The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Andy hadn’t said what Faye did to his dad. And considering his rage, it was something pretty bad. And no matter what Faye said, Diana knew she did something. Payback for something. That was Faye’s motto, how she lived, she may be a strikingly beautiful woman, but her soul was ugly as sin. And whatever it was, Diana would bet her last dime that it came down to drugs. The woman was always popping pills, snorting something, or smoking m*******a. Never a day went by that her mother was sober. Diana crammed Louisa’s clothes and coloring books into plastic bags and started packing up the kitchen.

“What are you doing there, girl?” her mama slurred, still drunk, weaving into the kitchen after she’d showered and changed into a pair of skintight shorts. At least the stink of sweat and heavy perfume had been washed away. But the booze she’d downed the night before seeped from her pores.

“I’m packing. We have to be gone tonight.” Diana was still numb, and she hadn’t been able to eat a thing as worry nibbled at her, twisting her gut until she ached all over.

“Well, you just put everything away. We ain’t leaving, I paid my rent to Todd as I have every month.” Her mama waved her slender hand, with long, red nails, before wandering into the bathroom. The hairdryer whirred, and Louisa was clinging to her leg, rubbing her tired eyes and whining. If she didn’t get her to stop, Mama would lose it.

“Louisa, please, honey. Color me a picture,” Diana said.

But Louisa wouldn’t sit. She threw her crayons and stomped after Diana, screeching in that high-pitched whine that she wanted to go outside. And then she wanted her dolly, but then when Diana handed her the ratty Raggedy Ann, it wasn’t what she wanted. So she picked Louisa up and carried her with her. Leaning in the bathroom doorway, she caught a glimpse in the dingy, cracked mirror of a scrawny girl with tangled hair and a tired, pale face holding a skinny, dark-haired imp. Her mama was primping like she did every night, and she sprayed her hair, coating it with a layer of hairspray after she had all the curls just right.

“Mama, Andy said that we have to go.”

Her mama never glanced her way, just applied enough black mascara to make her already lush lashes even longer. “Andy has no right to throw us out. He crossed a line there, he’s just mad about something and I was the first thing that was handy. Men are like that, you know. They yell, they scream, then the next day they’ll have forgotten all about it. So don’t you worry none. Now I’m gonna be late.” She dashed out of the bathroom and up to her room. Diana could hear her rustling in the upstairs closet and knew she was choosing her clothes for tonight, another tight skirt and silky tank top. She heard her pull out the heavy box from the back of her closet where she kept her stash.

Diana was worried because she’d seen the contempt in Andy’s eyes. He wasn’t just blowing steam. He’d meant everything. He’d condemned her along with Faye, and she was still ashamed of something she hadn’t done; the sins of her mother. Damn you, Mama, what did you do to Mr. Todd?

Diana hated this responsibility, all this worry. She had never been allowed to be just a child. This house, and the forest surrounding this property was the only home they’d been in long enough to put down roots, and it terrified her now to leave this familiar place. To give up her forest, and any hope with Andy.

After she fed Louisa dinner, she bathed her and put her to bed. All day she’d worried about what Andy had said. She relived the fire and scorn in his eyes, and she cried. She’d trusted him, and believed he’d never let her down. But he had. And now Faye had gone out… like she did every night. Diana lay in her bed, and she listened, she waited because she feared Andy would be back, and he no longer looked at her as he had the day he’d rescued her on her bike. And when she asked him for help. It happened overnight—his hatred, the hardness in him for her. But she didn’t know what she’d done. Then, an hour later, Mama pulled in and she wondered if maybe she had once again met with Todd, and everything would go back to the way it was. But as she stood there in the doorway, Faye hurried up the stairs. Several pickup trucks drove in, headlights filling the yard. For a minute she thought it was another party about to start, and was prepared to hurry to her room, and block the door. But as several rough-looking cowboys jumped out, one holding a shotgun, she heard Andy shout, “I told you to be gone, Faye!” Diana raced upstairs and grabbed Louisa from her bed, wrapping her in a blanket, and hurried down the stairs. One of the cowboys took her arm and led her outside, where she shivered barefoot in her thin top and pajama bottoms. Mama was shrieking like a banshee as two men dressed in worn jeans and jean jackets hauled her over to Andy, where she grabbed his arm and cried.

“Please, Andy, don’t do this. My girls and I have no place to go. How can you throw out a single mom? I’ve rented this house fair and square, and paid my rent on time to your daddy. This is our home. Your daddy would never allow something like this, let me call him.”

Andy strode around to the other side of the truck and opened the door. Todd Friessen, an older version of his son, stepped out and held the frame of the door; he appeared shaky, and Andy supported his dad’s arm. “That’s where you’re wrong Faye,” Todd said. “I’ve put up with your shenanigans for a long time. But you went too far last night, and if there’s one thing everyone in this county is smart enough to know it’s that you don’t cross me, ever! You’ve got five minutes to grab what you can and get out before we burn this place, and the darkness that you brought to my land!” Todd yelled.

Diana was numb as she watched the scene. Men who she realized all worked for Andy, for Todd, probably their ranch hands, stood watching, waiting to do their boss’s bidding. So Diana raced to her mother. “Mama…?” Diana cried. She shook her mother’s arm until Faye looked at her.

“This is all your fault,” Faye lashed out. “If it wasn’t for you and that i***t kid, I’d be off living the good life. Guys take one look at you two and they go running.”

Diana was numb from this nightmare. So she put Louisa in the back of the jeep and buckled her in. Then she raced back in the house to grab what she could, but she only had time to grab an armload before someone yelled, “Get her out of there! And light it up!”

Diana stuffed what she’d grabbed in the jeep and when she stood beside her mother and gazed at Andy for the last time, his mouth hardened, and he snarled. “You’re nothing. And I’m done with your games, the w*****g, the drugs. Every family in this county will sleep better tonight knowing you’re all out of here.”

Andy Friessen turned to the cowboy beside him. “Burn it,” he said.