Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Sabrina pulled up to Cam’s house, exhausted from a long workday.
Maneuvering her bike past the narrow driveway and into the detached two-car garage, she hit the remote to lower the door, popped down her kickstand, and stripped off her lizard helmet.
Cam let her borrow his cold gear and gloves, since riding was impossible for him right now.
The jacket was loose, but it was still usable.
Summer apparently gave up its last hurrah for the rally, and now the weather had turned cold.
Rain was forecast again later this week, but she no longer had to worry about her van.
Rugrat and Reptar had their enclosure on the main floor in the dining alcove. Cam added two more rooms to the cage, plus a bigger tree branch. The beardies greeted her with scampers and waving their hands, begging to be let out for food and pets.
After the park shooting, several businesses stayed closed for extra days, but the massage spa was open for business on Monday morning as usual.
Stephan would be out for a few weeks because of his leg injury.
He’d lost a lot of blood and had to be rushed through surgery to get the bullet out.
According to the ER doctor, he was lucky, as the bullet came close to his femoral artery but didn’t damage it.
Until he was back on his feet, she and Cicely had to tag-team to keep everything going.
It would be a tough couple of months, but they would manage to keep it together somehow.
Rugrat scratched at the bars and stared intently at Sabrina.
“All right, I’m coming,” she groused. She opened the door, and both pets scrambled up her arms to sit on her shoulders. “How’s Cam today? Sleeping, I hope.”
She climbed the twisting staircase carefully so as not to dislodge the two lizards.
Sure enough, he was sacked out on a pile of pillows in his boxers, snoring lightly.
Straps from the hard white plastic brace graced his bare chest. The device covered his entire upper arm, from shoulder to elbow, restricting his movement and holding everything together.
He had to take the thing off once in a while to check the stitched-up bullet wound and clean the area.
This was a task best done by her, but not while he slept.
She crept back downstairs, putting the beardies back in their enclosure before heading to the kitchen to check the refrigerator for dinner ingredients. Ground beef, veggies, and potatoes. A half-empty bottle of ketchup sat on the door shelf, and the cabinets held the rest of the ingredients.
Meatloaf coming right up.
She wondered what Scrap was eating in that miserable little house of his.
He’d agreed to go to the health center on Thursday for the checkup that Mary badgered him into and get the DNA test done at the same time. Sabrina had asked Cicely for that hour off to go with him. It wasn’t like she had any obligations to the man, but decent people helped others, right?
She dumped the meat, spices, and breadcrumbs into a mixing bowl and squirted a generous amount of ketchup over the pile.
As she pressed it all together, she thought about cooking enough dinner for three and borrowing Cam’s truck to take some over to Scrap’s place.
Chances were that he was home, as he rarely left it since his fall. It wasn’t that far either.
Her mind wandered through various topics as she worked.
This was Cam’s house, yet she’d already learned where everything was, and he’d let her rearrange stuff as she wanted.
The beardies had their new palace, and Cam had mentioned clearing out one of the extra bedrooms and setting up a home spa kind of place in case she wanted to take on some private work.
More and more, their lives were becoming integrated.
The woman who never quite fit in had found a space where she slotted in so comfortably, it snuck up on her how perfect it felt to be here.
She liked it. She liked it a lot.
Sabrina smiled to herself as she opened the fridge again to take out an egg for the meat mixture.
She was so far into her thoughts, it startled her when a knock sounded at the front door.
Thinking it was one of the Knights coming to check on Cam, she darted forward to answer it before they knocked again and woke him up.
She would forever regret not checking the peephole first.
Raquel stood on the covered porch. She lowered her sunglasses to peer over the frames at her daughter. “Hi, Sabrina. It’s been a while.”
Shock coursed through Sabrina’s body. Not the good kind like when Cam kissed her or said he loved her.
They still hadn’t talked about that yet, as he’d been in a hazy drug stupor since she brought him home Saturday night.
No, this jolt made her heart jump into overtime fight-or-flight instinct.
This was Cam’s place, and it was now hers too.
Sabrina had never been one to run from a conflict, so fight it was.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Invite me in and I’ll tell you.”
