Beckett, Stone, Riot, and Reaper barge in, sweating like they’ve just come from running a marathon.
“What happened?What’s wrong?”Beckett comes over and almost pushes Ivy out of the way to get to me.
Martha shushes them in a scolding manner pointing over at my sleeping boy.“She found out about Rocky,” Martha tells the men.
“Thought we all agreed not to mention it,” Reaper states.
“Zane told me,” I say as my future husband reaches for my free hand.“Said that Rocky was in heaven with Debbie,” I repeat what the little guy said.
“Well, shit,” Riot remarks, scrubbing his face with his hands.
“What happened with Debbie?”I ask and look around the room while Beckett just stares at me.
“Yeah, I think I’m gonna go take a leak,” Riot starts to step backwards, but Ivy catches his cut, halting his movement.
“Can we talk about this after you and the baby are in the clear?”Beckett finally speaks up and finds his voice.
“I think we should all stop with the secrets and lay everything out on the table.Melissa is here to monitor me, and if she thinks we need to stop then we’ll stop, but I can’t live not knowing what happened while I was away.As soon as I think I’m safe, I’m hit with something else, knocking my legs out from under me.Let me decide if I can handle it or not.”
“Since we’re doing this, we have a few questions for you, if you’re up for it,” Stone says, sitting down at the end of the bed.He gets up and grabs a chair then places Raegan right where he vacated so that they are next to each other.
“The moment I call it, I expect everyone to stop the conversation.I’m not going to allow her to get any more upset than she already has been today.”Melissa comes to stand on the side where the monitors and Zane are placed.She places her fingers over the inside of my wrist and gives a nod.
I start first by telling them about walking from Stone and Raegan’s house into mine and hearing a beeping noise and the weird stench then feeling something at my neck.When I tell them about waking up in the tornado shelter, they tell me about the house blowing up and them finding what they thought was my burned body.We go back and forth giving our sides until we finally get to a few days ago on the farm.
“How do you think your father got in bed with a South American drug cartel?”Reaper asks from the end of the bed.
“That I have no idea.I was so naïve about a lot of things ’til I was shipped off,” I admit.“A lot of churches do mission work so that could’ve happened through an actual legit mission trip before they tainted them.”
“And you’d never met Juan José before?”Riot asks.
“I think I saw him in passing once but never face to face.My father had a lot of visitors, but I never paid much attention to them,” I say.
“And your father was going to marry you off to the old man?”Reaper questions.
A shiver rolls down my spine at the thought.
“I was supposed to marry his son or grandson…” I push my shoulders up and down not remembering which one it was.“But he was killed or something.Jared, my father’s second, came up with me marrying the senior Sanchez.”
“Did you hear anything they discussed about Dead Road?”Beckett speaks up from beside me.
“Just that he was going to raise this child because y’all took his from him.Or something like that,” I reveal.“A son for a sonis what Sanchez told me.”
“A son for a son,” Stone repeats.He shows no emotion, but his words sound so deadly, as he stares at the wall behind the bed.
“This is why I don’t want kids,” Reaper states then realizes what he said.“Sorry, I just can’t imagine them being used as a pawn for this fucking psycho.”
“Did you know they were storing drugs on the farm,” Stone asks changing the subject.
I shake my head, “Had no idea,” I say honestly.“We lived off of New Mexico Avenue near the church before I was shipped off to Colombia.When I came back, the women were limited to certain areas on the property.I’d heard about the bunkers but had never been in one until the other day.”
“That’s what most of the women are saying,” he tells me.
“What are you going to do with them?”I ask.“The women?”
“Most wanted to leave but couldn’t so we’re working with a local woman’s shelter to get them placed and set up.The ones who are giving us trouble are gonna spend some time with Turner on some trumped up charges.”
Maybe it’ll humble Karen a little, I think and almost chuckle.
