Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
I pulled up to the dock and cut the engine, easily replacing the wiring so it didn’t appear as if I’d hotwired it.
The Marina was completely silent, not a single soul in sight.
“We’re gonna act like this boat never left,” I said as I anchored the boat to the dock.
My mother, who’d obviously never gotten over her fear of the ocean, but dealt with it, let her death grip on the pole by her seat go, and she stood on shaky legs.
I helped her get onto the dock and then held out my hand for Alice.
Alice took it, wrapped her whole entire body around my arm, and then sighed long and deep. The relief in that one exhaled breath was enough to bring me to my knees.
She was happy to be home.
I was, too.
“Mom,” I said as I led them up the boat dock. “Do you want to go to your place? Or do you want to come to mine?”
She looked up at the sky and said, “Mine. I need some time to decompress. I’ll do that better at home.”
So that was what I did.
And even though it slightly killed me to let her close the door on me, I did it.
The woman waiting in her Jeep for me to come back, though, made it bearable.
Together, we drove back to my place, thankful that neither Coran, nor even Oberon, would ever be a problem again.
CHAPTER 17
On your mark, get set. Go fuck yourself.
-Cassius to Oberon
CASSIUS
“You’re telling me that all this fuckin’ time, she’s been right over there?” Wake asked, looking across the bay from where my boat was docked. “All this time?”
I nodded, feeling the same sick feeling in my gut continue.
“All this time,” I confirmed.
“Fuck, man.” He shook his head. “I don’t even know what to say.”
I didn’t either.
My houseboat was once again filled to the brim with people.
Though, this occasion was much less somber than the previous one.
Everyone was there. Alice, my mom, Wake and Dutch, Diana and Bain, Matilda and Etienne, KD, Kobe, Aodhan, and his son, Bowie. Hell, there were even a few fishermen that were hanging out on the docks below talking to my mom.
“What do you think?”
I looked over to find Wake and Aodhan staring at me. “What?”
“I think that your mom should have no problem with getting her house and everything back under her name. With you not having her declared officially dead…”
That was true.
Wake’s words had been something I’d stayed up all night thinking about.
My stubbornness and refusal to admit that she was gone meant that she could slip right back into her life that I’d never been able to let go of completely.
Everything was literally still in her name. Even her house and her utilities. I’d just been footing the bills.
“Coran is currently on a forty-eight-hour psych hold after he tried to kill himself at the hospital last night,” Alice said.
I looked at her in surprise. I hadn’t expected her to know anything about Coran or his whereabouts.
“My brother just called,” she said. “Karen told him to call. So it’s not like he would’ve done it on his own.”
Her brother and father wanted her as far away from everything as she could possibly get.
I tended to agree with them.
I wanted her to be resting, relaxing, and forgetting everything had ever happened.
Yet, once again, Karen proved herself to be a true friend to Alice and had forced her brother’s hand.
“Did your brother say anything more about what they think will happen to him?” she asked.
Last night, after Karen had briefed Silvy and Silvain, we’d all gone down to the police station with her so she could file charges against him.
There, Sheriff Sunny had explained that they might not get what they wanted when it came to Coran. He was really not right in the head and hadn’t stopped slamming his face against the wall of his cell since he’d been put in there.
Personally, I’d have left his ass in there until he caused brain damage. But, apparently, that wasn’t very humane.
Whatever.
“Silvy did say that Coran admitted while under his sedation that he was only trying to find someone like his father had. Someone that would take care of him and his children.” Alice crinkled her nose in disgust. “Though Silvy didn’t want to admit that part.”
“Like father, like son.” Aodhan trilled caustically. “Swear to god…” he paused to look over at Bowie. “If you spit over the side of that boat and hit someone, I will take that Xbox you love so much and burn it.”
Bowie’s eyes widened, surprised that he’d been caught. “Sorry.”
“You fuckin’ better be.” Aodhan shook his head and returned to our conversation. “Kid was likely manipulated just like your mom.”
“Likely,” I grumbled.
“Darling,” I heard my mother call. “Alice, come meet these nice men. They’re going to help me get my yard looking beautiful. And I want them to put some flowers into those planters on the dock outside this boat. Why don’t you tell them your preferences.”