AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Feeling refreshed and not as tired as I was when I got home, I take what’s left of my wine into the living room and curl up on the couch with the remote. I don’t have cable, but I do have a device that gives me a few channels and movies, so I put on a favorite of mine, Runaway Bride, then dial Patty’s number so I can talk to Kingston before he has his bath and goes to bed.
“Hey,” she greets on the second ring.
“Hey, Patty. Is Kingston around?”
“Yep,” she says, and I hear him laughing in the background. “Kingston, Mommy’s on the phone.”
“Mommy!” I hear him shout, then the phone is jostled, and I can hear Patty telling him he has it upside down.
“You’ve got him now,” Patty says, and I laugh.
“Hey, lovie.”
“Hi, Mommy. Where are you?” he asks in his tiny voice, and my chest gets tight.
“I’m at our new house. Are you having a good time with Daddy and Grandma?”
“I miss you,” he whispers, and darn if that tightness in my chest doesn’t move to my throat.
“I miss you too, baby, but I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” he agrees, sounding sad, and I start to regret calling him. I don’t want him upset, and I hate that he doesn’t understand what’s happening, that his little mind can’t comprehend why Mom and Dad are no longer living in the same house.
“Be good for Grandma and Daddy, okay?”
“Okay, wuv you.”
“I love you too,” I say, then I hear him giggle.
“Hey,” Bowie says, coming on the line.
“Hey, is he all right?”
“Yeah, he’s already back to dancing.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
“Are you all right?”
“This is just going to take some getting used to.”
“Yeah,” he agrees softly but doesn’t say more.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow afternoon.”
“All right, have a good evening.”
“You too.” I hang up, drag in a breath, then pick up my wine and take a sip, knowing one day this won’t be so hard.
But that day is not today, so right now, this just sucks.
CHAPTER NINE
tucker
Sitting at my desk, I go over the file that just landed in my inbox from the lab processing all the evidence for the Kristen Stable case. From the DNA evidence that was collected and ran through CODIS, we now know that whoever killed her had no prior violent crime arrest. If they had, their information would be in the database. Not a surprise, with how messy the scene was. Still, I was hopeful there would be something to go on.
I lean back in my chair and scrub my hands down my face.
“You good?” I pull my hands away and look over at Miles.
“The lab report came back for Kristen, and there were no matches in CODIS.”
“Figures.”
“Yeah.” I crack my neck, then watch Miles stand. “Are you heading out?”
“I gotta pick up Winter,” he says, referring to his daughter, my niece, not by blood but by fate.
Miles, Clay, Dayton, and I grew up in the same foster home. The family we lived with were good people, better than any of the other ones I lived with before them, meaning they didn’t abuse us, they fed us, and they kept a roof over our heads. But in their family, we were still the outcasts, so over time, the four of us formed a bond that was stronger than blood, and that has never wavered. We fight like any family does and get pissed at each other from time to time, but at the end of the day, we have each other’s backs.
“Where’s Clay?” I ask, because normally when Miles is working, Clay picks up Winter from school and keeps her until we’re off unless her mom is in town.
“He had something to do with Willow,” he says, and I lift my chin. Willow is Clay’s fiancée; a woman I didn’t think he should be with due to circumstances happening around the time they met and my own personal issues. I did and said some fucked-up things when he started seeing her, and it didn’t help that I had the whole Naomie situation sitting on my shoulders.
Not the affair—it was before I even knew about that. It was after the miscarriage, when she went to him, and I made assumptions out of grief. I could have lost my brother because of my own stupidity. Thankfully, he’s a better man than me. It took some time for us to get back on solid ground, but now, things are back to how they always had been, maybe even better. With Clay tied to Willow and the future they are building; I no longer have to worry about him doing something stupid and ending up dead.
“Do you want to roll with me?”
“No, I’m gonna head out soon. I want to go over and talk to Kristen’s best friend again. Maybe she’ll be more receptive if there aren’t two of us there,” I say, and he lifts his chin.
