Hearing her Cries, page 51
The words echoed what Bonnie believed down to her soul.
She loved each of her girls so much.
She would have loved the rest of Denita’s children, too. If she had had an opportunity to know them.
Her heart broke for Crispin, and for the girl with blue hair. Blue hair. Crispin had dyed hers blue when she’d been fifteen. She had hated it.
The girl pulled away from her older sister. Bonnie studied them both. The older girl was Heather all over again. The spitting image of Bonnie’s grandmother Francisca in her younger days. The hair was as rich dark brown as Bonnie’s own.
There was no denying this one was a Coleson.
Crispin’s twin, though…she was a bit thinner than Crispin. Maybe a bit shorter. She just seemed smaller. More…fragile.
She was staring at Crispin. Crispin stared at her, too.
They seemed to be shifting closer. Like magnets.
Crispin shot a look of bewilderment at Bonnie. A plea for her mother’s help.
Bonnie pulled herself to her feet.
Her baby girl wasn’t going to do this alone.
157
Pen fought turning around and running. Hiding. Everything just felt different now. At least what she could feel. Mostly she just felt so damned numb.
And angry.
She was definitely angry.
The girl came closer. Her name was Crispin. What kind of name was that?
She had glasses. Pen didn’t.
Pen looked for all the ways they weren’t identical. Rafe and Caine had said they were certain she and this girl were identical twins. But it was possible they weren’t. Pen knew they were, though.
She just knew it, looking at her now.
Then the girl stepped closer.
Pen just looked.
“Your eyes are different from mine,” Crispin said. “Mom said my one eye had a little bit of blue in it when I was a baby, even after the other eye turned brown. It turned completely blue after I hit my eye in a car accident when I was twelve. It just stayed blue after that.”
Pen just nodded. The girl’s hair was in a ponytail, but it was the exact same color as hers. Well… “No blue hair.”
“I had blue when I was fifteen. Summer, my cousin—our cousin, dared me.”
“You go to FCU.” She wore a white FCU T-shirt with navy lettering. Pen had the same one at home. She looked down. She wore a navy FCU T-shirt with white lettering. Her jeans were dark blue. Her twin’s were light blue. But they were the same exact style and brand. Made for tall, skinny girls, just like them.
“Yes. I’m in my second year for my master’s. Mathematics.”
“Second year for my master’s. Psychology.”
The girl nodded this time. There were a few differences Pen could see.
But not much.
The girl just kept watching her. “I’m not really sure…what to say here.”
“Me either.”
They just stared at each other for the longest time. Pen looked at Zoey. “I’m not sure what any of us are supposed to do now.”
The girl looked like she was going to cry. She looked to the woman next to her. “Mom? What do we do?”
She sounded like a little kid. A scared little kid.
Pen’s own eyes filled again.
Crispin’s mom stepped forward.
Pen looked at her.
She looked like the woman in the photos of her own mother Pen had seen. But she also didn’t.
Mostly, she looked like Ariella. Like…what Ariella would look like in twenty years maybe.
Her eye was bruised. There were scratches on her face. One arm was in a sling, just like Pen’s.
Eastman had really hurt her. Pen still wasn’t certain why the woman had been taken. She was too old for Eastman’s little breeding program, right?
The woman put her hand on Crispin’s shoulder. “It’s ok, baby. We’ll figure this out together, I promise.”
Pen looked at Zoey, who pulled her closer, too. “Zo?”
Her sister just held her. “She’s right. We’ll figure this out together. We’ll take care of each other. Like we always have.”
Her twin’s mom nodded. “No matter what.”
Zoey squeezed her, just a little. “The future is going to be what we make it now.”
Crispin’s mom nodded again, gingerly. She really had been battered by that fat pig. Pen wanted to find him in the afterlife and kick his ass. “We can all do this. We’ll just do it one day at a time.”
Pen suspected it wouldn’t be that simple.
EPILOGUE
Zoey was worried. Pen wasn’t doing ok yet. She was better than she was, but her sister’s anxiety had just grown in the weeks since Eastman. Most of Pen’s time had been spent at the hospital, with Sydney and Jo-Jo. Grace, too.
Grace had gone completely silent since the attack. Zoey was worried about her, too. Sydney had been released two weeks to the day after being shot. She could probably have been released sooner, but Rafe and Jillian and her family had ganged up on her, made her stay. They all knew the truth—Sydney wouldn’t have stayed still enough to heal properly.
She was too worried about everyone else to sit still.
Jo-Jo’s cast had come off the week before. She had a long way to go before she was recovered. She probably wouldn’t walk without crutches ever again. The nerve and muscle damage were significant, worse than originally thought, even though the bones themselves had healed. They would know more after a few months of physical therapy.
The girls were getting better.
But Pen? She didn’t want to go back to FCU. She’d signed on for completely online classes, after finishing up last semester’s off-campus. No one was pushing. The university wasn’t—considering what had happened just off the edge of campus. Jo-Jo was also going to be delayed at least a year on her own education.
