Chapter Sixteen
Quinn
“Are you nervous?” Lucas asks, reaching for my hand as we approach the clubhouse and I peek over at him, shaking my head.
“No. Should I be?”
He makes a face and holds his hand out in the air, pulling a giggle out of me.
“You’re supposed to make me feel better, not scare me.”
“Well, truthfully,” he says, adjusting Brooklyn in his arms as he stops and pulls me into his body. “Everyone is going to love you but… Ali has been dying to meet you for weeks now and she’s not someone who doesn’t get her way.”
I nod, casting a faux nervous glance toward the door. “So, what you’re saying is I’m about to be swarmed?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
Sucking in a breath, I turn back to the door and square my shoulders. “I think I’m ready.”
“You’re so fucking cute,” he teases, releasing my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders before pulling me into his body. “And have I mentioned that this little skirt you’re wearing makes me want to bend you over a table?”
My cheeks heat. “You know, I don’t think you have.”
“Oh, well it does.” He nips at my ear and I suck in a breath as goose bumps race across my flesh and my nipples pebble.
“Good to know.”
“One more thing…” he murmurs and I turn my head to meet his gaze. Our noses touch and he flashes me the kind of smile that can make me melt in an instant. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Right on cue, Brooklyn squeals from Lucas’s arms and he laughs as he pulls his arm off my shoulders to tickle her belly.
“You just can’t stand when someone else is the center of attention, can you, Princess?”
She pats his face with her little hands and blows a raspberry. Both of us laugh and he blows one back at her, which sends her into a fit of giggles.
“Oh, Lord, she’s really hammin’ it up today,” I say and Lucas reaches for my hand again as we step toward the door.
“Gee, wonder where she gets that from…”
I gasp. “Are you saying I’m a ham? I’m offended, sir.”
The door to the clubhouse opens and a large man with dark hair and gray piercing eyes steps outside. He looks relieved when he spots us and Lucas laughs.
“She driving you crazy already, man?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know who that woman is in there but it’s not my wife. I’ll be glad when this pregnancy is over.”
“True, but then you’ll have two of them in your house.”
His eyes widen. “Shit. Why didn’t I think of that until now?”
“No clue,” Lucas answers, laughing. “This is Quinn, by the way. Quinn, this is Storm.”
I smile. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”
“You, too, Darlin’. Y’all better get in there. Ali is excited to meet you.”
“What are you gonna do? Stay out here?” Lucas asks, quirking a brow and Storm blows out a breath.
“I’m seriously considering taking up smoking.”
Lucas laughs as we turn back toward the door. “I’m gonna tell Ali that.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
He walks out to the parking lot as we reach the door and I suck in a breath, my belly doing a little flip, as Lucas opens the door and ushers me inside. The room is fairly open with a bar on one side and pool tables and couches on the other side with a few tables scattered throughout the space in between. One table near the entrance is piled high with gifts and I set ours down on top, thankful that I don’t knock the rest over in the process.
“Is this a big party?” I ask, eyeing the stack of presents and Lucas chuckles as he shakes his head.
“No, but it’s the first baby in the club in a long time and the guys went a little crazy.”
I bury my head in his shoulder to hide my smile. “That’s fucking adorable.”
“Just don’t tell anyone I told you,” he whispers and I peek up at him as I nod.
“Your secret is safe with me.”
“Lucas,” someone yells and a little redhead bounces over to us with another large man following behind her. “And you must be Quinn. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Oh?” I ask. “All good things I hope.”
She grins and I peek over at Lucas as he rolls his eyes.
“Quinn, this is Tate and Kodiak.”
“And who is this little cutie?” Tate asks, stepping forward and tickling Brooklyn’s belly. Brooklyn giggles but it’s a little reserved.
“This is Brooklyn,” Lucas answers and she lays her head down on his shoulder, plopping her thumb in her mouth.
“Oh my god,” Tate gushes. “If that’s not the cutest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen…”
“Quinn!” another voice yells above the noise of the crowd and I scan the room with wide eyes. A bubbly blonde with a giant belly wiggles through the crowd. “You are Quinn, right?”
I laugh and nod. “I am.”
“Oh, thank god. I’m Ali, it’s so nice to meet you.” She pulls me in for a hug and I glance back at Lucas, who grins.
