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“That sounded final, Travis. Is that it? Thanks and goodbye?”
“I’m nobody you want, Glen, and I don’t do relationships or whatever you want to call it when you’re committed to another person. Can’t do it. I’m rough cut with issues out my ass. You could do a lot better than me—a helluva lot better. Besides, I’m moving on in a few weeks. I’m not staying in Montana. There’s little point in starting a relationship that will only last a couple of weeks. Save yourself the trouble.”
Glenda drove away looking pretty unhappy and I’d been as honest as I could with her. Maybe honesty wasn’t what she was looking for.
I entered the hospital at my own speed, and that was no speed at all. I shuffled along, weak as a drowned kitten and on the brink of puking with every step I took.
Asking at reception, I found out that Tammy had been moved to a room on the second floor.
When I walked in, frightened eyes stared at me through black and blue bruising. Her face was swollen and especially puffy around her eyes and mouth.
Her bottom lip was split and scabbed over with dried blood and I wondered if Tibor had knocked out any of her teeth.
“Hey, Tammy. I’m Sheriff Frost. I brought you here from your trailer when Tibor hurt you.”
“He’ll come to get me.” Her words came out funny from her swollen mouth. “I’m watching the door.” Her eyes flitted around the room like a frightened bird.
“Right now, Tibor is locked up in my jail and he can’t come to get you.” I collapsed into the chair beside her bed.
“A nurse told me I can go home tomorrow, but I ain’t got no place to go. Can’t go back to the trailer.”
“That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about, Tammy. Let’s talk about where you’re going to go.”
“You gonna put me in foster care, Mister?”
“Nope. I’m not going to do that. I’ve got a place where you can live where you’ll be safe.”
“Where’s it at? Don’t matter where it is, Tibor will find me, and now he’ll be extra mad at me over the jail time. He’ll blame me for it. You bet he will.”
“I’m going to take you to a woman I know in Texas who helps young people like you. Juvenile rescue situation. She has a ranch with a high fence around it and all kinds of security. I’m going there in two weeks and I’ll take you with me.”
“Am I staying with you until we go to Texas?”
“Yes. Until we leave you will have to stay with me at my ranch. Would you agree to a plan like that?”
“I got no choice.”
“You will have choices soon. We just have to get you healed up and feeling better.”
“Are you coming to get me tomorrow?”
“Yes. I’ll be here when the doctor discharges you.”
“I got no clothes. My stuff is all in the trailer.”
“Yeah, it would be. I’ll take a run up there and gather up your belongings for you.”
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything from you, Tammy. I want you to have a better life than the one you have with Tibor Garrison. That’s the only reason.”
“You must be one of the good guys. I heard about them but I never met one before.”
I wish.
Sunburst Acres.
I left the hospital and took a run up north to the trailer park for Tammy’s clothes. She wouldn’t be going back to the trailer if I had anything to say about it. Not ever.
