Chapter Five
After a time, the water turned black as dirt and pine sap and caked-on blood loosened and washed away. Tsugi was a diligent, patient nurse with a steady hand and a practiced touch. She clearly knew what she was doing. Red laid still, her mind a jumble of questions. Did the men know she was living in the cottage? They had to. Had that been one of them, the man on the ridge? Why would they kill her? Was the law against killing one's neighbor really that lax in these parts? Shit…no wonder the house had sold so cheaply.
Tsugi sprayed disinfectant on the jagged cut, pulling the torn edges together and affixing steri strips along its seven-inch length to hold it closed. She turned to the side, readying a needle and thread. Red blanched.
"What the hell are you going to do with THAT? Are you a nurse? A surgeon? Do you even have a first aid merit badge from the Girl Scouts?"
Tsugi looked at her cooly and shifted position, straddling her ankle on the bed and tilting the light over.
"Beggars can't be choosers, Red. Suffice it to say that I have a great deal more experience healing all types of injuries than you do in cutting wood." She leaned down and prepared to begin sewing. "Just lie back, take very deep breaths and let them out slowly, and let me work. You're going to be alright if you hold still. I have done this before. Many times."
Red lay back, her hands over her face, moaning in terror and pain. When the first pinprick happened, it felt fuzzy and distant. Not painful, really. Just uncomfortable. The sizzle of the disinfectant had been worse. As Tsugi quietly stitched, Red lowered her hands and turned her head to the side, studying the rows of books on the nearest shelf. Mechanical engineering. Explosives. Military manuals. Weapons catalogs. Japanese poetry? German philosophy. World War II history. Karl Marx and Nietzsche. Some books on animal rights, on physics, a few math textbooks. Whomever it was that owned this collection, they were intelligent. That was for certain.
"Are you a teacher?"
Tsugi shook her head, concentrating. "No. More into freelance law enforcement."
"What, like a bounty hunter?"
"Something like that."
"Are these your books?"
"They belong to my fiancé. This is our bedroom."
"Is he one of the brothers? The ones who might want to kill me? God, what did I even do that was so wrong? I'm not a threat to anyone! Not even trees, clearly."
"Hold still. I'm nearly done, and then we have to get you back to where you came from. I'll give you some supplies, and I'll look in on you as often as I can until you're well. We have plenty of cat food here. The youngest brother is fond of animals, and feeds many of the local strays. You're a bit too large to fit into any of my clothing, but I can probably nick some of Darwin's things for you, at least a few shirts and some warmer pants."
Years later and up to the end of her life, Red would always react to that name exactly the way she did when she first heard it. A strange warmth filled her chest, a sense of coming home after a long journey. Of being lost and cold and tired, then climbing familiar steps and finding the door open. She couldn't explain it.
"Darwin." She repeated.
Tsugi put ten stitches into Red's leg, then sprayed on more disinfectant and wrapped the cut in gauze. She stood up and stuffed the torn, bloody jeans into the trash.
"Rest for a few minutes. I'm going to get you some clothes and other items. Then I'll help you get home. What do you need there?"
Red thought hard. "It's freezing. That's why I was looking for wood. I could use some blankets. Candles. I have no electricity. I can't afford to pay for it. I'm almost out of food and Bandit needs food too." She bit her lip. "I can't repay you for any of this."
Tsugi raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to one side.
"Do you really think I expect you to? That's not how I operate. Just rest, gain your strength. I'll find you some crutches, I know we have a few pairs here. And I'll put everything else I can think of into a bag."
She left, and Red lay back on the warm bed and tried to fight off sleep. For the first time in nearly a year, someone was being kind to her. She wondered if she had died out there, and this was simply the happy dream of a collapsing mind before the world went dark forever.
Red was awakened by a significant commotion. A man shouting, Tsugi's calming voice replying, someone groaning in pain. In shock and fear, Red sat bolt upright and stared at the closed door.
"Oh CHRIST! They're home!" She whispered, panic-stricken. She was still pantless, there were no crutches, and Tsugi was out there with the brothers. The window…maybe she should dive out the window. But what about her leg? Damn it! The voices were loud.
"…blinded Jeeves so he couldn't see, got no idea if I'll be able ta deal with that shit right there. One o' the motherfucker's bodyguards shot me in the back, I can't move my legs but I sure as hell kin feel 'em. Dar took one in the neck. He started comin' around in the car while we was tryin' ta make it home. I tell ya what, that was a ride. Jeeves workin' the pedals an' me tryin' ta steer."
