Sawyer

by Kathi S. Barton

  They worked for nearly an hour before it was determined that Molly wasn’t at home. Nor was she at the school where she’d be going to this fall. There wasn’t much in the way of clothing missing—her coat that he’d bought her before leaving his house, and her cell phone. Christ, he hoped to hell that they found Merriam before he did. Roger was going to kill her himself when he found her.

  They all met at Raven and Sawyer’s home for a base of operations. The people there were working on the computer and phones they’d set up to find them. No matter how many times he told Raven that he was sorry, she would tell him they’d find her.

  When someone put a heavy hand on his back, he turned to look at Gunner, the man he was slightly afraid of and in awe of. He wasn’t any bigger than Sawyer’s other brothers, but he was much larger in the form of muscles. Gunner asked to talk to him in private.

  “I can find her, but you have to do me one favor before I can do that. I need to have something of your wife’s. Something that she would have used a great deal.” Roger told him that he’d just sent all her clothing to the dry cleaners. “That wouldn’t work anyway. People touch each other and leave behind parts of them, scents that would fuck with the scent. I’d rather have a makeup brush or a hairbrush. Lipstick usually works the best.”

  Roger knew there were hundreds of tubes of the nasty shit in her bathroom. Taking Gunner to his home, he rummaged around in the room and found several tubes for him. Asking for them all, Gunner took them from Roger.

  “You can find them with that?” Gunner nodded as he stepped out on the back deck. “Won’t the smell of it or something get in the way? And why do you need so many of them? In the event that you didn’t understand, I’m a wreck in thinking that it’s my fault that Merriam has Molly.”

  The shrill whistle made him cover his ears, but it was the sight of several white eyes staring at him from the darkness that had him backing away from Gunner. Before he could ask him what the hell all the dogs were doing there, Roger realized that they were wolves.

  “You start over there and I’ll start here. Just hold the tube with one of these gloves on and let each of them smell it for as long as they need to.”

  Roger pulled on the latex glove and did just what he was told to do. Some members of the wolf pack would smell it very quickly, getting the scent and taking off into the woods again. But there were few, younger ones, that would smell it for a while before disappearing in the darkness. When they were all gone, a large man came out of the woods and hugged Gunner, as men do that are masculine and heavy on the testosterone.

  “This is the pack master of the wolf pack around here. He is also a brother of mine. Not by blood, but in other ways.” Roger didn’t ask. He thought he’d live longer if he didn’t. “They’ll be looking everywhere for your wife. Then we can find Molly.”

  “Raven said that you took Molly’s blood before leaving the other day. Will you use that link to find her?” He just shook his head. “I don’t understand. Wasn’t that the way it was supposed to work?”

  “Yes, but Molly isn’t conscious right now.” He felt his knees weaken as the words sank in. “She’s not dead, or I’d know that right now. But she’d not able to respond to me because she’s out cold. That doesn’t mean dead, all right? Christ, humans are so easily scared about shit.”

  “She’s my only grandchild, and I can appreciate you being all mean and macho, but she’s the best thing since my daughter was born that I’ve ever loved. So, back the fuck off and deal with me being a human.”

  The big man, the pack leader, laughed, and Gunner turned to him.

  “He’s a good man. Not afraid of you as much as you think.” The man came forward and put out his hand. “My name is Bob Smith. Crazy, I know, but all the cool names were taken when I was born.”

  Roger couldn’t help it, he laughed. He thought it might have been the first one he’d had in his entire adult life. Hugging both men, he made his way back to Raven’s home. To wait it out, he thought, however long it took.

  Chapter 11

  Merriam checked on the brat again. She had no use for children at all. They dated you if you took them anyplace with you. Like having a daughter old enough to have one of her own. That hadn’t set well with Merriam since she’d found out that the abortion process to get rid of Raven hadn’t worked.

  The older Raven had gotten, the harder it was for Merriam to lie to people about her age. She’d been able to pull it off too, right up until Raven had gotten her driver’s license, and that had been it for her telling people that she was ten to fifteen years younger than she actually was. Not even Roger knew her true age. She’d kept that from him as well.

  Merriam supposed that she might have hit the kid too hard when the little kid didn’t want to come with her. Then when she’d gotten her into the car, it had occurred to her that she was getting blood all over the seat. Damn it, she knew little to nothing about kidnapping, and here she was making a mistake that even she knew not to do.

  Stealing the car wasn’t difficult. When she’d been younger, before becoming an Addington, she used to steal regularly when she needed a ride someplace. Her parents would never allow her to hitchhike, so she stole cars. Or she would borrow them, and leave them in pretty good shape when she was finished.

