* * * * *

Ty talked to me, Tate talked to me, Chace talked to me, even Officer Frank popped by the house one afternoon to talk to me about shooting Arnold Fuller. They thought I’d freak considering the fact that I did at the hospital. Delayed reaction to Irv going down, me being kidnapped and me taking Arnie out.

I was fine.

Until one day, I wasn’t.

Driving home from the grocery store on my Monday off, I got the shakes.

And my hands on the steering wheel guided the Charger to Carnal Police Department. I walked on shaky legs inside and asked to talk to Detective Keaton.

He came right out.

He held me while I lost it in an interrogation room and when I say lost it, I mean I lost it. Then, when he calmed me, he got me Kleenex. Then he sent an officer out to get me a latte from La-La Land.

Then he sat with me while I drank it.

Then he followed me home to make sure I got there okay.

Then he went straight to the garage and told Ty what happened. He also explained to Ty that I didn’t go to him because I didn’t want him to see that, that last piece of me that Fuller took since Fuller took so much from Ty already.

From the time Chace left me to the time Ty got home, I was a nervous wreck. I thought he’d get pissed, thinking I’d gone behind his back, not liking that I shared that with another man. I was such a mess, I didn’t even phone him to attempt and detect his mood because, if he was going to lose it, I didn’t want it to come sooner rather than later.

But Ty didn’t get pissed.

He just came home from the gym as usual but did a thorough scan the minute he saw me. I knew he saw I was anxious and my anxiety had hit the red zone. But he just walked to me, wrapped his hand around the back of my head, gave me a kiss, touched my forehead with his and asked me to make him a shake. Then he went up to take a shower.

I made his shake and I did it grateful that he got it and didn’t get pissed.

He never spoke of it, neither did I.

But he watched me closely after that and he did it for weeks. He didn’t hide it but I didn’t mention it. Our daughter was growing inside of me, he was concerned and he kept his finger on the pulse.

So did Tate. So did Chace. So did Officer Frank. Jim-Billy. Deke. Wood. Pop. Krystal. Laurie, Maggie, Stella, Dominic… everybody.

But I got rid of it that day. I gave it to Chace and he took it from me.

He’d taken his own load from Fuller so I knew it was selfish.

But I also was grateful and would be eternally.

To let me show this, Chace allowed me to buy his lunch one of the days we shared it at the diner instead of what usually happened, him buying mine.

He allowed me to do this once.

It wasn’t much but at least it was something.

* * * * *

Three and a half weeks after my kidnapping, Rowdy Crabtree was detained in Arizona on the US side of the US/Mexican border trying to cross. He was arrested and transported back to Carnal.

He stood trail in Chantelle for Misty Keaton’s murder. He was not offered bond because he was a flight risk.

He was acquitted and instantly moved out-of-state. I didn’t know where.

I also didn’t care.

Misty Keaton’s murder was never solved.

Chace Keaton may not have liked his wife but he liked it less the way she died.

So her murder had not been solved but that didn’t mean Chace still wasn’t looking for her killer.

* * * * *

Shift, being Shift, therefore stupid but not knowing it, tried to cop a plea

Yes, he was a drug dealing pimp who ordered the hit on his best friend and personally executed a drive-by that killed one and wounded three and he tried to cop a plea.

The DA drove a hard bargain.

Shift’s currently enjoying his stay in a Texas penitentiary and would until he died. Life with no chance of parole.

It was up in the air whether it was a good bargain or not that the DA didn’t push the death penalty.

* * * * *

And thus endeth the shadows.

Now it’s all sunshine.

* * * * *

And two hours after Angel and Rosalia arrived, I sat at my dining room table which was stuffed full of the people I loved, my hands slightly out to the sides, my wrists resting on the edge of the table, my right fingers curled around Angel’s, my left fingers curled around Irv’s as I listened with bowed head to Ella saying our Thanksgiving prayer.

Then she was done but before I released the hands I held, I squeezed them tight at the same time they squeezed mine the same exact way.

Then I looked up and down the table and saw my husband’s eyes on me and in them I read it all, everything, all he needed to say, all I loved to hear.

Five Thanksgivings he’d lost to a nightmare.

Five Thanksgivings I’d given him different versions of this.

Looking in his eyes I could see, finally, I was catching up.

* * * * *

Ty

“You sure?”

“Sam, I’m not sittin’ a game,” Ty said into his phone, his body moving through his house, familiar movements, the same every night, these movements to shut it down, lock his girls in, make sure they were safe.

“I’ll cover your buy-in,” Samuel Sterling said in his ear.

Ty turned out the lights under the cabinets of Lexie’s kitchen and asked, “Someone you wanna teach a lesson?”

“Three someones,” Sam answered.

“How bad do they need this lesson?” Ty asked, moving out of the kitchen into the sunken family room to turn off the lamp that was sitting on a side table there.

Lex had a shitload of furniture in that area. Two full couches, four armchairs, two big footstools, four side tables and a coffee table.

When she filled that space, he thought she’d temporarily gone insane.

He’d been wrong.

Between her and her girls sucking back wine while cackling over what he suspected was not the books they were supposed to be reading (he thought this, primarily, because Krystal was a member of Lexie’s book club and Krystal was not a woman to belong to a book club but she was a woman to cackle over wine) and him having the men over for beer and games, that furniture saw a lot of use.

“Some might not think they need this lesson badly,” Sam replied then said quietly, “A brother would disagree.”

Ty straightened from the lamp and looked out at the lights of Carnal.

He didn’t reply.

Sam kept talking.

“It’s in Hawaii. I’ll send the jet for you, Lexie and the girls. I’ve got a house here, you can stay there. They get a vacation, you do too except you take time out to sit the game and take their money, give me back my buy-in, put the rest in Lella and Vivie’s college fund.” He paused, “Though, it probably wouldn’t hurt to use some to buy Lexie more diamonds.”