Page 121 of Born for Starlight

God, did I need sleep.

It felt like I had been living on adrenaline, rage, fear, and cigarettes for the last seven weeks. I picked up my duffel with the wrong hand and winced as my shoulder zinged.

Great, no booze and I was in a non-smoking establishment. Not that I wanted to take up smoking as a full-time habit, and smoking around a kid was especially bad.

I unbuckled the bag and pulled out my tablet. When I fired it up, I confirmed that Luzia was due to arrive in Jasper Creek the day after tomorrow. Angelica didn't know. Hell, Sister Beatriz didn't even know, and she'd be the one bringing her. Seven weeks of calling in every favor I had, and some I didn't, and now I had to tell Angelica I'd gone around her. Again.

That means I have tomorrow to not just mend fences, not just grovel, I have to… Fuck! What do I have to do? I have to do something to prove to this woman that I love her beyond all reason and I want to be in her life permanently, and I want to be Luzia’s father. And that I’m up for adopting another eighteen kids, just like her parents did, if that’s what she wants.

Eighteen?

I looked at the bottle of bourbon.

Fuck yeah, eighteen!

I was all in with this woman. Now I just had to figure out a way to convince her.

I felt like a criminal. But this was my way in. I had to risk it. I slumped down in the driver’s seat even more and lowered the ball cap so that nobody could see my face. Not that anybody walked by the dumpster back here.

Thank God Lettie was a romantic. At least she was after she told me what a no-good-lying-soulless-devilchild-troll-of-a-disappearing-heartbreaking-fink I was. Then she blessed my heart and said she would bring out two cinnamon rolls, and they would cost a hundred dollars… each.

The price was the only part of the conversation that made me feel good.

I was looking at the back door of the diner when something landed on the roof of my car.

“What the fuck?”

Billy Anderson dropped down beside the passenger’s side window. He did not look happy, but he was holding a white bag, so that was hopeful. I unlocked the door and he got in.

“Give me that.” I reached for the bag.

“That’s three Benjamins to you,” Billy said as he held out his hand.

“Lettie said two hundred.”

“The extra is for the DoorDash service.”

I pulled out my wallet and handed him three hundred-dollar bills. He folded them and put them in the pocket of his flannel shirt.

“So besides making extra money, what do you want?”

“Answers. And just be happy it was me who saw Lettie’s attempt at covert operations and not Jase or Bruno.”

“Bruno’s here? I thought he’d be in DC.”

“He’s relocating. Personal reasons. Now what about you? You think you can just waltz back into town after leaving Angelica high and dry with no communication?”

“I communicated. And what business is it of yours, anyway?”

“It’s everybody’s business. Get used to it. It’s a small town.”

“You’re not from around here.”

“I live in a small town in Washington state. Silverglen is the same way. Everybody’s in your business. But it’s not just because of that. How much of your stink are you bringing back here?”

“Huh. Guess the fun conversations of small-town busybodies wears off fast.”

“Just answer the question, Grainger. Simon and Code figured out some of what you were doing. We all understand who you were working for and why. We just want to know if you got rid of the rot.”