He Shielded Her, So I Left the Club novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Farm

"File it," I said.

Gage's smile slipped a quarter inch.

"What?"

"File your divorce on Monday. I'll sign it in front of the table. But you'll name Dot Mabry as the witness who was on the phone with me for the whole bandage, and she'll tell it in her ER voice."

One of the patches coughed into his fist.

The other looked at the Sportster and not at me.

"Jared's in his T-shirt," I said. "He gave up his vest to stand next to me. If you think that's what a man does for a bed, you've never given up a thing in your life."

Gage's phone buzzed in his hand.

He glanced down, and his face changed.

"Cor," he said, and answered. "Where are you? What do you mean, you're not home?"

He listened.

Then he walked away across the gravel with the phone at his ear and his father's patches trailing after him.

I watched the two trucks pull out.

Jared's phone started ringing in his back pocket a second later.

He looked at the screen and went still.

"It's Delilah."

"Answer it."

He put it on speaker.

"Jared?" Delilah's voice was thin and fast. "I need a ride. I'm at my mother's place in Kentucky, and I can't call Gage. Hattie's got a fever. She's burning up, she won't wake up right."

"Why aren't you calling an ambulance?"

"My mother's phone is out. I can't drive her, my car won't start, and I don't want to explain myself to the sheriff." She laughed once, high and ugly. "I ran, okay? Don't say it. I ran because of Sunday. Please. She's four."

I took the phone out of his hand.

"Delilah, it's Mara."

The line went silent.

"What's her temperature?"

"What?"

"You've got a thermometer. Is it above a hundred and four?"

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