Page 98 of Take The Risk

​“I mean it, Tyler. She’s going to live.” Alex rebuked any argument, but I saw it. The fear. The terror.

​Alex plays tough. The more scared she is, the more likely she’ll commit a felony.

​Phoebe’s words from one night after Alex had done yet another demented thing came back to me. Apparently, she’d gotten bored and glitter bombed Jeremy’s office.

​“This was nothing. She’s just feeling petty and vengeful,” my scribbler assured me when I wondered if Alex knew she could be arrested for half the shit she’d done. “I have a house in France for the true moments when she’s likely to do something that will result in her rocking orange for the next twenty-five years.”

​I’d thought she’d been joking. Then she’d shown me pictures of the quaint cottage she owned in the French countryside. A place she said she wanted me to go with her when I was able to take my vacation.

A place I needed to make sure Alex didn’t have to spend the rest of her life in.

​“Put the bat down, Alex.” I got up, ignoring how she tried to fend me off, and pulled her into a hug. Taking advantage of it, I swiped the bat from her, ignoring her outraged shriek, and handed it to Wade.

​“I need that,” she declared. “Wanda and I have some work to do once I know what happened.”

​I hadn’t been the one to call her. Wade had. I hadn’t been able to do anything. Hell, I wasn’t even sure how I got here. When we’d found out Phoebe had coded in the ambulance but was being rushed to surgery, I’d sat down, put my head in my hands, and hadn’t really looked up since.

​I tried to get her to sit down, but she stubbornly refused, demanding answers.

​“What do you know?” I couldn’t stay standing, so I retook my seat.

​“Just that Amber-Rae shot Phoebe and something about a head injury.”

​I sought Mom out in the corner and felt rage ignite inside of me. She was my mother. I loved her. I just didn’t know if I could ever forgive her for what she’d done to Phoebe. To Delilah. To me. I knew not all of this was her fault. I had my own share of blame here. I just couldn’t help thinking that if Mom hadn’t cornered Phoebe in the first place, forced her to hide, she’d be here right now. In my arms. Where she belonged.

​To her credit, or maybe because she thought I wanted her to admit her role, Mom spoke up, with Helen adding in what she could.

​By the time she was done, Alex was vibrating with rage. “You put your hands on Phoebe? You smashed her head off the floor?” This was asked quietly. Far too quietly.

​Mom hung her head in shame. “I did. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what came over me.”

​Alex stalked forward, and I was on my feet.

“You’re going die.” Alex delivered this in that way you knew she was serious. Not loudly. Not angrily. Calmly. Almost serenely. “I told Phoebe you weren’t to be trusted.”

Wade muttered, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

​“Alex!” I tried to pull her back. She wasn’t going for Mom, though. No, she was standing over her, and that had me more than a little concerned. “You’re angry. I get it. I’m furious, too.” I didn’t feel anything when Mom flinched at my words.

​Alex ignored me. “You and I aren’t finished.” She pointed between my mother and her. Then, as if she hadn’t just channeled a serial killer, she turned to me. “Where is Amber-Rae?”

​“She’s in the ER getting her arm set in a cast under police guard.” Rowdy meandered in, wobbling a little. Delilah steadied him, nagging him about sitting down.

​“I’m fine, Lilah.” He sat down anyway, looking ashen. The arm of his shirt had been cut off and a bandage was wrapped around his shoulder. It was a testament to the shock I was in that I didn’t feel anything about seeing him sitting with my sister.

​ Wade and I threatened him at my apartment while Delilah was in the bathroom, which helped. Rowdy had made it clear he saw her only as a kid, and surprisingly, I believed him.

​“Rowdy’s not who you think he is.” Phoebe propped her head on my chest, the sheet around her slipping down to reveal her naked back. “Maybe if you just talked to him, you’d see he’s sad. Lonely. He’s hiding. I don’t know what, but I know it.”

​I’d told her he was hiding all right. Now, I had to wonder if my scribbler hadn’t been right all along. She saw people in a way the rest of us didn’t. What I’d learned about Rowdy today certainly had me second-guessing everything I thought I knew.

​“Are you here to defend your mother?” Alex crossed her arms over her chest.

​Rowdy snorted. “Hell, no.”

​“Fine. Then maybe you can explain why she shot Phoebe.” Alex was far less hostile to Rowdy. Probably because he’d gotten shot tackling Amber-Rae to get the gun away from her, which happened to break the woman’s arm in the process.

​“Because she’s batshit crazy!?” Rowdy said.