AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tears started to blur my vision as the thought I refused to allow over the past few months took hold of me. Molly could be dead by now, and if she was alive, how would I find her without Mueller?
The pain in my chest amplified at the thought that my last conversation with my sister might actually end up being the last time I ever heard her voice. “No. It can’t be.” The words came out on a teary whisper as I passed through the gates of the Ashby mansion and parked crooked in my haste to get inside.
As I headed toward the sound of muffled voices, I sent a little prayer up that the baby was here, safe and not at that hotel room with Bonnie.
Oh, God, no.
I ran into the parlor and saw Ava Rose in Cal’s arms while he sobbed, so overcome by his grief that his legs buckled. I raced to him and took Ava Rose into my arms, offering a supportive hand to the man I considered a friend.
“I’m so sorry, Cal. So sorry.” I held Ava Rose close until her sniffles faded. Even though she didn’t know why she was sad, the little girl responded to the grief that emanated from her father.
“Sweet girl, I’m so sorry.” I kissed her downy soft hair and bounced her in my arms, our heartbeats aligned so she could feel some peace in this moment.
“Who the fuck did this? It doesn’t make any fucking sense. None!” He tossed his tumbler across the room and it shattered as it made impact with the wall, hundreds of tiny pieces falling to the ground. “How am I supposed to do this without her?” His shoulders fell and his head dropped forward as a new round of tears fell down his already tear-stained cheeks.
Kat snorted and shook her head. “The more important question is what the fuck was she even doing with the pervert priest? At my goddamn hotel? Heads are going to fucking roll. Bitch was probably getting her fix or giving him dirt on the family.” Even though Kat was probably right, her cold and callous words when Cal was so wrapped in grief seemed extremely cruel.
I watched Sadie and Jasper have an entire conversation without saying a word and felt my belly flip with anxiety when Sadie gave a slight nod and turned sad eyes to her youngest son. “Not the time, Kat.”
“I just lost my fucking wife, you miserable bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?” Calvin shouted at Kat. I held Ava closer to me.
Kat shrugged in response, but guilt flickered in her blue eyes at her brother’s grief. There had been no love lost between her and Bonnie, but at least she felt something for the sadness that took over Calvin. “I’m sorry for your loss, Cal, but we have to think about what she might have told him and what he did with that intel.”
Cal shook his head and reached for Sadie’s silver cigarette case and lit one of the long cigarettes his mother favored. I didn’t even know he smoked. He groped the wall to help him stand and stumbled, from shock, I guessed, to the bar to fill a new tumbler with amber liquor. “You think about that shit, Kat. I have to think about burying my wife and finding the prick that murdered her. Murdered. Her. You don’t get that do you?”
“Of course, I do Cal, but—”
“No, there are no fucking buts here, Kat! Let’s just hope you never ever know what this feels like.”
His words sounded more like a threat than a sincere wish and it made Kat swallow, her gaze reaching across the room where Terry stood talking to Jasper.
“Calvin Finnegan Ashby,” Sadie said, her sharp voice commanding the room, “stop this nonsense right now. I know you’re hurt and I know you’re grieving, but you are also a father to that baby girl, and she is your top fucking priority. We will find out who did this. Got it?”
He glared at Sadie, a visceral hate searing in his eyes as they took in the stoicism on his mother’s face. And nodded. “Yeah, I fucking got it. Thanks for your concern, Sadie.”
His emphasis on that word sent a shiver of unease down my spine. That silence in the room wasn’t actual silence. It was the sound of a fracture, possibly irreparable, forming in the Ashby family. And that thought scared the hell out of me almost as much as what Mueller’s death might mean for Molly.
Fuck. I need to get out of here.
“I need you to man up, Calvin. Get over your grief. We have a business to take care of, or don’t you give a damn about avenging your wife’s death?”
Calvin glared at Sadie. “Like you care,” he said and finished off the mostly full glass of booze. “You all got what you wanted, so I’ll get out of your hair and let you celebrate without me.” Cal glanced at the sleeping baby in my arms and his eyes welled with tears again. “Without me and Ava.” He motioned for me to follow him out of the salon, and I did, but not before casting one last look at the people gathered in the room.
