“You got that note Norma gave you?”
Magnolia’s chin jerks toward me as she palms her purse. “Yeah. Right in here.”
“I’m not saying you should read it right now, but ... maybe it’ll give you something you’re missing today.”
Magnolia presses her lips together and bites the corner of her mouth. “Yeah. I mean, if it’s what Bernie had to say to me, then I guess ...” She pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath before slipping a hand into her purse, but as she searches for the letter, I hear the telltale vibration coming from her phone.
Magnolia rolls her eyes and retrieves her cell instead of what she started to do.
As soon as she looks at the screen, all color fades from her face.
Instantly, I’m on alert. “What’s wrong?”
Magnolia’s lower lip drops and fear fills her eyes as she turns the phone screen to face me. I read the name on the display.
Desiree.
“What the ever-loving fuck?”
Tears fill Magnolia’s swollen eyes. “How is this possible? She’s ... Who the fuck is playing a sick joke—”
Thoughts rip through my head, facts and conclusions snapping together to complete the pattern.
Holy. Fuck.
“Answer it,” I tell her. “On speaker.”
“What? Why?” She blinks and terror turns her movements jerky as she shifts in her seat, nearly dropping the phone. Then her eyes go wide as she realizes what I’m thinking. “Oh my God. It’shim.Isn’t it?”
I take the phone from her and tap the screen to take the call before it stops ringing.
“What do you want?” I demand.
“You already know what I want,” a rough voice replies. His words carry a hint of an accent.
My mind goes to exactly what he’s after—an eye for an eye. A life for a life. But there’s no fucking way that’s going to happen.
I play dumb instead. “You’ll have to fill me in here then.”
“Are you that stupid? Iwantmy brother back from the dead, but since that won’t happen, I want the woman.”
“No.”
“Oh, you think not?”
And that’s when both Magnolia and I hear a sound that changes everything.
A baby crying.
Thirty-Five
Magnolia
My heart freezes into a block of ice. Stone cold.
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
One possibility races through my brain, but it’s not possible. There’s no fucking way. It couldn’t be. Not a chance in hell.