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“Eric Brantley shot himself.”
“What does that mean, Brendan?” Chloe squeaked out. She looked close to tears. He missed giggling Chloe.
Linnea turned to her and said, “I think it means he’s dead, sweetie.”
“Yeah, he’s, um, dead.” Brendan nodded.
“But what does that mean for you?”
He shrugged. “No idea.”
“Fucker couldn’t live with himself after what he’d done, I bet.” Kyan pounded the table. “Probably knew an arrest was coming and offed himself.”
Brendan looked at his youngest cousin. “I still don’t think it was him, but I guess we’ll never know now.”
“They won’t come after you again, will they?” Chloe sounded almost frantic and hugged him.
“I hope not, but they haven’t cleared me yet, so I don’t know, sweetheart.”
Jesus Christ, will this ever fucking end?
“I’m gonna call Billings.” Kyan stood from his seat. “See what I can find out.”
Two days he waited. Forty-eight agonizing hours. That might not seem like very long, but after weeks of this hell, with his future and Katelyn hanging on the line, it was brutal. Finally, Phil called and said he and Murphy were coming by to see him. He wouldn’t say anything more than that on the phone.
His three cousins, Taylor, Chloe, and Linnea were all gathered in his living room to lend their support and wait with him. Brendan knew just how fucking lucky he was to have them as family. He wouldn’t have made it through these past weeks without them.
“Why are they dragging this out?” Chloe was chewing on a fingernail. “Why couldn’t they just say whatever they needed to tell you on the phone?”
He’d been asking himself the same question since this afternoon. Was it bad news? After all this were they coming to arrest him?
“Stop fretting, cherry cake.” Taylor held her to his side on the sofa, attempting to soothe her. “Everything’s going to be tickety-boo. You’ll see.”
But Brendan could tell that Taylor was worried. They all were. He gazed at six anxious faces. They tried to hide it with tentative smiles, but it was there in their eyes. Their nervous gestures. Chloe still chewed on her manicured fingernail. Linnea was wringing her hands until Kyan held them to still her. Jesse bounced Chandan on his knee. Dillon poured himself a shot.
“Anyone?” He held up the bottle.
Everyone shook their heads.
The buzzer for the gate sounded. Dillon got up to let them in. Brendan glanced to the photo of Katelyn on the shelf, and tracing the coordinates on his wrist, he silently prayed that he’d get to see her tomorrow.
Every day she went online to see if there was any news about Brendan or the case. And every day she found nothing. Katie even tried googling his name. Nada. It’d been weeks, so she couldn’t understand why there hadn’t been some news of it by now.
Just call him.
She was going to have to eventually, wasn’t she? And yet, somehow it didn’t feel right. This was something Katie needed to say in person. Brendan deserved that. Maybe she’d ask Kevin to take her to the city this weekend. He could visit with Kelly while she talked to him. She needed to get the rest of her things from the loft anyway, right?
This sucked.
Everything just fucking sucked.
Katie whipped the covers off and forced herself to get out of bed before her mother came knocking on the door. Kevin would be at school by now and her dad at the store, which meant it was just her and her mother without a buffer between them. It wasn’t as bad as when she first got here. At least her mother seemed to have resigned herself to the fact she was going to be a grandmother before the age of forty. She couldn’t hide her disappointment, though. Katie saw it in her face every single day.
Her mom was in the kitchen, digging through the freezer. Deciding what to take out for dinner, Katie supposed. She plunked a package of frozen pork chops on the counter.
She spoke without turning to look at her. “I thought we could go into town this weekend. Pick out some new paint for your room. We’ll have to rearrange the furniture in there to make space for a crib.”
“Okay, but I was gonna ask Kevin to take me to the city this weekend.”
