and that’s saying a lot. Then he let Tate have it for lying. When he got tired, he went into house, locking us inside the barn. We were cold, sick, and were hurting so bad we couldn’t talk. Tate either was unconscious or had fallen asleep, but I was wide awake. I crawled over to him, trying to wake him up but couldn’t. I gave up and sat next to him, curled into a ball, trying to stay warm. I laid my head down on my knees to keep from vomiting.
“I kept thinking I’d be dead before Pa came back for us. My spirits kept whispering that one day, we wouldn’t be hungry anymore, that I wouldn’t have to be afraid of our pa, and that one day, someone would love me enough to make the hurt go away. When I raised my head, I saw a daisy and knew my spirits were gifting me with a sign. When I tried to wake Tate up, it disappeared. I knew then that daisy was meant only for me. I’ve been searching for it ever since. I thought it was Diane. I was wrong.”
Greer turned from the window, leaving his memories behind. “Diane got Luke or the Hayes to break in here, and she trashed the house as they killed the chickens. When they heard Tate’s dog getting closer, they hightailed it out of here before they could burn the house.”
“If they planned on burning the house, why tear everything up?” Sutton asked in dismay.
Greer smiled in self-mockery. “That’s where they screwed themselves.” He went to the kitchen table, where Sutton had placed the pictures from the broken frames, then went back into the living room, tossing them onto the coffee table. “Notice anything?”
Sutton leaned over, staring down at the pictures then the ones that had remained untouched. “She didn’t break the ones without Holly in them. That bitch!”
“That, she is.” Greer heard loud motors coming from outside. Striding toward the door, he looked outside to see his yard filled with bikers.
“What do you want?” Greer asked the president of The Last Riders, seeing Knox getting off the motorcycle he rode when he was off duty. Cash and Razer lifted a big tool box out the bed of his truck. Even the pastor and his wife got out of their car, going to the trunk to grab a basket of food.
“Knox said someone broke into your house, had a party, and left a mess. I had some paint and bathroom fixtures I didn’t use on my house, so I wanted to see if you could use them.”