Page 111 of Relentles
“Bash is dangerous, Ryan. If he isn’t gone and you keep fucking with him, you’re going to get yourself killed, asshole.”
“I’ve told you everything, CJ,” Ryan insisted on a swallow.
“How does Uncle Johnnie fit into this?”
Ryan backed away. “Talk to Rory.”
CJ would have if Molly hadn’t been taken away.
When he and Ryan walked into the house, he headed to the kitchen, long the nucleus of family gatherings.
Lolly was at the counter with an electric knife, a Christmas platter, and a pan stuffed with a crispy golden Turducken.
“But how does a turkey, duck, and chicken mate?” Molly was asking.
“They don’t, baby,” Lolly said patiently, smiling at CJ.
“Have you ever heard of a Duckturken?”
“Turducken,” CJ and Lolly chorused.
“The chicken is inside the duck and the duck is inside the turkey,” he said.
“They’re pregnant by each other?” she whispered, tears rushing to her eyes and her lips trembling.
Lolly set aside the knife and rushed to Molly, where she was sitting on one of the counter stools. She hugged her. “No, baby. That isn’t how that works. Nothing is pregnant by nothing, Molly. One’s stuffed inside the other by a butcher.”
“Oh my God!” Molly sobbed, hugging Lolly as if she never wanted to let her go. “They kill the chicken and the duck to serve the turkey and make him happy.”
“No,” CJ said quickly. “No, Mo. That’s not true—”
“It is!” she screamed. “That’s what happened to my baby. The turkey stole it.”
“Molly, what’s wrong?” Ryan asked, rushing in.
“The turkey stole the baby, Ryan,” she cried, her voice muffled by Lolly’s shoulder. “That’s how it lured the chicken and the duck.”
The horror and pain in Ryan’s eyes almost made CJ like his cousin.
“No, Molly,” Ryan crooned, pulling her away from Lolly and into his arms and kissing her temple. “No, the turkey didn’t take the baby.”
“It did!”
She screamed, the sound so shrill and startling that CJ, Ryan, and Lolly jumped. Within moments, the kitchen was overflowing with their family.
Molly continued to scream.
She was still screaming when Aunt Zoann and Aunt Kendall ordered Ryan to follow them, and he carried her away.
Chapter Sixteen – Rebel
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
Tick. Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
