Apokalypsis | Book 6 | Apokalypsis 6 Morris, Kate (cheapest way to read ebooks TXT) 📖

“Fuck,” Stephanie said quietly and stared off to the side as if she didn’t even remember not to swear like that or that people were even around. She was shaken, so Roman let the bad language slide.

Tristan went to Avery and took her hand in his. She didn’t look so good lately. She was paler than she normally was and seemed distressed a lot.

“We’re not sure what happened, Angel,” he said in a consoling tone.

Roman was just glad the kids had moved to the basement to hang out. He didn’t want Connor to hear any of this. Renee set her mug down on the table, and it rattled against it first because her hands were shaking so hard.

Gyles went on to say, “We saw the tracks of footprints in the snow up on the road over to my place. Close to it, there seemed to be some sort of scuffle. The tracks got messy, and it looked like a wrestling match took place. Then the footprints of just two people were left. We’re assuming those belonged to Remmie and Clara. We saw they continued all the way to my place from this one. Bianca must’ve gotten separated from them. Maybe a…well, you know.”

“A night crawler?” Roman asked for clarification and got a nod.

Avery asked, “If that were the case, why didn’t the girls run back to us in the house for help? Or at least to tell us?”

Gyles shrugged. “Maybe felt it was faster to head to mine since they were past the halfway mark between us.”

“That makes no sense,” Avery stated as tears slipped from her eyes and down her cheeks. “Why would they leave Bianca behind like that?”

“Noah,” Roman bit out angrily. “He probably convinced them to just get in the truck so they could leave instead of telling all of us first so we could search for Bianca.”

“Do you think he’d do that? Really?” Spencer asked.

“Yeah, I do. He’s a selfish asshole. The only thing that mattered to him was getting out of here.”

“But what about Bianca?” Renee asked. “He said they were basically running away together, in love or whatever.”

Roman’s gaze shot to Jane’s, and she immediately looked at her lap. He said, “That was just a lie, a front. He wasn’t in love with that girl. She just wanted to go because she wanted to find her mom, even though we’re all pretty sure her mother is in all likelihood dead. He had a way with spinning lies. He probably convinced her he was in love with her or something just so that he could get her to leave with him.”

“Oh, dear,” Renee fretted. “I can’t believe this is happening. How’d none of us see any of them leaving?”

“They had this planned for a few days probably,” Spencer said and cupped Renee’s shoulder in a firm grip. She laid her cheek against his hand. “This isn’t our fault. None of ours.”

Jane stared hard at her hands around the base of her hot tea mug. He knew she was probably feeling pretty guilty for bringing Noah into their group.

“Wait, you don’t think…” Abraham started but stopped and shook his head. “No. No, that couldn’t be.”

“What is it, Abraham?” Tristan urged.

“Nothing. It was stupid. Sorry.”

“Sometimes the thing we think is stupid is the one thing that’s right. Tell us.”

He shrugged and said, “You don’t think he attacked Jane’s mother, do you?”

“Why would you think that?” Tristan asked.

He just shrugged until Tristan encouraged him again. “Well, I’m not sure what the man looked like, but her mother said he was nursing an injury. Remember Noah fell and got hurt in town when he went and wrecked his truck, too? He was climbing onto that roof and slid off? Steph, you told us that since you went with him and Bianca.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly, unusual for her. “Yeah, he busted his ass.”

Abraham continued, “Avery looked at him and thought maybe he’d broken a rib. She said it was really bruised. I don’t know. Sorry, this is a dumb theory. That’s wrong to make such an assumption.”

“No, it’s not,” Tristan said. “And Maureen didn’t have a lot of interaction with Noah, did she, Jane?”

“No, not really at all. I don’t remember if he’d spent any time with her at all. She’s kept to her house. Noah hardly left ours—”

“No kidding,” Roman blurted before he could stop himself.

“We should talk to your mother again,” Tristan said. “Gyles and I will do it. We have to take the horses back anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Tristan. Maureen and I ain’t exactly friendly if you know what I mean.”

“Ah, right,” he said and waited for a volunteer. Abraham was the first, followed by Renee. “We need to bury her, too, so I’ll need more volunteers.”

“Hey,” Alex said, stepping out of the shadows near the fireplace wall. Roman had forgotten he was there. “Hang on.”

“What is it?” Gyles asked.

“I have something to say about all this,” Elijah’s brother stated quietly and looked around.

“Go on, son,” Gyles said. He called everyone in their group that. The girls were usually ‘young lady.’ Roman figured it was a Texas thing since he was from there.

Alex cleared his voice and paused. He looked at Elijah before starting, “When Jane’s friend killed herself…”

“Destiny?” Jane asked and got a nod.

“Yeah, she…I don’t know. I had a bad feeling about that. I just kept thinking about that scene where we found her. It seemed staged. I looked around. Been back since and looked when the snow melted there for a few days. I never found a knife. She cut her wrists with something. Maybe one of you picked it up?”

“No, not me,” Spencer said. Tristan agreed also. Every person who’d been there or who’d helped bury her said the same.

“Yeah, well, ya’ see, I looked hard for that knife. I even took a leaf rake out there. When we buried her, I know it wasn’t on her. I searched. She was only in her pajamas. I