Complete Mia Kazmaroff by Kiernan-Susan Lewis

Author:Kiernan-Susan Lewis [Lewis, Kiernan-Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 'paranormal, police, sexy, detective, atlanta, taken, human trafficking'
Publisher: Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

*****

Marvella Burton’s ranch, located in a tired neighborhood in an outer suburb of Valdosta, was tidy but old. She’d raised both her boys there after their dad died. Jack had long gotten used to the chores and maintenance an older house demanded. He mused it was probably the reason he’d bought his own post-war ranch in Garden Hills.

The one that burned to the ground last spring.

“Is that you, Jack?” his mother called through the screen door. She hurried to open it for him, although he only carried one bag of groceries. He remembered someone once telling him that after an adult child left home, every time you came back you saw your parents age a little bit each visit.

After Steven died, his mother had sped up the process considerably.

“Yep,” he said, walking into the kitchen. His mother returned to her seat at the dinette table, a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.

He’d bought her an espresso machine a few days after the funeral and was frankly surprised to see how quickly she’d made it a new habit. He looked around the kitchen. It was clean but pieces of sidewall were flaking off the ceiling and the walls. Steven had never been much of a handyman, and that was before he’d decided to spend the rest of his pathetic life wasted on drugs and alcohol.

Jack hadn’t been surprised to get the call two weeks ago that Steven had finally overdosed. The only surprise was the lack of relief he felt when it finally happened. And the grief at losing a brother he never really knew.

“Oh my, you’ve got so many goodies. I will not know what to do when you go back to Atlanta.”

“You could always come with me,” Jack said as he began unpacking the bag on the counter.

“Can you imagine me in Atlanta?”

“You make it sound like it’s Paris.”

“Might as well be. Everyone in my parish would think I’d lost my mind.”

“Or maybe they’d think you have a son who lives in Atlanta.”

His mother folded her hands around her cup of coffee and smiled into it. He knew she was craving a cigarette. He could smell the smoke in the air from the one she’d just had.

“You know, I don’t mind if you smoke, Mom. This is your house.”

“Well, I’m just being hospitable is all, dear. I’m not hooked, you know.”

The idea of addiction hung between them like an unwanted guest. Jack glanced at his mother. He knew for a fact Steven never came to see her. It wouldn’t be Steven she’d miss. It’d be the idea of him. The fact she couldn’t say “my boys” ever again.

“I hate to leave you down here alone,” he said, digging out a pot and placing it on the gas stove. He adjusted the flame under it.

“I’m not alone and your life is in Atlanta,” she said, smiling. She was seriously overweight and that worried him. A lifetime of chicken and okra fried in bacon fat with a side order of buttered biscuits had padded the face he loved with two extra chins.

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