I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, but it was so long that Bernice’s tears were drying along my neck where they’d trailed down from her cheeks. She was also shivering in my arms, likely due to the cold.
Her thin, Alabama blood couldn’t stand up to the Montana cold.
She pulled back only when her sobs slowed, and she stared at me with bleary, bloodshot eyes and a magnificent smile on her face.
“You’re alive.”
I swallowed hard, thoughts swirling.
Then panic.
“How’d you find out?” I growled, unable to comprehend how she’d found me.
Had I fucked up? Had Apollo? Romeo? One of the other guys?
Because if she knew where I was, that meant someone else knew, too.
“A friend of yours.” She cupped my cheeks. “From here. She was in the same city as one of my public speaking events. She stayed in the same hotel with me. Her name is Birdee.”
I froze.
Then an anger like I’d never known barreled through me.
How dare she?
And, even worse, how did she know?
If Birdee knew, who else knew?
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dropped my sister on her feet, then pulled her back inside.
Anger was tinging my words as Romeo answered. “Hello?”
“Does Mable know about me?”
There was a long pause and then, “I didn’t tell her about you. Only me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Did she share that information with anyone else?”
Romeo cleared his throat. “They actually found out before I told Mable.”
“They?” I pushed.
“Mable, Birdee, and Cody,” he explained. “They found it all on the mom’s computer. A huge computer file on everything she found. She might’ve had more in there about everyone, not just me. But I never saw it. Mable gave the computer to Apollo, and I expected him to take care of it…why?”
I gritted my teeth so hard that the muscles in my jaw nearly revolted.
My sister walked past me into the small cabin, looking at everything as she opened drawers and even pushed open closed doors.
Curious little bee.
She’d always been like that.
“Birdee told my sister where I was.”
“As she should have.” Bernice narrowed her eyes at me, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she stared me down.
Pissed was an understatement.
