Born Savages Page 19

  “Hunting rattlers?” she asks, turning her face up for a quick kiss and not bothering to check whether Spence is watching. Spence continues combing the ground. Spence doesn’t care who is kissing who.

  “Yep.” Oscar shoulders the shotgun and circles his arms around her waist.

  She loves being close to him whenever she can, every way she can. She understands now what happens to people, how they lose all sense and reason when they fall as hard as this.

  Oscar squints into the sun. “Too many of them around here lately. Someone’s going to take a bad step and wind up with a leg full of venom.”

  “We have to talk,” Ren whispers.

  Oscar doesn’t ask her what it’s about. He just nods and calls to Spence that he’s talking off for a while. He leaves Spence his shotgun and holds Ren’s hand as they head for the barn where it will be stifling hot but quiet.

  There’s a place in the narrow loft they like to go when they need to be alone and can’t find anywhere else. Spence’s tired old mare, Pet, chews lazily and seems to be listening as Ren tells Oscar everything about the lawyer and about Mina.

  He seems rather unsurprised, or else he’s putting on a brave face for her benefit. He tells her to stop talking and then sets her gently on her back for a long kiss. She says nothing about Brigitte’s strange claim that Oscar has been with someone other than her since arriving at Atlantis. It’s impossible. He tells her every day that there will never be anyone else, never again. She feels him pressing into her and wants to give him everything he needs. She needs it just as much. His strong hand moves over her skin, underneath her shirt and she arches her body, pushing him higher.

  “You sick motherfucker!”

  Oscar jerks and springs upright as sharply as if he’s been shot. Ren furiously rolls her shirt down and dares to glance down into Monty’s raging face. He’s not looking at her though. Every ounce of his fury is directed at Oscar. “Yeah, you better get your ass down here!”

  Oscar jumps down and circles warily. “Stay up there, Ren.”

  “You think you need to protect my sister from me? Is that what you think you shitty little punk?”

  “Right now? Yes.”

  Monty swings. He’s got a hard right hook but Oscar’s quick. He manages to dodge sideways.

  “Montgomery!” Ren shouts. “You stop this right now!”

  He flashes her a look that seems almost hurt, probably because in his mind he’s doing his lousy best to protect her honor or whatever from the predatory Oscar.

  “I don’t want to get into this with you,” Oscar growls. “Not right now.” Then he sighs tiredly. “Goddammit, Monty, haven’t we knocked each other around enough this summer?”

  Monty thinks. Then he smiles, a cold smile. “No,” he says and his next swing is abrupt enough to connect with Oscar’s jaw. Another guy would probably have been knocked over but Oscar just reels backwards momentarily and then rights himself, spitting out a quarter-sized bullet of blood. Without pausing to blink he knocks his right hook against Monty’s jaw. Monty curses, stumbling, and the two of them stand off, each ready to charge ahead and send the other straight to the next county.

  Ren jumps down from the loft and gets between them. Monty is startled, dropping his stance and staring down at her with vague puzzlement. “This is between me and him, Ren.”

  “No, it isn’t. You knock it the hell off or so help me I’ll never consider you a brother again.”

  He’s dumbfounded. “Holy shit, don’t tell me you’ve bought into his act. He’s a horny little con artist.”

  “Monty,” she warns, falling back to stand beside Oscar. “I mean it. Whatever battle you think you’re fighting doesn’t exist.”

  Ren watches her brother shake his head in disgust. He spits on the ground and addresses Oscar. “This sure as shit isn’t over. You stay the fuck away from my sister or I swear one of these days I’ll kill you.”

  Oscar just snorts. “Drop dead you mouth-breathing prick.”

  With one more ominous glare at Ren, Monty takes off, stalks over to the pickup truck and peels out of Atlantis.

  “Asshole,” Oscar says.

  “Sometimes,” Ren sighs. She touches Oscar’s swelling jaw. “Does it hurt?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  Ren runs her fingers across his cheek, feeling a hint of rough stubble. It excites her. He always excites her. “You know, I bet he’ll be gone all day. Monty’s fits are usually good for about twelve hours of Monty-free living.”

