Page 12

12. CHANGING SPACES

SAMMY

I glared at the bullet holes in my mattress as if they would automatically mend themselves because my brain willed it to be so. It didn’t happen, and eventually I grabbed my spare blanket out of the closet, curled up on my naked, hole-filled mattress, under my blanket, and fell asleep. Bigfoot was right about one thing, the crash after the adrenaline rush hit me hard as fuck.

When I woke in the morning, I found Bigfoot and my uncle laughing about something as they sat in the Polaris together. It was weird to see them getting along so well until I remembered that they were friends in high school.

“Looks like someone couldn’t get a ride home. Don’t tell me… Your club brothers don’t actually like you.”

“Ha, ha.” Bigfoot mock laughed at me as my uncle snickered. As if on cue, a van rolled up, and my would-be suitor got out of the Polaris and headed over to his ride. “We’re still going to have that talk, Sammy.”

“Whatever you say, big guy!”

He grinned up at me and looked like he was about to say something until my uncle butted in. “She’s still my niece. Whatever bullshit is about to come out of your mouth can wait until I’m not around.”

Bigfoot smirked at me and then hopped in the van. They took off way quicker than I expected. It wasn’t until my phone beeped with an incoming message that I realized it bothered me that he left so quickly.

Bigfoot: Something came up. Have to run to see to some shit at the club. Brady is going to talk to you about something. I want you to agree and call me later when you’re free.

I didn’t bother to respond to his text and left him on read instead. “What is it that you’re supposed to talk to me about?”

“We need to move you into the big house.”

“What? Why?”

“Because someone tried to kill you in this one yesterday and we can defend the big house easier. It’s at the final stopping point of a dead-end road, we have cameras set up outside that we don’t have here, and there’s more room in case you need a security detail to stick around with you.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Sammy, it also has fresh mattresses in three of the bedrooms, and they don’t have bullet holes in them.”

I huffed in frustration. “Fine, but you know this is going to make the renovations go slower, right?”

“I don’t see why it has to. We’ll figure out some workarounds and it will be all good.”

“Fine, but I’m not taking Nanny and Pop’s room. That’s just weird. It still smells like someone died in there.”

“No, it doesn’t. You’re just being weird.”

“Okay, you sleep in there, then. Let’s see how you like it when your parents’ ghosts are getting busy in the room while you try to sleep.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you take a bullet to the brain yesterday and forget to tell us?”

I giggled. “Nope, but you clearly didn’t understand how weird it would be to sleep in that room until I really made you think about it.”

“Yeah, thanks for the glimpse of my parents’ afterlife sex life.” Brady scratched his head. “Aftersexlife?” He questioned.

“I think you had it right the first time.”

“Some days, I really hate that I’m your favorite uncle.”

I made a face at him and put my balled up fists up to my eyes in a crybaby motion. Brady flipped me off.

It wasn’t until we took the second load of my things over that I noticed something was off. After scanning the living room twice, I finally realized what was missing. “Brady, did you take that grandfather clock out of here?”

“No, why?” He called back from the kitchen.

“It’s missing.” I turned around just as he barreled into the living room.

“What the fuck?”

“That’s not all,” I said as I took another slow spin around the room. “The antique pieces have all been replaced.”

“Son of a bitch!” Brady seethed the words out as he yanked his phone from his pocket. “That mother fucker is going to bring every fucking piece back here.”

“If she didn’t sell them already.” My heart ached at the loss of all our family heirlooms. It wasn’t all of them, but there were a few pieces of furniture that had made the journey from Scotland in the mid-1700s. The Long Case Grandfather Clock had been one of those pieces. “I might just add her to my body count if we can’t get that clock back.”

“I know.” Brady came over and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. He tugged me into his side. “Your dad isn’t answering his phone.”

“No surprise there. It’s like he forgot that we’re his family once he married that skank. I wonder what he’ll think when he finds out she was okay with pointing a killer in my direction after she flirted with him.”

