Page 99 of Take The Risk

​“Rowdy!” Delilah shot him an annoyed look.

​“You sure are bossy,” he teased her.

​“Ah, children.” Alex waved her hand in front of them. “Time to tell the big people what happened.”

​“What do you know?” Rowdy asked, leaning back in his chair, his long legs splayed.

​Wade knew if I had to say it again, it would be my undoing.

​“So we know Cady-Jo found the documents in Jesse’s room because Delilah hid them there so Amber-Rae wouldn’t find them. Amber-Rae showed up at dead-woman-walking’s house and showed her photos of Phoebe and Ty, making nasty insinuations about Jesse. Then she decided to shoot Phoebe for what…shits and giggles?” Alex clarified.

​“She shot her because she’s a cokehead and wanted Winterbourne Manor back.” Rowdy closed his eyes, not bothering to open them as he explained. “Mom and Jerome were using Winterbourne Manor as their secret stash house. When Phoebe bought the house, it became harder for her to get her fix. There are too many eyes in this town. And when you guys”—he lifted his hand and waved it in my and Wade’s general direction— “found the stash of coke, she was worried you’d find the rest she had hidden and that her dealer wanted back. If she got rid of Phoebe, the house would be for sale again, and then she could buy it and not only get the coke but also continue to get her fixes.”

​“How does that make any sense?” Helen asked.

​Rowdy snorted again. “My mother’s brain is a crazy-assed place to be, so beats me. Cokeheads don’t exactly think logically. The only other thing I know is she found out about Phoebe’s identity from the cameras she had hidden upstairs. She’d put them in when she was using the house as a stash house to make sure no one got her stuff.”

​“We found the cameras in a couple of different spots in the house.” Wade grimaced. “I still don’t know how C.S.U. missed them the first time around. The good news is they became nonfunctional when the flood happened, which fried their wires. They were linked to the internet, so Amber-Rae was able to watch them for a while at least.”

​And that was how she knew about who Phoebe was, how she knew about us, and how she knew the combination to Phoebe’s safe. She’d been listening.

​“That’s crazy,” Luke said, flabbergasted.

​I agreed with him. It was all crazy.

​“So she’s here in the hospital, too?”

​I didn’t like the look in Alex’s eyes. “You aren’t doing anything to end up in jail.” Phoebe would need her here.

​“We’ll see. But first, I want to know how she is.” Alex looked back down the hall at the people moving around. “Which white coat do I introduce myself to?”

Chapter 37

​It was another two hours before we heard anything. Not a single person had left, and I was starting to really hate the sympathetic looks I was getting.

​An hour ago, I made the decision to bring Lock here.

​He knew what was going on and was losing his mind at Louise’s. Over my objections, the school had contacted his father when Louise had taken him out. I didn’t want Lock alone to deal with his father when he was terrified for his mother.

​Thankfully, Alex, instead of waving Wanda around, had resigned herself to waving Phoebe’s power of attorney, which gave her full custody of Lock in this situation.

​Bringing Lock here was the right decision. He’d run to me the second he’d entered the room. I’d hugged him while he cried. I couldn’t promise him Phoebe was going to make it. Lying to him felt wrong, and right now I was a person he trusted.

​Scarlette showed up within minutes, huffing and puffing, like she’d run the whole way here. She’d taken one look at Lock, hugged him, telling him she knew what would make him feel better, and then declared food was necessary. All bad situations needed food, as far as my sister was concerned. And only the kind with lots and lots of sugar.

​At one point, a nurse came to the door. Alex and I snuck out to talk to her, leaving Lock in the care of everyone else there. Louise had just returned from the café with an armful of food with all the sugar Scarlette proclaimed was necessary, and some heartier food to balance it out.

​“I can’t tell you much.” The nurse looked grave. “She was shot twice. They’re still operating on her. They’ve called in a specialist from Atlanta, and he just got here.”

​“Will she live?” Alex grabbed my arm to steady herself.

​The nurse gave us a pitying look, which said more than her words. “I can’t say. All I can tell you is they’re still working on her...”

​“You need to eat.” Wade handed me a sandwich.

​I didn’t want to eat.

​I was watching the son of the woman I loved, and I did love her. I’d known it for a while and was waiting to tell her. I didn’t want to tell her when she was still afraid to go public with us. I knew her. I knew she’d feel guilty and then feel like she had to agree to tell Mom about us. As much as I wanted that, I loved her too damn much to put that on her. So, I waited.