Deep in the Valley Read Free Page A

asked, shaking the boy he still held.
    “Gus,” Tom warned. “You let that boy go and back away from him. Now.”
    “I been just looking for an excuse to sue you, Toopeek!” he yelled.
    Tom let out his breath in what could pass for a weary laugh. Sue? He tossed his shotgun to Lee and walked almost leisurely toward Gus, while pulling his handcuffs from his belt. Gus’s eyes grew round. In one swift motion Tom slapped a cuff on Gus’s wrist, pulled his arm roughly behind his back, swept him off his feet and slammed him onto the floor, facedown. Gus grunted in outrage, a sound soon muffled against the worn carpet. The son he had held by the hair skittered away. Leah covered her mouth with a trembling hand, her eyes milky with fear.
    Tom grabbed Gus’s other wrist with a little more difficulty, what with his squirming and all. Once he was cuffed, hands behind his back, Tom held him there with a heavy foot on his back. “I warned you and Judge Forrest promised. This time you’re going away, Gus.”
    “I ain’t going nowhere! She won’t press charges! None of ’em will!”
    Tom wasn’t sure whether or not Gus was as stupid as he sometimes sounded. The only time he ever had much to say was when he was drunk. Sober, he was glum and silent and seemed to direct his nervous family with eyes narrowed to slits, like Frank’s. And just as Tom had that thought, he looked at the fifteen year old. He saw Gus’s eyes, Gus’s hate reflected there. Frank was a tall, gangly boy, but almost large and strong enough to give his father a real fight. Tom realized that this domestic nightmare was soon going to come to a head. Something was going to pop. Either Gus would finish off this poor family, or Frank would finish off Gus. It was just too volatile to drag on like this.
    Tom jerked Gus to his feet. “We’ve been over and over this. No one has to press charges. I can press charges.” He shuffled Gus to the door. “Let me gethim settled in the car, then I’ll come back and make sure no one is hurt real bad in here. Okay?”
    Leah shook her head. “It’s okay. I’ll see after the boys.”
    “Don’t you say one single word about me, woman! If you do—” Tom whacked him on the side of the head, palm open to shut him up. “Ahh! Police abuse! Police abuse!”
    Lee holstered his gun and laughed outright. “Man, you got some balls, Gus.”
    “Yeah, I’ll show you balls! Take these cuffs off me and we’ll go a round in the yard, huh?”
    “I wish,” Lee said.
    Tom and Lee dragged Gus away by the arms. Gus stumbled and swore and griped all the way to the Rover.
    Tom was back in the house moments later. Leah held little Stan on her lap, wiping his tearstained face with a washcloth. Frank stood rigid, his back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, a mighty bruise rising on his cheekbone. There’s the legacy, Tom thought sadly. At least a couple of these boys would beat their wives and kids. Ironically, it could just as likely be the one most outraged by his father’s violence.
    “Leah, let me take you and the boys to the clinic. Have June look you over.”
    “I’m okay, Tom. I’ll check over the boys, and if anyone needs to go, I can take ’em in. How long’s he gonna be gone, Tom?” she asked.
    “At least a few months. Could be up to a year. Judge Forrest is pretty sick of his excuses. Leah, you have to make a change here. You’re running out of time.” Heglanced again at Frank, and Leah followed his eyes. “I know you know that.”
    She wore a helpless smile. “Where you think I’m going to hide five towhead boys?”
    “You lack faith, that’s all. Just call the social worker, get some ideas from her. There’s programs you’ve never heard about, not just shelters at the edge of town. There are people who make helping battered families their life’s work.”
    She laughed humorlessly. “It would be a life’s work with me. Five boys, no money, no skills, and a husband who’s taken a blood oath