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Cody was aware of his brothers and even Tono sucking in a shocked breath and thought he even detected a quiet expletive. Carly appeared oblivious, and she hadn’t finished either.
“It’s a fucking ball ache! There are barely any creature comforts, we can’t go shopping and the closest town is so backwoods there’s nothing to do even if we could get there. This whole idea is a damn joke.”
She turned from her sister, who had paled significantly, to Cody. “Ellie did all the damn cooking,okay? The fancy beef thing, the pancakes, the muffins - all Ellie. She made the chili too, but Cora dumped a load more chili powder into it and she didn’t even have the decency to warn me or Sheri before we ate it either!”
“What about the day she got locked in the stables?”
“Sheri told me we had to do that. Ellie threatened to tell you we’d taken credit for the stuff she did, so it was supposed to keep her out of the way.” She smirked as she said it and Cody could see the outrage in his brother’s eyes. “Worked too,” she added flippantly.
Cody surged out of his seat, his composure quickly diminishing. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?” he shouted, clenching his fists at his side. “She could have been seriously injured or worse!”
“Wasn’t though, was she.” Carly scowled as if the whole thing meant nothing to her. And maybe it didn’t.
“Your ankle seems remarkably well healed, I notice.”
Carly rolled her eyes. “You lot really are so bloody gullible! I only turned it a touch. Cora told me to play it up to keep Syrus away from Ellie when she was scared from being locked in the stables, ‘cos he’s the softy who would have been all over her in concern.”
The sound of Syrus slamming his fist down on the tabletop made them all jump. He had a face like thunder, and it almost looked like he might have done more if Cody hadn’t given him a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder.
Cody shifted his focus to the other two, who had remained shockingly quiet as their younger sister threw them all under the bus. He changed tactics.
“Have any of you seen the envelope I left for Ellie?”
He watched their responses carefully.
“Urgh! I know nothing about any damn envelope,” Carly screeched. “Can I go now?”
He gave Ezra a brief nod and the minute his brother stood to one side, Carly barged past him and stomped all the way up the stairs. Cody sucked in a deep breath. “What about you two?”
Sheri’s eyes were wide, and she shook her head rapidly. He turned a hard gaze on Cora, who refused to look him in the eye.
“Well, I’m sure Ellie must have picked it up, since it was addressed to her.”
“You’re right. Can you check her room, please, Ezra… if that’s okay with you ladies?”
Sheri just nodded hesitantly, but Cora put her nose in the air and said haughtily, “It’s your house, I’m sure you don’t need our permission to do that.”
Ezra gave a sly smile, like a spider who had just caught a fly in his web, as he turned and walked out of the room.
He returned a few minutes later, with the opened envelope and the cash.
“Well, just look at what I found in Cora’s room,” he said smugly, waving it in front of him for everyone to see before throwing it onto the table.
“What were you doing in my room? That’s my private space, how dare you,” Cora screeched indignantly.
“But I just asked if it was okay and you both agreed,” Cody replied with a cock of his brow.
“But I thought you were talking about Ellie’s room,” she spluttered.
“Well, imagine that! It’s really is quite annoying when you deliberately let people jump to the wrong conclusion, isn’t it?” he said throwing their deeds back at them.
“Still. Like you said, it’s our house, so…” he let the words trail off.
“Unbelievable!” Syrus stood up and turned to the sisters face on, all traces of the sympathetic, indulgent soul he usually was long gone. “You nasty, vicious,thievingbitches. Get your bags packed and hope I don’t decide to report you to the sheriff!” he bellowed. “I don’t want to set eyes on any of you again.”
“B… but how will we get out of here?” Sheri whimpered.
“Well, I think I can help you out there, ladies, since I’ll be off back to Libby shortly,” Tono replied smoothly before he turned and looked first at Cody, then Syrus and Ezra.