  Oscar grins. “Well worth the pain then.”

  The little caretaker’s house is messy but blissfully empty. Ren prepares a gourmet lunch of grilled cheese and for the afternoon they pretend there is no Monty, no Lita, no such thing as a Savage. They spend hours in Oscar’s bed, making love tenderly, then playfully rough, then tender once again as the sun fades and an electrical storm rolls through.

  “You smell that?” Ren asks as she straddles Oscar and listens to the wind outside.

  Oscar props himself on his elbows, leans over and pushes the window open. “Fire,” he confirms. “Probably sparked by a bolt of lightning, likely in the mountain foothills.”

  Ren shudders. The wind must be blowing the smoke right in their direction. The acrid stench fills the room. “It won’t reach here, will it?”

  Oscar thinks about it. “Nah. There’s not enough on the desert floor to burn. Besides there’s probably rain coming right up. That’ll take care of things.”

  “Oscar.” She rests her cheek against his hard chest. “We need to leave. We need to get out of here.”

  He strokes her hair. “I know, baby. I know. Just need a few days to get a plan sorted out. Trust me, Ren. We’ll make it. As long as there’s us, there’s everything.”

  “I love you, Oscar. I want to keep saying it in case I don’t say it enough.”

  “You say it plenty. And you’re the only one I ever want to hear it from. I love you too.”

  She shivers and tries to burrow closer to him. She can’t. She just can’t get close enough. “Show me,” she whispers.

  It’s ecstasy, as always. He grips her hips and helps her move with deliberate care as they connect yet again. Ren keeps her eyes closed, letting herself go completely, and in that moment she glimpses her future, a future full of Oscar and of bliss, and she knows it will be hers.

  It only takes an instant for the vision to shatter.

  “What’s wrong?” Oscar asks. He sits up and tips her chin toward him. “Ren. You look terrified. What is it?”

  She tries to smile but realizes her right hand is still clapped firmly over her mouth so a smile would make no difference. Slowly, she removes the hand that had flown to her face in horror the moment she’d opened her eyes and looked at the dark open window. Horror, because someone was right there, looking back at her. Someone whose features were twisted into an expression of hatred in its most unfiltered form. And then it was gone.

  “Let’s go away,” she begs, clutching him. “Let’s go away tonight. I have a little bit of money from when I did some catalog modeling before we moved out here. Let’s just go. We don’t even have to tell anyone.”

  “We will,” he whispers, kissing her lips. “Not tonight but we will.”

  “Why not tonight?”

  “You’re not eighteen.”

  “Neither are you.”

  He grimaces. “Maybe,” he mutters. “In any case no one would be looking for me. You’re a different story. This isn’t a movie, Loren. We need a plan. We can’t just slide into the night like a pair of criminals and expect there will be no consequences, that it will all turn out happily ever after.”

  He’s right. Of course he’s right. She would be reported, the news would hit the tabloids.

  “Teenager Loren Savage, daughter and granddaughter of Hollywood legends, runs away from home with a man rumored to be her cousin. The two are thought to be at large somewhere in western Arizona.”

  “I know that,” she says with some bitte
rness as she slowly pulls her clothes back on. “Believe me, I understand exactly how it is.”

  Oscar watches her. “Where are you going?”

  “The big house. I have a feeling someone’s waiting for me there.”

  His dark eyes are troubled and he starts to rise. “I’ll go with you.”

  “No.” She kisses him. “No. I’ll be back soon.”

  The smoke smell is stronger outside. Ren walks slowly, pausing on the porch of the brothel. The wind plays havoc with her hair and darkens her vision with dust. But in the west, toward the mountains, she thinks she sees a faint orange glow. It could be a brush fire or it could be the last gasp of the vanishing sun. It’s impossible to tell.

  Why does she feel like she is being slowly choked from the inside? Every step toward the house is more difficult to take than the last one. She tells herself there is no reason to feel this way. Yes, it was her mother’s face at the window, her mother’s cold eyes of loathing, but there is nothing Lita can do to her. If she tries, Ren will convince Oscar that they have no choice but to leave, authorities and tabloids be damned.

