Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“What?” Dad hollered.
Mable started to sob.
I gasped when the back door opened, but instantly relaxed when Courtland led Charleigh inside.
She found me and mouthed, “What the fuck?”
I shook my head.
Hours later, when the worst had passed, I sat cocooned in Creed’s arms, wrapped in a comforter, sitting around a firepit in the middle of a snowstorm.
Luckily, the firepit was mostly covered, with a small chimney going through the very top directing the smoke out.
I was deliciously full, overly tired, and extremely exhausted.
Yet, we still had a house full of people.
Creed had only gotten back a few moments ago.
When he’d gotten there, he’d picked me up from my seat, planted his own ass in my seat, then curled me into the curve of his arms.
Bernice, at my side, had said, “Awwww.”
Creed had flipped her off, but he’d done it with a smile on his face.
Now we were discussing the day’s events.
“What happened?” Mable asked, leaning just far enough out of Romeo’s hold that she could pop her face out from underneath her own blanket.
All of the women had one.
I’d stolen them all out of the hall closet for us to wrap up in, since we’d been temporarily kicked out of the house.
The men hadn’t minded and had started a fire in the firepit that was new, and probably rarely used.
They’d also unearthed chairs from the garage and started cooking hot dogs from someone’s truck.
“When that moose stomped on Cody, they think that a blood clot formed somewhere. It traveled to her brain, and she had a stroke. The clot was busted, but another one had formed in her heart, and she had a heart attack. It was just too much for her body, and she passed away,” Creed said softly. “I’m sorry, Mable.”
Mable nodded, tears dripping down her cheeks.
“After that, we left. I went back to the office and filled out paperwork, debriefed with my boss, Major, then came here. Major called with an update on Cody’s parents, how they left angry as hell, and a concerned doctor had called it in to the police. Gentry had called it in to Major thinking I was still with him, and Major had called me. I was on the phone with him around the side of the house, leaning on the back fence, when they got here.”
I shoved my face deeply into Creed’s neck, and he sighed.
“It’s not your fault,” Mable said what I was thinking. “None of this was.”
Creed pressed his cold face into mine, and I curled my bad arm out to cup the side of his cheek, sifting my fingers through his thick beard.
“Sure the fuck doesn’t feel like it,” Creed grumbled.
“Cody knew exactly what she was doing. She knew it was wrong,” Mable said. “I can’t believe she would be so stupid. But that isn’t on you. That’s on her. She knew better.”
Creed took in a stuttering breath.
This was affecting him.
The poor guy.
“As for Grace…” Mable sat up. “She’s always been passionately crazy about Cody. It was a little suffocating, and I think that’s why Cody always disappeared when the goings got tough. I’m not excusing Cody’s behavior in the least, but just explaining. I’m not surprised that this all happened after Cody’s death. But listen. Seriously. What you did with Grace? That was your only option. She could’ve shot you. She could’ve shot Birdee. She could’ve shot me. Hell, she could’ve shot Vito again. You had no other option.”
And right then and there, I knew that Mable was a very good person.
She could’ve held a grudge.
She could’ve not given him any words at all.
But she’d done this for him. She’d taken his side, even after her best friend had died. After Creed had contributed to the life-threatening injuries of the woman who’d been more of a mother than her own stepmother had been.
I knew I would do whatever I had to do to let her know how utterly kind that was of her to do.
Listening to Mable’s words had caused a lot of the tension in Creed’s body to relax.
“Is she still alive?” I finally scrounged up the courage to ask.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Same hospital bay as her daughter was in earlier, but alive. I overheard one of the doctors say that she isn’t able to move her feet. They think she might be paralyzed.”
“You did take her down like a linebacker.” Odin snorted. “Watched the video of the whole thing through Apollo’s security feed he has on your house. And already sent it in to Gentry. Nothing more can be done on your end.”
“I know,” he grumbled. “This has been a really bad day.”
“Definitely not keeping a low profile,” Bernice muttered under her breath.
I was jolted slightly sideways as he bent down, scooped up a handful of snow, and tossed it into the small hole that she’d left for her face with the comforter.