57. Claire
57
CLAIRE
T wo weeks later .
It’s dark when Ransom comes home from the hospital.
We’re lit by the hanging lamps around the Preacher estate, but the light is still dim, and we’re delicate guiding Ransom inside.
I hold his crutches at the bottom of the steps. Everett has his arm around the other man, helping him up to the front door.
“Would you quit babying me?” Ransom complains. “I’m a grown-ass man.”
“A grown-ass man with a bullet wound in his abdomen,” Everett corrects. “One more step.”
We make it inside. Even with Everett’s support, Ransom is limping. His face has lost some color, and he grunts, “Okay…set me down… ”
Everett carefully helps him into one of the lounge chairs left in the living room. I set his crutches up beside him.
The light walk from the truck to the house has Ransom breathless. He rests for a second, his eyes scanning the room. “I like what you two’ve done with the place.”
It’s all in a bit of…disarray. Drop cloth over furniture. Chairs stacked on chairs.
A lot has happened since the Belleflower Festival.
After Arris Dagney “mysteriously vanished” into the custody of the Wolfpack Operatives, the FBI swooped in and picked apart the scraps of what was left of the Benefactors’ Society. Men and women in expensive suits walked out with their heads down and their hands cuffed behind their backs. Loren Dagney was rolled out on a gurney, screaming the whole way. He’ll live to see his day in court.
Something I won’t be witness to. The Preacher Ranch was purchased in full by one Everett Hollow and then promptly sold again for the high price of a nickel to Maeve Belladonna Katherine with the stipulation that she do whatever the hell she wants with it.
I’m washing my hands clean of Belleflower, Daddy’s demons, and the haunted walls of this house. And I have three one-way plane tickets to France to prove it.
I crouch down in front of Ransom. I slip my hands over his thighs and look up at him.
“We can wait,” I tell him. “Give you some time to heal. There’s no rush…”
“No. We can’t.” Ransom’s jaw tightens. “Get me out of here. If I have to spend another day in this town, it’s gonna kill me.”
I can’t tell him this, but the relief I feel at his words surges through me like a warm elixir, all the way down to my toes .
I take his big hand in mine. I run my thumb over those strong knuckles and press a kiss to them. “Come on, hero. Let’s get you to bed.”