“Now tell me.”
“It’s bad. He has friends at the house. Four that I counted.”
“And mom? She was allowing it, right?”
Drake closed his eyes, trying to block out the scene. Sadly, he answered. “Yeah, she was allowing it.”
“Dammit. I figured as much, but I hoped not. Did you get a chance to check on Delmar?”
“I talked to Larry, he says that Delmar is definitely in cahoots with dad.”
“Yeah, that’s what he and I figured. It kind of sealed the deal when he didn’t give us a heads up that dad was getting out of prison.”
“I still don’t get why Dad has it out for Piper. Sure her testimony got him convicted, but that’s water under the bridge, right?” Drake looked at Evie who shrugged.
“I just thank God she got the hell out of there. I wish she would have called us. If we had been given a minute, we could have come up with a contingency plan to deal with the motherfucker. It never would have occurred to me that Piper would go out on her own because she would be trying to protect us.”
Drake remembered his sister being a tomboy, but listening to her saying things like motherfucker and contingency plans was kind of blowing his mind. It was as if he could be talking to a teammate, except her language was worse.
“I thought you were a housekeeper.”
“Don’t you mean a maid?” Evie grimaced.
“With you, there’s always more than meets the eye. I know better than to underestimate Evie Lavender Avery.”
“Then you and Trenda are the only two in the world.” She took down three plates from the cupboard. “I hear Piper coming down the hall.”
Piper came dragging into the kitchen, she was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a worn gray T-shirt. She looked flushed and exhausted. He went over and felt her forehead.
“Whatchya doin’?”
Drake looked over at Evie, who came over to feel Piper’s forehead as well.
“I’m not sick,” Piper protested.
“You feel warm,” Evie said as she put her arm around her sister. “Come on honey, let’s get you back upstairs. I’ll bring breakfast up to you.”
“I just got out of a warm bed,” she groused.
The two older Averys looked at one another.
“Seriously, you guys need to calm down. I’m not sick. I’m old enough to tell you if I’m not feeling well. I got out of the frickin house, now didn’t I? I got you to come get me, didn’t I?” She glared at Drake.
He held up his hands.
“Don’t bite my head off. Have you been taking lessons from Evie?”
“If I was, I would have said fucking house.” She laughed.
“Let’s eat and figure out a game plan,” Evie said as she handed them each a plate.
“I already handled part of the game,” Piper said as she started towards the dining room.
“What do you mean?” Drake asked.
“I called Miss Eastman and apologized for not helping with her class yesterday, and told her I couldn’t make it today either. It’s not a good idea for me to go to school because they’d be looking for me there, right?”
“You called your teacher?” Drake felt the vein in his temple begin to pulse.
“Well sure. I had to. She depends on me.”
“Why would she depend on you?”
“Piper is a teacher’s aide,” Evie explained with pride.
“I had to tell her I wasn’t going to be there again today. Anyway, she’d already talked to Trenda. She has all my homework from the high school. She wants to come over.”
“No.”
Piper looked at Drake in surprise. Evie nodded in agreement.
“But it’s Miss Eastman. She’s safe,” Piper said.
Drake dug into his food. The biscuits and gravy were to die for.
“Drake?”
“Piper, it’s not safe. Not only are the road conditions terrible for driving up here, we don’t need anybody else knowing where we’re at.”
“Oh.”
Drake looked up. Piper was biting her lip.
Dammit.
“You already told her where we’re at, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry, Drake.”
“It’s okay, Tinkerbell.” ,He sighed. “Is she on her way?”
“Yeah. She needed to come before school started. She teaches kindergarten.”
“Well, we better eat our breakfast. But Piper, you can’t do this again. Nobody else can know where we are. Got it?”
“I understand. I won’t do it again. But seriously, you’ll love her. She’s the bomb.”
Chapter Four
Drake had been staring out the window at the snow coming down as he’d talked to Aiden. After he was done with the call, he walked into the great room and spied the three women. Their visitor had arrived. All three females turned and smiled. Drake’s step almost faltered, but he recovered. What the hell? When did they start making kindergarten teachers all lush and curvy? She wasn’t the bomb. She was a bombshell.