“It’s nice to meet you, too.”
She releases me and turns to Lucas. Brooklyn peeks up at her and she smiles. “Hello, cutie. What’s your name?”
“This is Brooklyn,” Lucas answers and Ali makes a face at her and just like that, Brooklyn’s shyness disappears as she copies the look. Everyone laughs and Ali taps her nose.
“Oh, I think you’re going to fit in around here just fine, little girl.” Ali turns to me again before looking around the room and frowning. “Hey, any of you seen my husband?”
“We passed him outside,” Lucas answers and her scowl deepens.
“Well, what the hell was he doing out there?”
Lucas and I share a glance. “Uh, he was just getting a little air.”
“Oh.” She looks upset for a second before a smile slowly stretches across her face like every cartoon villain revealing their master plan that I’ve ever seen. “You want to know a secret?”
“Absolutely.”
She giggles, shaking her head. “I’ve been doing everything I can to drive that man insane so he’ll finally let me stay home when he’s working late.”
“Oh, what the fuck?” Lucas whispers before laughing.
“Fucking diabolical,” Tate mutters with a grin on her face and Kodiak shakes his head.
My gaze bounces between all three of them before I turn back to Ali. “Wait, why won’t he let you go home?”
“Ever since I got pregnant, he doesn’t like me to be home alone so when he’s working late with the club, he makes me sleep here and as you are well aware, pregnancy makes you very uncomfortable and the double bed he’s got up in his room doesn’t help anything. Not to mention that it’s hard to get any work done with all these guys hanging around all the time.”
“I’m gonna tell him,” Lucas cuts in with a grin and she narrows her eyes into a glare as she points her finger at him.
“No, you’re fucking not. I just want my bed, Smith. My big, comfy, king-size bed. Is that really too much to ask for?”
“Babe,” I murmur, nudging him. “The correct answer here is no. Just for future reference.”
“I don’t know. He’s just trying to keep her safe,” Kodiak adds. Tate peeks over her shoulder with a look that could kill.
“She is literally growing a person,” she objects and I nod.
“And in… wait, how far are along are you?”
“Thirty-three weeks.”
I nod. “Right. And in six-ish weeks, she’s going to rip her body apart to give birth to that little person so if she wants her bed, she gets her bed.”
“Here, here,” Tate calls and Ali raises one in the air as the other cradles her belly.
“Preach, sisters.”
Kodiak shares a look with Lucas. “We’re getting outnumbered here, brother.”
The three girls laugh as Storm walks back into the clubhouse. He scans the room and as soon as he spots his wife, he makes a beeline for her.
“Where you been, babe?” Ali asks as he pulls her into his side and he shakes his head.
“Just outside for a minute.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hums, meeting my gaze as I try to bite back my smile.
“Kitten…” Storm growls and she laughs, holding her hands up in the air.
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“Ali, do you want to get the food started?” someone asks, approaching the group and Ali nods.
“Yeah, we can do that. Oh, by the way, Carly, this is Quinn. Quinn, this is my best friend, Carly.”
I hold my hand up and wave. “Hi.”
“Hey,” she answers, smiling at me before she turns to look at Lucas. “Wow, Smith. The dad thing works for you.”
He glances down at Brooklyn with the sweetest smile on his face. “Thanks.”
“I’m gonna go throw stuff on the grill. You need to sit down,” Storm grumbles and Ali rolls her eyes.
“Yes, boss man. Right away, boss man.”
“Kitten, I will spank your ass if you don’t listen and rest your feet.”
“I’m heading out, too,” Kodiak says, kissing Tate on the head before he heads out with Storm. Lucas passes Brooklyn to me and presses a quick kiss against my lips as the rest of the guys file outside to cook.
“Would you look at them?” Ali grumbles. “Bunch of cavemen.”
“He is right, though. You should sit down,” Carly tells her and she nods.
“God, I know. My feet are fucking killing me.”
Carly laughs and grabs her hand to guide her over to the couches and Tate and I follow behind them. Brooklyn starts to fuss as soon as I sit down and I pull the baggie of cereal out of my purse before handing it to her.
“Okay,” Ali breathes after she gets settled and her feet propped up. “Give it to me straight. How bad is labor?”
