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“Son…”

“It’s son now?”

“Ye

ah, it is.” Critter pointed at me, wagging his finger as he spoke. “Son, if you go and hurt my girl in any way I’m telling you right this fuckin’ second that I’ll skin you alive, feed your carcass to my hunting dogs, and mount what’s left of you above my front door as a warning to others.” He ruffled my hair like he used to do when I was a kid and I didn’t like it now as much as I hated it back then. I smoothed it back down and Critter smiled, going about wiping down the bar and glasses like he didn’t just threaten my life in a very real and gruesome way.

“Wow, Critter. It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten a good dad-style talking to. I have to say though, I never expected it from you.” I said, going back to the business of helping him and the delivery man carry in the boxes.

“Well, don’t be expecting it again, ‘cause that was a courtesy warning. You’ll only be getting the one.”

“Noted.”

“What’s this?” Critter asked when the driver handed him a bottle of whiskey that hadn’t been in any of the boxes. He turned the clear bottle around in his hands.

The driver shrugged. “I was told to give it to you by the boss. It’s a gift. A sample for you to try. Something new he’ll be trying to sell you I suppose. Not sure. I just deliver the booze impregnate my wife and keep paying for these damned kid’s tuition. Not necessarily in that order.”

“Thanks, Pete. Tell Mike this better not be no Yankee shit. The last bottle he sent me I used as target practice in my field.”

Pete turned the bottle over in Critter’s hand. Taped to the back was a note that said. NOT YANKEE SHIT.

Critter chuckled.

“Southern all the way, Critter.” Pete said. He jogged off and climbed into his truck. I followed Critter into the empty bar.

He placed the cigar in his mouth and opened the bottle of whiskey, setting down two glasses. He filled them both over half way. He slid one toward me. “It’s a whiskey kind of morning.”

“I’ve never known you to be a whiskey for breakfast kind of man.”

“You also never knew I was married and had a daughter.”

“Good point.”

Critter clinked his glass to mine without waiting for me to pick mine up. He emptied it in two large swallows, slamming it down on the bar so hard I was surprised it didn’t break.

I spun around the glass I’d yet to take a sip from while Critter was already pouring another. “What about the name that Bridget girl gave Sawyer?”

“Sandy Bennett.” I said. “Josh is on it. Running the name through as many agencies as she has access to.

Critter drained his second glass. He sighed. “You know, from the second I found out Caroline and Sawyer were alive I had to put my need to hurt that motherfucker second to my need to want to crack his skull open. You know why? Because family comes first. My girls come first. But unfortunately, Caroline was right. You were…well, sort of right. I ain’t going to prison when I just got my family back. I ain’t living without them again.” His expression softened. “I can’t.”

I looked up to him. “I get it,” I said, running my hand through my hair and blowing out a breath of frustration. I’d had the same thought myself a thousand times. My chest panged. I remember the hurt I carried around after Jackie died. Enough to send me into years of solitude. Critter had known what that felt like and he’d reached out to me but even he couldn’t break through to me.

“The way I see it is that you and I are in the same boat. We’ve both had some horrible loses,” Critter said, echoing my thoughts. “I think it’s about damned time we’re due for a win. Or a break. Or something.”

I shook my head and traced my finger around the top of my glass. “It’s insane how one man could cause all this grief. All this heartache. You’d think there was an army of him out there. Or that he was the devil himself.”

Critter rested both hands on the bar and closed his eyes for a moment like he was wrestling with something. When he opened his eyes again he spoke with more conviction than I’d ever heard him talk about anything before. “I have news for you,” Critter said. He coughed and tapped his chest with his closed fist. “Richard Dixon is the devil himself.”

Critter’s face paled and his eyes went wide. He started coughing. When it didn’t subside, I stood up and rounded the bar. He was pounding on his chest with his closed fist. He grabbed the counter for support but lost his grip and I caught him as he fell, lowering him to the ground as he gasped for air. His eyes glazed over. I reached for my phone in a panic. My mind not able to catch up to the events at hand.

“Stay with me, Critter. You’ve made it through so much you will not give up on me now, old man.”

Critter stared up at the ceiling, unfocused. His eyes began to close.

The tings overhead fluttered all around the ceiling indicating the door had been opened. With my phone to my ear I glanced up to find Sawyer standing next to me looking down at Critter.

She choked back a sob. “Nooooo!” she cried.

My heart sank. For him. For her.

Then…he stopped breathing.

Chapter 15

Sawyer

The hospital was the last place I wanted to be again.

Seeing Critter

Critter was strong. Healthy. The most stubborn man I ever knew. But also, the most caring. The most loving. I loved everything about him from his deep baritone voice to his ridiculous moustache, which only he could pull off.

When I was there to see Bridget, I wanted to help her save herself.

With Critter lying there. Hooked to the tubes and machines. I wanted to not just save him, I wanted to breathe life into him. I wanted to pound on his chest with my closed fists and scream at him until he woke up and told me he was going to be okay.

He had to be okay.

HAD. TO. BE. OKAY.

Finn stood in the corner talking to Critter’s doctor while I sat by Critter’s bedside, holding his hand with my head on his chest.

“So that’s about it,” The doctor said. I’d been so involved in my own devastation that I hadn’t heard a word she’s said to Finn.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand, what exactly are you saying?” I asked. “Was it a heart attack?” I picked my head up from Critter’s chest but kept my fingers laced through his.

The doctor looked at me over the rim of her glasses. She tucked her clipboard underneath her arm. I knew whatever she was about to tell me wasn’t going to be good since Finn was now leaning on the wall for support. His face several shades paler than it had been when we got there.

I stilled. I could hear my heart beating when she spoke.

“The short version?” The doctor asked, like she was in a hurry.

I nodded and held my breath.

“Your father was poisoned.”

Chapter 16

Sawyer


Tags: T.M. Frazier The Outskirts Duet Romance