Page 20 of All Foxed Up

“Fuck…” Koda’s stony facade seemed to crack just then, and his eyes flicked around before settling back on us. “Fine, but… you have to respect her boundaries. She said she rejects the bond.”

“We can never hurt Holly,” I said, my voice cracking on the words. “She’s the only woman in the world for us. You know how it works.”

“I do.”

He let out a sigh and then he gave us the information we actually needed, not the car full of useless presents. Our mate’s head would not be turned by fancy things, but help… Perhaps that was the in we needed to convince her to let us into her life.

“Langston.”We sat in the car as Todd searched the place up on the sat-nav. “It’s a few hours drive from here.”

“I’ll put the necessary calls through once we arrive,” Rye said, turning the engine over. “We’ll drive in shifts, keep going until we reach her, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Chapter11

I got back to Langston in the early hours of Boxing Day, fuelled by bad coffee and a desire for answers. I ignored the need to head home, have a shower and make myself presentable, instead driving straight to my grandmother’s place. When I got out of the car, some of my family was awake, hanging out on the big porch that ringed Nan’s house, sipping their morning coffee, the smell of eggs and bacon wafting from the kitchen.

“There’s my girl,” Pa Madden said as I walked up the driveway. “Missed you yesterday.” I placed a kiss on his whiskery cheek. “Merry Christmas, love.”

“Merry Christmas, Pa. I’m looking for Nan?”

“In the kitchen, as per usual, no doubt running your mother ragged, and anyone else she can rope into help.” He flicked his newspaper at the seat beside him. “Might be best to stay out here.”

“Did you have a good time, love?” Dad asked. “I thought you’d be with Natalie for a bit longer, though it’s good to see you. You didn’t drive through the night, did you?”

Dad hated night drives. Kangaroos were like tanks that came bounding out of the bush only to smash into cars with all of their ninety kilos of weight, totalling your vehicle and causing horrendous crashes.

“I’m all right. I just really need to see Nan.”

Both men looked at each other and shared some kind of secret men’s business thing, before nodding.

“Well, you know where to find her.”

“Those chives are too coarse.”I knew the terse sound of Nan’s voice when I heard it. “You need to chop them finer.”

People talk about mothers-in-law from hell, but no one had it tougher than my mother. I loved my nan, but even I recognised what a tough old bitch she was. She ruled the family with an iron fist, and apparently when Mum married Dad, that meant she had to submit to Nan’s rule. As I rounded the corner and walked into the kitchen, my grandmother looked up, then her eyes narrowed. They caught everything. When you hadn’t brushed and combed your hair, when you’d pulled on a dress you wore yesterday, when your undies didn’t match your bra. The woman had fricken lasers instead of eyes, so when they settled on the burn on my chest, left by the pendant, I should’ve known how this would go.

“Out of the kitchen,” she barked.

“You don’t want the chives?” Mum asked, and I wasn’t sure if that was a sincere question, or to troll my grandmother.

“They’ll go straight in the compost bin,” she replied. “You cut like a drunken butcher.”

Mum laid the knife down, but came over to me.

“Everything all right, love?” She reached up and pressed the back of her hand to my forehead, just like she had when I was a kid. “You’re running a little warm.”

I was. The sweltering heat hadn’t started yet, but that wasn’t what had sweat prickling across my brow. It felt like I had a furnace burning inside me, right at the hottest part of the year, one with a furry face and cute little brown paws.

“She’s fine.” Nanna pointed to the door with her knife point. “And I’ll deal with this.”

“This?” Mum seemed to come to attention then, frowning as she looked at Nan, then me. “What…?”

She was slower to notice than Nan, but everyone else was in comparison with my grandmother. No one could keep up with Nan’s steel trap mind. She’d be tearing the nurses a new one when we were forced to put her in a home, delivering cutting one liners until she took her last gasp.

“I told my Fergus not to marry a bloody Riley,” Nanna told her. “I never wanted him to marry you.”

“You think that’s some kind of grand realisation for me?” Mum snapped back. My eyebrows shot up because despite all the crap Nanna put on her, she bore it like a champ. “I’ve known that since the first moment he brought me into this house.”

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