Part 5
Nancy and Jodi spilled out of the store as soon as he pulled up. Tyler followed them out, still holding a coffee mug and yawning.
"At last!" Nancy cried. "What took you so long? Kylie, are you all right?"
Burt ignored her while walking around to the other side of the truck. He swept her aside as he pulled open the door and reached in for Kylie. He swept her out of the truck and carried her in, pausing only long enough for a very bemused Tyler to open the door.
Kylie looked disheveled, he had to admit. She still wore his t-shirt and her own ragged jeans - torn at the knees and other places - and she carried her boots in one bandaged hand.
After her initial shocked silence, Nancy recovered and started badgering him anew, following him into the store with a stream of questions. "What happened to her, Burt? Can't she walk? What happened to her hands?"
Kylie thanked him and smiled when he set her down at the closest table and he headed for the coffee, leaving her to fend off Nancy herself.
"Oo-oo-ee, Burt," Tyler said, taking up a station against the counter while Burt poured his coffee. "Where'd you find this one?" His words were for Burt, but his smile was all for Kylie as he watched Nancy and Jodi hovering over her. "They have any more?"
"Graboid attack," Burt said shortly. "I'll need you to help with her SUV. If it's still drivable, we'll need to bring it here. Or tow it to Bixby."
"Yeah, but," Tyler said, "how do you get all the luck? My tourists are usually..." He grimaced a lot, but couldn't come up with the term. "Well, not like that. She is fine."
Burt shook his head and took up a station against the counter and glanced over to the three women. She was beautiful, he had to admit that. Even without the makeup she'd worn the night before, a bruise high on her forehead, windblown hair and wearing his oversized clothes, she was the stuff any man's dreams were made of. She looked up and caught him watching her. She smiled. He looked away. He hoped Tyler didn't ask about last night. He'd never hear the end of it. Best he didn't even know she'd been at his place all night.
"But Burt," Nancy turned to him after getting vague answers out of Kylie. "Where did this happen? What were you even doing off the road?" That to Kylie. "And how did she get out to your place? Can I get some answers?"
Burt stood and opened his mouth to give her the answer she deserved.
"And don't tell me 'that's on a need to know basis,' either," she insisted.
Since that was exactly what he'd intended to tell her, he didn't say anything.
"Do you realize I've been waiting up all night for her? Do you know how worried I was?"
"Exactly how is that my responsibility?" her snapped back. "I wasn't in charge of your visitors. Matter of fact, I don't remember being informed of any visitors coming to the Valley."
"That's not the point, Burt, and you know it. You should have let me know as soon as you found her. How could you think I wouldn't be worried?"
"How could I know you'd be worried. I didn't know she belonged to you."
"Could you at least tell me when and where this happened?"
"I could not."
"Burt--"
"You know, Nancy," Kylie said, breaking into their argument. She sat in the chair between them, watching them argue, her head bobbing back and forth like she was watching some demented ping-pong match, as had everyone else. "Burt had to patch me up some, Nancy."
"All night?"
Kylie rolled her eyes. "What, I'm not allowed a brief stop in Vegas for some fun? What are you, the Sheriff of Entertainment?"
"But--"
"And how was I to know I was going to be attacked by some underground grab-on?"
"Graboid." All the Perfectionites joined in on that.
"Yeah, whatever. Point is, when you were covering Lovely Perfection Valley's high points last year, 'vicious, people-sucking, underground monsters' should probably have been on the list."
Nancy gasped. "You're right. I didn't mention El Blanco."
Kylie shook her head. "Yeah, my point. Trust me, not the best way to start your day."
"Well, you're right, I--"
"Look, Burt says my Rover might still be there. Let's test that theory, okay? Can we cut the man some slack on the timetable? Just for today? Doctoring takes time, you know." She waggled her still bandage-clad fingers. "Remember, if not for Burt, I'd be a whole lot later..."
Nancy nodded. "You're right." She turned to him, looking chastened. "Thank you, Burt."
Burt nodded, reluctantly. He was as uncomfortable with her gratitude as he'd been with Kylie's. He set his coffee on the counter and turned to Tyler. "Ready to get that SUV?" Without waiting for an answer, he headed for the door.
He stopped in the doorway, giving Kylie a look. He didn't know how she'd determined he didn't want them to know she'd been with him all night, but he wanted to thank her, somehow.
She only quirked her lips in a secret smile and shrugged. He'd just interpret that as, "you're welcome."
"The keys are in it!" She called after them.
When Burt and that man in the cowboy hat left the store, Kylie turned to Nancy. "Who was that masked man?"
"What?"
"What's his story? He appears out of nowhere, rescues me like a knight on a white charger, takes me to his secret military base, patches me up with the skill of a surgeon... What's the story?"
Nancy's mouth opened, but she looked like she didn't know where to start.
"Thirty words or less," Kylie prompted.
"Burt's just strange," the woman who could only be Jodi said helpfully.
"You didn't call his place a 'secret military base' to him, did you?" Nancy asked.
Kylie thought about it. "Hmmm... Probably. Why?"
Jodi and Nancy shared a grin.
"Is that why he kept poking that needle into me?"
They nodded, laughing.
"So tell us what happened!" Jodi said, sitting at the table beside her and leaning forward eagerly.
"Yes, tell us," Nancy said, joining them at the table. "I'm not clear on the details."
