Blood Tears by J.D. Nixon Page A

shadows. He was tall, with dark curling hair and
changeable blue eyes.
    “ Tessie,” he said.
    I reared back in
fright. “No. Not him. I don’t know him.”
    He stepped towards me,
hands out. I reached for my knife, only to find it missing.
    “ No,
no, no, no. Not him. I don’t know him.”
    “ You
know me,” he insisted, moving forward. “I’ve organised something
special for you.”
    “ No,”
I said faintly, still moving backwards, only to be met by the bulk
of the other two men against my back. I struggled against them.
“What’s going on? Stop it. I want to leave. I want to leave
now.”
    “ Tessie, not before you’ve seen your surprise.”
    “ No.
No. I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to.”
    Too late.
    The tall man pulled
back the curtains to reveal a film of me eating popcorn and
laughing while I watched a short film of me trying to yank – not
Nana Fuller – but the young man away from the semi-trailer bearing
down on us. The camera closed in on the driver – not Tommy Bycraft,
who’d killed my Nana – but his older brother, Red.
    “ I’m
coming for you, Tessie. Gonna rip you from ear to ear, my darling,”
he smiled and shouted as he bore down on us.
     
    I woke up, putting into
practice the breathing exercises I’d learnt off the internet to
control my panic.
    “ Breathe in, Tessie,” I told myself softly. It wasn’t
really Red , I told myself.
    “ Breathe out,” I instructed. It wasn’t really the
Sarge .
    “ Breathe in.” He’d never do that to you .
    “ Bullshit. He’s already waltzed out of town and handed me over
to the Bycrafts,” I said softly to myself. I always tried to be
particularly quiet in the mornings so as not to wake Dad. He didn’t
have any good sleep these days, so I tried to ensure what he
managed was unbroken.
    I lay back in bed,
staring blankly up at the ceiling until my heartbeat returned to
normal. It was early, so I did what I loved best – tending to my
chickens, chatting to them, collecting the eggs, and watching their
interactions.
    But still not in the
best of moods, I jogged for a long time, knife at my side, eyes and
senses sharp. Safely back home, I showered, ate breakfast, leaving
some ready for Dad when he woke, and drove to work.
    No sooner had I
unlocked the station and put the kettle on for a cup of tea, than
the front counter bell rang. Trig and Harley waited for me, both
looking much more subdued than previously.
    “ We’re just about to head off back to the city, and thought
you might want to know,” said Trig, barely able to meet my eyes.
Harley stood silently next to him, also not making any eye
contact.
    “ Guys, I’m really, really sorry about last night. Harley, I
didn’t mean to startle you or upset you. It’s just . . .” I
shrugged. “I have enemies in this town, and I need to be on alert
constantly.”
    “ Well, it certainly was a memorable dinner,” Harley
reluctantly replied.
    “ Finn
told us about your very first meeting,” said Trig. “We thought he
was exaggerating, but I guess you really did attack
him.”
    “ I
did,” I admitted quietly. “I tried to arrest him, but he wasn’t
being very cooperative, so it became a little physical.”
    “ Why
did you try to arrest him?” asked Trig. “It doesn’t sound like a
smart thing to do with your new boss.”
    “ He
was a stranger sneaking around my house in the middle of the night.
And that didn’t go down well with me. I think in those
circumstances that arresting him was entirely the right thing to
do.”
    “ He
misses you, you know,” Harley blurted out.
    “ Does
he?” I asked coolly. “I expect he’ll get over it.”
    “ Guess he’s not going to receive a friendly welcome home,”
said Trig.
    “ Guess not.”
    “ I
suppose I better warn him.”
    “ I
suppose you better.”
    Just then, the town’s
mailperson, Joanna, came through the door carrying a couple of
pieces of mail. She looked particularly beefy this morning, dressed
in a