Page 23 of Montana Falls
“I know you’re mad,” she said, “like super duper mad.”
“Mad does not begin to describe it.” I drawled as I lay back, still sitting on Price’s lap, even though I was sure he was having a nap, and in danger of dropping his grip around my waist.
“Okay. I know you’remurderous. But as my new big sister, you are obligated to hear me out.” She carried on talking, herwords rushing out. She sounded nervous, but not in a guilty and betrayer sort of way. More like a kid who knew she was going to be telling me something I may not have enjoyed hearing, and perhaps she was in trouble.
Admittedly, it calmed me a bit. If she was truly guilty of hiding something bad from me and being part of a villainous betrayal, I would have hated it.
“You have thirty seconds to convince me not to have you stuffed like a doll to hang on my wall.” I would give her more time to give me all the details, but once again I felt like being petty. It was a becoming a bit of a habit of mine lately, to pull my weight around just for fun.
“Cassie basically blackmailed Widow into giving her information. She contacted him all secret like and leveraged my location when I was… missing. Basically, in return for that, he told her where to find Shannon and when you were going to visit her when she asked him to. But Cassie is the one who took him and Lilah, and we have no idea what for. Widow just texted me the SOS code he told me to look out for when he rescued me, and that’s it.” She blew out a breath. “Now, are you gonna murder me or are you going to be smart and help us figure out the next steps? Because you can’t be mad that he did it. You would have made the same call and I’m biased, but I think I’m a great reason for committing evil.”
Despite being infuriated that Widow had helped the bitch ruining my life and hadn’t confessed his deal to me, Henleywasright. I would have made the exact same choice in his place, and I could not be mad about it. Plus, it meant he hadn’t truly betrayed me. He hadn’t done anything that was deserving of death, and I liked that idea. I enjoyed being friends with Widow far more than the prospect of being enemies. Plus, killing him felt like killing a puppy. He was cute and sweet and friendly, and I would have felt guilty.
“Okay, I won’t kill you.” I drawled down the phone. “I understand why he did what he did, and that you hold no blame, either. Even though I am disappointed nobody told me the truth, again, I understand.”
Henley let out a nervous laugh. “Thank god, I’m too pretty to die. Not yet anyway. I need to do some hot girl stuff first. Like get a slutty tattoo and fuck a cowboy or something.”
I snorted and barely refrained from telling her she was too young for tattoos and cowboys.
“We’re coming home as soon as we can. Once we’ve found Widow and Delilah. But when we do, we will be back in Diamond Grove. If he hasn’t already told you, I am going to ask Beau to get everyone packed up in Vegas as I don’t want to be there anymore; I need to go back home to finish everything and deal with all this… this nonsense Telenovela bullshit, that is my life.”
“You can all stay in my house if you want. It isn’t like I need a six-bedroom house on my own.” Her voice cracked and my heart broke for her as my guilt grew larger.
I’d killed the McCormack family, too. Almost all of them.
I’d ruined another little girl’s life without meaning to…
“If you truly don’t mind sharing, I would appreciate if everyone could stay with you because my house is not ready for babies or so many people yet.” I glanced at my men, hoping they didn’t mind too much that I had made such a decision without telling them first. “Except us. One because it’s safer to keep myself from you, and also because the boys and I are going to spend a few days in their home. We have… have things that need sorting.”
Nobody said anything about my idea, but they all tensed up, even Price, who was usually nothing but chilled and partly in dreamland.
“Yeah, that’s cool. We can do whatever.” Henley sighed. “I also have some ideas for what Cassie could want with Widow.They’re just wild theories, but I was talking to a… friend about crazy shit, and then got on a tangent, and now I have thoughts, so grab a snack and a drink; I’m about to run my mouth for a while.”
After twenty minutes, with a handful more promises, shared ideas and eventual goodbyes, I hung up the phone, happy to have cleared up and checked off one thing from my to do list, even if it did notch up my worrying.
And my ears were damn near falling off from just how many words I’d listened to in quick succession.
On the bright side, I had plenty of distractions from the call, and even more waiting now that I was done. This time it wasn’t shirtless men and shower sex; it was something much more sweet.
“So, Saph. The whole engagement party plan, is that still on? Because I’m not backtracking. I am now firmly in the role of fiancé, and will only move to husband, not back to boyfriend.” Price shuffled beneath me, tightening his arms around my waist, his face pushed against my cleavage hard enough to muffle his words.
I laughed. “Yes, the plan is on,papi. We just need to adjust time frame stuff. By that, I mean we need to be ready to go for the first weekend after we get back home.”
He didn’t seem scared or unsure about my faster timeline. If anything, he seemed excited.
“What happens if we go home tomorrow?” He asked.
“Then we do it the weekend. Easy.”
He pulled back so he could stare into my eyes, no doubt wanting the eye contact to ensure I was not fibbing.
“And you’re still okay with it all for real? You don’t have any second thoughts.” He asked.
“About you? Never.” With a kiss on the top of his head, I made my promise. “Even if I am mad about having no ring or grand proposal.” I teased a little.
Sure, I wanted a ring, but I wasn’t mad about it. The whole thing was part of a plan to catch my stalker. It was hardly like we had time to go to my store and have a ring made or bought for me. Plus, I had always valued my daddy’s opinion on jewellery, and without him to offer a little input for my engagement ring, I was far too sad to shop for something that I would wear until I died.
It didn’t feel right.
