Nora Roberts - Carnal Innocence

"What the hell are you doing there?" Tucker demanded. "Why aren't you down watching the fireworks?"

"I-you said as I should keep close to her." Cy's insides were shaking with the kind of fear he hadn't known he could feel again. "She went on in, but she told me to stay outside. She said I shouldn't come upstairs."

"Caroline?" Tucker said blankly.

The blow had shocked Dwayne back to reality. As Cy's words sunk in, he grabbed Tucker by the shirt. "Josie. She took the knife with her. She took the knife and went into the house."

Tucker's breath came in pants. He wanted to fight, wanted to fight out the horror that was settling inside him. But even as he balled his fists, he saw the truth, in Dwayne's eyes. "Let go of me." With a strength born of fear he shoved Dwayne back to his knees. "Caroline's in the house."

He began to run, hurtling toward Sweetwater, chased by the roar of the crowd and the cold breath of terror.

"I won't make it easy for you, Josie." She wasn't afraid of the gun, wouldn't let herself be afraid. But she had a deep primal fear of that sharp length of steel. "You know it has to stop. No matter what you feel, no matter what your mother did, you can't fix it by killing."

"I wanted to be like her, but people always said I was like my father. They were right." Her voice took on a curious, almost musical calm. "They didn't know how right-and they won't. It's my secret, Caroline. I'll kill you to protect it."

"I know. And after you do, Dwayne and Tucker will suffer for it. Dwayne because he'll know, and it'll eat him alive. Tucker because he has feelings for me. And because you love them, you'll suffer, too."

"There's no choice here. Now, turn around, Caroline. Turn around or it'll be so much worse."

With the last echoes of celebration ringing in her ears, she started to turn. She didn't dare close her eyes, didn't dare, but she offered one quick and fervent prayer. When her body was three-quarters turned from Josie, Caroline threw out a hand to smash the lamp to the floor. Blessing the dark, she tucked up her legs and rolled across the bed.

"It won't matter." Excitement sharpened Josie's voice. Now there was a hunt, and with a hunt there was hunger. "It'll only be easier for me now. I won't have to look at you, and I can think of you like the others."

Her feet whispered across the carpet as Caroline hunched beside the bed and strained to see. If she could only get to the door. If she could only get quickly and soundlessly to the door.

"I like the dark." Holding her breath, Caroline inched away from the bed, feeling her way with her fingers.

"I never minded hunting in the dark. Daddy used to say I had cat eyes. And I can hear your heart beat." Quick as a snake, she pounced on the spot where Caroline had crouched only seconds before.

Caroline bit her lip to hold back a scream. As she tasted blood she forced herself not to move. Her eyes were adjusting, and in the pale moonlight she could see Josie's silhouette, and the edge of the death she held in her hand. Only a turn of her head, and they would be face-to-face.

And she did turn it, slowly. The moonlight glinted in her eyes. Her lips curved. Caroline remembered how Austin had looked when he had loomed over her filled with murder and madness.

"It won't take long," Josie promised as she lifted the blade.

In a last plunge to cheat death, Caroline rolled away. The blade caught the skirt of her dress, pinning it to the floor. On a cry of terror, she ripped it free and stumbled to her feet. She raced toward the doorway, waiting to hear the whistle of steel through the air, the heat of the blade as it cut into her back. The light in the hall flashed on, blindingly bright after the dark.

"Caroline!" Tucker pounded down the hall, grabbing her as she fell through the doorway. "You're all right? Tell me you're all right." He dragged her close, and holding her there, stared at his sister. She had the knife in her hand, and in her eyes was a wildness that gripped him with horror. "Josie. In the name of God, Josie, what have you done?" The wildness faded as her eyes filled. "I couldn't help it." As tears spilled onto her cheeks, she turned and ran to the terrace.

"Don't let her go. Tucker, you can't let her go." He saw his brother hesitate at the top of the steps. "Take care of her," he said to Dwayne, and pushed Caroline toward him before he raced after Josie. He called her name. Some of the revelers who were heading home stopped at the shouts and looked up, with much the same curiosity and expectation with which they'd watched the fireworks. Tucker sped along the terrace, dragging open doors, switching on lights. When he tugged on the doors that led into their parents' bedroom, he found them locked.

"Josie." After a few frantic yanks, he pounded on the door. "Josie, open up. I want you to let me in. You know I can break it down if I have to."

He laid his brow against the glass and tried to reason out what his mind simply couldn't grasp. His sister was inside. And his sister was mad.

He pounded again, cracking the glass and bloodying his fingers. "Open the goddamn door." He heard a sound behind him and whirled. When he saw Burke come toward him, he shook his head. "Get away. Get the hell away. She's my sister."

"Tuck, Cy didn't tell me what this is all about, but-"

"Just get the hell away!" On a scream of rage, Tucker threw his weight against the door. The tickle of breaking glass was lost under the blast of a single gunshot.

"No!" Tucker went down to his knees. She was lying on the bed their parents had shared. Blood was spreading onto the white satin spread. "Oh, Josie, no." Already grieving, he dragged himself up. Sitting on the bed, he gathered her into his arms and rocked.

"I'm glad you came to see me." Caroline poured coffee into two cups before she sat at her kitchen table across from Delia. "I wanted to talk to you, but I thought it best to wait until after the funeral."

"The preacher said she was resting now." Delia pressed her lips together hard, then lifted her cup. "I hope he's right. It's the living that suffer, Caroline. It's going to take some doing for Tucker and Dwayne to put this behind them. And the others, too. Happy and Junior, Arnette and Francie's folks."

"And you." Caroline reached out to take Delia's hand. "I know you loved her."

"I did." Her voice was rough with the tears she blinked away. "Always will, no matter what she did. There was a sickness inside her. In the end she did the only thing she knew to cure it. If she'd have hurt you-" Her hand shook, then steadied. "I thank God she didn't. Tucker wouldn't have been able to get beyond it. I came here today to tell you that, and to say that I hope you won't turn away from the brother because of the sister."

"Tucker and I will settle things ourselves. Delia, I feel you have a right to know. Josie told me about her mother, about how she was conceived."

Under Caroline's, Delia's hand convulsed. "She knew?"

"Yes, she knew."

"But how-"

"She found out from her mother, inadvertently. I know it must have been hard on you, and on Mrs. Longstreet, holding on to that secret."

"We thought it best. She came home that day, after he hurt her. Her dress was torn and dirty, and her face was pale as spring water. And her eyes, her eyes, Caroline, were like a sleepwalker's, all dazed and dull. She went right on up and got in the tub. Kept changing the water and scrubbing and scrubbing till her skin was raw. I saw the bruises on her. I knew. I just knew. And because I knew where she'd gone, I knew who."

"You don't have to talk about it," Caroline said, but Delia shook her head.

"I wanted to go over and take a whip to him myself, but I couldn't leave her. I held her while she sat in the water, and she cried and cried and cried. When she'd cried out, she said we weren't to tell Mr. Beau, nor anybody else. She was afraid the two of them would kill each other, and I expect she was right. There was nothing I could say to her that could get the idea out of her head that she was responsible. It was always Mr. Beau for her, Caroline. She was a pretty girl, and young, and she saw a bit of Austin now and again. But she never promised to marry him. That was an idea he got fixed in that hateful brain of his."