Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 24

I am just so thankful for all the different ways to eat potatoes.

— Text from Athena to Gable

ATHENA

Good news.

I didn’t rip his stitches open.

Bad news? He had to get to work.

Quaid had called him and begged him to cover a shift and Gable had agreed.

I was currently watching him get dressed in the mouth of his closet as he talked to me.

“ I don’t think there’s a reason you can’t go out today,” he said. “ Just be very aware. And carry your gun with you.”

I grinned, eyes still heavy with sleep.

“ How’d you know I had a purse gun?” I teased.

Maven probably told him.

The moment I turned twenty-one, I’d rushed to get my concealed carry.

After my parents had been shot, my dad died, and my brother was killed, I just couldn’t not have it around.

It was my emotional support purse pistol.

Something I had to have to feel safe.

Maven called it my security blanket.

I called it the way I kept myself safe before Gable entered my life.

You just never knew what was going to come at you, and I wanted to be prepared the best way I could.

“ Because your purse is heavy, which is a dead giveaway, and Maven talks about it like it’s a live person.” He chuckled as he pulled his tactical pants up his hips. After zipping and buttoning, he reached for his police belt which he looped through the belt loops. After that, he started attaching various implements.

Gun .

Night stick.

Handcuffs .

“ If you keep watching me while I’m putting these handcuffs up, I might think you want me to use them on you,” he teased.

My brows rose as I lifted my arms high above my head and stretched, letting the blanket slip down the length of my chest.

The cool air kissed my nipples, and his eyes zeroed in on them.

“ You’re not going back to sleep?” he asked as he continued to put his things on but kept an eye on my breasts.

“ Nope ,” I said. “ I think I might go deal with my mother.”

His brows rose. “ Why do you have to?”

I sighed. “ Because she’s called like ten times in the last few days, I’m guessing so she can apologize, and I have to deal with her sooner or later.”

“ You could not deal with her at all and cut off contact,” he suggested as he reached into the closet for a tee.

I watched the muscles along his ribs and upper abs ripple with the move and felt my body pulse in awareness.

The man was fit.

Like , really fit.

Despite the knife slash across his belly—which looked pretty good today considering—there wasn’t a single imperfection about the man.

God , he was gorgeous.

Strong hands. Muscled forearms. Bulky biceps and shoulders.

Abs .

So many abs.

His obliques were my favorite feature.

So strong and…

“ Stop looking at me like that when you know I have to leave,” he grumbled as the shirt fell into place over his upper half.

I pouted, causing him to chuckle.

His shirt got tucked in last, and then he was walking toward me, eyes alight with mischief.

“ Call me when you head to your mom’s,” he suggested as he planted both fists into the bed beside me and leaned over.

I met him halfway, kissing him goodbye.

“ Be safe, Gable ,” I urged.

He touched the tip of my nose with one finger before saying, “ Always am, Athena .”

Then he was gone, and I was left thinking about my task for the day.

Ugh .

My mother.

The very last person I wanted to see was my mother. Especially after I’d learned that she’d been practically stalking me for the last who knew how long.

Shasha and Gable’s best guess was that she’d been doing it since I’d moved there.

I didn’t care that she didn’t watch it.

All I cared about that she was invading my privacy and didn’t give a single fuck about it.

With how angry I still was, I almost didn’t continue up to the front walk to her house. I almost turned around and left this for another day.

I didn’t get to knock before the door was yanked open.

“ You’ve rang,” I drawled, staring at her frazzled looking face.

She reached down and yanked me inside. “ I’ve been trying to call you for days, Athena Murphy !”

I shook her hand off before saying, “ I’m not quite sure what you expected from me when you invaded my privacy so spectacularly.”

My mother narrowed her eyes. “ It was for your own good.”

I was already shaking my head. “ No , it was for your own good. I’m done with the hovering, Mother . I wanted to come here today to let you know that I’m taking a step back, and really want you to understand the boundaries I’m putting into place.”

My mother’s mouth opened. “ You’re what?”

“ I’m done playing the obedient little puppy for you. From now on, you’ll have no access to anything of mine—including location and house. I changed my locks. I disabled all of my locations for you. And I want you to respect the boundaries, or you might very well lose the last daughter you have.”

Something crossed her face, and she looked almost… hesitant.

I didn’t like the look and the hair on the back of my arm started to rise.

“ What is it?” I asked, studying her face.

“ I , uh, have something to tell you,” she admitted.

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

This should be good.

She waited so long to tell me, though, that I began to grow impatient.

A box on the kitchen table caught my eye, and an opened letter sitting by it with cursive print had me wandering toward it.

Something about the handwriting was familiar.

Achingly familiar.

I reached for the letter and…

Memories assaulted me as I studied the handwriting.

Mom had beautiful handwriting.

She’d started learning calligraphy from a young age, and incorporated that into her everyday handwriting, making it look almost magical. Fantastical .

She’d started to teach both Mary Beth and me how to write our names in calligraphy.

That was about all I knew how to do to this day because I’d hated it. But Mary Beth had loved everything about it.

My eyes skimmed down to the bottom of the page, and I saw the signature.

Holy shit.

