“Drake will always have a job, Emily. Always,” Caleb said.
“Good.” I laughed. “I don’t think I’ll be fixing him up with a girl anytime soon.” I was so not a matchmaker. My body had started to heal, but still, all I wanted to do was get out of here. I hated hospitals. “Can we go?” I asked.
Gael came to me, helping me up.
“It’s time for us to go home,” Caleb said.
I stilled, looking at the door then at my men. Home. It was such an innocent word, and yet, it was entirely what I needed to hear.
****
Vadik
One week later
We found the perfect spot for the ashes.
All six of us, me, Gael, River, Caleb, Emily, and Ashley, we carried the urn into the deepest part of the words on the edge of Crude Hill. We were dressed in sweats and shirts. It was cold and dirty.
I held on to Emily as she kept on slipping over.
When we’d gotten home from the hospital, she didn’t waste any time in telling us the good news. She carried our baby.
I’d never been so freaking happy or scared at the same time than at that moment. This overwhelming need to protect her had struck me. It had been even harder than any other time.
All I knew was … we’d do whatever it took to make her safe. Caleb was having the hardest time. I’d found him in the library on many occasions, looking at the picture of his mother. We’d all wanted Emily pregnant, but now there was a real threat. Women didn’t make it in childbirth, even now. All we could do was be there and fucking hope she made it through.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
The ground was way too wet and too easy to slip over. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s kind of morbid, though, right? We’re walking out to give your fathers a fitting sendoff?”
“They’re rotting in hell. We’re just putting them where they belong,” Gael said.
I couldn’t agree more.
We came to a spot where there was at least a couple of feet between trees. It looked like the wildlife used it to take shits, which was all the more fitting.
River was the one who carried the shovel, and at Caleb’s nod, he dug into the ground. He only dug a couple of shovels in. There was no need to do back-breaking labor for this sendoff.
“You don’t think this is going to make us cursed, do you?” Ashley asked. When we got back, Earl wasn’t going to be sticking around. He and intended to take Ashley back to wherever he lived.
I didn’t like it. I knew Emily even more so. We all didn’t like Earl, but he’d been with Caleb and had been the one to carry Emily to safety, so we couldn’t complain too much.
He’d helped us when he could have turned his back and for that, we had to at least give him a chance.
“Please, you believe in that shit?” Gael asked.
“I don’t know. Coming here was supposed to be good luck. I don’t think any of what has happened so far has been luck.”
“We met each other,” Emily said, moving toward her best friend.
Ashley chuckled. “You couldn’t stand me.”
“That’s not completely true. I was trying to survive and you were like bait in a tank full of sharks.”
They both hugged and laughed. “I guess. Sure. I can see that. Fine.”
“If we’re cursed, doing this wouldn’t give me so much happiness,” Caleb said, tipping the contents of the urn into the dirt. Rather than using the shovel to put the mud back, he kicked it with his boot and started to stomp all over the mess.
We all joined in, grinding the mud into the ashes that were once our fathers. It wasn’t exactly the most respectful sendoff, but it was the best they were going to get.
I had no regrets.
Once the ashes and mud had mingled together, we all headed out to where Earl was already waiting with the car. He didn’t hold his hand out to Ashley, just looked at her.
“This is my stop.” She hugged Emily tight to her. “Take care and send me pictures every single day.”
“If he hurts you, you come to us. Promise me.”
“I promise.” Ashley kissed her friend’s cheek and I held on to Emily as Ashley climbed into the car.
Earl came toward us, shaking each of our hands in turn.
“Gentlemen,” he said before getting into the car as well.
It was anticlimactic, but after everything we’d been through already, I didn’t need any additional drama.
Emily held her hand up and we all waved goodbye.
She didn’t move until their cars could no longer be seen. Finally, she turned toward us. “What happens now?”
Caleb came forward, pulling her in close. “Now, we go home, plan our wedding, then prepare for our baby.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Also, we’ve got to pick up Drake. He’s coming home and he’s requesting we bring the nurse who has been helping him get better,” Gael said.
Emily chuckled. “I can’t believe it’s all over.”
“It’s not over,” River said. “Crude Hill High is back open. Shit still needs to be done, and the Monsters, well, we’re the kings of the castle.”
Emily pressed the back of her palm to my chest, rolling her eyes. “Come on, it’s time to go home.”
And that was something I was looking forward to.
