Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Mable pressed her forehead to the glass window, and I moved so that I was talking directly to her face. “Let me in, baby. I promise that I’ll never leave like that again. I’ll always take you with me.”
That’s when Brawny had enough of the back and forth and came outside to bark at me and ask, “What’s taking you so long to come in?”
“Can I please come in?” I begged.
She scrunched up her nose. “I guess.”
I blew out a sigh of relief and walked into Mable’s house.
When I got there, I noted the empty wine glasses and wine bottles.
They’d gone to town on the alcohol if the four bottles—not including the one in Cody’s hands still—were to go by.
“Can we talk in private?” I asked to the woman who was still sitting with her back to me, facing out the window.
Brawny bumped me with his huge head, and I gave him a good rubdown before walking to the couch.
Cody and Birdee whispered something quietly, and then they were slipping into the kitchen, taking Brawny with them.
“Mable, please?”
Mable didn’t move.
“How drunk are you right now?”
Her shoulders hunched. “I did something bad.”
So they’d said.
“What did you do?” I asked.
She pressed her forehead to the window hard enough to make a sound. “I think if I admit it, it might be really bad. I think I need a lawyer.”
That had my belly tightening. “What happened?”
She twisted her head and made eye contact with me, causing my belly to clench at the raw sadness there.
I never should have left like that.
God, I hated myself.
My first marriage I didn’t have this kind of all-consuming love.
Did I enjoy my ex’s company? Yes. But I didn’t think about her day and night like I did Mable.
“Talk to me, baby,” I urged, feathering one finger over the length of her exposed shoulder.
She leaned into my touch, and I took that as all the sign that I needed to reach for her and pull her into my arms.
She’d lost some weight since I’d held her last, and that only added to the anger that I harbored.
“What happened?” I asked once I had her settled in the curve of my arms.
“What didn’t?” she mumbled into my chest.
I rested my chin on her head, then just waited.
She’d talk when she was ready.
But before she could, Cody and Birdee came into the room with a bowl of popcorn and some more wine.
“We killed my mother,” Birdee blurted.
I blinked. “You what?”
Then the words Apollo had shared finally made sense.
Whitney was dead, all right. And these three were behind it.
“Tell me exactly what happened, right now,” I ordered the three of them.
So they did, leaving not a single thing out.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and counted to ten before saying, “Who saw y’all going there?”
“No one,” Cody said. “Well, no one but me. But I acted like I was going on a run. Which I totally do a lot. Everyone thinks I’m batshit crazy because I snap on my snow and ice shoes and go for runs all the time. The cops that saw me only assumed that this was one of those times. I circled back around to the parking lot. It happened within like three seconds of me being in the lot. We left almost just as fast.”
“Shit,” I hesitated, then reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
Just as I was about to call Apollo, it rang in my hand, so I answered.
Before I could get a word in edgewise, he started talking.
“She had a Trojan horse,” Apollo mused, his voice sounding slightly off due to him being on speakerphone. “It was set to send to everyone and their brother about two hours from now. Something that was to be sent off if someone hadn’t heard from her in a set amount of time. I was able to pull it, and as of right now, there’s not a single person besides those you trust that knows who you are or who you were.”
“Hey, that’s good. Thanks, man.” I paused. “Did they ever find any information about her death?”
Apollo hummed in reply. “According to the police reports, they’re saying that she tripped and fell on the door. Broke her neck. Plus, her toxicology reports indicated she’d been drinking. Karma’s a bitch, right?”
“Right.” I locked eyes with Cody. “Thanks for everything. I really appreciate you stepping in and handling this.”
“No problem,” he sounded giddy. “This has been so much fun.”
So much fun.
Meanwhile, I’d spent the entire week freaking the fuck out.
We were not the same.
“So I’m free to go back to work, do you think?” I asked, squeezing Mable when she started to squirm.
“Free to do whatever you want, even crazy shit like working at a sawmill in the dead of a Montana winter,” Apollo said. “I have Gentry keeping an eye and ear out, but you’re back. Do whatever floats your boat.” He paused. “Since you’re not far away, we’re going to come see you, then fly out of Bozeman.”