I’d just gotten the roast into the pot when Searcy came back, hair dry, and a fresh set of clothes on her body.
“You smell better,” I said as I threw the bloody plastic into the trash.
“I feel better,” she admitted. “What’s Jasper doing here? Not that I’m complaining.”
I pointed to a legal envelope, and her breath caught.
“What is it?”
She looked wary.
“Seriously…what is it? You’re being shady. He was being shady. Just tell me.”
She walked to the table and pulled out the envelope, staring at its contents.
She took a deep breath, then turned to me.
She handed me the papers, and I frowned at what I saw.
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF POSY KASE HICKS AND SEARCY MADDELYN HICKS.
My stomach instantly soured.
“Why…why’d you do this?”
She leaned her hips against the counter as I handed her the papers, unwilling to read any further.
She crossed her arms over her chest, the papers tucked against her belly, and started to explain.
“I have three children.”
I nodded.
“And custody of Anders and Kent, though not for much longer on Kent since he’s almost eighteen.” She hesitated. “If Doc or I die…”
I was already shaking my head, my mind a mess, and a hole in my heart the size of Texas.
My sister had always been larger than life.
She’d been this huge, magnificent shield against all the trouble that we found ourselves in thanks to my mother’s selfishness. She’d been the rock. The backbone of our family. She’d been the one shining star in the middle of my blackest night.
“Searcy, no…”
“Koda is in the military. And although I think he could help, I don’t trust him with my kids,” she whispered. “He gets annoyed when they cry. You just let them cry. You play with them. You bathe them. You get them to sleep. You feed them. I hope, no I pray, that this never comes to life. I hope that you never need to know anything about what’s in this. But if the worst happens, and Doc and I are no longer here, I want my children to have you.”
A sound left my throat that was close to a dying, wounded bird.
She placed the papers on the counter, then twisted so that she could throw her arms around my shoulders. “With Knight and Elaine dying…I just can’t leave this up to fate. I want my children taken care of. By someone that I trust with my entire soul. And you’re it, Calliope. You’re their guardian angel. You’ve always been so fucking strong. I need you to be strong for them if we ever die.”
I knew where this was coming from.
Just a few short months ago, the Truth Tellers MC had a huge hit in their club family. Knight and Elaine, two of their oldest members, had passed away in a motorcycle accident. They’d passed away together and ultimately without prolonged pain. But they’d still died. And it’d shaken my sister to her core.
Hell, I still remember the night before the funeral, overhearing Searcy and Doc talking about what the next day looked like for them. They’d continued to speak in low, hushed tones. But eventually they’d spoken about what they would do if this had happened to them. Who they would leave behind. And I’d walked away, because the possibility had been overwhelming, and I hadn’t been able to think about it.
I may not be the nicest person in the world to my sister, but she was still the most important thing in my entire world.
Her arms tightened around me as she said, “I didn’t ask.”
