Page 121 of A River of Crows

Sloan felt an ache behind her eyes again. Why was he bringing this up? Hadn’t she been through enough for one day? “I’ll work it out.”

“Mom needs to be committed. If not, she will cost you your job, your boyfriend, your entire life.”

“It’s not that easy,” Sloan said. “It’s a legal process.”

Ridge cocked his head. “I’m assuming attempted murder would be enough.”

“I’m not going to talk about this right now, okay? Today sucked enough. Leave Mom to me and book your plane ticket back here for Thanksgiving.”

“Alright.” Ridge leaned back, putting his feet on the dash. “Hope you know how to cook a turkey because I sure as hell don’t.”

Sloan laughed. “Never cooked one in my life.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Ridge said. “We’ll figure everything out.”

Chapter 33

Hobbs, NM, 2008

Vince was asleep in the recliner, so Libby took a chance and turned off the television. Surely twelve straight hours of Fox News was enough for one day. She turned off the living room light and headed to the bedroom. She hadn’t been sleeping well since Ridge’s trip to Texas, but maybe if she spent some time reading, she’d be able to relax and fall asleep.

As soon as she entered the bedroom, the landline rang. Libby dove across the bed to grab it before it woke Vince. “Hello?”

“Hey, Mom.”

“Ridge!” Hearing his voice instantly lifted her mood. It had been several days since his last call.

“Did I wake Dad?”

Libby moved the phone from her ear. “Nope. He’s still snoring.”

“Well, I tried to call your cell phone.”

“Did you? I never turn that on unless I go somewhere. There’s no point in having it on when I’m home.”

Ridge chuckled. “Yeah, there is, if you’d learn to text.”

“You know I don’t like texts. So, how are you? How’s everything?”

“Okay,” Ridge said, but Libby had known his lying voice since he was ten.

“No, it’s not,” she said. “Spill it.”

Libby couldn’t believe the story Ridge told her. She assumed Caroline would be happy to see Ridge. She understood if Caroline wanted to kill her or Vince, but her own son? Was she so bent on revenge that she couldn’t bear to let him expose the truth?

“You need to come home, son. You wanted Caroline to know you were okay, and you wanted to see Sloan. You accomplished both.”

“I’m scared it will come back on you and Dad.” There was worry in Ridge’s voice. “I shouldn’t have gotten out to see Jay. I shouldn’t have gone inside to meet his other kids. It was stupid.”

“That’s not stupid. It’s natural you wanted to see them.”

“But if they start digging, they may find out everything. Are your passports up to date?”

Libby smiled. “They aren’t going to find anything out about us.”

“And if they do?”

“Then we’ll deal with it. Look, your father and I aren’t worried about ourselves. We’d never have encouraged this trip if we were. All that matters is you.”

---