“They’re gone,” he said, averting his eyes. “Let’s finish up Jimmy.”
Before she could say anything, he went back to the surgery. While Jimmy and Luther peppered him with questions, he did some of the fastest stitching he’d done since his internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
“They want revenge,” he told Luther. “They recognized you both, and they’re not going to stop looking until they find you. You need to get out of town.”
“I ain’t runnin’ from them cracker motherfuckers,” Luther vowed.
“Then you’re dumber than you look. They’ve got more guns and men than you do, and the cops and courts are on their side. You only have one choice. Retreat.”
“Dr. Cage is right,” Viola said. “Jimmy, please talk some sense into Luther. If ya’ll stay in Natchez, you’re going to die. That Frank Knox is bad all the way through. He’s a killer.”
“She’s right,” Tom concurred, straightening up and surveying his handiwork. “I know the breed. This time, discretion is the better part of valor.”
“Freewoods,” Jimmy said thoughtfully. “We’ll go to Freewoods till things cool down.”
“What’s Freewoods?” Tom asked.
“Nothing,” snapped Luther. “Nowhere. He talkin’ crazy.”
As Tom washed the blood from his hands and forearms, he noticed Jimmy Revels staring at him. “What is it, Jimmy?”
“You don’t mind getting black blood on your skin?”
Tom laughed. “I learned one thing fast as a combat medic: we all bleed the same color.”
Jimmy smiled. “You didn’t learn that being a medic. You learned that from your parents.”
Tom stared back at the serious young man and shook his head. “You’re wrong about that.” Opening a cabinet, he took out some antibiotics a drug rep had left him and handed them to Luther. “This will keep your wounds from getting infected. Viola can tell you about dosage. Now, you guys get out of here.”
“I’ll get the car,” Viola said. “I’ll pull into the garage, then you both get down in the backseat.”
“Backseat, my ass,” said Luther. “We gettin’ in the trunk.”
Tom waited in a darkest corner of the freezing garage while Viola carried out her plan. He watched the two men fold themselves into the trunk of the Pontiac, quite a feat considering Luther’s bulk. After Viola slammed the lid shut, she didn’t walk around to the driver’s seat, but into the corner where Tom stood. She was only a dark shape in the shadows, but he knew her scent as well as any on earth. She stepped close and took his hand.
“I don’t have words,” she murmured. “You saved my brother’s life.”
“Viola,” he whispered. “This isn’t just dangerous. This could get you killed. All of us.”
“I know. And you shouldn’t be any part of it.”
“What’s Freewoods?”
“A place where people don’t care what color you are. White, black, Redbone, it doesn’t matter. It’s safe. Not even klukkers go back up in there.”
“Then get those boys there tonight.”
He sensed more than saw her nod in the dark.
“Will you be all right?” she asked, squeezing his left hand.
“I’m fine. You’re the one at risk. You—”
Before he could continue, her arms slipped around him in a hug so fierce that it stole his breath. Unlike the embrace after he’d gotten Gavin Edwards fired, this was no simple act of gratitude. This time Viola’s body molded against his from neck to knee. A dizzying rush swept through him, triggering delayed shock from the ordeal they’d just endured. He felt his balance going, and then a wave of desire so powerful that he pulled Viola against him as though trying to merge their bodies through their clothes.
A muffled bang froze them in place—then Viola jerked back as if a spark of static electricity had arced between them. Jimmy and Luther were hammering on the inner lid of the trunk.
“Be careful,” Tom said to the darkness. “If a cop stops you, tell him you’re making a house call to a Negro place for me. If he gives you trouble, tell him to call me at home.”
“I will,” Viola assured him. “I’ll be all right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As she walked to the driver’s door, fear blasted through Tom like Dexedrine. What if I never see her again?
“You’d better be here, damn it,” he said.
Seven hours later, she was, as perfectly dressed and coiffed as always. Tom, on the other hand, hadn’t slept more than a few minutes at a stretch all night. In the span of one hour, by a simple act of decency, he had placed himself beyond the pale of his own tribe and put his job, his life, and his family at risk. Worse, after years of repressing his feelings for Viola, he’d felt something change deep within him, a tectonic shift that could never be undone. By the standards of their ongoing mutual denial, that few seconds’ embrace in the garage had been a consummation of sorts, an admission that they shared something so powerful that they lived in constant fear of it, something that could sweep their present lives away.
“Dr. Cage, is that you?” asked a muted voice.
Tom blinked in confusion. Then he realized that someone was rapping on the window of his car. A man of about fifty stood on the other side of the glass, waiting for Tom to roll down his window.
“I thought that was you!” the man exulted as Tom pressed the power window button.
The last wisps of Viola’s memory were snatched away by the wind that blew into the car when the glass sank into the door frame.
“What you doing down in this part of town, Doc?” asked the man, as though he’d caught Tom in the midst of having an affair. “I’ll bet you’re thinking about old times, aren’t you?”
Could his thoughts be that transparent?
“You don’t recognize me, do you?” asked the man.
“Ah …”