—Text from Baker to her dad
BAKER
I was doing it.
I was finally doing it.
I listened to the phone ring and I knew that this was about to turn into the biggest shit storm of the century.
I just hoped that my family didn’t make this harder on me than they had to.
“Hey, baby girl,” my dad said. “How are you doing? I was hoping to hear from you this week.”
I felt my heart give a pitiful beat at the sound of his voice.
“Daddy?” I sniffled, unable to get the words out.
The sound of my watery voice had him on instant high alert.
Shad Ray Ritter was my closest confidant growing up.
My mother, who was the sweetest person alive, just didn’t have the same personality as my dad and I did.
We were thick as thieves and had been that way since before I could remember.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, all seriousness.
I swallowed past my tears and finally said, “I’m leaving him. For good. I can’t do it anymore.”
My dad breathed out a slow sigh of relief. “About fuckin’ time.”
Four
Off to commit Tom Foolery.
—Text from Baker to Copper
COPPER
“Hey,” I answered my longtime friend. “What’s up?”
“I need some help.”
My brows rose. “What kind of help?”
The kind that would have me seeing the inside of a jail cell soon?
Because, for Shad, I’d probably do it.
See, fifteen years ago, I’d met Shad Ritter on the inside of a prison.
A scared, eighteen-year-old kid, I’d been terrified of what I would encounter behind those prison walls.
Shad had taken one look at me and had taken me under his proverbial wing.
The only reason that I’d survived in that hellhole in the beginning was due to Shad.
As luck would have it, we’d bonded over our love for the Dallas Cowboys, and a friendship had formed to the point where I’d do just about anything for him short of giving him my own life.
