Divine Evil

the leaves were still young and tender. Mountain laurel and wild dogwoods were bursts of white.
    “I used to bring girls up here all the time,” Cam said from behind her. “To fool around.”
    “Really?” She turned, smiling, and there was speculation in her eyes. He looked like a boxer who had gone the distance. Though she wasn't fond of blood sports, the analogy was appealing just then, and just there. “Is that still your standard operating procedure?” Tempted and curious, she leaned toward him. Then her eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God, look at that!” Clare shoved the bag of sandwiches at him and took off running.
    By the time he caught her, she was standing in front of a huge old tree, her hands steepled at her lips, her eyes worshipful. “Do you believe it?” she whispered.
    “I believe you took ten years off my life.” He scowled at the old, misshapen tree. “What the hell got into you?”
    “It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I've got to have it.”
    “Have what?”
    “The burl.” She reached up, rose to her toes, but her fingertips were still several inches short of the swollen ring of wood and bark that marred the oak. “I've searchedfor hours and never found one this good. For carving,” she said when she dropped down to her flat feet. “The burl is scar tissue. When a tree is injured, it heals over, just like flesh.”
    “I know what a burl is, Slim.”
    “But this one is spectacular. I'd sell my soul for it.” A calculating look came into her eyes, one that only appeared when she was preparing to haggle for material. “I've got to find out who owns this property.”
    “The mayor.”
    “Mayor Atherton owns land way out here?”
    “He bought up several plots about ten, fifteen years ago when it was cheap. He owns about forty acres along here. If you want the tree, you'd probably only have to promise him your vote. That is, if you're staying.”
    “I'd promise him anything.” She circled the tree, already considering it hers. “It must have been fate, your bringing me here.”
    “And I thought it was just so we could fool around.”
    She laughed, then eyed the bags he still carried. “Let's eat.”
    They settled on the ground near the stream where she had a good view of the tree, unwrapping the sandwiches and chips. Occasionally a car cruised by on the road, but for the most part there was silence.
    “I've missed this,” Clare said after she settled back against a rock. “The quiet.”
    “Is that why you came back?”
    “Partly.” She watched as he reached in the bag for a chip. He had beautiful hands, she realized, despite the raw and bruised knuckles. She would cast them in bronze, fisted on the hilt of a sword, or the butt of a gun. “What about you? If there was anyone I remember who was jumping to get out of Dodge, it was you. I still can't quitefocus on your being back, and as a pillar of the community.”
    “Public servant,” he corrected and took a bite of the submarine sandwich. “Maybe I figured out finally that Emmitsboro wasn't the problem-I was.” It was part of the truth, he thought. The rest had to do with the screams tearing through an old building, the blast of gunfire, blood, death.
    “You were okay, Rafferty. You just took teenage defiance one step further than most.” She grinned at him. “Every town needs its bad boy.”
    “And you were always the good girl.” He laughed when disgust crossed her face. “That smart Kimball girl, acing it through school, heading up the student council. You probably still hold the record for selling the most Girl Scout cookies.”
    “All right, Rafferty, I don't have to sit here and be insulted.”
    “I admired you,” he said, but there was a glint in his eyes. “Really. When you weren't making me sick. Want some chips?”
    She dug into the bag. “Just because I followed the rules-”
    “And you did,” he agreed soberly. “You certainly did.” He reached up to toy with the brass hook of her overalls. “I guess I used to wonder if you'd ever break out.”
    “You never used to wonder about me at all.”
    “I did.” His gaze lifted to hers again. There was still a smile in his eyes, but there was something behind it, a restlessness that put her on alert.
    Uh-oh.
That one quick thought slammed into her mind.
    “It used to surprise me how often my mind wandered in your direction. You were only a kid, and bony with it,from a prominent family on the right side of the tracks. And everyone