He brightened. “Be good and I’ll tell you how to get past the Hunters inODST.”
“Cash told you?” she asked.
He chuckled and winced, because moving hurt. “Not without a bribe.”
“What sort of bribe?”
“Remember that old Bette Davis movie, where she murders her lover and then has to blackmail the man’s widow over a letter that could convict her?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s calledThe Letter…it’s one of my favorite…” She stopped. “You didn’t!”
“Hey, it’s not as if you watch it that much,” Kell protested.
“Kell!”
“Do you want to get past the Hunters, or don’t you?” he asked.
She sighed. “I guess I can always find another copy of it somewhere.”
“That’s a nice sister,” Kell said.
“If I buy you another one,” Bentley interrupted, “will you tellmehow to get past the Hunters?” he asked her.
They all laughed.
* * *
Two weeks later, Kell was walking down the hall, wobbling a little, in his pajamas and robe while Cappie held him up. The swelling in her cheek had gone down, but it still had a yellowish tinge to it. Kell was much better. He was learning how to walk all over again, courtesy of the rehab department in the Jacobsville hospital.
“This is slow,” he muttered.
“It is not,” Bentley retorted, and the sound of gunfire came from the television in the living room. “Ha! That’s one Hunter down!”
“Rub it in,” she called. “It wasn’t even your favorite movie you had to sacrifice to learn how to do that!”
“I bought you a new one. It’s in the DVD player,” he called back.
“Fat lot of good it’s doing me, since that game console hasn’t been off for five minutes all day,” she muttered.
“Stop picking on my future brother-in-law,” Kell chided. “It isn’t every man who can make tortillas from scratch.”
“He only did it to butter you up,” she told him.
“It worked. When’s the wedding, again?”
“Three weeks from now. Micah Steele says you’ll be able to manage the church aisle with just a cane by then. And we can hope there won’t be a large animal emergency anywhere in the county during the ceremony!” she raised her voice.
“I’m borrowing a vet from San Antonio to cover the practice for me until we’re back from our honeymoon in Cancún,” he said. They’d picked the exotic spot because it had been the dream of Cappie’s life to see Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruin.
“I hope the vet knows he’s covering for you,” she said.
He chuckled. “He does.”
“The guest list just keeps growing,” Cappie sighed. “I’ve already sent out fifty invitations.”
“Did you put Marquez and the assistant D.A. on the list?”
“Yes,” she said. “And Rourke and Chet, too.”
