Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
I huffed out an annoyed breath.
And continued ranting.
“A real man would see he’s bested and cut his losses so he could live another day. He had property. If what you say is true about his possessions, he could have easily put them to auction, making quite a bit of money, and found himself somewhere comfortable to live out the rest of his days. Or he could have done that and invested the capital in the one thing he had left, that ranch, and making it work for him. Simply because of his pride, he didn’t do any of that. So what he did, if indeed he was the mastermind behind this latest plot, does not rest on your shoulders. It rests firmly on his.”
Jamie said nothing, but he didn’t have to, considering he cupped my cheek and rubbed his thumb tenderly over my cheekbone.
As such, I noticed some of the unrest in his gaze was gone, so I felt I’d done my job.
For now.
“I need to accessorize the outfits I’m packing,” I announced. “And then we need to go. Dru will be here shortly.”
Jamie removed his hand from my face and put the papers back in the envelope, saying, “Can you put these in the safe?”
“Of course.” But he’d stilled, so I called, “Jamie?”
“R,” he said, and looked to me. “Rhys Vaughan.”
Well…
Heavens.
Rhys Vaughan—the sadly departed, immensely complicated, but it had been discovered after his death, intensely devoted—Corey Szabo’s man on a mission.
And Vaughan’s mission was to take care of any problem that anyone Corey loved had. He did this with dedication and meticulousness.
If he was behind this, an indication that he’d waded into the issues we were facing, that was a rather large bit of good news.
“I think we’ve been adopted, sweetheart,” Jamie noted.
I took the envelope from him.
As I did, my smile was slow.
But Jamie’s wasn’t.
Thus, Rhys completed my job of clearing that dissonance.
Now we could get on with the next bout of unpleasantness.
And hopefully after that, my Jamie could have some peace.
The atmosphere in the car was so heavy, I was struggling to breathe, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of how to alleviate it.
It was late the next morning, and we were on our way to the funeral.
Judge was driving, Jamie seated beside him (at my insistence, which Jamie was so against, it almost caused a row, but fortunately, Dru backed me, and Jamie couldn’t fight the both of us) and Rix, Dru and I were ensconced in the backseats of the Cadillac Escalade Jamie had rented.
“Jesus, do I need to start cracking really bad, and really dirty, jokes?” Rix asked the general population of the car.
“We’re going to my uncle’s funeral, Rix,” Judge reminded him.
“And Dad’s going to have to see Granddad,” Dru added.
“And Jeff was a putz and AJ’s a dick, so what’s the BFD?” Rix stated bluntly.
Judge opened his mouth, but Jamie got there first.
“He’s right, kids.”
And he was, because the heavy atmosphere wasn’t coming from Jamie, me, or Rix, but from Judge and Dru.
They were worried about their dad.
“Dad,” Dru said softly from the very backseat.
“I wasn’t close with Jeff,” Jamie shared something we all knew. “He was always a bully. He was ludicrously competitive, but bad at everything, which made it worse, because he was a shit loser. He made zero effort to keep in touch when I left. And he didn’t respond to mine or Rosalind’s efforts to do so. I haven’t seen him in over ten years, and frankly, I didn’t miss him. This means he not only didn’t bother to come to Lindy’s and my wedding, he also didn’t show at Lindy’s memorial, healthy indication that he was not a man who earned being missed. I’m here because he was still my brother, he was my mother’s son, and I need this closure. But that’s the only reason I’m here. This won’t last long. Hopefully AJ will stay away from me. And then we can go back to the city and have a nice dinner.”
“If that’s where you’re at, Dad, cool,” Judge muttered.
“That’s where I’m at, buddy,” Jamie confirmed.
“Damn, now I don’t get to tell any dirty jokes,” Rix mock complained.
There was laughter and chuckles, and I was thankful Rix was there. Things were a good deal less tense the last fifteen minutes it took to get to the funeral home.
And Dru’s gasp of delight when we saw Sully standing outside, I suspected, was how we all felt at this welcome surprise.
Sully walked to the Escalade so he was in position to help Dru alight when she followed Rix, something I took particular note of, even as Jamie was helping me out, because it was subtle, but it appeared he shouldered Rix out of the way to take the opportunity.
Noting the smirk on Rix’s face as he watched this happen, I saw that Rix was having the same reaction to this happenstance as me.