I answered. “Hello?”
“Aurora?” the familiar voice replied.
My whole body jerked in place. “Mrs. Jones?”
The Antichrist barreled on like she went through everything in her life: with no regard for anyone but herself and her children. “Look here, I know how stubborn you’re being about all this—”
“What?” It was too early for this shit. It was way too early. What was she doing contacting me? “How the hell did you get my number? Why are you calling?” I spat in sheer disbelief this was happening.
Her pause was too short. “I really need to speak to you if you won’t respond to Kaden.”
I remembered then. I remembered right in that moment that I didn’t need to take her bullshit anymore. So I hung up.
And I smirked.
And Amos asked in his sleepy voice, “Why do you look like that?”
“I forgot how much I like hanging up on people,” I answered him, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself as I processed what I’d done. Damn, did that feel good.
He frowned like he thought I was nuts just as my phone started vibrating again. The same number flashed on the screen. I hit ignore.
“Who is that?”
“Did you know the devil is really a woman?” I asked.
My phone started vibrating again, and I cursed. She wasn’t going to let this go. Why would I expect otherwise from someone who thought we were all around to serve her? The urge to keep playing this game—ignoring her calls—pulsed deeply in my chest… but the urge to never have this shit happen again was even stronger once I thought about it. That surprised me a lot.
I didn’t actually want to keep doing this with her. With any of them, really. I didn’t even want to waste my time thinking about them anymore.
I knew damn well I needed to end this once and for all, and there was only one way to do that.
I answered the call and went right into it. “Mrs. Jones, it’s seven in the morning, and this is—”
“I’m in town, Aurora. Please meet me.”
And that’s why the number was local. Son of a bitch. I was still tired enough I hadn’t put two and two together. I was lucky I didn’t have anything in my mouth because I would’ve spit it out. “You’re in town where?” I pretty much demanded.
“In this… town. At the resort with the springs,” she replied, sounding totally put out by the nicest hotel in town. “I need to speak to you. Clear some things up that I think may have gotten… out of hand,” she said way too carefully compared to how she used to speak to me.
I glanced at Amos to find him staring blearily at his phone, but I knew this sneaky kid was listening.
“Please,” the older woman said, “for old times’ sake.”
“The ‘old times’ sake’ thing won’t work on me, ma’am,” I told her honestly.
Yeah, I knew that was going to go down real well with her. She was probably shooting me the middle finger in her head because she thought she was way too classy to actually do it. And to me, that just made it a hell of a lot worse.
“Please,” she insisted. “I will never contact you again if you don’t want me to.”
Liar.
The urge to hang up was still there, pulsing and pounding and telling me to move on with my life. There was nothing I wanted to hear from her mouth. But… there were things I wanted to tell her. Specific things that needed to be said so I would never have to go through this again. Speaking to them, I meant. Because ultimately, that was what I needed more than anything now. To fucking move on. To not have the Joneses hanging over my head anymore.
What I wanted was my current life. The man in bed upstairs. And I couldn’t have those things with these damn ghosts still haunting me when they felt like it.
I thought about what I knew about this woman, which was just about everything, and cursed. “Fine. There’s a restaurant on the main street that’s in walking distance. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
“Which restaurant?”
“There’s only one open this early. The front desk can give you directions.” And it was usually busy with tourists and retired locals, so I figured it was the best place for us to meet so that she wouldn’t throw a fit. I hadn’t eaten breakfast there yet, but I drove by it every morning and knew what kind of traffic they got. It would be perfect.
“I’ll meet you there,” she said after a moment, her voice strained, and I knew this was costing her.