A Very Good Man (52 page)

  “Really? Fine. No, no... that's perfectly fine. What a good reason to alienate someone. Works hard and keeps you alive? How dare I? Seems a bit creepy? Around here? Look in a mirror lately? Half of you freaks aren't even human anymore and the other half are a waste of space. Nate,” he turned to the man and nodded firmly, the man flinched, probably getting what was about to happen.

  “Get that stuff ready. Now. Even if it's here, if I catch anyone touching anything that I got or built, I will hunt them down. Understood? Is that creepy enough for you ladies?” He shrugged, the weapons in his hands coming up just a little. It wasn't clear who would start the shooting, but the room had that feeling. Someone, possibly a lot of someones, were about to die.

  Jake made himself relax as much as possible, and took a deep breath, ready to move when Carl cleared his throat. It was almost enough to start the ball rolling.

  “Jake man, I get that you're ticked, I even get why, believe me... but this isn't the way to fix it.” Carl said softly, carefully not bringing his shotgun around to point at him, even though it was at hand.

  “You have a better way? Let's hear it then. I can't think of anything, but maybe you're smarter than I am?” Jake looked at him down the barrel of the sawed off. The large man was tough when called on for it. He probably wouldn't start anything, but he could. Underestimating him could easily be the last thing a person might do. Jake wasn't in the mood for that today.

  “I...” He looked down. “Not off the top of my head, but we can't let you take all that stuff, even if you're right and have every right to it. Too many will die without it.”

  Jake nodded.

  “Kind of the point, they don't deserve to live. I came back and gave them a second chance and you all promised it would be better, but it just isn't. They all hate me and nothing I do can change that.”

  Heather spoke up then, which she shouldn't have at all. Randy saw that and tried to stop her, but she didn't listen to his urgent plea.

  “Well I don't need you or your stupid things Jake. I was doing just fine on my own before you got in my way and I can do it again!”

  She yelled it and took another breath to do it again, Jake aimed without thinking and started to pull the trigger, her eyes went wide as the pregnant girl understood her mistake. The trigger was almost there, and one problem almost gone from his life, which caused a small warm feeling inside of him. Happiness? What an odd thing to feel at a time like this. He kept on pulling the trigger, time slowing around him, his feelings lifting with the pressure of his index finger. Suddenly a small hand touched his arm. Not hard, not dashing the weapon out of the way. Just a single point of contact.

  “Stop.” Sammi spoke softly, her voice in that eerie sing song she used to convince people of things. He'd heard it before he realized, directed at him, it hadn't worked on him then, but this time he hesitated. The soft blue sleeve caught his attention. Distracting him.

  The bad feelings crashed back into place. No solving the Heather problem that day then. Unless he just shot her anyway. Jake took a deep breath and got ready to fight again, magical Sammi effects or not. Happiness wouldn't stop him from killing. Not twice.

  The tiny woman that looked like a girl continued, her foxy face in a small smile.

  “Heather, you're a dear, but your hormones are getting the better of you at the wrong time right now. Why don't you not talk for a while and I'll see if I can get this all sorted out, alright?” Her look was meaningful, but the psychic girl finally figured out that Jake might just shoot her. He had every reason to, except that she'd shut up and the moment was past. He put the weapon back to his side quietly, but stayed ready. The other cleaners might move on him at any second.

  “Now,” Sammi started, looking at the room peacefully with her hands folded in front of her.

  “Show of hands please, who here truly thinks that Jake is too odd or creepy to sleep with. Women only for now. I think we can all accept that the men would mainly feel that way. I have a theory. Let's see how it plays out, shall we?” She waited and one by one about half the room's hands went up.

  “Ah, good, so not everyone at all then. Now, I'm seeing some familiar faces here... Of those with their hands raised, how many of you slept with Derrick Holsom? Don't be shy, we all know it happened... A lot.” Her voice was wry and older sounding than her face, enough that a few people gave her very funny looks suddenly.

  Two put their hands down. One of those was Heather. The other some gray haired lady that looked like a beagle. Marla. If she had any use at all Jake didn't know what it was yet.

  “Now one last question, did you really decide that Jake was “creepy” all on your own, or was it suggested to you by someone else, say a certain ex-police officer? Possibly while you were in bed? Agreeing to it just before the main event perhaps? Almost as if it was a condition of having relations that night?”

  A murmur went through the room, and one by one the hands went down.

  Ah. Right.

  “Crap.” Tipper said vehemently. Not too loud, but with a lot of meaning.

  Sammi nodded to her.

  “Indeed. Derrick had a reason to dislike Jake, he feared him greatly. A far more powerful man that clearly didn't approve of what was happening, but his ego wouldn't allow him to simply admit it, so he sabotaged him as well as he could. That was his fault, but carrying it on now that you realize it is yours. I do think that this should buy us a reprieve though Jake, before we're all set adrift to die in the cold snows of winter, don't you? At least give the women here a while to see you for who you really are. If they still don't see how wonderful you are, then you can leave us all to die. Besides...” A small look of humor came from the thin faced girl then.

