insanely inappropriate laugh. Slashing my hand through the air, I disintegrated the bubble, pushed my dogs out of the front door and shut it behind them.
Donna howled like the world was ending, but they were not going to die tonight. Only problem with what I had done was that Gram and Jimmy Joe Johnson had shown back up, and Gram was free to make her presence known in a big way. She wasted no time.
“Son of a bitch,” Gram screeched as she whipped around Clarissa like a crazed tornado. “You will not come into my girl’s house and mess with her.”
“Watch me,” Clarissa growled.
With a flick of her hand, a vicious, gold-flecked wind picked me up and slammed me against the wall with such force, I saw stars. With a silent thank you to John Travolta for using the wind on me earlier, I broke the spell, shook it off and tackled Clarissa to the ground.
“Bust her ass,” Gram yelled. “Hit that bitch!”
I’d never heard Gram talk like that in my life. The woman was riled up, but I was a good granddaughter who obeyed my elders.
“On it,” I yelled, kneeing Clarissa in the stomach, which earned me a slap across my face that would probably leave a permanent mark.
“I’ll kill everyone who means anything to you,” she threatened, trying to throw me off of her. Her failure to toss my ass across the room shocked me almost as much as it shocked her.
Laying into her already broken nose, I nailed her again. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You have enough problems without more death on your hands.”
“You should have never been born,” she screeched, raking her nails down my cheek. The Angel was insane and talking bullshit. “He was mine. Michael loved me until that whore came along. Funny thing, it was a whore who helped the whore get away. Ahh, the irony.”
All of her words made me sick and I wanted her to stop talking. Using my elbow, I paid her back for disrespecting my mother. The sound it made connecting to her crushed nose sickened me, but no one calls my mother a whore.
“No, actually he didn’t. Ever. Michael never loved you. He told me.” My torn cheek felt like it was on fire and blood seeped into my mouth.
Gram and Jimmy Joe hovered around me and tried to create a distracting wind. It was working. Clarissa’s hair was in her eyes. Only problem was, mine was too.
“You will pay,” she choked out through the blood spurting from her nose.
“I already have,” I told her. “It’s your turn now.”
“Hog-tie her,” Gram shouted. “Tie her up like a stuck pig!”
I had no clue if tying her up would work. It was a long shot, but it was something. Rolling off of Clarissa and running to the far side of the room, I tore the floor-to-ceiling curtains from their rods.
The crack of lightning was horrible. Gram’s scream was even worse.
The plan failed. Not because the curtains wouldn’t hold her. I never got that far.
The plan failed because Clarissa disappeared.
However, she’d left me a parting gift.
Jimmy Joe Johnson was in pieces amidst the shattered glass on the floor. He was almost invisible and fading fast.
“No,” I cried out, desperately trying to gather up his parts. “No, no, no. Gram what happened?”
Gram’s sobs racked her body and she held the head of her beau in her shaking hands. “Jimmy Joe Johnson saved me,” she choked out through her tears.
“I don’t understand,” I said, trying to find his midsection and having no luck.
“She went for me and my man jumped in front and took the hit. Jimmy Joe Johnson sacrificed himself for me—was willin’ to die for me.”
I didn’t have the heart to remind her that both of them were dead already. What Jimmy Joe had done was truly beautiful and may have cost him dearly. I wasn’t sure if I could glue him back together since I couldn’t find all of his parts.
“Daisy girl,” Gram whispered.
“Yes?” I answered, glancing over at her from my spot on the glass-covered floor.
“I need you to help my Jimmy Joe,” she said, gently kissing the forehead of his detached head. “We owe that to him.”
“I will, Gram,” I promised, closing my eyes for a quick second. “I will.”
I hoped to Hell and back I wasn’t lying.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Goddammit,” Gideon roared as he materialized in the middle of the living room and took in the carnage with wild eyes and a vicious expression. “Where