  The porch light is dark and she fumbles for the doorknob. The pickup truck is still gone, meaning Monty has not returned. For all their differences, Ren would rather have Monty around right now. No matter how much he despises Oscar, he would never stand still and allow Lita to hurt her. Ren has no such faith in her father.

  At first the house is silent and Ren breathes with relief. She tiptoes past the front room and takes a right turn down the hall towards the bedroom she shares with her sisters. Suddenly she wants very much to be where they are.

  A door opens at her back and light splashes the dark corridor. “Loren,” says her father. “Come here please.”

  Ren tries to calm her quickening pulse as she turns around and cautiously enters her father’s study. She has never been frightened of her father in her life and she isn’t afraid of him now. But when she sees Lita sitting in a leather armchair with her legs crossed, a triumphant smile on her lips, Ren can hardly breathe.

  She can’t do anything to me. She can’t do anything if I don’t let her.

  Ren crosses her arms and stares straight ahead as August closes the heavy door at her back. That’s when Lita unexpectedly rises, crosses the room, and with the strength of a man strikes Ren across the face so hard her ears ring with the echo.

  “You fucking whore,” Lita spits.

  Ren barely notices the pain. There is just the shock of being hit. Her nose feels funny and when she touches it with her fingers they come away bloody. She inhales hard, levels a loathing stare at the woman who gave her life and says with stark clarity, “You goddamn bitch.”

  “Stop it,” August demands but there’s no authority in his voice. Only exhaustion. “Goddamn it, both of you. Stop.”

  “Gladly,” Ren says and turns to leave the room. Whatever these people need to talk about, they can do it without her. She needs to find Oscar. She needs to let him know that remaining in Atlantis is no longer an option.

  Lita tears past August and blocks Ren’s exit. “You’re going nowhere. Not tonight. Not ever.” She shakes her head as her silver earrings catch the soft light of the Tiffany lamp on August’s desk. “I knew you were a loser, Loren. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  “Enough!” August actually raises his voice this time. “Lita, you’ve crossed the line.”

  Lita throws him a withering look. “Oh, be quiet, old man. You might strain a vocal chord pretending you care.”

  Ren clenches her fists. If Lita wants a fight she can have one. “Get the hell out of my way you poisonous cunt.”

  Her mother seems merely amused. “Trashy little words from a trashy little girl. My god, I always figured you for a pathetic fool but assumed you would know enough not to slut it around with the gutter rat your crazy aunt kept for a pet.”

  Ren closes her eyes, wishes to be somewhere else, anywhere else. “What is it that bothers you, Lita? That I’m with someone you consider inappropriate? Or that I’ve found something you’ve never had?”

  “Oh,” Lita says softly as her smile returns. “I guess it’s time you heard. Loren my dear, sweet, supremely idiotic child, I’ve had everything you’ve had. Only I had it first.”

  That’s what Brigitte meant. It’s not true. It’s not even in the same hemisphere as the truth.

  “If you think I’ll believe that you’re more vile and crazy than I ever gave you credit for.”

  Ren recoils when Lita suddenly reaches out to brush a few fallen strands of dark hair from her forehead. She doesn’t retreat soon enough to avoid being lightly scratched with her mother’s fingernails.

  “You fucking little moron,” Lita sighs. “You actually believe he cares. No Ren, he’s the sort of trash who’s only looking for the next hole to satisfy himself.”

  Ren glances at her father, silently begging him to put a stop to this nightmare. She doesn’t believe it. Not even for a blink of an eye does she believe Oscar would have a thing to do with Lita. August believes it though. Either he believes it or he can’t be bothered with a contradiction. He breathes heavily and sinks down into a chair.

  Lita laughs. “Oh, don’t look at your father as if he’ll object. Oscar’s not the first one I’ve had fun with and he won’t be the last. I suppose you’re old enough to hear that your father and I have had an arrangement since Brigitte was born. I’m free to do as I please. And in this case, like so many others, that’s exactly what I did.”

