Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Does Hades know that radiator fluid would be enticing to them, but also kill them if they ingested it?” Slone asked.
I felt my stomach sink.
“Fuck.”
She sure would. She knew just as much about the animals sometimes as I did.
“No…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Let’s look for her.” Keene sounded grim when he voiced his request.
So we looked.
And couldn’t find Hades anywhere.
As in, not in the motorcoach. Not in the surrounding area around the motorcoach. Not in the surrounding town.
She didn’t answer calls. Her Life 360 was off. Her phone couldn’t be located.
She. Was. Not. Anywhere.
And a little niggle of worry started to creep into my stomach.
Because out of everything that was like Hades, running away wasn’t one of them. She loved seeing her pranks—if you could even call this a prank at this point—through. If she got to see my reaction, even better.
“What do we do now?” I asked softly.
Keene didn’t have an answer.
None of us did.
Three Days Later
“I think she’s out of the woods,” the vet said to me on the phone the next day. “Her stats are all great. I’ve even gotten her to eat a small meal of broth and pureed meat.”
My heart lightened considerably at that.
“That’s great news,” I said softly, my heart still heavy. “When does she get to come home?”
When do I get to see her again? Hug her? Hold her?
“If all keeps going well,” he said, “I imagine tomorrow would be a great time to come see her. Then if she’s continuing to improve, I’ll let her go home at the end of the week.”
My heart lightened considerably.
My immediate reaction after we hung up was to call Slone—he’d had to leave for a game, and I’d chosen to remain behind to keep an eye on Coco and Melon.
The only family members to remain behind and not move on to the next location we’d be at in two weeks were Simi and Coffey.
Coffey had been cooking us food all week, and I was kind of loathe to admit it, but I’d been stress eating.
Anyway, I couldn’t contact Slone because he was in the middle of a football game.
A football game that I was watching on Coffey and Simi’s big screen television.
Coffey was doing something outside on the grill—something that smelled absolutely delicious—and Simi and I were inside watching the game even though neither one of us knew what was going on.
“Was that a first down?” I asked curiously, watching a particularly brutal hit Slone had given.
“Um.” Simi looked up from her phone, where she was reading an article about “how to understand the game of football.” “I don’t know.”
Coffey came back inside just as something happened. Flags started being thrown, and Slone threw his helmet at a ref.
“Oh, shit,” I murmured.
“What?” Coffey asked, his eyes going to the screen.
He grimaced and stared, obviously understanding what was going on.
“Well?” I asked.
“Well…” He paused. “Slone got a face mask penalty and they’re moving them back fifteen yards. They’re definitely going to have to punt this.”
I sighed.
I would never learn the game of football.
But it looked like I had an extra month or so to figure everything out.
With two sisters not able to work and one on the lam, Keene had no other choice but to shut the circus down.
Speaking of the one on the lam…she was still nowhere to be found.
What was found, though, was a note that came in the mail. A letter that actually reached us because we’d been parked in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky for the last seven days.
All the note said was: It wasn’t me. But I might’ve found out who did.
Slone wasn’t too sure about her note, thinking maybe she did it to cover her tracks. But again, I knew my sister. She wasn’t the type of girl to not own up to her shit.
Needless to say, we didn’t get anywhere with anything. We were in limbo.
And that kind of sucked.
SLONE
Four days later
The cats were both home. In my home.
After hearing Ari’s wishes about wanting the cats with her, I’d had a hell of a fence installed. As in, no one short of a plane was going to get over it without a considerable amount of effort.
I looked like I was trying to mimic Fort Knox.
Speaking of cats, both of them were lying on my couches.
I couldn’t wait for Briley to get home.
Not that I’d leave her alone with them, but I’d definitely let her be around them as long as I was in the room.
Speaking of my baby…
My phone rang and I answered it immediately with a smile on my face.
“Hey, baby,” I answered my phone. “How are you?”
Ari looked up from her sprawl against me, a huge smile filling her face at the thought of Briley.
Yes, I fuckin’ loved her. I fuckin’ loved even more that she was excited to hear from my daughter.