'Til Death (A Rebel Ridge Novel) Read Online Free PDF

all manner of conditions. She wasn’t really his aunt,
but it was what everybody called her. He had a story all ready to explain away
the injury and knew she would be none the wiser. When his brother left to work
his marijuana patch, he got dressed and left the house.
    A half hour later he pulled up in Tildy Bennett’s drive. He
grabbed his cap just before the wind took it and made a dash toward the house.
The only good thing about the cold day was that the wind felt good on his
feverish face.
    He knocked, then waited for her to come to the door. As soon as
it opened, he quickly yanked off his cap and put on his best manners.
    “Aunt Tildy. I’ve gone and hurt my arm on a piece of broken
sucker rod, and it got infected. I was wondering if you’d take a look at
it.”
    The old woman’s eyes narrowed as she eyed the man on her porch.
He had a terrible reputation, but it wasn’t in her nature to judge.
    “Come inside out of the cold. I need to see it before I know
what to do.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” He stepped inside, then followed her to the
kitchen.
    “Just take off your coat and hang it there on the chair. You
don’t need to take off your shirt all the way, just take your bad arm out of the
sleeve,” she said.
    He did as she asked and waited for her reaction.
    Her eyes narrowed as she eyed the wound. “You say you hurt this
on a piece of pipe?”
    “Yes, ma’am. It was a thin piece of sucker rod.... The end of
it was all broken and ragged, and, well...I admit...I was drunk as a skunk when
it happened. I fell on it with all my weight. It gouged this big hunk outta my
arm, and now I got myself into a fix, what with it getting infected and
all.”
    Aunt Tildy’s attention shifted to the wound. “You’re right. It is infected, but not to the blood-poisoning
stage. Have you had a tetanus shot recently? If that pipe was rusty, you’ll
likely get yourself a case of lockjaw. You can die from that.”
    He was getting worried and then remembered the lie. It hadn’t
really been a rusty pipe. It had been a hot bullet.
    “Yes, ma’am, I’m good on that. Had one just last year when I
got a fishhook cut out of my leg.”
    Tildy turned to a cupboard and began shifting bottles and tins
aside until she found what she was looking for, then got a pan of hot water and
some antiseptic soap.
    “This is likely gonna hurt,” she said, and began cleaning the
wound with short rigorous swipes.
    “Holy crap, excuse my language,” he said as tears sprang to his
eyes. “That hurts.”
    “I warned you,” Tildy said, and kept working.
    A half hour later he was on his way out with a tea to brew for
fever and a tin of ointment to put on the wound three times a day. He was twenty
dollars lighter in the pocket, but it was all worth it as he got back in his
truck and drove away.
    * * *
    The week passed without incident. Meg finished the quilt
on the frame, added the binding around the edges, and got it and the four others
ready to ship. After Jake took them down to Boone’s Gap to drop off with FedEx,
she breathed a little easier. Without any pressing orders, she could take a
little downtime.
    Once word began to spread on Rebel Ridge about the attack on
Meg Lewis, every widow woman in the area began sleeping with a loaded gun beside
her bed. Despite the security system Quinn had installed at the house, Jake
still worried about what might happen once they were gone. He solved the problem
by giving her a dog.
    Her name was Honey, a year-old hound with a light brown coat,
who’d been born with a crippled paw. She had big brown eyes and long legs, but
had yet to fill out to her adult weight. She would never be any use for
tracking, but her bloodline was pure, and, as Jake claimed, she was as sweet as
the name he’d given her.
    For Meg and Honey, it was love at first sight. Meg thanked Jake
profusely and immediately felt safer, knowing no one could sneak up on her
again.
    Having the motion-detector light go off every time a possum or
a