Page 58 of Time to Bounce

When I got back around the front, after glaring holes at the fuckin’ box that’d held the access to all the cameras in Athena’s house, Milena and Shasha were gone, leaving Athena on the front porch talking to Jack.

Jack who was packing up his things.

“…she really is my best friend.” Athena laughed. “What kind of pie are you looking for? I’m pretty sure she’d be willing to make anything.”

“Huckleberry.” He looked excited now. “I know it’s not the norm down here in Texas, but it is up there in Montana where we used to live. We had huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry jam. Huckleberry everything. And God, but I know my wife and I would kill for a huckleberry pie.”

“What part of Montana?” she asked curiously.

“Near Kalispel, sort of,” he answered as he hefted his big bag up. “It’s more toward Canada, actually. We used to live about ten minutes from the Canadian border. Small town of about fifteen hundred people.”

“Why’d you leave?” Athena asked.

“Winters there are hard,” he admitted. “My wife has MS, so it was getting near on impossible to be up there during the winter months, and she was miserable. Texas was about as opposite as we could get from Montana.” He jerked his chin up when he saw me. “She’s easy to talk to.”

“That she is,” I agreed. “When she’s feeling nice.”

“Hey! I’m always nice,” Athena pointed at me. “You’re the one who’s mean, and then I can’t help myself.”

I caught her finger in my grasp and pulled her lightly toward me. When she was close enough, I put my arm around her shoulder and said, “Thanks again for doing this, Jack. I’ll see where I can get some huckleberries so we can get you that pie made.”

“You’d be my best friend for life.” He chuckled. “There’s not a single thing in this world that I wouldn’t do for my girl. Seeing her smile is like a warm electric shot straight to my heart.”

I felt that statement resonate in my soul.

I was quickly becoming aware of what I’d do to put a smile on Athena’s face.

What was worse, I would be wiping that smile off her face in a moment when Jack left.

“Bye, youngins!” he called.

I waited until he was in his truck before turning back to Athena.

I let her go, then rubbed my hand down my face.

“I’m guessing whatever you and Shasha found out wasn’t good,” she guessed.

I leaned against her porch railing before telling her exactly what I’d found.

“That’s…” she shook her head. “In my room?”

I hated that I was nodding.

Hated it.

I especially hated the look on her face when she realized that someone could remotely monitor her house, and her.

“What’s the next step?” she asked, trying to appear calm when she was anything but.

“Next step would be to find out who put them there,” I explained. “Shasha is running the cell signal to see if he can triangulate where it’s coming from. My dad sent over a couple of officers, one of whom is my mom, to come take a look at everything. From there, we’ll decide what’s next.”

“I can’t stay here,” she mumbled.

Like I was ever going to let her go.

“You won’t be staying here. You’ll be staying with me,” I said. “Until we figure this out.”

“I can stay at my brother’s place,” she explained. “There are no showings scheduled, and…”

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