Shelby, a woman I’ve loved and hated in equal measure, is gone.
Guilt and sorrow wash over me in waves, but I push them aside.There’s no time for mourning when Ash and Candyce are still missing.I pull out my phone and dial Hemlock.
“Momma Tee’s on the run with the money.”
“I’ve got the bitch.”Before I can tell him to take her alive, I hear the shot ring out.
I take off, leaving Shelby where she is.There’s nothing more that I can do for her.
I get to the parking lot and find my guys standing around a very dead Momma Tee.Before I can even comment, Grave’s cell phone rings with a call from an unknown number.
His brows raise.“Got it.I’m coming.”He ends the call.“Candyce and Ash.Got their location.”
We ride out, leaving this mess for Buford to clean up, and I wonder how I’m going to tell Ashley her sister is dead.
I walk into the clubhouse with Ash in my arms.
Ashley is already running toward us, assessing us with her eyes, scanning for any injuries.
Thankfully Momma Tee didn’t leave anyone guarding Candyce and Ash.She only had Shelby helping her.When they left to meet up with me, she was able to escape.She said that Shelby left the key to the handcuffs she was in close enough for her to reach.I guess in the end she wanted to do the right thing.
“We’re okay.It’s not my blood.”I hand Ash off to her friend, Melissa.“We need to talk.”Ashley takes in the seriousness of my expression and my tone.“Watch him for a minute,” I tell Melissa and take Ashley upstairs.
She follows me into the bedroom as I strip out of my ruined clothes and walk toward the bathroom.
“Whose blood is that?”
I ignore her question, trying to find the words to ease the blow, but no matter how I spin it, there’s no easy or soft way to tell her that her sister is dead.
“Whose blood is that?”she stresses, her voice coming out sharper and more demanding.
I step into the shower and lather up my body, washing away the blood, willing myself not to shed a tear over that cunt.
“I asked you a fucking question.”
“It’s Shelby’s.She’s dead, Ashley.”
“My sister Shelby?”her voice cracks in a strained whisper laced with a pain I know all too fucking well.
“I’m sorry.”
“Was it…” she hesitates, unsure if she wants to finish her question.“Was it you?”she finally says.
“No.”
I watch the relief roll through her as the tension slowly leaves her shoulders.They drop, and she closes her eyes.“How… w-wh-who,” she says, sounding like a bird.
“I went to make the trade with Momma Tee.The money for Ash and Candyce.When I got there, she had Shelby with her.Said she’d give me Shelby and when she got somewhere safe, she’d give over Ash.The two of them got into a scuffle.Momma Tee’s gun went off, and Shelby took the bullet to her abdomen.Was nothing I could do for her.I hated her, but I would have tried to save her for you.”
Ashley slides down to the floor, resting her back against the sink cabinet.Tears stream down her cheeks, and I wish I could take her pain away, but she needs to feel this and grieve her sister.
I step out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist.I close the toilet and use it as a seat.“She was conscious in her last few minutes.”
Ashley’s ravaged expression meets mine, and it breaks my heart to see her in so much pain.
“She made me promise that I’d tell you that she’s sorry she wasn’t a better sister, and that she loves you.She wants us to make sure that Ash knows she wasn’t always bad, and that she wished she could have raised him.”
Ashley falls forward, laying her head in my lap.I stroke my fingers through her hair as her body shakes with her sobs.
