Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Today, the only way to make sure someone is truly dead is to watch the blood drain out of him until his heart stops.
I know from personal experience.
I suppose just seeing a dead body also works, but even then he would need to be identified, and bodies are misidentified all the time.
Truth be told, I’m not buying it. Something’s up.
Why the hell else would my father try to off himself?
Nothing he’s gone through can compare to what happened to me after college…
Eight years earlier…
“Drinks at Chevy’s!” Barb waves her cap at me, tassel flying.
I wave back at her. I have no idea if this is even my cap. We all threw them in the air after graduation from the University of Austin. Barb and I have roomed together all four years, and I’ll miss her. She’s going to law school at Georgetown while I’m staying here in Texas to go to veterinary school at Texas A&M. Full ride, no less, thanks to my 4.0 GPA and a biology and agriculture double major. Not that my family needs the scholarship. They’re richer than God, thanks to my grandmother, Sandra Cooper Bellamy, the Cooper Steel heiress. She’s here with my parents and my sister and brothers.
The whole family is here except my oldest brother, Falcon. He’s in prison.
Not a fun story. It wasn’t his fault. Involuntary manslaughter. He and Hawk were doing target practice near the border on our land and he accidentally shot a young cop named Jaden Perez.
It still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Falcon and Hawk are both amazing shots. Almost as good as I am. And they’re careful as all get out when they practice. I’m not convinced I know the whole story, but it is what it is. I miss my big brother. I’m closest to Hawk, though, who’s two years younger and just completed his sophomore year here at Austin.
“Nice going, sis!”
Speak of the devil. Hawk grabs me in a bear hug. Eagle, our youngest brother, is behind him. At eighteen, he’s still tall and lanky, but he’s starting to fill out. His huge Bellamy frame will be here in no time.
“Where’s Ray?” I ask, referring to my twin, Raven.
“Over there with Mom and Dad.” Hawk points.
Raven graduated last week from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota where she majored in Home Economics. The guys and I joke that she got her MRS degree. Ray has always been a homebody, loved learning to cook and do all the other things our mom does. It’s where her interests lie, and we love her for it.
Me? For the first five years of my life, I was convinced I was a boy, so I followed Falcon around, probably getting on his last nerve. He was a good sport about it, though. Being outside with Dad and the boys is what led to my love of animals. We’re beef ranchers, but we also keep horses, poultry, and any dogs and cats that happen to wander by. Once they’re here, they stay, and we love them all.
“You guys should come over to Chevy’s for drinks with Barb and me and the gang,” I say to Hawk.
“Uh…sure. Except I’ve got some turning twenty-one to do.”
I whip my eyebrows up. I know for a fact Hawk has a fake ID. He’s been to Chevy’s lots of times.
Then I realize he’s putting on a show for Eagle. Right. E had an issue last year with drugs. I’m not supposed to know about it, but Hawk and I are close, and he told me. I’m not sure why he knew about it and I didn’t, but Ray doesn’t have a clue, so I’m sworn to secrecy.
I wink at Hawk. “Just teasing.”
He winks back. He’ll be there. Barb has a huge crush on Hawk, but he’s not into her at all. Says she’s too old. Since when is twenty-two too old for twenty? But Hawk says she’s like an honorary sister to him.
Mom, Dad, and Raven arrive, and Raven hugs me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Her breath smells like Orange Crush, her favorite drink. I think it tastes like carbonated chemicals, but I’m not really into soda. Give me a fresh-brewed iced tea any day of the week. Or a whiskey sour at Chevy’s. Frankie, one of their hot bartenders, makes the best sour I’ve ever tasted. He says he learned it from some guy he met at a wacky club in Chicago called the Jade Sanctum. He always gives me Wild Turkey too, instead of the well bourbon, without charging me more. I’m going to miss him. I’ll especially miss our one-nighters…
“Congratulations, Robbie,” Dad says with a huge smile.
Dad and I are pretty close. I’m way more like him than I am like Mom. I give him a hug. “Thanks, Daddy.”