“Amazing.Do you have more pictures?”
“Aye.”He sat next to her again and opened his photo albums, showing her pictures of Dewi and Ken and Lyssa, then going back in time, showing them the few pictures he had of a younger Ken, and the couple he had of Ken’s mom.
“I’ll make sure he brings pictures with him when he visits,” he said.
She held the phone now, staring at the picture of Ken’s high school graduation, him smiling with his arm around Lyssa.
“We missed everything,” she mournfully said.“What about the bastard who killed her?”
“Prison.For life.He’ll never get out.”
“That’s not good enough,” she growled.
Badger sighed.“Eh, I know.Perhaps we can arrange somethin’ at a future time, once we get everything else settled and get ye moved to Florida.Donnel first, though.”
She nodded, blinking back tears.“Yes,” she darkly said.“Donnel first.”
ChapterTwenty-Six
Dewi
Dewi foughtthe urge to pace when she knew the operation was underway.Sleep was out of the question for her, although Ken was dozing upstairs.She watched TV in the living room, a sci-fi movie marathon that wasn’t holding her interest but at least gave her something to look at.
Gillian joined her in the living room, Adair asleep on her shoulder.“No news yet?”
She shook her head.“Not yet.”
Gillian settled onto the couch next to her, being careful not to disturb Adair as she did.“Where’s Lyssa?”
Dewi held up the baby monitor.“I’ll take care of her if she wakes up so Ken can sleep.”
“They’ll be okay,” Gillian said.
Dewi snorted.“You sound awfully confident.”
“I have to.I refuse to believe any other outcome after all this bullshit.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Two hours later, it was just after dawn when she received a text from Trevor.
Success!0 casualties for us.P passed word for you and G to sleep.He’ll be in touch, but it’ll be a while.Don’t spread the news yet.B already knows, as does Tam.
Dewi’s breath whooshed out of her.She shakily held her phone so Gillian could read the text.
Gillian looked up, eyes closed.“Thank you, Goddess.”
Dewi tipped her head onto Gillian’s shoulder, suddenly choked up.“If that rat bastard had scared us again, I’d have killed him.”
Gillian snorted and kissed the top of Dewi’s head.“Think you can sleep now, kiddo?”
“I hope so.I wonder if they rescued anyone?”
“Not to sound cold,” Gillian said, “but to me that’s a completely secondary consideration to the fact that we didn’t lose anyone.”
“True.”Dewi finally dragged herself to her feet, only then processing how utterly exhausted she felt.Gillian gave her a careful one-armed hug so as not to disturb Adair, and Dewi headed upstairs.
Duncan opened his bedroom door just as she reached the second floor and arched an eyebrow at her.
