The Prettiest Girl in the Land (The Traherns #3) by Nancy Radke Page A

Rover, twenty-six year old Perri Linn
started to pull on her much-traveled suitcase, then paused to watch the swiftly
approaching car.
    Her
stepfather's home was perched on the edge of the mesa near Phoenix, and was the
last house on the road. If the car passed the next driveway...which it did...it
must be coming here, to his place.
    Squinting
to see better through the heat waves, Perri recognized Walt's silver gray
Mercedes. She knew they weren't expecting her yet, so why would he and her mom
be coming home in the middle of the day? Could it be an emergency—they
were traveling awfully fast?
    They
must slow down to turn into the driveway!
    As if in defiance, the car
roared on past and smashed into the large rocks set as a barricade on the
mesa's edge. Red dust swirled upward towards the hot Arizona sun, cloaking the
twisted metal.
    With a noiseless scream,
Perri raced down the gravel drive. A woman lay half out of the car on the
driver's side, her light golden hair, so like Perri's own, revealing her
identity.
    The wreck burst into
flames, but Perri ignored the furnace-like heat and half-carried, half-dragged
her mother out of danger; then used her hands to snuff out the fire on
Crystal's dress.
    Blood. Everywhere. Flowing
from Crystal's face and arms and body—mainly her head. Perri yanked off
her own blouse to press against the deepest wound. "No...no...no,"
she whimpered, trying vainly to stop the torrent. Wasn't anyone around to help?
She didn’t have her cell phone, she had dropped her purse as she ran.
    "Papa? Was he with
you?" she shouted.
    "No. He's...he's still
working..."
    Perri sighed in relief. Her
stepfather was deaf, but that wouldn't have hindered his escape if he wasn’t
injured.
    "My pendant." Her
mother yanked at the large ivory pendant around her neck as if it were choking
her. A favorite piece of jewelry, it had been given to her by a friend working
in Africa.
    "Leave it, Mom."
Frantic, Perri looked toward the nearby homes. Hadn't anyone heard the crash?
    "Take it,"
Crystal insisted, in a voice so weak Perri had to concentrate to hear.
"Take it to..." She faltered, recovered, tried to speak again; all
the time struggling with the pendant's leather thong.
    Her actions pushed Perri's
hand away; started the flow of blood again. "Mom, please. Lie still."
    But her mother fought the
thong until Perri unscrewed the ivory clasp. With the pendant's removal,
Crystal relaxed and let Perri reapply the compress.
    "You go—” Her
words were slurred.
    "I can't. You'll
bleed—”
    "No. You go. You go...
must have it..." Crystal's eyes glazed and she seemed to lose her
thoughts.
    "Mom!" Perri
shouted, desperate to keep her mother conscious. "Mom, what
happened?"
    "Scorpion."
    Perri kept the shirt
pressed against her mother's head as she glanced over at the burning wreck . A scorpion in the
car? No
wonder her mom had crashed. She had an excessive fear of all snakes and bugs
and spiders.
    "It's cooked
now," Perri assured her, looking back down. Her mother's next words were
almost too faint to hear.
    "No. No. Pendant. Take
it. Inside..." Giving a small sigh, Crystal dropped into unconsciousness.
    "Mom!"
    The crunch of gravel next
to her caused Perri to look up, seeing her parent's nearest neighbor, a nurse,
running to them. Crouching down, the woman took Crystal's wrist, feeling for
the pulse.
    "She's still with us,
Perri. Keep that pressure on." The woman had brought a first-aid kit with
her, plus an armful of clean towels. She bandaged as she talked. "My son
called 9-1-1, then Walt, while I grabbed these things."
    "Thanks."
    An ambulance pulled up a
few minutes later, followed by a fire truck and patrol car. "Anyone else
in there?" a fireman shouted, undoing a hose as two medics ran up to
Crystal.
    Perri glanced at the
flames. "No." Helplessly she stood aside, silently praying for her
mother's life. The neighbor placed a towel around Perri's shoulders and she
huddled into it, her mind struggling with reality. This