"Not much to tell," Kylie shrugged. "There was this big yellow sign, I stopped to look, and something flipped my Rover. Then the Rover's spinning like a turtle on its back and I'm getting yanked into the maw of a graboid. Next thing I know, there's Burt standing over me like he's ten feet tall and the graboid is running like hell. Just like the movies. Then Burt's wrapping me up like a mummy and I'm on my way here, safe and sound."
"Why didn't he bring you here first?" Nancy asked. Persistent woman, Nancy.
Kylie shrugged. "Maybe he thought his secret underground military base had more medical supplies. I don't know."
"About that..." Jodi began. "Burt's a little... sensitive... about secret government things. Might not want to call his home a 'secret military base' anymore."
Nancy nodded. "Yeah, he sees conspiracies behind every bush."
Nancy looked like she was gearing up for another line of questioning, so Kylie headed her off. "So who's the yummy guy in the cowboy hat?"
"Tyler? Yummy?" Nancy laughed.
"He moved here a few months ago," Jodi supplied. "He owns Desert Jack's Graboid Adventure. Tourist business. Makes decent money, though."
That worked, so she headed off more questioning by asking questions of her own. Soon, she knew of the existence and probable location of every other inhabitant of Perfection Valley, including El Blanco, all there was to know about graboids, shriekers and assblasters, how to live off one canteen of water and a knife in the desert, and many other useless facts. Just as she was sure she'd scream if she had to come up with one more question, she saw a flash and looked out the window in time to see Burt's truck stop in front of the window.
"My Rover," she said, struggling to get to her feet. Nancy and Jodi both took an arm and between them, they got her to the door and out to the porch that ran along the front of the store.
Her brand new Range Rover looked sadly abused. The right side, in front of her, was scraped and dented from front to back. The roof was slightly caved in, especially on the opposite side. The windows, all of them, were gone. "My Rover... My stuff..."
Kylie looked like she was going to be sick. Burt stepped forward and helped her sit down on the steps in front of the store. "You shouldn't be on your feet," he explained. She just stared at her battered SUV. "It's not as bad as it looks. This can all be fixed." Maybe not so it looked exactly like it had when she'd bought it, but he didn't think she needed to hear that just then. "Most of your cargo in the back is fine. It was packed tightly enough that it barely shifted when the vehicle went over. We got all your belongings off the highway. They're all in here." He got up and opened the passenger side door to show her.
"Oh!" she made a little cry and struggled to her feet. He went to help her but Tyler got there first, and walked her to the SUV.
She picked up an ornately-carved, velvet lined box from the rubble. It hadn't fared as well as the load in the back. It was cracked nearly in two, and its contents could have been any of the bits of strange objects they'd found scattered on the road. She examined the box mournfully then cradled it to her, while reaching out to shift through the debris on the seat and floor. There were candles and small statues, some cards and bits of ribbon and small boxes of spices, he believed. Not illegal drugs, anyway - he'd checked. Nothing, he thought, that looked very valuable, but it had obviously meant a lot to her. She picked up her purse from the rubble and put it on her shoulder, but Nancy stepped forward and took it from her.
"I'll hold that for you," she said gently.
Kylie turned toward Nancy and held out her box. "It's all broken," she whimpered and a small voice.
Nancy nodded. "But you're okay, that's what matters," she said.
Kylie just shook her head.
"I can fix that," Burt said, because he had to say something. He took the box from her and examined it closely. "A little glue," he assured her with a pat on her shoulder. "Be good as new."
Nancy hugged her, which seemed to help. He'd never seen a woman that needed more physical contact. "Let's go sit down. We can unload your truck later."
Kylie nodded and started inside, holding on to Nancy. With Tyler's arm around her other side, much to Burt's chagrin.
He put Kylie's box on the floorboard of his truck and followed the sad little group into the store.
She sat down at the same little table, thinking of all the little bits and pieces from her altar that she hadn't seen in the wreckage. The little jade mouse she'd picked up in China, the willow, birch and rowan tree branches she'd gotten from Britain... So many years to assemble the contents of her favorite little altar and now gone...
They were talking over her again.
"We'll take it into Bixby on Monday," Burt was explaining. "They'll fix it right up."
"Ed's is going to have a heck of a time finding parts for that," Tyler countered, then turned to her. "Is that a brand new Range Rover? Fully loaded?"
Kylie nodded. "Just three weeks old."
"Bet that cost... fifty grand, at least," he added.
"Seventy. Two."
Tyler whistled in sympathy. Nancy patted her hand again.
"If we can't get it fixed in Bixby, we can send it to Las Vegas. They'll--"
The ground started shaking. Earthquake!
She struggled to her feet, but Nancy motioned her back, mouthing, "El Blanco."
She went to the display case at the front of the store and opened it, trying to hold what she could in place. Tyler dove to the cooler behind it and pulled the plug. Jodi held her kitchen implements in place.
Kylie felt her heart start to race. El Blanco? Here? She looked around. Everyone else seemed fairly calm. Even Burt just stood at the counter with a finger to his lips. She expected El Blanco to burst through the door any moment. Had she lived through last night just to be graboid breakfast today?
Then she felt a hand slide onto her shoulder. She turned. Burt gave her that peculiar half-smile of his, meant to be reassuring.
It was. She smiled in return.
It was nice having your own personal knight in shining armor.