  “Not all of them raised their hands. You might want to take note of that.”

  She sounded sincere and Nate clapped his hands softly.

  “Well, that's that for now then! Good. So, we need to send a team with Jake to check on the gun-smith shop in Clyde, how about Carl, Dave, Vickie and,” He looked around and finally pointed at the old vet, Barry.

  “Will that do?” Nate asked.

  Did they really think that just because they said they were going to change, the women would? They'd had one chance already and blown it. In fact they had every day for weeks. They were still the same people standing here now that had made him want to leave a few minutes before. He shook his head.

  “Why?”Jake made the words soft. “Why in the world should I accept that anyone will change now when they didn't before? I'll go to Clyde, but I need a real answer to that. That's your reprieve Sammi. However long it takes for me to get back. If you can't come up with anything, then we're going to have a problem. I'm too tired to put up with all this anymore.” He knew they couldn't change that fast and probably wouldn't at all. But if he had to leave, waiting another month for something that was just never going to happen wouldn't work. They knew that too, and seemed to be trying to stall so that he couldn't leave later. Jake mentioned that out loud and a few people, including Nate, winced.

  The girl rolled her eyes, obviously thinking he was being petty and stupid. That was fine, it was true even, but Carley turned a deep crimson red and started shaking. She clenched her fists so hard they turned white. If she'd been Ken, Jake would have assumed the next event would be him having his ass kicked. As it was he really wasn't sure that wasn't the plan. If she moved on him, he decided to just shoot her. She was armed after all.

  “What the fuck? So you're saying if we don't all sleep with you you're going to let us all die? All the women? Sammi too or just the ones that are past puberty?” The curly haired blond didn't raise her voice, but rage streamed out of her anyway.

  Nate groaned and buried his head in his hands. Before he could say anything Vickie walked forward into the room, shaking her head. Jake expected her to lay into him too, but she surprised him, more than a little. She looked pissed, true, but didn't turn it on him at all.

  “Don't be a moron Carley. Jake only asked that he be given an honest shot, not that anyone show up in his bed. The sense here is a lot more about saying hi and not rejecting him just because you're an uptight bitch that thinks you're too good for him, than being tied down and raped. If he was into that kind of thing we'd all know about it by now.” She grimaced.

  “Plus, trying to imply he's a child molester isn't helping. Are you trying to force a gun battle? If that happens right now a lot of us die. It's already a raw situation, but you can't help but push things can you? You helped cause this problem by being a stuck-up snob and now you want to force him to start killing people? Have you ever noticed that he's awfully good at that part of things?”

  Carley winced, “I didn't mean...”

  Jake looked at her, glaring directly into her eyes. He didn't move for nearly a minute but then just looked at Nate who couldn't manage direct eye contact at the moment.

  “I think everyone should be starting to get the kind of messed up lies and crap I've been dealing with for a while now. And Carley is practically a friend compared to most of the people here.”

  Sammi sighed loudly. It was enough to get everyone's attention at least. The girl stared at the room hard and shook her head.

  “No.” She said simply. “We are not doing this again. Jake, it will be fixed by the time you and the others get back. Carley, you're with me. Outside. Now.”

  No one laughed at the command, but Carley just crossed her arms and glared at him. Then Vickie nodded.

  “You heard her Carley. Go. You too T. If you pulled shit like this at... well, you know all that. Go.” Vickie pointed at Tipper and then turned to him.

  “There we go. Sammi and Nate will take care of this, let's get out of here before someone starts suggesting you're a closet cannibal too.”

  Carl could drive a stick shift and Vickie admitted she could too, if not very well. She'd had classes on it though. Drivers-Ed or something. She left that part a little vague. He got the gist though, the sub-text. Military training of some kind. Probably a lot more high level than not, for all she claimed to have minimal skills. They really needed to have a conversation about not holding back soon. Before it got people killed.

  Jake could deal with that. If Sammi could be believed it was a lot of people at the house, not just Vickie or Tip. She hadn't even said he was too creepy to sleep with. Not that she'd pick to be with him, but it was nice to know that she didn't secretly hate him without reason. Finally the women in the room looked a little ashamed of themselves. Some of them. Probably not for the right reasons, but it beat that willful arrogance that they'd had going on as a group before.

  Yeah, no one had to sleep with him, but they'd done it as part of a campaign to attack him. To make him feel like less than he was. On purpose. Kind of. Not their individual plan maybe, but they'd been party to it and they'd known who told them to act like that. Would anything change now though? He didn't know.

  Probably not.

  If they were willing to just go with him being creepy because someone said so a couple of times, then that had to be coming from something deeper, didn't it?