Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“I agree with that,” I told him.
“Murdered,” Sam said, grinning crazily. He reached the table and sat down, on the phone with someone. “I have no doubt that’s what he’s gonna feel like when you’re done with him.” He listened a moment. “Absolutely. I’ll have Jory write up his statement tonight while everything is fresh, and I’ll have the girls do it as well.”
He was quiet again.
“I agree. If the responding officers didn’t know the girls, it could have gone differently. Plus, Kanti was afraid for her baby as well. All she’d have to do is show a picture of Seymour in court and that would be it.”
His diabolical grin then, the one where I knew he was planning something terrible.
“Yeah. No worries, we’ll keep them both. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Once he hung up, he looked at me.
“Navya?”
“Yep. She would like your statement emailed to her tonight if at all possible, and she told me to tell you please and thank you.”
“I’ll write up what I saw as soon as everyone leaves.”
He nodded, and his smirk told me how pleased he was.
“Is she angry?”
Quick scoff. “Oh, she’s so much more than angry, and much like me, she thrives on spite, so yeah—it’s gonna be a bloodbath.”
“I will watch for a news article,” Aja said, smiling at Sam.
“And call me next time,” he ordered, suddenly scowling. “I know Hannah didn’t want to escalate things, but if there’s police officers anywhere near any of the kids, and that goes for Harper and Jake as well as Robert or Gen—just get me there, yeah?”
“Yes, dear,” I soothed him.
“You don’t thrive on spite,” Dane corrected him out of the blue, and we all looked at him. “You’re not a spiteful person. When you get angry, it’s for a valid reason, much like myself.”
Sam chuckled and put a hand on my brother’s shoulder. “Thank you, Dane.”
“You thrive on revenge,” Dane passed judgement. “As do I.”
Aja was shaking her head at him. “That is not a good way to be.”
“It’s the only way to be so people know not to screw with you.”
She sighed deeply. “You’re so wrong,” she informed him.
“Who’s wrong?” Robert asked, bringing his father a piece of my world-famous devil’s-food cake with chocolate icing and a large glass of milk.
“Thank you, my son,” Dane said with a sigh, and Robert bumped his shoulder as he took a seat next to him.
“I told your father that revenge is bad.”
“Don’t get mad, get even,” Robert told his mother. “That’s how it’s done. And you have to play the long game while you’re at it.”
She threw up her hands, and her husband and son both laughed, and after a second, she joined them. Because we all knew that what Dane needed was not revenge, never revenge, but justice. Dane had to balance all the scales if it was within his power to do so. And normally, if it happened to him or someone he loved, he did, in fact, have the control to make things right. Sam was exactly the same.
Once I sent everyone home with food and was about to begin the dishwashing, Sam told me that he and the kids would take care of it. He had me go to my writing nook to type up my account of what I had witnessed once I arrived at the scene at Kanti’s house. When I was done, I emailed it to Navya and CC’d Sam so he’d have a copy as well.
Kanti ended up passing out on Hannah’s bed, and Hannah went downstairs and got snuggly on the couch with Dobby and Seymour and was watching TV with Jake and Kola, catching up on a couple episodes of What We Do in the Shadows that they’d missed.
“You know I’m late on my Mabon candles, so this coming weekend, I hope you both know what you’ll be doing.”
“I figured,” Kola said with a yawn.
“I want to pour the wax this time,” Jake announced. “I’m sick of being on decorating duty.”
“But you’re so good at putting in the straw flowers and star anise and the other herbs,” Hannah assured him. “You know exactly when the wax is the perfect consistency to place everything.”
The way she said it, Jake was smiling at her, but then…
“And the last time you tried to pour, I called your name and you turned and beeswax went everywhere,” Kola reminded him. “That was a pain in the ass to clean up.”
Jake huffed out a breath, crossed his arms, and there was much pouting.
“That would never happen now, of course,” Hannah soothed him, sitting up from her sprawl on the opposite end of the couch to lean on his shoulder. “But really, you’re the only one I can count on to make everything uniform.”
Kola took that moment to move from the other side of Jake and take Hannah’s vacated space so that now he was the one lying down. Hannah and Jake were shoved up together. I noted they didn’t seem to mind, Jake lifting his arm so she could snuggle up against him. As usual, they were very comfortable with each other.