Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Guess she’s just as hurt and confused as I am.
This lunacy hurts, partly because it’s familiar. About as much as finding out my dad died when I was too young to even comprehend it.
At least then, I didn’t really know what it meant.
That was an accident, too, Dad and his stupid damn plane.
Terrible, yes. Life-shifting.
Yet we’d pulled together as a family because of it. We came together for Mom and three lost boys figured out how to grow up faster.
Years later, Archer came up with the concept for what became Higher Ends. We each did our time in the military and experienced the world before coming home to the only place that ever mattered.
Why is this so hard?
Why can’t I make Salem see?
A tragedy is only a fucking end if you run.
I grit my teeth and toss my phone aside.
There’s no chance I’m speaking to her again until this situation gets sorted. Once I have evidence to nail Evelyn with maximum criminal penalties and Arlo has recovered, then we can talk.
The winds keep howling as I drive back to Mom’s house. Even though it’s late—morning now, technically—all the lights are blazing in the house, and two other cars are parked in the driveway.
Archer and Dexter. Of course they’d be here. They’ve probably gotten a head start on tearing through walls, looking for a single scrap of that poison plant.
Juniper greets me in the hall, an apron around her waist and her red hair scraped back in a bun. Her eyes are shadowed as she pulls me into a hug.
“Oh my God, Patton. I’m so sorry,” she murmurs.
“For what?”
“Arlo. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if my—” She stops and bites her lip like she knows she just said too much.
“What?” I stop myself. The way she’s looking at me says everything. “How did you know?”
“I have eyes, you know. Unlike the rest of them.” She snorts. “But don’t worry, Dex doesn’t know. I thought you’d spill the truth when you’re good and ready.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I shake my head.
“Because if you wanted us to know so bad, you’d tell us.” Her eyes are steady, though I know from experience she’s got a temper to rival Dexter’s worst bad day.
It’s firmly tucked away now. She’s not angry at all.
“We’re family,” she says, putting a hand on my arm. “And Salem—now she’s family too.”
Gut punch.
But she’ll have to be, like it or not, if Arlo’s going to be a proper Rory, and he will be. Still, hearing Junie say that scrapes every nerve raw.
“Patton? What’s wrong?” Her hand tightens as she looks at me, searching.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“Pat, you done stealing my wife yet?” From the other end of the hall, Dexter leans against the wall. His smile is forced and humorless.
Usually, I’d throw back some shit about being the charming one, but my joke well is dry today. I can’t even smile.
“Everyone’s in the living room,” Junie says quietly. “Your mom, too. She got back a little while ago. I’m sure she’ll be glad you’re here.”
That makes one of us, I suppose.
I wonder if they’ve told her the news yet.
Mom isn’t stupid and she’ll figure it out soon enough.
Junie, Dexter, and I enter the sitting room together. By now, Mom is usually upstairs, reading until she falls asleep. But tonight, she’s slumped along the sofa, her eyes red and swollen. If she had any makeup on before, she’s cried it off.
The ice lodged in my chest grows colder. Evelyn fucking did this, even if Mom remains blissfully ignorant.
“Pat.” Archer holds out a hand, then drops it. “Good to have you back. How’s the kid?”
“He’ll survive.”
“Salem?”
I shrug, and Junie frowns at me.
But Mom finally registers my presence and turns her big eyes on me.
“Patton,” she says brightly. I’ve never seen her this anxious. Not since Dad’s funeral, probably.
The last of my beating heart ices over.
“What did I miss?” I ask harshly.
“Patton!” Junie tugs on my arm, but I shake her off. If they wanted gentle, they came to the wrong place. I used up my softness on Salem and now I’m dry.
“That’s not an answer,” I say. I stride to the mantel because I can’t sit down. Not again. Sitting feels like waiting and the last thing I want to do right now is waste time. “Will you guys tell me what happened while I was gone?”
Dexter and Archer glance at each other.
“It’s Mom’s jewelry,” Dex says, and Mom starts crying into her hands. Junie’s eyes glisten as she wraps an arm around Mom’s shoulders, fumbling in her pocket for a packet of tissues.
I feel nothing. I’m too hollowed out.
“She stole it,” I guess flatly.
“All the expensive stuff,” Archer says. “The antiques, the one-of-a-kind pieces…”
In other words, all the shit Mom owns that’s actually worth something. Not just money, but memories, some stretching back longer than we’ve been alive.