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“Spousal immunity,” Dad said. “That doesn’t mean that they can’t call me to testify.”
“Then maybe you should leave,” Cannel suggested. “Because I’m about to take this bat, and finish a job that my brothers are dragging out.”
“No,” I disagreed. “You’re not.”
Cannel’s eyes snapped fire as they came to me.
“You don’t need that on your conscience,” I told her honestly. “You’re pregnant. You need to be able to tell your kids that you are a good person. You can’t do that when you feel bad for doing this.”
“I won’t,” she immediately disagreed.
“You will,” I countered. “Now ask yourself this… why have your brothers taken so long to kill him when he’s been missing for so long?”
Because I’d seen the news, too.
And, now that I thought about it, it was a little weird that a chiropractor going missing would cause that much of a stink. Tragic, yes. But the guy was an unknown entity in his community. People said that he just showed up one day and that they had this questionable team of people looking for him.
I guessed that questionable team of people were likely law enforcement people trying to find their key to locking more people up.
“I…” Cannel paused and looked at her brother. “Why isn’t he dead?”
Price smiled, and it was a smile that should’ve terrified me.
Instead, it caused my heart to race. Because, goddamn, was that smile killer.
Killer to my heart. My vagina. And eventually, the man that was in their prison.
“Because if he’s dead, he can’t suffer any more for what he did,” Price said. “Let’s just say we’re giving him the same thing he did to you. Uncertainty is his friend right now. Every once in a while, we get a little annoyed, and we go kick his ass to relieve some stress. The fun thing is, he doesn’t know when to expect it. Which is what you dealt with for way too long.”
Cannel swallowed hard and then looked down at her hands. “I want to strangle him with my bare hands.”
I chuckled, then walked forward and grabbed her hand. “Come on,” I suggested. “Let’s take your car and go grab lots of ice cream. Then, we’ll go get our nails done, and you can hear about how shitty my day has gone so far.”
Cannel followed me out, and I looked over my shoulder at Price to see him staring at me with happiness.
And sadness.
My dad and grandfather caught a ride with us.
We dropped them off at my dad’s house, then Cannel and I went to binge on ice cream, get our toes done, then max out on cupcakes when we were done with that.
All the while, she listened to me while I told her my entire life story from start to finish.
When we were done, and she learned about my day, she said, “I’m a bad person for wanting you nowhere near my brother for my own comfort.”
I snorted around a bite of cupcake.
Once I was done with that bite, I said, “My life may have had a lot of obstacles, but that still doesn’t negate the fact that yours sucked worse. It may not have sucked before or after, but it sucked for a year. And that’s enough suckage to make you allowed to be upset about a person that brings back those horrible memories.”
She looked at her own cupcake before taking a large bite.
“I like you,” she told me honestly. “I’m glad that Price ignored me.”
I grinned.
All in all, the day wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
I got my mind off of my life for a few hours and finally got to know Price’s sister a little better.
It was important to me, if I was going to be a part of Price’s life, to know that his sister, who was a big part of his world, liked me.
And, once I got her to drop me off at my dad’s house, I knew that she did.
She liked me.
She really, really liked me.
Too bad when I waved her away, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.
Because if I had been, I would’ve seen Cole standing beside a beat-up truck, waiting for me to turn around and notice him.
CHAPTER 23
Wearing all black today to mourn the loss of my motivation.
-Price’s secret thoughts
PRICE
“I just dropped her off at her dad’s house.”
I smiled at my sister despite the fact that she was on the phone and couldn’t see it. “Everything okay?”
“Everything is better,” she admitted. “I just… Shine said something today that got me thinking. Then I looked at our Life 360 app and started to look through y’all’s history on where y’all go. And I went there. Got in, and then I saw him. I had a hunch when he went missing that y’all did something. I just didn’t think that he would be alive. Does… does Will know?”
