by D V Wolfe
Then, the kitchen table. Tags was sitting there with Rosetta and Noah. I walked to a chair next to Tags and sat down. Rosetta got to her feet and went to the cabinet. Noah’s face was streaked where tear tracks had cleaned off the grime. He’d been crying too. He looked at me as if I held all the answers. I didn’t know how to break his heart. How to tell him that I wasn’t thinking. I was just doing. Rosetta had told me we’d ‘hang that shirt up later’. I met Noah’s gaze and I took a deep breath. From across the table, I saw him do the same. Gabe had sat down next to me and he was close. I could feel the warmth from his knee through my jeans and it felt like having a hand on my shoulder. Rosetta put a plate down in front of me. The smell was something so wonderful. It was laughter and teasing and smiles, but mostly...home. I looked down at the plate and my vision blurred as tears pooled, unshed. I tried to blink them back. Huckleberry buckle with vanilla ice cream.
“Eat,” Rosetta said with only a quarter measure of her usual bluster. Don’t think. Just do. I picked up my fork and took a bite. Every bite felt like a blessing from some deity I didn’t believe in and had no reason to expect blessings from. I looked across the table and saw that Noah was shoveling in his pie and ice cream. He was home too. This was home for him as much as for me. And right now, we just needed to be home.
Rosetta put a glass of ice water in front of each of us. “Drink. You’re both dehydrated.”
I don’t remember much of the rest of the night. At some point, I stopped ‘doing’, because I couldn’t hold my head up. The next time I opened my eyes, sunlight was streaming into the room and I was laying on the bed alone. Just do. I got up and made my way downstairs.
“Here’s Sleeping Beauty now,” I heard Rosetta call as I came down the stairs. “Good grief girl, you slept like you hadn’t hit a pillow in a week.”
“That’s probably accurate,” Noah said around a mouthful of sandwich. Rosetta raised an eyebrow at him and he closed his mouth and looked back down at his plate, suddenly very interested in what he was eating. I sat down at the table and Rosetta set a sandwich down in front of me, but I wasn’t hungry.
“Where are Gabe and Tags?” I asked.
“They’ll be back in a bit,” Rosetta said. She sat down next to me and I nudged the plate towards her. She took a chip off of it and I did the same. We chewed in silence, both of us watching Noah clean his plate. When he looked back at us, as one, we pushed the plate across the table at him. Don’t think, I reminded myself.
I don’t know how long I sat at that table, but when Rosetta got up and started banging pots and pans around, I felt that familiar push telling me to get up and help her. So I did. I got up and I helped Rosetta make pasta for supper. Gabe and Tags came into the kitchen from time to time. Eventually, dinner was ready and we all sat down to eat.
“So you got the demon,” Tags said softly when we were done.
There was a hesitant breath being held by everyone at the table. I nodded. “We got the demon. I don’t know if he’s the last one, but we got him. Really...Nya got him. She found the intel, tracked him, planned. All of it. It was her baby and she saved my ass.”
It felt hollow. It was such an incomplete version of everything she had done.
Gabe got up from the table and opened the fridge. He pulled out a six-pack of Rover’s Hole Glory Ale and thunked one down in front of each of us. Noah looked confused but Gabe shook his head. “It’s a toast.” We slid the bottle opener around the table and popped the caps.
“To Nya,” Gabe said. “A hell of a hunter.”
“A hell of a fighter,” Tags said.
“A hell of a woman,” Rosetta added.
“A hell of a...friend,” Noah said.
“A hell of a sister,” I said. I drank. I didn’t think too hard. I just did. I drank. But inside, the me that wasn’t this body, was already thinking and planning. This wasn’t over. I was going to find who or what set Ornias on this collision course with Nya and me.
I was going to do my sister proud.
And if it meant raising a little hell, then so much the better.
Books In This Series
Other Books In The Midnight Rider Series
Midnight Rider
Dirty Deeds
Bad Company
Hot Blooded
Shoot To Thrill
War Pigs
Gimme Shelter
Like the Wolf
Working Man
Whipping Post
Bad Moon Rising
Under Pressure
Minutes 2 Midnight
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Acknowledgment
This story started with a hellion in a dirty a-shirt, jeans, and a sports bra, behind the wheel of Lucy, my '49 Ford pickup, telling me that shit was about to go down and I needed to find a pencil.
Through all the chaos of blurting out this story, I can't emphasize enough how important Glenn, my mentor and guide, and Jimbo, my entire support system and partner in everything, have been. Thank you also to Nikki, Laura, and Lydia, my kickass betas.
And to my readers, thank you for, like Noah, thinking it was a good idea to climb into the truck with Bane.
About The Author
D. V. Wolfe
is a transplanted Kansas farm kid now living in Oregon. When she's not writing, reading, or walking her furball, she's traveling back to Kansas to spend time on the old farm or in her favorite dive bar in Manhattan with her partner in life and crime.
