Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I’m happy for them.
I sigh.
Then I head into the kitchen to help get everything together.
I’m good in the kitchen, and I may as well go where I’m needed.
After dinner, but before dessert, I grab Brock.
“I need to talk to you. Please.”
“Okay.” He glances over his shoulder. “Rory and Callie are busy talking to Diana. Are you doing okay?”
“How the hell can I be doing okay? Finding out about Dale and Donny. About Uncle Talon. About all the stuff going down on our property.”
“And the messages. Have you talked to your mom about them?”
“She won’t talk to me. Says we should enjoy the holidays. Which of course makes me think that whatever she’s deciphered would make me not enjoy the holidays.”
Brock says nothing.
“For God’s sake, do you know how annoying it is for you to know shit that I don’t?”
He opens his mouth, but I hold my hand up to stop him.
“I know, I know. I have to ask my parents. Well, they’re not talking. So what the hell else can I do?”
He sighs. “You can try to enjoy the holidays, Ava. That’s my best recommendation at this point.”
“You’re a fucking lot of help.”
“Let me get you some dessert.”
“You know what? I’m not really in a dessert mood. I think I need to go home.”
“Ava…”
“No. I’m serious. I need to get the hell out of here.” I storm through Uncle Joe’s house and out the door, not saying goodbye to my parents, my sister, or anyone else.
It’s childish, for sure, but I was suffocating.
It’s a half-hour drive back to town to my place, and I speed the whole damned way.
One card.
I’m going to draw one freaking card.
I grab my deck, pull it out of the scarf, shuffle it once, twice, three times.
I don’t even bother holding it to my heart and trying to infuse my energy into it.
Right now, I need an answer.
This card. Just one card.
I know it will give me the answers I seek.
I feel it inside my whole being.
I draw the card, set it in front of me on the table, on top of my grandmother’s scarf.
And I freeze.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BRENDAN
After dinner and dessert, I grab my father. “We need to talk,” I say.
“Sure. What’s on your mind, son?”
“What can you tell me about the Madigan family?”
He lifts his eyebrows. “Where is this coming from?”
“Well, you bought the bar from a guy named Jeremy Madigan.”
“I did. It was a long time ago, Brendan.”
“Who exactly was Jeremy Madigan?”
“He was a bar owner. I don’t really know much else. I believe he had a brother who lived in town too.”
“Do you remember his name?”
“Not off the top of my head, but these are facts we can easily find out. Why do you need to know?”
“Ryan and Ruby Steel were asking me about Jeremy Madigan,” I say.
“Why?”
“I have no idea. I thought you might have some insight.”
He shakes his head. “I think the name came up when I was doing my initial research into my uncle’s death,” he says. “It was a dead end.”
This gets my attention. “How exactly did the name come up?”
“There was some gossip at the time that Jeremy’s niece had been involved with Brad Steel.”
“Brad Steel meaning Ava’s grandfather, right?”
“Right. Apparently they were involved in high school and early on in college as well, until Brad met Daphne Steel.”
“Ava’s grandmother.”
“Right. So of course, that came up as I was doing my research into the Steel family and how my uncle may have died at their wedding. But like I said, it was a dead end.”
“Okay. Do you remember the woman’s name? Or her father’s name?”
“Just her last name. Madigan.”
“Yeah, it probably means nothing.” I sigh. “Why in the world would Ryan and Ruby be asking me about Jeremy Madigan?”
“Hell if I know. By the time I decided to stay in town and had purchased the bar, I had pretty much forgotten all about the Madigans. Like I said, Jeremy’s niece had something to do with Brad Steel at one time, but that was over by the time I got to town. After all, my uncle died at Brad and Daphne’s wedding.”
“Did any other names come up during your investigation?”
“A few. But they’re all dead now.”
“Any relation to anyone we know?”
“No. Everything turned out to be a dead end. But I know there’s something I’m missing.”
“And you think these new messages may have something to do with it?”
“It’s just a gut feeling. You know, bartender’s gut.”
I nod. “I was just saying the same thing to someone. We bartenders learn more about people than their therapists do sometimes.”
“We’ll figure it out, Brendan. I’ve had this gut feeling my whole life that the Steels were somehow involved in your uncle’s death.”
“But the Steels are good people.”
“They are. Remember that when your uncle died, none of them were born yet. I’m talking about the Steel patriarch. Bradford Steel.”