I laugh. “Um, bad… but the thing is, you forget how bad it was as soon as it’s over and you’re holding your baby in your arms. And when she takes her first step or says her first word, you’ll be desperate to have another one.”
“Well, that’s comforting, I guess.”
“Look at it this way… I would rather have another baby than get hit by a truck again.”
She laughs. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“That’s how you met Smith, right?” Carly asks and I nod.
“Yeah, I had just gotten off work and I was driving home when this truck came out of nowhere. And then Lucas was there, keeping me calm until the ambulance arrived.”
“That’s Smith, for ya,” Tate says and the other girls nod.
“So, you can totally tell me it’s none of my business if you want but is her dad in the picture?” Ali asks, pointing to Brooklyn and I shake my head.
“No, he’s not.”
“That must be so hard for you. I know as much shit as I give him, I’d be lost in the pregnancy without Logan.”
I shrug, smiling as I think about Grams. “I wasn’t all by myself. My Grams was a huge support for me until she died and I’ve got my little sister Alice.”
“It takes a village,” Ali muses before flashing me a smile. “And now you’ve got all of us. It’s easy to see that Lucas is head over heels for you, which means that you’ve just been added to this crazy family and we’d all do anything for each other.”
“That’s going to take some getting used to.”
Carly lets out a laugh as she nods. “Yes, it will but one day, you’ll look up and realize that it’s the biggest blessing.”
“That’s true,” Tate adds. “No family is perfect but what Blaze and the guys have built here comes pretty damn close.”
“I kind of got that feeling from Lucas.”
As soon as the words leave my mouth, Lucas strolls back into the room with Storm. Storm flashes a victorious grin at Ali when he finds her sitting down with her feet propped up and she rolls her eyes.
“God, he’s going to be impossible now.”
“Hey, Darlin’,” Lucas says, sinking into the seat next to me and I smile at him.
“Hey.”
Tate rolls her eyes and flashes Lucas a disgusted look. “God, the two of you are sickeningly cute.”
“You’re just jealous that you got stuck with that asshole outside,” Lucas teases her and she flips him off.
“Don’t think that just because it’s a baby shower, I didn’t bring my taser.”
I peek over at Lucas with wide eyes and he shakes his head.
“Behave. We have company.”
She rolls her eyes again before standing up and heading outside. The guys slowly start filtering in and out as they cook the food but Lucas stays by my side, talking to me and playing with Brooklyn.
“So, I have a question,” I prompt and he nods.
“Shoot.”
“The names - Kodiak, Storm, Moose… that’s not their real names, correct?”
He laughs and nods. “Right. Those are road names.”
“And why don’t you have a road name?”
“Uh,” he murmurs. “Smith is my road name, babe. My real last name is Julette but when I joined the club, I wanted to be anonymous, you know? I didn’t want my father’s sins following me around so Blaze called me Smith. But if anyone else asks, they think Smith is my real last name.”
“Why not tell them?”
He shrugs. “Because I guess in a way, I’ve become Smith. That’s the man I want to be and I’ve even looked into changing my name legally a few times.”
“But you haven’t?”
“I didn’t want Clay to feel like I was abandoning him.”
I offer him a soft smile as I cup his face in my hand. “Don’t ever think that you’re anything other than a damn good man, Lucas Smith.”
He leans in and presses his lips to mine as he runs his fingers through my hair. When he pulls away, he licks his lips and hums.
“I kinda wish we were at home right now.”
I nod, leaning in. “Me, too.”
Our lips meet again and he groans quietly as he grips the back of my neck.
“Smith!” someone yells and he jerks away from me, glancing over his shoulder as Kodiak waves him over. He sighs and kisses my forehead.
“Give me a second.”
I nod. “Sure.”
I watch him as he walks across the room and talks to Kodiak. Tate sinks into the seat across from me and I smile at her before turning back to look at him. A young man with dirty blond hair steps out of the back hallway and my stomach rolls as my entire body begins to shake. He glances in our direction and everything in me is screaming to run.
“Wh-Who is Lucas talking to?” I whisper, barely able to force the words out. Tate glances over at them before turning back to me with a scowl.
“His brother Clay. Why?”
My heart hammers relentlessly in my ears and I struggle to breathe as my mind goes blank.
No.
No.
No.
This can’t be happening.
“Hey, are you okay?” Tate asks, reaching out and touching my arm. I jump and tears well up in my eyes as I look at her.