Brady sighed. “Honestly, Sam, I’m not sure we should tell him just yet.”

“Why not? He needs to know. If nothing else, he should protect my little brother from that woman. What if she takes him and we never see him again?”

“I have my doubts that your father has a legal leg to stand on there.”

My eyes must have widened to twice their normal size. It never occurred to me that my little brother might not be biologically related to me. “That’s impossible right? He would have had a DNA test done before he agreed to marry her. I always assumed he would verify that kind of thing. Didn’t he?”

Brady shook his head. “I don’t think he did. Never saw any proof of it, anyway.”

“Well, shit. How long are we supposed to wait?”

Brady pulled me over to the couch that had also been replaced with much cheaper furniture. Once we sat down, he laid it out for me. “I talked to Bigfoot about a lot of things last night and we need to trust that he’s working on this. More importantly, he has some pretty tech-savvy members who are digging for all the information they can before we go to your dad.”

“What if he’s in on it with her.”

“Fuck that!” Brady grunted. “No fucking way does my big brother know that his wife tried to kill his daughter. No fucking way. He would never harm you.” Brady was frantic as he clutched my shoulders and turned me to face him. “You know your father loves you to the end of this Earth, right?”

My head shook back and forth of its own volition. “I don’t know that. Not anymore. He checked out after mom died, and I never really got him back. It’s like the part of him who loved me died with her. Maybe I remind him of her too much. Maybe he decided he hated me because I was gone when it happened. I don’t know. When I got back from the Army, he already had a new wife and kid.”

“I know your dad has been lost for a long time, but I promise that he never stopped loving you, kid.”

There was nothing to say to that. My uncle loved his brother. I loved my dad - the one I grew up with anyway. The man he had become since I left for the Army, since my mother died, they were two different people. My faith had been tested and my father found lacking. Case in point - the house we were sitting in. He had been trying to take it from me simply because his wife wanted it and didn’t give a damn that it was specifically left to me in my grandfather’s will.

Later, as I settled into the bedroom that used to be Uncle Brady’s when he was younger, my phone beeped with an incoming text. For a few seconds, I thought maybe it was my dad wondering why I’d moved into the big house. I was only somewhat disappointed to see that it was Bigfoot who texted me. Immediately, I changed his picture from the generic one assigned to new contacts to one of a cartoon Bigfoot.

Bigfoot: Been thinking about you today.

Sammy: No need. I haven’t even had to use a pea shooter for rattlesnakes today.

Bigfoot: You’re on my mind all the time.

Sammy: Scandalous, considering you have a whole family.

Bigfoot: You know that was a bunch of bullshit.

I did know that, but for some reason I liked poking the bear - or maybe I should say, I liked poking the Bigfoot. He seemed to like when I teased him.

Sammy: You’ll be happy to hear that I’m all settled in my grandparents’ house.

Bigfoot: It’s your house.

Sammy: It still doesn’t feel like it.

Bigfoot: I want to come keep you company, but I have Hawk with me tonight.

Sammy: He’s your priority - as he should be. By the way, you gave him a really cool name.

Bigfoot: How do you know it was me who gave it to him?

Sammy: I’ve met his mother. She’s not that cool.

I laughed as the three little dots that indicated he was typing started and stopped and started and stopped over and over again.

Sammy: Did I throw you for a loop with the truth?

Bigfoot: No, you made me laugh and it hurt like hell. Dropped my damn phone three times.

I giggled at my phone and then sighed because there was no way it was sane to even think about getting involved with the man. I had already killed two people since meeting him and it had only been a week. One very long, very drama-filled week. I felt drained again just thinking about it.

Sammy: Tired now. Goodnight.

He didn’t respond before I flipped my phone over on the bed-side table and closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure who was watching out for me, but Uncle Brady had assured me that it was safe for me to go to sleep, and I trusted him, so that’s what I did.