The call ended and I crossed to the window. It was busy at Naked. The tables were full and the patio was packed with people who didn’t mind being bled to death by mosquitos and greenhead flies.
Since I was only going to drive myself crazy here, I jogged down the back stairs and let Mel know where to find me if needed. I was one step out the door when my phone lit up with Adrian’s number.
“What now?” I asked, pacing to the dock.
“They pulled the deal for your mom too,” he said. “She missed the window to turn herself in and—”
“She probably mixed up the time or day,” I said.
“The feds don’t care. They do not care.”
I dragged a sigh straight out of my bones. I couldn’t believe this. “So, what’s next? What’s the move?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “There’s nothing we can do today.”
“There has to be something we can do,” I said. “We can’t—Adrian, we cannot give up now. We can’t leave my mother to a life on the run in—in I don’t even fucking know where. And my father, he can’t die in prison because he just didn’t know what was happening around him. We have to—”
“Believe me, I know,” Adrian cut in. “But we need to take these losses today and go back to the drawing board tomorrow. That’s my best and only recommendation.”
I turned away from the water and stared at theSmall Point Oyster Companysign out in front of the gray-shingled building. It was lettered in a rolling, weathered type of font that had fallen in and out of fashion over the decades yet managed to stand immune to those forces. This place had always been a headache but at least it was home, and now I wanted to burn it to the ground. I couldn’t hold all these pieces together anymore, not when I was the only one doing it.
“Call me tomorrow,” I said.
I stood there for a long moment, my hand crushed around my phone and all the blood in my body pounding like war drums.
“Hey, Beck?”
I heard the slap of sandals and I turned toward that sound. An aqua skirt printed with shimmery gold constellations swished around Sunny’s legs and I felt the corner of my mouth kick up in some janky fragment of a smile at the sight of her.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her gaze narrowed. “It looked like you were trying to set things on fire with your eyes. I left Muffy in charge of the counter because I was getting worried you’d succeed.”
“Something like that, yeah.” I shook the hand holding my phone. “Just the usual daily tragedy,” I said. “I guess I skipped a day or two last month so they showed up to fuck me extra hard today.”
She ran her palm down my arm. “Start from the beginning. What happened?”
Since rewinding today’s shitshow and playing it back for her was not going to make me less incendiary, I swept her into my arms. She dropped her hands to my flanks and rested her head on my chest, and I pulled a ragged, jittery breath deep into my lungs.
“I need you to say something,” she said into my vest. “You’re worrying me.”
“My parents,” I rasped. “Just—more shit with them.”
“I’m sorry.” She rubbed her hands up and down my back, and I felt the tension locked in those muscles easing by inches. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Nothing anyone can do at this point.” I shook my head. “Every time I think I’ve got a handle on these disasters, something new comes along to prove me wrong.”
“It will get better,” she said, still stroking my back. “I don’t know how but it will.”
I wanted to agree with her. I wanted to share a shred of that faith. I couldn’t.
We stayed locked together until a black SUV with dark tinted windows pulled up to the oyster company’s entrance. Sunny and I shifted toward the vehicle just in time to watch the driver hold open the door only for my brother Decker to spill out of the back seat and onto the ground.
“Fuck,” I panted.
Neither Decker nor his bespoke suit had been clean in several days. The funk of weed lingered around him and his knuckles were bruised and bloody. He rolled onto his back and howl-laughed up at the sky. “Honey, I’m home,” he cackled.
I slumped against Sunny.“Fuck.”
The driver tipped his head toward the interior of the vehicle. Empty liquor bottles littered the floor along with several takeout containers. Agent Price chose this moment to stroll past. His raised brows and immediate reach for his phone said it all.