I dropped the letter and moved toward the box.

And I started going through them all.

Mary Beth .

Mary Beth .

Mary Beth .

“ What is this?” I breathed, looking over toward my mother.

My mother had this guarded oh shit look on her face that clearly told me everything I needed to know without saying a word.

I glanced at the date of the one in my hands.

Last year.

Thanksgiving .

Mary Beth had dated them all.

The one that’d been sitting out on the table was dated yesterday.

“ What the fuck is this?” I whirled toward my mother.

My mother flinched.

I was numb.

I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, either.

Letters .

Hundreds of letters from my mom to Mary Beth . Mary Beth to my mom.

“ Mary Beth ,” she answered simply.

“ Mary Beth ?” I asked. “ The same Mary Beth who was kidnapped when I was a child? That same Mary Beth ?”

I wasn’t making sense.

I knew it.

But I couldn’t get my thoughts and my mouth to coordinate.

My brain was just whirling a thousand miles an hour.

“ Yes ,” she shrugged as if it wasn’t anything new. “ She writes me instead of emailing me because we don’t want to have a trace.”

“ You don’t want to have a trace,” I mused. “ As in, you know where she is?”

“ I’ve always known,” she whispered.

My mouth opened and closed, and I stared at her in shock. “ What do you mean you’ve always known ?”

“ Mary Beth wasn’t adopted.” She looked sheepish. “ Mary Beth was my biological child. I met Mary Beth’s father back home, and one thing led to another, and it just happened. She just happened.” She winced. “ I had her back home and left her with her dad until I could convince Patel that we should adopt her. Her dad and I decided that we would trade off time spent with her. I’d have her for the first five years, and he’d have her the next five. Only , by the time it was my time again, she didn’t want to come. So she’s stayed with her dad ever since.”

“ You … are you telling me that you staged her kidnapping?” I blurted out.

She winced. “ You weren’t supposed to be dragged into it.”

“ I wasn’t supposed to be dragged into it…” I shook my head incredulously. “ What the hell, Mother ? Did Dad know? Gavrel ?”

“ No ,” she stated firmly. “ They didn’t know.”

“ Why would you keep something like this from us? Why not just tell us? Why ? What was all this for?” I was reeling.

“ My affair partner hated that your father was a senator and always putting us in danger, and I agreed with him. But I loved your father with all of my heart, and I couldn’t leave him. Leave you and Gavrel .” She looked away. “ You don’t understand how dangerous your father’s job was. He had a lot of enemies, and we were getting death threats all the time. We got shot, for Christ’s sake!”

They had.

But that didn’t mean she had to take my sister away and let me think that she was suffering all this time.

“ She’s happily married, Athena . How could I have taken that away from her?” she asked.

I didn’t know what to say.

This was all overwhelming.

In the end, I decided that I was done.

I needed to go home.

I needed to talk to Gable or Maven .

I needed out of here.

Now .

I started heading for the door, the letter still clenched in my fist.

My mom stopped me when my hand was on the doorknob to leave.

“ She wants to meet you. Get to know you.”

I heard the lie in her voice.

There was more to it than that.

I turned on shaky legs to face her.

“ Why now?” I asked. “ Why are you finally filling me in now?”

Her eyes shifted slightly to the left as she started speaking.

“ Mary Beth needs a kidney,” she blurted out.

I blinked.

“ And we know you’re a match,” she continued.

Still , I waited.

“ I know this is a shock, and I’m sorry to even have to ask, but would you mind donating a kidney to your sister? She could die without it,” she pushed.

“ How would you know that I’m a match?” I asked carefully. “ We’re not even blood related.”

Her words surprised me, even though at this point they shouldn’t have.

“ Because we had your blood tested.” She looked slightly ill. “ When you were at the hospital last week.”

“ I was at the hospital for a routine test,” I said. “ I …” I stopped. “ My birth mother didn’t die of that inherited blood disease, did she?”

My mother shook her head no.

It was at that point that I was done.

There would be no more talking to her.

Done .

D . O . N . E .

“ Hope you have a good rest of your life, Mother ,” I snarled. “ Because I’m done.”

With that parting comment, I fled, heading to my car.

I wasn’t aware of where I’d driven until I pulled up to the police station.

I wandered to the side entrance and used my employee code to get in the back door.

I kept walking until I got to the area where Germaine , Garnett , Quinn , and Quaid had offices.

Maybe one of them would know where Gable was.

Or maybe I could just rest in one of their offices until Gable was found.

I don’t know why I didn’t just call him.

My brain wasn’t working all that great as all the thoughts, implications, and facts were whirling around up there.

But none of the Carters were there.

None of them.

I stopped at the desk where a receptionist should be and frowned.

“ Athena ?”

I turned to see none other than Callena standing there, looking worried.

“ Yeah ?”

“ What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the hospital?” she asked.

“ Hospital ?” I questioned. “ Why would I be there?”

Her frown deepened. “ You don’t know.”

“ Don’t know what?” I asked.

She caught my hand and started tugging me toward the exit. “ Come on. Let’s get you to the hospital.”

I don’t know why I followed her.

But I’ll never be more glad that I did.