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“Yes, Sir,” she panted.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
On Thursday, Abby and Tex appeared to arrive before everyone else at the Sullivan house. At least that’s what they thought when they turned into the large circular drive. But one look at Shooter’s ashen face when he opened the front door told them otherwise. He half-hearted waved his cell phone at them. “Tried to call,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” Tex asked.
Shooter shook his head and sighed.
“Where’s Sarah?” Abby asked, looking around.
“Upstairs,” the older man replied. “Bathroom.”
Abby headed for the stairs while the men hovered in the living room.
Shooter shook his head again and pocketed his phone. “Test was negative,” he told Tex.
Tex felt his heart squeeze a little. “Fuck,” he muttered. “I’m sorry.”
Shooter flopped onto his own couch and stared at the ceiling as though it wasn’t the only separating him from his wife. “I just want help her. I just want to make this okay. But I can’t. I don’t know how to fix this.”
Tex took the nearby chair. “What does the doctor say?”
“Doctor says wait. Give it time. Give it a year, they say, before they start tests. But you know Sarah.” The older man fisted his hands in frustration. “She lost so much time because of that fucker. She’s waited so long to have something even approaching normal. She doesn’t want to wait anymore, Mark.”
Tex nodded. “Slick’s used to taking what she wants. Making things happen for herself. It’s her way.”
****
On the bathroom floor, Abby sat beside Sarah who was wiping tears from her cheeks. “I just had this whole plan, you know?” Sarah told her. “I came back and we got married. Right away. I sort of demanded it. We didn’t do it the normal way. No wedding shower, no bachelor party, no honeymoon even. Not really. Just a week here in this house by ourselves.”
She smiled as she remembered better times.
“I thought I’d get pregnant right away. And I figured we’d just, I don’t know, keep going, you know? Babies, and barbecues, and Poker Night. Forever. Because that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Sarah sighed. “I’m a terrible person.”
Abby gasped. “What?! No, you’re not!”
Sarah nodded. “Yeah, I am. Chris should be enough. I had nothing before I met him. Nothing and no one. I should just be grateful that I have this much. I shouldn’t feel this way.”
Abby got to her knees and leaned forward. She took hold of Sarah’s shoulders. “You have every right to feel this way,” Abby insisted. “And you deserve more than you have. So much more. You deserve everything you want.”
Abby wasn’t exactly sure how best to help her friend, but she knew she had to do something. She couldn’t make babies appear, or dig up serial killers, reanimate them, and then kill the fuck out of them all over again, but there had to be something she could do to help Sarah and Chris. They needed it. Badly.
That night, back in her condo after Mark had dropped her off, she knew exactly what to do for them. She tightened her robe around her and fired up her laptop.
The next night at Maria’s, Abby made a beeline for the table that the guys had snagged in the back, near the pool tables.
She slung her heavy purse onto the flat surface of the table. “Where’s your wife?” she asked Shooter, looking around for Sarah. She located the waitress at the booths by the jukebox and waved her over.
“Need a drink that bad?” Easy teased, but Abby smirked at him.
“Nope. Well, yeah, always. But nope. Not this time.” She opened her purse and looked at Sarah as she approached the table with a smile on her face.
“I come bearing gifts,” Abby announced. Sarah looked surprised and a little confused. “Consider it a belated wedding present.” Abby pulled out a large Fed Ex envelope that had already been opened.
Shooter glanced at Mark to see if he knew anything about this, but Mark shrugged. He didn’t know.
Abby fanned out a handful of airline tickets and placed them on the table. Shooter reached for one first.
“All expenses paid. I booked us a suite of rooms at the Canyon. Consider it a bachelor party slash honeymoon all rolled into one weekend.”
Sarah stared at the tickets. “Abby…this is too much.”
Abby waved her hand dismissively. “It’s Vegas. It’s not about how much money you have. It’s all about who you know.”
“Sweet!” Easy declared, plucking a ticket off the table. “So we’re all going to Vegas?”
“You guys need a reboot,” Abby told Shooter. “And that I can give you.”
“Oh, please,” Easy whined. “Please, please, please say we can go to Vegas, boss.”
Shooter looked at Sarah across the table. “You want to go Vegas, baby?”
Sarah bit her lip. “I’m not supposed to go to Vegas,” she admitted.
Abby laughed. “Have you been banned from the Canyon?” Sarah’s eyes widened and Abby laughed even harder. “Forget it. I’ll unban you. It’s not a problem.”
