Page 101 of Sully

“Is this your garden?” Bonnie asked.

“Yes. Why?” she asked, guarded.

“It’s so beautiful. I can’t believe how much it feels like being in a jungle.”

“Oh, thanks,” the woman said, shifting her feet. “Oh, there you are!” she cooed, face brightening the same way Bonnie’s did when she saw a dog.

Only Cassandra wasn’t a dog.

She was a really fucking adorable tan lop rabbit, her little ears nearly dragging on the floor as she hopped over to the woman.

“Of course I brought you a goodie,” she told the rabbit who reared up on her hind legs, little nose twitching as she sniffed.

The woman handed the rabbit a baby carrot from her pocket. “Where’s your sister?” she asked, but the other bunny was nowhere to be seen. Catching us watching her, the woman stiffened again. “Rabbits produce an endless supply of cold manure.”

“Cold manure?” I asked.

“Most animal waste has to compost down for a long time before you can use it. But you can just use fresh rabbit droppings for garden fertilizer. It’s a backup plan here in case…” she said, waving a hand out. In case shit hit the fan, which they were always planning for.

“That’s really interesting,” Bonnie said, using the coaxing tone with the strange woman as I found myself using on her when she was nervous about something. “Did you—“

“Jewel, you in here?” Fischer’s voice called. I expected the woman, Jewel, to stiffen. But she almost seemed to relax a little.

“Over here,” she called. “I found our… guests.”

“That’s who I was looking for. Your beast tried to eat my shoe again,” Fischer said, appearing next to Jewel with a massive rabbit in his arms. Easily the size of a damn dog.

“There you are,” Jewel said, lifting the rabbit’s mass from Fischer’s arms. “Let’s go check if you have enough hay, okay?” she asked, walking away with the rabbit.

“Damn thing is heavier than she is,” Fischer said.

“Did you feed it steroids?” I asked, making Bonnie giggle.

“It’s a Flemish Giant. They’re enormous. So, Sully, Chris wants to have a word with you. Bonnie, want to come with me for a bit?”

“No, she doesn’t,” I said, surprised at my sharp tone.

“Sully!” Bonnie whisper-yelled at me, brows pinched.

Fischer, to his credit, flattened out a smile as he rocked back on his heels. “I thought I would show her to where the princesses have been hanging out,” he said. “Gracie was excited when she heard y’all were coming up.”

“Oh, okay,” Bonnie said, hopping up, smile bright. “I’ll see you after your meeting?” she asked, looking at me.

“Yep,” I agreed as Fischer held out a hand to let her start off ahead of him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not making moves on your girl,” he said before following her out.

I got lost no less than five times before someone finally took pity on me and led me back to the war room.

“You figure it out?”

“It was easy once we had direction,” Chris said. “His name is Andy Antone. His brother was—“

“Will Antone,” I said, his face popping back into my head. Grinning ear-to-ear as he tossed his cards on the table, all-too-happy to steal everyone’s meager snack stash. Or sitting on his bunk, staring at a picture he carried in his pocket of the girl he said was going to wait for him back home. Looking back at me for a split second before following the others into that building.

“Yes. Andy has all the markers for a revenge killer. Bad family life, social isolation, access to weapons from a young age, obsessive and narcissistic tendencies. Looks like he came to Navesink Bank about two years ago.”

“You’re sure? Two years?”

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