  Ren runs the back of her hand beneath her nose. It has stopped bleeding. “Sorry. It turns out you’ve wasted a round of theatrics, Mom. I know exactly what you are. You don’t know how to do anything but lie and inflict pain. But I won’t be your problem anymore. And neither will Oscar.”

  Lita is amused. “Is that because you believe you two will just ride off into the fabled sunset like the dreadful films once set here? No.” She shakes her head with a private smile. “That won’t be happening, Ren.”

  “Empty threats,” Ren whispers. That’s all you are. You can’t stop us.”

  Lita clucks her tongue. “Well now, that’s not exactly true. Do I really have to remind you that you are a minor?”

  “Fine, I’ll get emancipated. I have less than eight months until my eighteenth birthday.”

  “Yes, a lot can happen in eight months. Scandal and disgrace. And of course a trial.”

  “A trial?” Ren is startled. “What crime has been committed for god’s sake?”

  “Do you really think we would allow Mina’s stray to camp out here without performing a few background checks? Among the more interesting nuggets of information we uncovered is the fact that Oscar is over eighteen and of course, as I just pointed out, you are not.”

  “Oh god, Lita, you think anyone will care? No one in their right mind would bother with a case like that.”

  “They will if I make sure of it. And just imagine all the lovely publicity that will surround you for the rest of your life. I’m aware of how much you adore the spotlight, dear daughter. Loren Savage will go from being Failed Actress to The Girl Who Fucked Her Cousin.”

  “This is insane. You are insane. You think no one will realize there’s no biological connection between us? And by the way, I know that Mina never actually adopted him so that means his last name is not even legally Savage.”

  Lita sighs. “It saddens me that you’ve learned absolutely nothing. Truth is merely incidental. The story is whatever will sell. Always. The world will see you as cousins because I will make sure of it. And as far as legal trouble goes, if one charge doesn’t stick we can just try again with another. For instance, I believe we will discover that there are some valuable things missing around here. Do not underestimate my resources, girl. What do you think his chances will be by the time I’m finished with him?”

  Ren won’t believe that. Even though she’s seen the evidence her entire life she doesn’t want to be part of a world where Lita is right. She holds
her head up. “No. You’re just so pathetically twisted that you don’t understand that the truth actually matters to people.”

  “Well, by the time you get all that sorted out you won’t be able to set foot outside the door without a camera in your face and your lover will be passing time somewhere in the Arizona penal system. You called me a liar, Ren, and sometimes that’s true. But believe me when I tell you that I will not sleep until that boy is gone, one way or another.”

  Ren stares at her mother, true horror settling in. Lita believes in a scorched earth policy. She will set the world on fire to get her way.

  “What do you want from me?” Ren whispers. “You just want me to be as miserable as you are?”

  Lita’s lips quiver and anyone else might believe she’s trying not to cry. Ren knows otherwise. Her mother is stifling a smile, barely holding in laughter.

  Ren turns beseechingly to her weary father. “Daddy. Do something.”

  But August Savage’s tired eyes ask her to understand that he simply doesn’t have it in him to stop his wife this time. He doesn’t even want to try. He just wants to remain buried here in the peaceful desert and let all the noise disappear. “I’m sorry, honey. He’s a grown man and he’s not even a member of the family. There’s nothing I can do for him.”

  Ren backs away toward the door. She opens it and flees the room. The two people who are responsible for her life are repulsive. She needs to get free of them. She needs to find Oscar. But she needs a few minutes first. Just a few minutes to think.

  Her bedroom is hardly a refuge, especially with Brigitte and Ava in there, heads together, watching some inane reality television show on a tablet.

  “Oh my god,” Bree exclaims. “What a fucking tool if he did it. You think that’s what happened?”

  “Of course it’s what happened,” Ava says with confidence, swinging her long, artificially blonde hair. “It’s on camera.” She glances up when Ren enters the room and shuts the door, giving Bree a little poke in the side.

  Brigitte props herself up on her elbows and looks curiously at Ren. “You look like you’re about to hurl.”