“I need you to get me out of here,” I rasp and her scowl deepens.
“What’s go…”
I shake my head. “No questions, please. I just need you to get me out of here without Lucas seeing me.”
We both glance back to the hallway and both Lucas and his brother are gone and the air feels a little less heavy as I turn back to her. She studies my face for a moment before nodding.
“Okay, but I’ll have to tell him that I took you home after I get back.”
I nod. “That’s okay.”
When she agrees, I gather up my things and Brooklyn before following her outside. After I buckle Brooklyn into her car seat, she climbs behind the wheel of my car and I promise her that Alice will give her a ride back after giving her directions to my house.
“You have to tell me what’s going on here, Quinn,” she urges and I shake my head.
“I can’t. Not yet.” Hell, I can’t even process it myself yet so there’s no way I could coherently explain it to her. She sighs and nods, glancing over at me periodically as we drive to my house. I’m counting down the seconds until we get there as my insides feel like they’re exploding.
Just one more mile, I tell myself, barely holding the tears at bay.
Just one more block.
Just one more street.
Just one more house.
By the time we pull into my driveway, my hands are shaking and my jaw aches from clenching my teeth to keep the scream at bay.
“I’ll go get my sister,” I whisper to Tate before jumping out of the car and running up the front steps as my stomach rolls. Alice pokes her head out of the kitchen as I burst in the door.
“What are you doing back so soon?”
I meet her gaze as the tears start to fall. “Alice…”
“Oh my god, Quinn,” she gasps, dropping her plate on the island and rushing over to me. “What the hell happened?”
“Brooklyn is in the car and I need you to give Tate a ride back to the clubhouse.”
She scowls. “Who the hell is Tate?”
I point over my shoulder and she peeks through the window.
“Please, Alice. I’ll explain everything when you get back but I need you and Brooklyn to not be here right now and Tate needs a ride back to the clubhouse.”
She studies me for a second before grabbing her purse. Before she walks out the door, she lays her hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”
“No. Please go.”
She nods, her gaze lingering for a second before she steps outside and I watch her get in the car. As soon as they drive away, a deep aching sob tears through me and I sink to my knees, gasping for air. Tears pour down my face and my hands shake as I press them against my racing heart and pain overwhelms me. It feels like a thousand dark hands, reaching up from the depths of hell. They grip my clothes, my arms, my legs, fighting desperately to drag me back into darkness and finish me off.
And this time, I might just let them.
Chapter Seventeen
Lucas
Sighing, I glance over at the bed in my room at the clubhouse and sigh as Clay rolls away from me, snoring loudly. When he showed up here last night during the baby shower, looking for money, I wanted to get him out of here as soon as possible but it became clear, pretty quickly, that he was in no state to go anywhere. Kodiak and I hauled him up to my room and got him into bed. I was so fucking preoccupied that I didn’t even notice Quinn was gone until Tate came upstairs to tell me that she hadn’t been feeling well so she took her home. I glance at my watch and sigh again. It’s only eight in the morning so I doubt he’ll be awake anytime soon and I need to try and call Quinn. Tate said she wasn’t feeling well at the party but I get the feeling that she might be mad at me for ditching her to take care of my brother. Time to do damage control.
I leave Clay in my room and step into the hallway before dialing her number. As it rings, I lean my shoulder against the wall and tuck my hand into the pocket of my jeans. Truthfully, she has a right to be a little mad. Clay showed up and it’s like I forgot all about her until Tate reminded me. He became my sole focus and it pisses me off that I let him.
“Hi, Lucas,” she answers but her voice sounds different.
“Hey, darlin’. You okay?”
There’s a pause and then she whispers, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry that I disappeared yesterday. My brother showed up at the clubhouse and I was taking care of him.”
“It’s okay,” she answers but something is still off. She’s normally so warm and affectionate but there’s none of that coming through this time.
“You sure you’re okay? You sound off.”
She coughs. “Yeah, I’m just really sick.”
“Shit, I’m sorry, babe. Let me deal with my brother and then I’ll come over and bring you some soup.”
“No.”
I scowl. “You want something else? I could grab some ice cream or medicine or whatever you want.”
“No, I don’t want anything.”
