With that, he followed me inside the house and to my bedroom where we both fell face first into the pillows.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dash
When the phone rang in the middle of the night, I was pissed. It wasn’t because it woke me up since I was already awake thanks to my hungry baby girl. No, it pissed me off because of the look it put on my wife’s face.
“You better get that,” she said quietly. “Something must be wrong.”
I snatched my phone off the nightstand and answered without bothering to look at the caller ID as I stepped out into the hallway. “What?”
“Dash, sorry for calling so late, but I have some bad news,” Judge said without preamble.
“What is it?”
“Your mother was found dead earlier this evening. They think it was a drug overdose.”
“What’s the bad news?” I asked. I didn’t give a shit about my mother anymore. I did, at one time, as all children do, but as I got older, I learned that she didn’t care about anyone other than herself and my hopes and dreams of having a loving mother were nothing but hopes and dreams.
“Well, I guess the bad news is you’ll need to deal with the body and any arrangements since your sister flat out refused to.”
“Shit. How did Rain take the news?” I asked. Even though my sister hated me, I loved her very much—so much that I respected her wishes and stayed away from her even though it killed me to do so.
Judge snorted. “I think she would’ve been more upset if I’d told her she had a flat tire. She didn’t seem to care that your mother was dead, but she was fucking pissed when the officers suggested releasing the body to her. She told them to call you and went back to work.”
Fucking hell. I had more important things going on than dealing with my crackhead mother’s rotting corpse, but if it meant Rain didn’t have to do it, then I would. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll take care of everything. Do you think Rain would want a service for her?”
“I think you should try to talk to her yourself, man. I don’t know what went down between you two, but this is something that the two of you should deal with together,” he said.
I sighed knowing he was right. “I know; I was just trying to do what she asked and leave her alone. Listen, I can have Byte get it for me, but it would save me a lot of time and trouble if you’d give me her phone number.”
“As long as you don’t tell her you got it from me,” he said and rattled off the numbers. “She gets off work at seven and usually sleeps until two or three.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll give her a call later this evening.”
I walked back into my bedroom to find my beautiful wife gently placing our sleeping little girl back into her bassinet. “What happened?” she whispered.
I pulled her against me and held her for a few moments before I took her hand in mine and walked us out of the bedroom. “Judge called to tell me my mother died.”
“Oh,” she said and started fidgeting with her hands. “Are you okay?” she asked. I hadn’t shared much about my mother, because there wasn’t much to share. She was basically nonexistent during my childhood and even more so during my teen years.
“I’m fine,” I reassured her. “My mother was not a real mother. Not like Annabelle is to you or like you are to Raven. My mother loved herself and her drugs. She had no intention of ever changing her ways and I’m not sorry or saddened that she’s gone.”
Ember studied me in silence for a few moments before she carefully observed, “But something is bothering you.”
“My sister,” I said and cleared my throat. “She’s been working in Devil Springs for the last few weeks and I—”
“What?” she shrieked. “Why didn’t you tell me? How long have you known?”
“Shh! You’ll wake Raven,” I whisper-yelled causing her to give me squinty eyes. “I’ve known since a week or two after she arrived. I didn’t tell you because a few years ago, she asked me to stay out of her life, and I presumed that request also included my wife.”
“You still could’ve told me. I wouldn’t have gone up there and sought her out,” she insisted.
“You might not have, but I can guaran-damn-tee one of the other Old Ladies would’ve.”
She looked to her feet and rubbed her hands together. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right about that. So, what happens now?”
I reached out and pulled her hands apart, taking each into one of mine. “Right now, we’re going to get you back into bed and get some sleep before my little princess wants to eat again. I’ll make some phone calls in the morning and see what I need to do in regards to her remains. Judge said Rain works the night shift and sleeps until two or three, so I’ll try calling her around five or so.”