Sydney had gone back to law school within one week of release. She’d made up the lost class time somehow.
She’d been determined. She’d told Zoey herself—she wasn’t letting Eastman change her world any more than that bastard already had. That girl…there was a fire and determination in Sydney that frightened Zoey.
Sydney had taken over the search for the rest of the Eastman babies.
The Eastman babies. The Eastman Affair. The Eastman Girls.
That’s what the news sites had started calling them. Five young co-eds, Zoey, little Oakley, and Bonnie—taken by a madman for his evil experiments. Including identical twins separated at birth. Zoey, Pen, Crispin, Oakley, and Bonnie being related to the governor’s wife and to a tech giant like Luc, and Sydney being Houghton’s sister-in-law, and Jo-Jo being the mayor’s sister-in-law—they had been hounded for weeks.
The media coverage had been horrible.
And everyone focused on Bonnie. Speculation was that she’d been involved. The sweet nurse exterior hiding the soul of a monster had been one speculative article.
It had nearly destroyed the woman at first.
Zoey hadn’t interacted with the Colesons much. Not yet. There was almost a battle line drawn between the Colesons and Zoey’s family. They were still working their way past that. Zoey didn’t fully understand why.
Except…ways to protect themselves from more pain.
It wasn’t going easily between Pen and Crispin either. Zoey’s counselor at the women’s center her sister Ariella had started—and Luc funded—suggested it was the outward appearance. Every time they looked at each other, Pen and Crispin were reminded of what Eastman had done. An in-your-face reminder of the worst moments of their lives.
Zoey understood that.
Today was the first step. It was going to be a cool day, February’s highs were usually in the fifties, but Bonnie and her family had been invited to a barbecue at the Barratt Ranch. With Zoey’s family, and Houghton and Melody’s.
The entire family. Whoever they could get. It was a large event, and not just family. They’d thought something casual like that would be best to build bridges. Zoey thought it had waited long enough.
Murdoch stuck his head in the bathroom where she was finishing up. “Hey, babe.”
“Don’t call me babe.” She just said it out of habit. “Unless you want to tangle.”
“I definitely want to tangle with you. But…it needs to be later. We have company.”
“Oh?” It was usually one of her sisters or brothers. Or his.
“Yeah, they are waiting out here in the front room.”
Murdoch had moved himself right in. Zoey had held open the door. They’d come home from the hospital as a family. They lived there as a family. Pen was making noises about moving to the mother-in-law suite eventually. But she just wasn’t ready yet.
She was still fighting the nightmares every night. And Zoey wanted her sister where she could keep an eye on her. But they were getting there. They would keep getting there, an inch at a time.
Murdoch and the kids were in the living room. They adored their daddy. Their daddy adored them. She loved watching Murdoch with them, too.
The kids were eyeing their guest suspiciously. They’d only really interacted with two or three people their entire lives—the nanny, who they missed, but no one had ever fully been able to identify yet, the man they called Mean Vaughn. And Eastman.
Oakley had mentioned a “mean lady” once, but that was it.
The isolation they’d faced had delayed them in some ways, making them act a little younger than most of their agemates. But they were catching up.
Orion and Oakley were adjusting as best any kid could under the circumstances.
Zoey stopped walking and just looked at their visitor.
Rich dark hair stuck up all over the man’s head. There was a strange fervor in his gorgeous blue eyes. His handsome face was haggard, and beard stubbled. But it was the wild look in his eyes that had her tensing. “Neil, what’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong.” He held something out to her. A large box.
“What?” Zoey took the box instinctively.
“This is not my damned cat!”
“Excuse me?”
“That is not my cat. It is your cat. The entire town voted. The Millers even agreed. Apparently, he’s been depressed since you left, they said. It’s a cat! That is your cat! Everyone in town says he’s Zoey’s cat. There you go. Consider him your wedding present from the entire town of Garrity. Best of luck to you. I am out of here!”
And the former ex-special forces sheriff of Garrity stormed away. Admitting he’d been defeated.
Zoey heard laughter.
From Murdoch. From Pen, who knelt in front of Orion putting his shoes on him. Zoey opened the first flap.
A deep meow was her greeting.
Peach the Fuzz had come to Finley Creek.
WATCH FOR MORE BOOKS SET IN FINLEY CREEK IN 2024!
FOR A SHORT STORY TAKING PLACE DURING HEARING HER CRIES , featuring Bonnie’s sister, Joy, VISIT
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For some bite-sized romances set during the events of the Disaster series, check out the Storm Stories novelettes at www.callejbrookes.com.
____________________________________
For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.
You will be missed.
Oct. 2015
For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.
Feb. 2016
For my papaw, whose children loved him deeply, and will always miss him.
Oct. 2017
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Calle J. Brookes enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in.
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Calle J. Brookes, Hearing her Cries
