Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
I’m busier than a cucumber in a women’s prison.
—Magnolia to Beau
MAGNOLIA
I’d had the greatest of days.
After the tack room with Beau, we’d returned to find that no one had noticed that we’d been missing.
Iris was counting cows on the fence, having climbed halfway up the picket fence to lean in through the gap between the third and fourth boards.
Denver was laughing at something that she said, while Iris continued to chatter.
“Maybe all that you needed to do this entire time was get her into a real-life documentary,” Beau teased.
“She’s been talking a lot more lately,” I said. “I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re the reason.”
His brows rose as he came to stand at the fence directly across from Iris and Denver, placing his arms on the top rung of the fencing.
“I don’t think I can take credit for that.” He gave a chin jerk toward my new boss, Odin, who’d showed up at some point during our sex break and had joined the separating cows fun. “I think she was just ready.”
That could be true, but I still had a feeling that Beau was behind her transformation.
“Beau.”
We both looked to the side to see Black heading our way, in full uniform, looking thunderous.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
He came to lean on the fence beside me, his arm resting on the top of the fence. “I questioned your sister.”
Beau’s body pressed against my back, his hand wrapping around my waist to pull me in close to him. “What did she have to say?”
“That she’s not responsible,” he said. “And without blatant, full-on evidence, I can’t do anything more than question her. I do agree with you, however. I think that she’s responsible.”
Fuck.
“So that’s it? She just gets away with almost killing my daughter?” I asked, my back straightening.
“There’s nothing else I can do,” he said. “There were no cameras in that neighborhood—at least none that people are willing to share. Literally, it’s like every single person in that neighborhood decided to step back in time and all but revolt against technology.”
I sighed. “It was on my list.”
I even had the damn box sitting on the shelf in my laundry room. I’d opened it, read the directions, then decided that the installation would need more mental capacity than I was capable of. I hadn’t had the inclination to do anything since.
Which was horrible, because if I had it up, I might very well be able to put Seraphina behind bars before she hurt anyone else.
I looked away, my gaze skimming over the area.
My eyes spotted Iris as she pointed something out to Denver.
Jesus, had the timing not been what it was, I could’ve been standing here today while mourning my girl.
Iris said something to Denver and he nodded, whistling at me to get my attention.
I looked at him and he gestured toward the girl at his side.
I nodded, letting him know that it was okay if she came to me.
He reached up to help her down but…
“Iris, no!”
Too late.
She’d jumped.
The jump was too far, and her little legs gave out as she pitched forward onto her hands and knees.
Her head hit the water trough hard, and blood instantly started to well.
For the second time in a week, I saw bright red blood pouring down the length of my daughter’s face.
“Fuck,” I said as I started to hurry toward her.
Beau beat me to her, though.
He’d been deep in conversation with Black when I’d yelled, but he must’ve been paying attention to her in his periphery just like I’d been.
Instinctual. Like a parent would watch their own child.
When I got to her, Beau was already using his undershirt to stem the flow of blood from her head.
“Shhhh,” he said when she started crying. “I got you.”
And he did.
He had her, and I couldn’t tell you how freeing it was to know that I wasn’t alone in this world with Iris. That someone also helped me keep watch over her.
“I fell,” Iris said.
“You did,” Beau agreed. “It was too high for your little legs to handle.”
“I’m sorry, Magnolia.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Denver, you have three daughters. You damn well know that as a parent you can’t control them.”
He winced. “I forget how wild they used to be. I got a little comfortable knowing they wouldn’t accidentally break themselves.”
I patted his arm. “And now you have a grandbaby that’ll be worse. I hear boys are always worse.”
He patted his chest. “God help us.”
Odin finally made his way over to us, holding his medical bag that he’d mentioned once that he kept in his truck.
“What have we here?” Odin asked as he pulled out a four-by-four gauze pad.
He indicated for Beau to move back, and when he did, his white t-shirt was stained with Iris’s blood.
The moment the pressure was gone, blood welled at Iris’s head and started to drip down her cheek again, saturating her hair around her ear.
“At least we won’t have to shave off any of her hair to patch her up,” Odin quipped.
I was a nurse. I’d seen many wounds in my time of clinicals and shifts. However, there was something inherently different from a stranger compared to your own flesh and blood.
He placed the gauze pad on her head and looked toward me.
He gestured toward Iris and said, “Let’s get her inside.”
When I reached for her, she instead threw herself into Beau’s arms.
My lips quirked up at the edges.
“I got her, just do the stitches,” he ordered, her blood soaking his Carhartt jacket.
“Fine with me,” Odin said. “But it’d be easier if we had a table.”
Josephine, Denver’s oldest daughter, gestured toward a picnic table that’d been cleared of food. “There.”
Beau carried Iris to the table and took a seat with her on the tabletop, his feet resting on the seat.
Denver brought a trash can over and placed it next to the table.
Meanwhile, I helped Odin prep for stitches.
In the end, Iris got two more to go with her three on the opposite side of her forehead.
“You look like Frankenstein.” Beau tapped Iris’s nose with one finger.
She frowned. “No way.”
“Yes way.” He laughed.
She signed something to him, and I watched the two interact.
“That’s so sweet,” Constance whispered.