Worry eats away at me as I push off the wall and walk down the hallway. “Maybe you should go see the doc, Quinn. You really don’t sound good.”
“I’ll be okay. I just need sleep.”
“Okay,” I say, running my hand through my hair. “Well, give me like an hour or two and then I’ll come hang out with Brooklyn so you can get some sleep.”
“No. I don’t want you to catch it.”
“Babe, I don’t give a shit about me,” I tell her. “I’m worried about you.”
She sighs. “I’ll be fine, Lucas. Just worry about your brother.”
“I’ll deal with him and then I’m coming over.”
“No!” she practically shouts and I pause, my eyes widening. “I really just don’t want to get you sick, okay? Promise me you won’t stop by the house?”
I stare at the wall for a second before sighing. “Okay, but you gotta text me and let me know how you’re doing or I will come over there.”
“Okay, I will.”
“I’m serious, Quinn. I want hourly updates and if you need anything, you better call me. It doesn’t matter what else I’m doing, you come first.”
“I love you,” she whispers and I swear I hear her voice crack just a little, but before I can say anything else, she hangs up on me and I pull the phone away from my ear, gaping. I don’t care how many times she tells me she’s fine. There is definitely something wrong.
I stare at my phone for a minute before dialing Tate’s number.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“How was Quinn when you took her home last night?”
She sucks in a breath. “I mean, she was acting like she didn’t feel very well.”
“Tate, come on. I have this feeling that something is going on but no one is talking about it.”
“Look, I’m sorry but I really don’t know anything. She said she wasn’t feeling well and asked me to take her home. You had disappeared so I agreed.”
I still can’t shake the feeling that she’s not telling me everything but I have no proof so I sigh and try to forget it.
“Yeah, okay.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
I shake my head. “Naw, it’s okay. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Sounds good.”
We hang up and I shove my phone in my pocket before stopping in front of my door and leaning back against the wall across from it and before my thoughts can even fall down the rabbit hole of why my woman is ignoring me, something crashes inside my room. Sucking in a breath, I push off the wall.
“Here we go,” I whisper to myself before stepping forward and opening the door. Clay is in the corner of the room, looking through the books on my bookshelf and his head snaps up as I walk in the room.
“Looking for my cash?”
He tosses the book in his hand down on the floor and glares at me. “Come on, big bro. I just need a little bit.”
“No, you don’t,” I answer, grabbing his shirt off the chair and tossing it at him. “Get dressed.”
“Why?”
“There is somewhere I want to take you.”
He takes a step back and shakes his head. “I’m not going to rehab.”
“Believe me, Clay, I’d love nothing more than to drag your ass to rehab but that’s not where we’re going today. Now, get dressed.”
“Aren’t you going to give me a little privacy?”
“Why?” I growl. “So you can sneak out of the clubhouse and go get high again. I don’t fucking think so.”
“Motherfucker,” he mutters, shoving his arms in the sleeves of his t-shirt before grabbing his jeans and pulling them on. When he has his tennis shoes on, he stands and flashes me an expectant look. “Willing to tell me where we’re going now?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Let’s go.”
I have to push him out of the room and continually nudge him down the stairs and outside to my truck. Once he’s in the passenger seat, I sigh and round the hood before jumping in and firing it up.
“Are we going to see Dad?” he asks as I pull out of the parking lot and I barely avoid glaring in his direction.
“No.”
We’re silent for the rest of the trip and when I pull up to the cemetery, I feel his shocked gaze whip to my face.
“What the fuck are we doing here?”
I put the truck in park and turn it off. “We’re here to see Mom.”
“I don’t want to do that,” he whispers, shaking his head. The fear in his eyes is exactly the same as all those years ago as I packed up our things and pushed him out of our bedroom window. Maybe this is exactly what he needs or maybe this will send him off the deep end but I know that it’s time for me to do something other than what I’ve been doing for the past six years.
“Tough shit. Get out of the truck.”
He seems smaller as he gets out and meets me on the other side, like all this time he’s still been the five-year-old little boy who went on the run after his father killed his mother.
“Why are we here, Luke?”
I sigh and we start walking along one of the paths. “I’ve never told you what happened that night.”
“And you’re going to tell me now?” he scoffs and I nod, glancing over at him.
“Yeah, I am.”