"Mah eyes hurt, dang it."
"Stop rubbing them, big guy. Let me clean the blood off, then Lester can look at you. I need you to carry Darwin to his bedroom, too." Tsugi's gentle voice was soothing, tender, there was a warmth and a love to it that made Red's chest ache. She would have been touched if she wasn't in mortal terror. Tsugi must be nervous too. Scared for her.
There was a long period of wordless sound. Scuffling, a few grunts, that low moan again. And then Tsugi's voice.
"What do you think, Lester?"
"He'll see again. Just gonna be a rough few weeks. That left eye is worse than the right, but his corneas ain't punctured an' his pupils still respond ta light. Wear yer goggles next time ya fire off yer weapon, brother. Get on up now, ya gotta carry Darwin ta his room, set him down. Tsugi'll look after that injury. Then you kin take me ta mine, get some rest yerself. Helluva job t'night. Ha!"
"Sure thing, Lester."
"Let's…stay out here in the kitchen together for a little while. You and I. Let Jeeves go to bed. I'll take you back in the desk chair in a little while. I'd like to have a talk." Tsugi said quickly. Red couldn't breathe. She was sweating buckets.
There was a muttering, she couldn't catch the reply/ And then the sound of someone huge and heavy thumping down the wall, feeling his way, she guessed. A man in his arms. Oh God…if they were hurt, why weren't they at a hospital? What the hell kind of family WAS this? The movement stopped right across the hall, a door was opened, the moan sounded again as the injured Darwin was presumably set down. And then heavy footsteps thudded farther up the hall and into another room. Two of the brothers were in bed, hopefully for the night. Maybe this would all turn out alright somehow. Maybe.
Red waited, listening to the gradual settling of the house and the low voices coming from the kitchen. Ten minutes later the door opened and Red reflexively grabbed a heavy book from the nightstand, ready to throw it. But Tsugi slipped in, holding a finger to her lips.
"Your life depends on you not being difficult right now. I told my fiancé about you. The others don't know yet, and believe me that is a very good thing." She grabbed the desk chair and rolled it out, "Just be respectful, a little subservient, and for God's sake don't raise your voice."
"Wait!" Red whispered, "I don't have any pants!"
But Tsugi was already gone. Sounds in the hallway, and then the ominous squeak of a desk chair.
'So this is how my death is going to come', thought Red wildly, 'On the cushioned seat of Office Depot bargain furniture.'
The door opened all the way, and Red struggled to sit up. She licked her dry lips, expecting the very worst.
She was not disappointed.
The man in the chair was heavily muscled, dressed in blood-drenched Kevlar body armor held together with duct tape. He was shaved completely bald, even his eyebrows, but scruffy sideburns adorned his cheeks and jaw. A tattoo of the business end of a double-barrel shotgun pointed from his throat, and his hands and arms wore tattoos of bones on them. Articulated, perfectly shaped human bones. He was gazing at her with the most unsettling glare.
Tsugi pushed him fully into the room, close enough to the dresser for him to grab it, then bent down and kissed his cheek lovingly.
"I'll see to Darwin now." She said softly, and slipped out without another word.
Red stared at Lester.
Lester stared at Red.
"Um…hello? N-nice to meet you. Sir."
"Tsugi tells me ya got fancy with an ax. That right?"
"Yes sir."
He pulled himself a little closer, right to the bedside. Red recoiled, shocked at the amount of blood that coated his body. He seemed not to notice it, his eyes trained on her leg. He reached up suddenly, and Red raised her hands to ward off a blow.
"Please don't!" she whimpered. Lester sighed and pulled open a drawer in the bedside stand, withdrawing a pair of spectacles. He slipped them on and turned back to survey her injury.
"Don't be a goddamned idiot, woman. I ain't gonna hit ya." He touched her leg, and Red slowly relaxed. He seemed knowledgeable, his movements sure.
"Are you a doctor?"
"I do the healin', the cookin', an' the technical shit around here. Getting' my Tsugi trained up ta help me out a bit fer all three. It's a big job. Alright, girl, she did a damn fine job o' stitchin' you up. You'll be able ta limp around on it an' the bone ain't broke er nothin'. Just keep it dry. She'll bring ya the crutches an' walk ya home."
"You're not going to…to kill me?"
Lester fixed his gaze upon her. Sky blue eyes, startling blue. Almost beautiful, in fact, were it not for the wild savagery of the face and body of which they were a part.
"I ain't gonna kill you, darlin'." He said softly. "No one's paid me to."