Jonah took a deep breath and then let it out shakily. “She told me she’d been following the man that kidnapped you. Notified me where he’d taken you and told me to hurry. That’s it. Then she hung up. Which must have been not long before she entered the building on her own mission to save you.”
“My Tabby would never allow anyone to harm her sisters. She was more protective than Blessing and Sonia put together.” Mama Kerri sniffed and wiped at her nose with an old-fashioned handkerchief. “She always said if she didn’t have us, she’d have nothing. Which is why she would go to the ends of the earth to protect us.”
“And she did,” I whispered. “She gave her life for ours.”
Addy grabbed my hand and I held it so tight I could feel her heartbeat against my palm.
“My girl had a lot of demons but the one thing that gave her pride was us. We were the only good she could see in the world. It had been that way since she arrived here at thirteen years old. I can easily see why she’d make such a sacrifice. Her love was bigger than any drug that riddled her brain and body. And in the end, she did exactly what she set out to do. She gave it all up for the family she loved. As twisted and gut-wrenching as losing Tabby is for each and every one of us, her death was very noble. I’m going to choose to see my baby as a hero and I would encourage each one of you to do so.” Mama Kerri’s words were filled with compassion and sorrow, but she meant every word.
She firmed her spine and sat up in her chair. “You lost a sister today and I lost a daughter. That is going to take us a long time to accept. But let us feel comforted in the fact that she died doing what she loved. Protecting her family.” Her blue green eyes came to me, then Addison. “It would have been the same if it had been Blessing and Liliana or Sonia, Genesis or Charlie. I do not want the two of you taking this on as though it were your fault. It is the fault of a very sick man. Now, we have to set about healing. That alone will be hard enough without you two attempting to accept blame. You hear me?”
I licked my lips and nodded. “Yeah, Mama. I hear you.”
“Yes, Mama,” Addison reiterated.
“Okay, I’m going to go check on my grandbaby outside with Aunt Delores in the garden. You all have your beds here; I expect each of you to be in them tonight.” Her gaze scanned every woman and waited until they nodded or gave their own murmured, “Yes, Mama.”
“Now, I love all my girls with my whole heart. I loved Tabby, and together, we’ll find a way through this pain. Part of that will be putting my girl to rest.”
“I’ll help you with all the details, Mama Kerri,” Genesis offered.
Mama nodded. “We’ll set about looking at her place next weekend. We need this week to heal. I expect all of you to lay your heads down on a pillow in this house until I’m confident everyone is emotionally and physically okay. And that includes me. Okay, my chicklets?”
Again, each of us either nodded numbly or said okay.
“Jonah, I suspect you will be staying here with Simone?” Mama Kerri asked.
He perked up by my side. “I didn’t want to beg, but I would have.”
She smiled sweetly and that small smile was all it took for the emptiness inside me to start to fill up again with love. I didn’t have Tabby and would grieve her the rest of my life. But I did have Mama Kerri, Sonia, Blessing, Addison, Liliana, Charlie, and the man I loved holding me up.
We all had a long road to go, but together I knew we could make it through anything.
Even the loss of a sister.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I jolted awake, my entire body so hot, sweat misted around the edges of my hairline and down my spine.
I was back there. In that basement. Addison tied up, blood pouring down her arms and dripping against the cold concrete floor. Her lifeless eyes open staring unseeing at the ceiling as her life source continued to drip out of her.
Tabby lay dead at her feet.
But that wasn’t how it happened.
Addy was alive.
I blinked against the darkness of the room while the familiar breath against the back of my hair took away a little of the panic. I focused on that breath from behind me as Jonah slept, his body curled around mine. Still, I couldn’t shake the unease clawing at my stomach.
Addy.
I needed to see Addy. Make sure she was okay.
Make sure she was alive.
With extreme effort, I eased slowly out of the bed. On bare feet, I padded out of my old room, the one I’d shared with Sonia that I was now sharing with Jonah. Sonia and Charlie had bunked up in the spare room because neither of them wanted to sleep in the room that Charlie used to share with Tabby growing up. It was too soon. It might always be too soon.
I maneuvered past the squeaky board that I knew would wake Mama Kerri and kept on past Lilian and Genesis’s room. Past Charlie and Tabby’s old room to the one at the end. Addison and Blessing had always been thicker than thieves. Sharing a room with a woman half your life would definitely build that relationship. It was also why they were so good working together a lot of the time. Blessing as the designer, Addy as her model. Had a lot to do with why they were hired for special shoots too. They just worked well together.
As quietly as I could, I pushed open the door to their room. Blessing slept deep. Always had. She was also the last to rise. No matter what. The woman liked her sleep and never had a problem falling to sleep or staying that way. You could run the vacuum right by her bed and she’d sleep through it.
Addy sat up a little when I entered.
I dashed over to her bed as she pulled back the covers. I slid in and faced her. She grabbed both of my hands and we stared at one another in the mostly dark room.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nightmare. You?”
“Same.”
I nodded, brought our hands toward my face, and kissed her fingers. She squeezed mine.
“Are we ever going to be able to close our eyes again and not see what happened?” she whispered.
My heart cracked open and more sorrow poured out. “I don’t know. I hope so. Probably when a little time has passed. Maybe not.”
She hummed and closed her eyes.
I closed my eyes and listened to her humming. She did it for so long it lulled me sleep.
Sometime in the night or early morning, Jonah came into the room and I was lifted into the air and held in his arms as he carried me back to his bed.
This became a nightly routine. Me waking with a nightmare and crawling into bed with Addison until I could sleep again. Later, Jonah would come and get me, carrying me back to my place at his side.
He never complained. Not once.
Friday, we cremated Tabby’s remains and set her soul free. Tabby’s ashes were put into an etched, ornate metal urn that Mama Kerri put front and center on her mantle over the fireplace. None of us were ready to spread her ashes anywhere. We needed the reminder of her presence in our lives and we all agreed Tab would be cool with that.
Mama Kerri held a small gathering at her house, and we put an announcement in the paper. Few people showed. Mostly friends of ours or Mama Kerri’s. Of course, the media mongrels were camped outside waiting to catch any sight of the grieving family. Not only was the media obsessed with the fact a serial killer had been caught and taken out, but the connection to the youngest Senator in history, one who was beautiful, strong, and firm in her political convictions? They simply couldn’t harness their fascination. Sonia had been followed incessantly and it didn’t look like it would be slowing down any time soon.