It was on the tip of Sabrina’s tongue to tell the woman to fuck off and leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
She didn’t fool herself into thinking Raquel showed up from any maternal drive.
Was it money, like always, or something else?
Curiosity won, and Sabrina stepped back to allow entrance.
The click from Raquel’s heels echoed in the open space as she walked across the wood floor. Her jeans were tight across her small butt and rode low on nonexistent hips. The leather jacket was new but had no patches to say if she still belonged to a biker group.
Time had left its mark on the older woman, but she was still stunning in appearance. Black, blonde, and red streaks highlighted her hair, and she’d carefully applied her heavy makeup to hide her age. She lifted the sunglasses onto her head in a practiced motion. “So, how’ve you been?”
Really? “Do you mean recently, or since the last time I saw you, when I was eighteen?” Sabrina packed the meat into a loaf pan and slipped it into the oven. No way was she planning to invite the woman for dinner. “How did you know I was here?”
Raquel ignored the dig and sat down on the sofa, crossing her legs as if settling in for a long visit.
“I got sources. Word is, Rodrigo went off about you at some party. Said you were in Pennsylvania dealing with a dying father. I put two and two together and came up with Pittsburgh.” She scanned the room with her deep blue eyes and smirked as she leaned back against the cushions.
“Seems you’ve landed on your feet.” She examined the coffin-shaped nails on one hand.
Their ruby color reminded Sabrina of blood.
“Then again, you always did. Got yourself a man with some money. Good for you.”
“Again, why are you here, Raquel?” Sabrina couldn’t bring herself to call the woman mother.
Raquel raised a sculpted eyebrow. “To make sure you get your fair share of your father’s estate.”
“Ernie died without leaving a will. Rodrigo is his official son. Case closed.” Sabrina wiped her hands as she turned her back and walked over to the lizard condo.
Her knees locked as she pulled a bag of freeze-dried crickets from the shelf under the reptile cage complex.
“Rodrigo already called me about it, and I told him to fuck off. I don’t have the time to deal with that right now. ”
Raquel sneered and flipped a handful of multicolored hair over her shoulder.
“That kid was always a little shit. Ernie adopted him just before he married me. Rosa put that idea in his head. She and Julia, Roddie’s mom, were best friends, and when Julia died, Rosa convinced Ernie to take him in, then practically took over raising him herself.
You’d have thought she was his mom with the way she doted on him, always coming over to spend time with him.
That bitch never did like me and didn’t want me anywhere near him. ”
Surprise, surprise! “I’m aware. Aunt Rosa doesn’t like anyone but Rodrigo.”
Raquel gave a short laugh. “When you came along, Ernie was thrilled to have a bio-baby, even with the different eyes and coloring. I never said anything to him to make him think differently. It was Rosa who poisoned him with her shit about Rodrigo being his ‘true son.’” She tossed her head back.
“It doesn’t matter, ’cause either way, you’re sitting real pretty right now.
There’s a pile of money just waiting for you if you play your cards right. ”
“Did you miss the part where I said Ernie died without a will? I have no plans to put myself in between Rodrigo and whatever estate my dad left behind.” Sabrina sprinkled a handful of the insects into the cage. Reptar and Rugrat scrambled down the tree branches to grab them.
Raquel huffed and rolled her eyes under the thick fake lashes. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m not talking about just Ernie.”
Cold dread hit her gut and spread out to rest in her bones. Raquel was up to something. She wouldn’t be here otherwise. The familiar helpless feeling Sabrina remembered as a child came back and sat on her like a heavy wet blanket. “Which father are you talking about?”
“Truthfully, I’m not sure. It could be Ernie, but there’s a good chance it’s Scrap.”
Sabrina’s stomach flipped and twisted so hard, she had to grab the cage’s frame to stay upright. She imagined the stains left behind by the flying blood and gore from her exploded head. She was losing patience. “I wish you would just spit it out and quit messing around.”
“You’re not stupid.” Raquel’s purr sounded almost as reptilian as the beardies.
“As Walter’s only child, you get all of his money.
That stingy rat bastard has assets no one knows about.
Not just the titty bar, but even that is gold.
You’d be one rich cookie. All’s we have to do is get the DNA results and you’ll be set. ”