Page 98 of Savage Ends

“Actually, a good man only needs ten minutes to rock your world,” Hazel said.

Ava looked toward her sister and then they both in unison screamed, “Eww!”

“Come on, Mom, that is just sick.We know you’re talking about Dad right now, and that is gross.”

“What?I can’t tell my girls that a good man is great in ten minutes just as he is, in say an hour.”

Ava scrunched up her nose.“Gross.”

Hazel started to laugh.

Customers came in, and she was thankful for them saving the conversation.Ava did not need to have visuals of her mother and father being intimate.She was aware her parents were very much active up until her father passed away.But there was a difference between being aware of it and actually knowing it.That was just a little too much.

Hazel had brought them lunch, and Ava took hers to the office, sitting on the floor as Bernice settled between her thighs, and she ate her lunch.It was peaceful.Quiet.

And she was able to just relax, at the same time thinking about the future.Quitting her coffee shop job was going to be hard.She didn’t want to do that to Lauren.She liked Lauren, trusted her, and they were friends.No one else had stuck around.They didn’t like the hours, but for Ava they worked.

She liked to be doing something, and yes, it had affected other areas of her life, like her love of sewing, but she had met Pat.Sure, she had seen him around town, but she hadn’t gotten to know him like she had at the coffee shop.

Ava would talk to Lauren, make something work out.Maybe she could find someone who was like her.Either way, she was not going to leave her friend high and dry.

Chapter Nineteen

Pat stood outside thehospital room as Bull finished talking to Dylan.The sheriff had woken up and was now recovering from a concussion and a gunshot wound to the leg.They hadn’t hit any major arteries, which made no sense.The cartel didn’t leave people alive.

The mother and daughter, the mechanic, and everyone along the way had died.Outside of Carnage, there were several dead bodies.Before Dylan was attacked, Bull had him looking into recent unexplained murders and deaths.There were at least five other people, who were spotted coming and going through the town of Carnage.

Some details were hazy, but there were drugs linked to one woman.A potential kidnapping from another.All the murky details that spelled the cartel’s name right over it.

Bull came out of the hospital room and he looked glum.Rusty refused to sit this one out, even though the guy was pushing the limits of his wounds.He didn’t like sitting around on his ass, doing nothing.

“What’s the word?”Pat asked.

“He didn’t see,” Bull said.“He’d send Grace home for the night as he was looking into more of the suspicious deaths in the local area.He was trying to find a link that would place them within Carnage at the time of the attack on Pat’s bike, the animal shelter, the garage, you name it.He heard noise coming from outside.Didn’t think much of it.A bunch of kids like to cause trouble even after Halloween.He went out, his name was called, and then he said he woke up here.Doesn’t even remember getting hit over the head or shot.”

“And the security tapes have gone,” Pat said.That was the one part he didn’t like.