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“What about Derek?” Redix asks while Dad’s got binoculars out, and so does Silas.
The tide is high. We waited for this hour to get as close as possible from the water to some of these islands right off Hilton Head.
“Derek’s hiding somewhere out here too.” Redix scans the horizon and seethes. “And I’m fucking sick of living scared with Renie and Nicolas, waiting for his next move. Scarlett guards all day. Keith guards all night. And they can’t go anywhere without their shadow. It’s taking a toll on us.”
“Derek’s hiding on a boat somewhere,” I answer him. “I know it. But that means he’s gotta come ashore for supplies, so we’ll catch him. He’ll get lazy, and we got him, I promise.”
Redix wraps his arms around my neck and buries his nose in my hair. He’s exhausted with this. We all are. But Derek’s lived his life on the run. We just have to wait him out.
“Well, at least y’all got each other.”
Mama lifts our eyes, and the smile on her face looking our way is serene. Redix has his arms around me, and Silas is holding my hand.
No, we’re not the picture of Southern tradition. But we are the picture of love and lust in the Lowcountry, so fuck you, Rules. You were never fun to follow anyway.
We spend the rest of the afternoon searching. Marking off islands in the area we know can’t be it. But once the tide starts rolling out, we have to head back.
Silas docks Redix’s boat in the slip at the marina because he jokes with Redix, “You’re a little heavy-handed with that throttle. You gotta learn to ease it in.”
My parents don’t hear the joke because Dad’s helping Mama wrap up in her jacket, but I clock it loud and clear.
“Speaking of easing it in.” I grab two handfuls of ass, one cheek from each. “Grab the marine grease because that’s what we’re doing tonight.”
“You want a Marine too?” Redix winks.
“You two warm me up first.” I tease back.
Silas helps Redix tie-down and lock the boat up while I help Dad with Mama. Years ago, she would’ve leapfrogged over the edge. Now she shakes. She doesn’t have much energy for this. I’m about to descend into a dark hole of worry about her when Mama grabs my hand as she stands up on the dock.
“Now, you and me,” she says, “we’re gonna sit a long spell while you answer all my questions, you hear?”
Mama’s smut books have her mind racing about me, Redix, and Silas. If she only knew.
“I just gotta know this for now.” Her grin makes the Devil look like a choir boy.
“What?”
“Do they make your balls tighten when you come?”
She punches me again with laughter. “I don’t have balls.”
“Yes, you do.” She barely backhands me. “I raised you to have the biggest pair.”
“No, you raised me to have ovaries.”
“You got me there.” She winks. “They’re even stronger.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The last person I expect to see is sitting on the steps to my screened-in porch.
And I ain’t got the patience for this.
I’m exhausted. I spent the week on St. Simons Island, summoned by a priority client who should’ve rebuilt the engine of his fishing yacht years ago. He thought he was doing me a favor by letting me crash on it while I fixed it. The only favor I got was the handsome check I earned.
What pissed me off was leaving Cade and Redix behind. We never got the night Cade wanted. It was an hour after our boat ride with her parents before I was called to Georgia for a week.
Now, I’m back. I’m fucking soaked from the downpour I hit on the river on my way home, and I have to deal with him.
