Page 80 of Back To Our Beginning

“Already did.”

Simon disconnected the call. He handed me his cell phone and told me his passcode. I went to his e-mail and downloaded what Roan had sent. I pulled up the attachment.

Excitement roared through me as I looked it over. “We scored, Simon. With the stable, it also shows where the house is in relation to it, as well as the paddock, the fencing, and the road.”

“Hot damn.” He sounded as jazzed as I felt. I looked. We’d left Jasper Creek at four-thirty. We were going to get to the house at nine-thirty. Not the best time for an assault, but it was fine for reconnaissance.

I looked down at what I was wearing. Not ideal. Looking at Simon’s grey T-shirt, I realized his wasn’t any better.

“You got a change-out kit back there?” I pointed my thumb toward the back of his truck. “We’re gonna need blacks, comms, paint, everything.”

“I’ve got you covered every which way to Sunday.”

I nodded, trying to get my head around anything else we might need. “Med-kit?”

“Yep.” He nodded. “But Beau, there wasn’t that much blood. It’s probably all superficial.”

Rage hit hard. “You can’t know that!” I sucked in a deep breath. “Neither of us can know that,” I said in a lower tone of voice.

“She was doing well enough to send that text. Your woman is strong. She’s an Avery,” he said again.

The amount of pride in his voice went a tiny way toward placating me. “I can accept that.”

I looked at my watch, then looked at the time the navigation system was showing until we got to the Fletcher place. Twenty-one minutes. I needed to do something to occupy my mind besides counting down the minutes and thinking about the blood I’d seen on the carpet at Simon’s house.

“I’ve met all the sisters except for Piper and Chloe. Can you tell me about them? Well, of course I’ve met them, just not since they’ve become adults.”

“Chloe’s going through a real rough patch,” Simon said. “Has Maddie told you?”

“Yeah. She mentioned that she just suffered a second miscarriage. She moved into an apartment in Gatlinburg?”

“Yeah. Her husband Zarek is wrecked. He wanted her to stay at their house in Jasper Creek, but she said she needed to leave to clear her head. He offered to buy a new house. Anything.” He glanced over at me. “I can’t imagine if Trenda had miscarried when she was pregnant with Drake. It would have killed. But it would be a hundred times, no, a thousand times worse if she shut me out. If I couldn’t hold her when her heart was broken. Zarek is going through hell.”

“Is she seeing someone?” I heard how that sounded and winced. “I mean, is she getting professional help?”

“I know she was. Trenda’s not sure right now. All the sisters are broken up. Except for Piper. She’s out in California, and I know everyone is trying to shield her from this. I think that’s a mistake, but that’s the girls’ decision.”

“How do you think it’s going to turn out for Zarek and Chloe?”

“I really don’t know, Beau. It doesn’t look good.”

I thought about that for a few miles. Even when you thought you had the world by the tail, it could still fall to shit. I shivered and looked at the navigation system. Eight more minutes.

“Where do you think we should park?” Simon asked.

“We’ll take a left onto the road to the property. From what I can determine on the permits, it looks to be about four miles from the highway to the property. We’ll kill the lights at the highway turnoff, gear up just off the road. Then roll slow for two miles and go the rest on foot. Then we can do the recon.”

“Sounds good.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I told you to check in with your parole officer, you dumb bitch! You can’t keep avoiding his texts and phone calls.”

Grizz was standing over a cowering Lana as he was looking at something on her phone.

“He only texted me once.”

I tried to keep up with the conversation, but I was coming in and out of consciousness. I could feel the blood oozing out of my side. Plus, my head was pounding like the damn bongos from that stupid band that Zoe had dragged me to that one time.