Page 31 of Longest Ride

“You have a fight?”

“Nope. She said if I didn’t adjust my attitude she’d come up here and pound the shit out of me.”

Virge laughed. “That would be fun to watch, Dad.”

“Yeah. Hilarious if you weren’t the one getting your nose busted.”

“You think Annie would punch you right in the face?” I asked. “I can’t picture her doing that.”

“Yep. For sure she would. One of her signature moves when she’s pissed.”

“Tell me another move.” Virge was still laughing.

“Putting a bullet in your kneecap is one of her favorites. Seen her do it lots of times. Or she likes to shoot something right out of your hand when you ain’t expecting it. Scares the shit out of you.”

I laughed at Travis. “I’d like to see all of that happen.”

“To me?”

“Not to you, Dad. Not to you. Just to some person Mom was mad at.”

“You’ll see it someday, son. Guaranteed.”

“I’m fuckin praying for it,” mumbled Virge.

Love’s Truck Stop. Amarillo. Texas.

I parked and gathered up all of Eldon’s smelly garbage before I went inside the store to use the bathroom. One quick stop at the side of the building and I heaved all of the trash into the blue dumpster.

When Eldon lost consciousness, he stopped eating and drinking, and I had no idea how to feed him anything good for him to keep him alive.

If he was in the hospital, he’d be hooked up to an IV. Me being the stupid, selfish bitch I was, I didn’t give him the chance to heal up and get better.

I hadn’t been eating much either, but I went into the restaurant, sat at the counter, and ordered a fried egg sandwich and a large coffee to go.

We’d made it as far as Amarillo and I wondered how many more miles it was to Midway. Mama told me that Texas was a huge state, but I was hoping I could get there today while Eldon was still alive.

When I got back to the truck, I fiddled with the GPS to see if I could make it tell me the distance. When it said five hundred miles to Midway, I couldn’t hold back the tears. Still a long way to go.

“We’d better get going, Eldon. We want to get there by tonight.”

I turned my head to see if he heard me, but I didn’t think he did. Same as he’d been for the past twelve hours. Never moved once.

Prescott Residence. Midway. Texas.

Fletcher Bowden, lead investigator for the Blackmore Agency, had worked the original Bobby Prescott case and when the opportunity came up, Fletch was happy to go back and put more time in at the Prescott house in Midway. He hated having an open, unsolved case on his record.

Not worrying about Prescott being there, Fletch let himself into the bungalow and verified everything was exactly the same as he’d left it months before when he’d sealed the property.

Satisfied nothing had been touched, he went back to his truck and listened to the radio.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek. Montana.

Suffering badly from a brutal hangover, Travis drank coffee in the break room while everybody else worked. The perks of being number one.

Olivia’s name showed up on his phone and she told Travis to come for dinner and bring the boys.

“Yeah, I can do that. Thanks, Liv. Everything has gone to shit. The boys haven’t had a decent meal in days.”

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