“They’re really good together,” I agreed. “We’re so lucky that he came into our lives.”
Because no matter what Beau said, he was helping her.
Sleepy from the long day, we made our way back to my place.
I was so tired that at first I didn’t notice the person that was parked in my driveway until I went to turn in and found it blocked by a rental car with California plates.
I frowned and parked on the other side of the car, barely squeezing into the spot because the car was parked so poorly.
When I shut the car off, Beau was already there, parked in the street and staring at the black sedan with suspicion.
“Who’s that?” Beau asked when he opened my door.
I opened my mouth to say “I don’t know” when the door to the sedan opened and my worst nightmare got out.
“You’re a hard woman to find,” Cain McDuff drawled.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why would you want to find me?”
And I was not a hard woman to find.
I played professional soccer. It was honestly laughable that he thought that I could hide who I was when it was mandatory to live within twenty minutes of the stadium. Plus, there were only three small towns to choose from in the area that fit that requirement.
His eyes moved to Beau. “I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“Cain,” I said, using his name to warn Beau who, exactly, it was that stood in front of us. “It’s late.”
“I only have a few questions.”
Beau stiffened next to me, making the connections that I needed him to.
“Listen, man,” Beau said. “My daughter needs to get to bed, and Magnolia has a game tomorrow. We don’t have time for questions. Maybe if you’d have called before you came, we could’ve made time for you to talk with her. But we don’t have that time tonight.”
Cain’s eyes flicked toward Beau.
He took in his stained white t-shirt, that funny enough didn’t look like dried blood after some cow had smeared shit all over it, and curled his lip in disgust. “Listen, I don’t need you or your daughter to have this conversation with her. It won’t take long.”
“I don’t think you’re understanding me,” Beau said. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. She doesn’t have any desire to be in your vicinity at all. Now, leave.”
Cain was so unaccustomed to people telling him what to do that it gave him pause. Anger rose on his face, and I could tell he wanted to lash out, use his prestige and wealth to get him what he wanted.
But he wasn’t in his hometown anymore. He was in Beau’s. And Beau didn’t give a flying fuck what Cain’s net worth was.
Nor did Cain have any pockets lined in this part of the country.
Money wouldn’t buy him what he wanted here.
“Fine.” Cain rolled his eyes. “I was just going to tell you that Rose had a life insurance policy, and they won’t give it to me.”
Of course he was here about money.
That had also been the source of nearly every one of their fights. Money.
I blinked. “Why would they?”
He snorted. “Because I was her husband.”
“You were her fiancé,” I corrected. “Not her husband. And I was listed as the beneficiary. Even if you were married, if I was listed as the beneficiary, then it’d still go to me. That’s how beneficiaries work.”
Not that I’d ever cashed in that life insurance.
A million-dollar policy wouldn’t bring my sister back.
The money felt like blood money to me, so I hadn’t touched it. Nor had I contacted them in any capacity.
Which, maybe I should have, seeing as if I’d followed through, Cain would have no reason for being here right now.
“Well, they keep saying that you haven’t claimed it yet or answered any of their inquiries about it.” He threw up his hands. “I feel like it’s owed to me, anyway. So just accept it and sign it over if you don’t want it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling bold all of a sudden. “I would die before I’d give you a multi-million-dollar policy for my sister’s death.”
He sighed, as if I exasperated him. “What did I ever do to you?”
That had me stiffening so fast that Beau’s arm wrapped around my waist to hold me still, as if he feared that I would launch myself at the man in front of me.
I might have, had I not had Iris to think about.
She changed everything.
“I think it’s time for you to leave,” I ordered.
Iris called out from the car in that next moment, and Beau let me go to open her door.
He, thankfully, didn’t pull her out of the car.
If he didn’t see her, Cain wouldn’t see the resemblance.
There would be no denying that Iris looked nothing like Beau.
There was too much Japanese in Iris’s features to deny her heritage.
That, and the color of her eyes were exactly like the asshole staring at me.
It wouldn’t take too much for Cain to make the connection.
Cain pointed at me. “I’m going to just take this to the lawyers.”
“You do that.” I crossed my arms.
After he left, Beau pulled Iris from the car and walked together with me to the front door of my place.
While I gave Iris a bath, Beau used my room to take a shower of his own.
“Who was that man?” Iris signed to me.
“That was your Aunt Rose’s ex-fiancé,” I answered.
One day, I would have to tell her who Rose was to her, but that time wouldn’t come for a while yet. Iris needed to be able to keep the secret, and she was way too young for that yet.
It was an hour later, as I lay against Beau’s naked chest in the middle of my bed, that I asked, “What do I do about him? That won’t be the last time I see him.” I hesitated. “Should I just sign that money over to him?”
He was quiet for so long that I thought he’d fallen asleep before he said, “Do you want to give that money to him?”
“I’d rather die than let him get a cent,” I snapped.
He threaded his fingers through my hair when he said, “So don’t let him have it. We’ll figure this out, Magnolia.”
I relaxed into him.
He was right. With him, I could definitely figure this out. Cain would never know that he had a kid. We’d hidden it well.
Only, maybe I shouldn’t have been so confident.
It only took pissing off my ex the next day to realize that I was wrong.