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“How about you let Lee and I get their shelter built first before you decide to have us knee deep in goats?”
“Fine, we’ll revisit this once you’ve finished.” She checks her phone and frowns. “I need to stop and get some batteries. My front door camera is dead.”
“I have some spare ones.” She pops her trunk, and I start shifting the bags of birdseed. “You have enough seed here to feed a pterodactyl.”
“I need all four bags because they attract different types of birds. I’ll mix these two together for the new feeders I bought,” she explains, slapping the bags.
“And which one is for the squirrels?”
She narrows her eyes. “Fuzzy little bastards will eat anything. I’m devising a plan to keep them off. Greasing the pole only works for so long.” Laughing, I close the trunk and Calli points to the horizon. “Look at that sunset. It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.” She beams at me and leans in to give me a quick kiss before I put the cart in the corral, and we head home.
“I can’t believe how warm it is!” Calli exclaims as we climb out of her car and start for her cabin. “Do you want to have a bonfire tonight?”
“Do you mean bonfire orbonfire?” I tease, bouncing my eyebrows.
She rolls her eyes. “I ride you by the fire one time and you never let it go.” Her gaze leaps over to me as a grin appears. “I’m in.”
Her laughter joins mine, startling away the birds from her feeder. Spring’s early arrival has both of us in a good mood. Winter was such a dark tunnel for us to climb through and we’ve finally reached the sunlight at the end.
Calli unlocks her door as I remember that her camera isn’t working and reach to remove it to change the batteries. What the hell is that? A black plastic bag covers the camera, and I yank it off.
“Calli!” My hand lands on her shoulder a second too late. The door swings open, and she freezes after her first step inside.
A woman sits on her couch. They stare at each other, neither saying a word until finally, the woman sits back, crossing her arms across her thin chest. A twisted smile grows on her face that chills me for reasons I can’t put my finger on. It’s not only predatory but skirting the edges of sanity.
Calli shakes her head, trying to deny what she’s seeing as the woman laughs. “What? You can’t say hello to your mother after I came all this way?”
Her mother, Mallory. The mother she ran and hid from. The mother Calli couldn’t quite believe was dead without having the ashes nearby to remind her, sits on her couch.
I step in front of Calli, guarding her from whatever the hell is happening. I don’t see a weapon but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. “What the fuck is going on?”
Calli gapes at the disheveled woman. “You’re dead. I dumped your ashes.” Haunted despair soaks her voice. “You can’t be here.”
“Dog ashes are pretty easy to get. You just have to mix a couple together.”
“Get out. Get out. Get the fuck out!” Calli’s voice rises with each word, from a whisper to a scream.
Mallory doesn’t budge or look the least bit concerned at her reaction. “Or what? You’ll call the police? Go ahead. We’ll have a little talk about Carl.” She turns her attention to me. “You remember him, the man rotting under the bushes in the graveyard?”
A brick falls into my stomach as I watch our hopeful future fizzle away. She knows, not only that I killed him but where he’s buried. This isn’t going to end well.
Calli looks up at me and I see the same realization dawning, filling her eyes with anguish.
“This should be an easy choice for you now. Give me my fucking money or your boyfriend gets life in prison for murder, and you can join him as an accomplice.”
Every word out of her mouth has me seething through my fear.Hermoney. The callous way she talks about a man she’s been with for years. She isn’t upset over his death, only using it to get what she wants.
The expression on Calli’s face—she’s terrified. Panicked. I won’t let this woman pull her apart again. “Calli had nothing to do with it. I killed him and buried him.” If I end up in prison, so be it.
She rolls her eyes. “You found a real hero here, didn’t you? I was there, you stupid motherfucker. I know what happened.”
“You faked your death,” Calli says, her tone low and stunned. “To find me. The tracker in the ashes.”
A proud smile blooms on her mother’s face. “Carl didn’t think you’d actually fall for it when I had him create the fake church email, but I did a good job on that obituary. I knew you wouldn’t leave my remains to be abandoned. Like it or not,I’m your mother. You love me. But I’m done dealing with your selfish ass. I want two million dollars, or you can both spend the rest of your lives in prison.”
“Watch her,” Calli says to me, and I catch her wrist as she tries to walk away.
