In the Arms of Stone Angels Read Online Free PDF Page B

right?”
    I didn’t do cute. And I had another problem. I wrung my hands and shuffled my feet. On top of everything I had against me—now I had to pee.
    â€œI’d appreciate a lift, but can you just watch me until I get inside Grams’s house?” I worked hard to control the whine in my voice. “My mom will kill me if I wake her. She had a long day of driving.”
    I held up the key to Grams’s house and dangled it in the light. “See? Here’s my key. To my dead grandmother’s house.” I pictured Grams shaking her head. Sometimes— like now —I wished I didn’t have to hear me talk.
    â€œI promise.” I crossed my heart. “You won’t catch me doing this again. I swear to God.”
    I hoped he hadn’t noticed my subtle wording that he wouldn’t “catch me doing this again.” I would definitely have to be more careful next time.
    Deputy Tate heaved a sigh and pointed a finger at me. “If I ever have to chase you down again for something…”
    I didn’t let him finish.
    â€œYou won’t. I promise.” I forced a grin. Smiling made my face hurt. “And thanks for the lift. I owe you one.”
    â€œYeah, you do.”
    I followed him to his squad car and kept my mouth shut, something I wished I had done earlier. But I’d been serious about owing Deputy Tate. A guy in uniform, who knew how to bend the rules for a kid like me, was a good guy in my book and a real exception to the rule in this town.
    For some reason, I seriously didn’t want to let Will Tate down—not unless it became really, really… really necessary.
    Next Day—Noon
    I was dragging. And I was too stubborn to admit that pulling an all-nighter had anything to do with it. The brutal Oklahoma sun beat down on me as I pulled weeds and long strands of Bermuda grass from Grams’s flower beds. And no matter where I worked, the heat made me miserable. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand and took a gulp of lukewarm water from a bottle.
    I went against my natural instincts as a teenager and didn’t complain. I figured the heat and sweat were my penance for Deputy Tate taking pity on me last night. All things considered, I should have felt lucky, except White Bird was on my mind.
    Today was the day I would see him again.
    A part of me desperately wanted to be with him and talk like we used to. Even being with him in our comfortable silences would have been great. I wondered how much he had changed or if he would notice that I had grown up, too. I wasn’t that thirteen-year-old awkward girl at the creek anymore. I was a sixteen-year-old awkward girl. But a huge part of me dreaded seeing him in that place—a mental hospital—knowing I had something to do with why he was there.
    I hadn’t actually seen him kill Heather and I didn’t know anything about why he’d done it. But walking away from a boy I had grown to love—and betraying our relationship by siding with the sheriff and turning him in without talking to him—hadn’t felt right, either. I was confused and completely unsure if I had done the right thing. And I knew my mom would have never understood that.
    No one would.
    â€œBren? It’s pretty hot out here. You okay?” My mom’s voice came from behind me. She was coming off the porch, heading toward me.
    I sat back on my haunches to stretch my back and said, “I’m good.”
    â€œYeah, you are. You’ve done a lot, honey.” She smiled and handed me a fresh bottle of cold water. “All these beds were really overgrown. This whole front yard used to be nothing but flowers. Do you remember that?”
    I nodded and shrugged before I sucked down the cold water.
    â€œLooks like we have an audience.” Mom stared across the street and caught the movement of miniblinds in a front window. I’d been seeing it all morning. We were the