Page 39 of Well Aware

“We didn’t find anything, no,” Black admitted. “All the houses on that street have no cameras. Yours didn’t pick anything up. They didn’t have a front license plate, either, so the dash cam on the bus didn’t pick anything up. There are only the witnesses to the event. We have the car’s description and know that a woman was driving. We’re canvassing the neighborhood for that vehicle, but since the road you live on is a cut-through street from highway to highway…”

“You’re not holding out much hope of finding it,” Beau guessed.

“No,” he admitted. “I’m sorry, darlin’.”

“It’s okay.” I scrubbed at my face.

“Do y’all mind if I go say hi?” the bus driver asked. “I brought her a little muffin.”

My heart melted. “She’d love to see you.”

The moment she left, Beau changed. “Now that you talked about the legal side of what you can do, let’s talk about the not-so-legal. There’s no fucking way that those houses don’t have cameras.”

“Apollo’s on it,” Gentry murmured.

“Good,” Beau said fiercely. “Because there’s no way in hell I’m letting this go.”

“We have a BOLO—be on the lookout—on the car,” he explained. “There was a single person on the road that heard the commotion. I think Magnolia was screaming and turned to look. She was old as fuck, though, and she can’t remember if she saw an S or an 8 or an I or an L. So we have a number of combinations it could be. But the other officers in my department and three other departments within a fifty-mile radius are also looking.”

I tilted my head left and right, feeling it crack and pop as I did.

The men continued to speak in low tones, but I was just…done.

I had no more energy left.

I had no more desire to do much more of anything but curl up in a bed beside Iris and just…sleep.

I’m sorry, Rose.

My nose started to sting as I once again felt tears fill my eyes.

There I was, almost letting the child she entrusted me with die.

Die right in front of my eyes.

I was failing Rose.

I was…

Beau wrapped me up in his arms again, then said something over my head that I couldn’t understand because I’d once again burst into uncontrolled sobs.

I had no idea how much I’d needed him.

Not until he was there.

NINE

I’ll make it weird. I’ll make it weird as fuck.

—Magnolia to Beau

BEAU

The ride home from the hospital was quiet.

I’d left during her discharge to go grab the booster seat from Constance and Odin and had been back just in time to see her being wheeled outside.

Constance had informed me that it was ‘mine to keep’ since I was ‘about to have her with me all the time.’