Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“He was always tough,” Isabell whispers. “Even as a kid, but that was something else. When he heard your name, Emma, he got hold of that man’s gun and fired so fast. I hardly saw it. It was like he was possessed. Who are you to him?”
My cheeks flush with the weight and significance of the question. I sit on the bunk next to her. “Uh, I’m his friend’s daughter,” I say.
“Hmm,” Isabell says. “Something tells me it’s more than that.”
“Oh, no,” Angelica says in a deadpan voice. “He’s twice her age. That would be weird.”
She looks at me and winks. It’s so surreal and out of place. I can tell why she’s doing it: gallows humor to soak up some of the dread of what just happened. I smile, and then Isabell touches my hand. “Jacob was always cold, even as a boy. He had to be. I wasn’t a good mother. I destroyed my mind so I didn’t have to face… But when he heard your name, Emma, he wasn’t cold. He was alive. He would’ve died to stop that man daring to use your name.”
“You’re forgetting what he said at the end,” Angelica murmured, “when he stood over the leader. He spoke in English, remember?”
Isabell trembles. “We were rushing from the room, but yes, I do now. He said nobody threatens his lady. Nobody threatens you, Emma. He saved our lives, but he didn’t do it for us. He did it for you.”
A warm flush moves through me.
“It’s none of my business,” Isabell goes on. “I gave up my right to be in his life long ago, but Emma, are you together?”
“Yes,” I say, and it feels so good to let it out, to make it real. All those years crushing on him, wondering what it would be like, and all it took was a magical blizzard to come along and trap us in love. “No, kind of. We haven’t discussed it, but he said he wants a future.”
I’m sharing too much. Yet now that the words are out, it’s like I can’t stop them. It’s so much better than holding it trapped inside of me. “And I want one too.”
“I think that’s fantastic,” Angelica beams, as if the warmth of my feelings for Jacob is enough to make her briefly forget what she’s lived through.
“Really?” I ask.
“We all saw how much he cared about you, and I can see how much you care about him. It’s weird. We don’t know each other, but I feel like I know you. Mike is always talking about you—his painting prodigy daughter.”
I smile, shaking my head. “I wouldn’t go that far. I’d like to get to know you, Angelica.”
“Angelica,” Isabell says. “Such a lovely name.”
Rusty yawns, sitting at the door, facing it as though he’s getting ready to protect us.
“What do we do now?” Angelica asks.
“We wait,” Isabell says. “Jacob will know what to do.”
I clasp my hands together, breathing slowly, thinking for an insane moment I can feel a fluttering deep inside. It’s as if we’ve already created a life together—a future. We’ve already taken the first step to lead us to our happily ever after. However, we have too many obstacles to think about anything like that yet. For now, it’s enough to be here.
“We’re an unlikely collection of people, aren’t we?” Isabell chuckles. “The junkie mother and the girlfriend who’s twenty years younger.”
“And the other girlfriend, who’s twenty years younger,” Angelica laughs with the same dark tone as Isabell.
“Something doesn’t have to be normal to be good,” I say. “So what if we’re all a little messed up? Maybe one day, we’ll look back on this as a good day—the day we all met. Maybe one day, when everything is so much brighter than now, we’ll be glad this happened because it brought us all together.”
Isabell swallows, a tear forming in her eye. She rubs at her face. “I’ve made too many mistakes for that, dear,” she says. “It’s Jacob’s choice now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
JACOB
Mike lights a cigarette and walks up to the kitchen window beside me. I’m washing my hands, splashing my face. The rooms reek of death. It’s hard to believe this is the same living space where Emma and I shared so much warmth. The same table she laid the coffee on. We watched a movie in the seating area just over there. Now, it’s a crime scene.
“One of them had a pack.” Mike takes a long drag. “You don’t mind?”
“I’ll be burning this place now anyway,” I tell him.
“Did you call someone?” he asks.
“Cleanup crew. They’ll take the bodies. Then I’ll burn the property. We’ll leave and pretend this never happened. This was a solo mission for Rafael. Nobody’s coming to avenge him. We can go back to normal life.”
Mike leans against the counter, taking another drag. He’s looking right at the bodies.