Page 90 of The Hardest Hit

“We wouldn’t do that!” exclaimed Aiden. “Well, maybe Jackson and Grandma might, but Nika and I are nice!”

“Hey!” said Jackson. “Look, I might run a background check or something, but what did you think I was going to go do? Go over and give her the third degree? I thought we…” He glared at Evan, clearly biting his tongue, but not pulling out the autopsy report or the storage unit.

“I know,” said Evan, fighting a surge of guilt. “I was going to tell you, but then I thought this was something that you would have to report to Grandma. And lately, she has not seemed very…”

“She’s been a fucking bitch,” said Aiden. “And you’re getting the pointy end of that fork.”

“I don’t know what her problem is,” said Dominique. “But she needs to stop.”

“I just wish I could figure out what I did to piss her off,” said Evan, feeling awkward. He wasn’t sure what was worse—thinking that his cousins hadn’t noticed, or knowing that they had.

“I don’t think you did anything,” said Jackson. “Or rather, I think you got sober, and I’m not sure she knows how to deal with you when you’re healthy.”

“Oh,” said Evan. That was even more awkward. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“Well, maybe give it a bit more time and see if she comes around,” said Aiden, sounding like even he didn’t buy that.

“We’ll see,” said Dominique, but she glanced up at the picture of Henry Deveraux.

Three hours later Evan was lying in front of the fireplace, Aiden was face down on the couch and Dominique and Jackson occupied respective wing chairs.

“And what has happened here?” asked Eleanor, coming in and inspecting the carnage.

“We won, Grandma,” said Evan.

“I demand a rematch,” said Jackson, opening one eye.

“I ate too many marshmallows,” groaned Aiden with his face still in the pillow.

“Serves you right. You cheated,” said Dominique. “I don’t know how, but I’m sure you and Evan could not have outshot us.”

“We had more ammunition,” said Aiden.

“Why is Evan wearing oven mitts?” asked Eleanor.

“They’re my Christmas present from Dominique,” said Evan.

“He needed bigger oven mitts,” said Dominique with a snicker.

“Your present is under the tree,” said Evan, waving an oven mitted hand toward the bar. Reluctantly, Eleanor picked her way across the paper-strewn floor and opened the box. Evan watched her from the floor. She opened the box and smiled. She removed the delicate blue teacup from the velvet box. It was a perfect match to the Wedgwood set that sat behind glass in the dining room—the set was almost complete, missing only one teacup. A teacup that he remembered his father smashing at a family dinner twenty years earlier.

“How did you find it?” she asked.

“The internet is a big place,” he said.

“You’re a sweet boy,” she said.

32

Olivia – Tyler

Olivia picked up the phone with a smile.

“Hey, Ty!”

“Hey, Liv! Am I bugging you at work or anything? I can call back later.”

“No, I just got back from vacation. I’m only trying to sort through my email and catch up before I come in for actual work tomorrow.”