AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I should’ve known. She’s been watching me this whole time. And Dad’s been tracking his old boat.
He flops TJ’s body onto his new one, letting it hit the deck with a thud.
“Clever,” he says of the handcuff around TJ’s ankle that’s secured to a rope attached to a cement block Dad has tucked under his arm while he crawls back onto his boat.
“What are y’all gonna do?”
“What I should’ve done that night,” Dad answers, pulling his anchor back up.
“Don’t speak another word about it.” Mama’s drawl warns before she looks back my way. “What did you find out?”
Of course, I interrogated him first. She’s raised me too well.
“Pamela’s still alive. So is that other missing woman.”
“Oh, thank God.” Mama grabs her chest. “Then you go find them and catch their ass.”
This leaves Gentry left to deal with. And Derek.
The engine on Dad’s boat sputters back on while silence takes us all.
My parents saved me from committing the worst sin for the best reasons. And somehow, I don’t worry about what this act, what this secret, will do to them.
Someone hurt their kids. Someone hurt innocent people.
There is no guilt, no sin.
TJ sentenced his soul the minute he put a knife into Redix’s flesh.
Yes, God. This was the deal.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
A year later…
I wedge my toes underneath a pile of sand, keeping my bare feet warm in the October breeze.
Some days this month, it’s warm, like summer doesn’t end. Other days, they’re like me. Cool. Muddled. Not sure if they’ll let the lonely darkness take them.
My friends have left for the day, but I’m still here, letting my ass get numb watching the Sunday beachgoers. Despite being off-season, this beach, Coligny Beach, is rarely empty.
Except at night.
I know this too well.
Penny, with her pregnant-again belly, had me laughing today.
“I thought you were too tired to fuck,” I joked with her.
“Please,”—she chewed on her favorite frozen grapes—“all I had to do was lie back and let Hank do the work. It’s only fair. He works for ten minutes, gets us both off, and then the next nine months are on me.”
“More like in you.” I try hiding the pang of what I’m missing inside.
I would’ve liked a baby. Or three.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever want kids.” Scarlett sat on my other side, swigging cider. “But the ones I’m working for sure are cute.”
Scarlett’s working a job on Daufuskie Island. Her coming around to hang out, too; it’s made life bearable.