We stop in front of our mother’s grave and I suck in a breath as I read her name on the tombstone:
Amanda Julette
Devoted Wife and Mother
“What do you remember from the night she died?”
He shakes his head. “Just yelling and being scared but my earliest clear memory is running through the forest with you and finding the boxcar.”
“The night she died, it had been raining all day and around dinner time, these thunderstorms rolled in. The thunder was so loud that it shook the walls in our bedroom and I laid there for hours, unable to fall asleep so I heard them as soon as they started fighting. It had been happening a lot before that and I found out later that Dad had been using drugs.”
“No,” Clay snaps, backing away from me as he shakes his head. “Dad isn’t an addict.”
I nod. “Yeah, he is. That’s why he lost his job a few months before Mom died and why they were fighting so much.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I know you don’t,” I whisper, turning back to her grave. “We’d been in bed for a few hours when the fighting got louder, scarier than anything else I could remember and it got so bad that it woke you up, too.”
“What else?” he asks, his voice rough and my hands shake as I suck in a breath.
“You were laying in bed, crying, and I was trying so hard to get you to be quiet because I knew if Dad heard you, he’d come after us and I couldn’t let that happen. As I was trying to calm you down, there was this bang, so fucking loud that my ears were ringing, and then it was silent. That silence, I’ve never heard anything more terrifying in my life.”
Clay steps forward and lays his hand on Mom’s grave. “I don’t remember her.”
“She was like sunshine - always cheerful even when everything was going wrong. She’d find a way to make us laugh and make it all seem okay and she was so warm. All you had to do was be near her to feel her love because it just radiated off her.”
“I’ve spent my whole life jealous of you for being able to remember her.”
I wipe away a tear. “I’m sorry, Clay, but I was a kid, too, and I couldn’t stop what happened anymore than you could have.”
“What happened next?”
“The bang just made you scream louder and I made you shove your face in a pillow ‘cause I didn’t know what was happening yet and I crept toward the door. When I opened our bedroom door, I saw her. Mom was laying at the other end of the hall with a hole in her head and a puddle of blood all around her body. Dad was next to her, holding the gun in his hand and covered in her blood. It was everywhere, Clay. All over the walls, the floor, all I could see was red.”
“But you didn’t see him pull the trigger,” Clay breathes like I’ve just unveiled some forgotten clue and I grit my teeth.
“It doesn’t matter! He killed her.”
He shakes his head, backing away from me. “You don’t know that for sure. Unless you watched him pull the trigger, you don’t know.”
“You’ve got to stop this, Clay. This isn’t healthy for either one of us.”
He takes another step back. “I’m going to find the truth, Luke. It’s like one of those movies Iris likes to watch. No one believes me but I’m going to prove you all wrong and get our dad out of jail.”
“Just stop!” I roar, balling my fists at my sides. “This isn’t a goddamn movie and you can’t prove him innocent because he’s guilty, Clay. What you need to focus on is getting clean. Blaze is looking for a good rehab facility for you and we’re going to get you better.”
“No,” he snaps, taking a few more steps back. “I’m not going and you can’t make me.”
“Actually, I can and this is what is best for you.”
Without another word, he turns and takes off running.
“Fuck,” I growl, chasing after him but he’s faster than me and it’s not long before I lose him in the maze of graves. I skid to a stop and squeeze my eyes shut before spinning around and slamming my fist into the tree on the side of the path. “Fuck!”
As I catch my breath, I walk back to Mom’s grave and drop to my knees in front of it.
“Hey, Mom,” I whisper, tears welling up in my eyes again. I remember all the times Clay and I would fight when we were kids and Mom would pull us apart, telling us that we had to look after each other, not fight. I lay my hand flat against the stone and sigh. “I’m trying, Mom. I’m trying so hard.”
I sit in front of her grave and tell her all about Quinn and Brooklyn before promising to keep trying to help Clay and as I’m leaving, I spot a cardinal in a tree on the edge of the cemetery. It looks right at me before flying off and I watch it until it disappears.
When I get in the truck, I pull out my phone and send a text to Quinn.
Me:
Hey, babe.
How are you feeling?
Quinn:
Fine.
I read her message and throw the phone across the cab of my truck before leaning my head back against the headrest and closing my eyes.
“Fine, my ass,” I whisper, determined to figure out what the hell is going on.