  There were a great many things about her that her dear family didn’t know. She supposed that was why she took being an Addington so seriously. She’d grown up being just plain old Janet Stipple, without any shoes in the summer months like the other kids had. If she hadn’t outgrown the ones that she’d gotten in the new school year, then she could put those on. But usually, one of her brothers or sisters would need them for winter. And with having two older sisters, there was never anything new for her. Six sisters and four brothers had made life hard for her. No one understood her need to have more than most anyone else she knew.

  Then there had been the fire. She’d set it, of course. Merriam had thought that if she’d thought of it sooner, she would have done it then. Things had become very different for her once she was put into the system as an adoptable little girl. Merriam smiled when she thought of how much work and effort she’d put in when someone came to look over the kids at the home.

  After four years she was considered as unadoptable. She’d had her fair share of families to take her home, but they all brought her back. The rules that they’d had made her a target with the other children. Then came the Tractors.

  They were an older couple—in their early forties, she supposed. They’d had plenty of money, and they didn’t seem to care what she did so long as she was dressed well for dinner, didn’t give them too much trouble, and was able to be polite when they had her around other people. That hadn’t been any problem for her.

  Merriam had changed her name when she was adopted. Pretending that the fire that took her entire family was such a nightmare for her had the judge eating out of her hands. By the time the adoption was finalized, Merriam had a new name, a new life, and knew that so long as she could keep out of serious trouble, she’d have three meals a day, as well as a roof over her head when it rained.

  Looking at Molly the brat again, Merriam wondered how long she’d been awake. As she sat in the chair, tied up and gagged, Merriam did have a moment of fear when she looked like she wasn’t afraid at all. Taking the gag off her so she could make a few things clear to the kid, Merriam slapped her, just because she could.

  “You’ll be talking to your mother for me.” Nothing. Not even a small whimper of pain for the slap. “And you’ll tell her that I want to go back to my way of life. That I’m sorry about the other kids. Any kind of bullshit that you can think of, you use it to get me back to my life. Did you hear me?”

  “Yes. But it’s not going to work. Grandpa Roger said that he’s happier without you around.” She hit her again, this time knocking the chair back. Merriam could hear her head hit the floor, and was sort o
f happy that she’d hurt her twice with one blow. “They’ll be coming for me, and there won’t be any way of stopping them from hurting you once they get here.”

  Merriam didn’t care for the fact that Molly was acting all brave and stuff. She even left the brat on the floor, hoping that would shut her up. But so far all it had done was made her mouthier, and that was something that Merriam didn’t care for.

  Hitting her again while she was down made Merriam happy that she’d worn her nice tall heels when she’d left the house that morning. When nothing more was coming from the kid, Merriam went to the bathroom to see if she’d messed up her hair or nails. Everything about her screamed money now that she’d gone to her regular hairdresser. Getting her to accept the excuse of forgetting her purse didn’t go over as well as she’d hoped, however.

  Another two people that she’d had to kill in the name of being an Addington. Kian, her tranny hairdresser, had objected right away to the plan of Roger coming by with money. Lily, the lady that did her nails, said that she could wait, but she was going to get a bigger tip. When Kian picked up the phone to make sure she was good for the money, Merriam took one of the teasing combs they’d used on her and stabbed her right in the neck. Lily, a fat older woman, was a piece of cake after that.

  The new dress had come from the same shop. Kian would purchase used clothing, have it dry cleaned, and resell it. Low and behold, there were two of her castoffs in the place, and Merriam took both of them. Also a purse. But the heels were just too low for her, so she’d had to clean her heels up and wear those.

  Now here she was with all the makeup that she could stuff into a bag and another clean dress to wear. Merriam knew that once she was ready to go back to her home, she’d be throwing out everything and starting new. And just so no one else could take her clothing and wear them, she was going to have them cut up into small pieces. No one would be able to imitate her ever again.

  The money from the drawer and tip jar hadn’t been as much as she wanted, not with everyone paying in credit cards now, but it was enough to have a good meal with and to flash around the club. It was very nice of Roger to have paid for her to have her memberships back. She only hoped that Raven and her new husband didn’t have one there too.

  “That would be just too much for me to handle right now.”

  Checking on Molly again, Merriam noticed the blood staining the floor. She didn’t want her to die just yet—that would be for later. She did think that it looked like a red melted candle. A memory came to her head, but it was gone before she could think about it. Merriam put a towel over the stain and left the vacant building.

  Merriam moved out of the building and toward where she’d parked the car. It was missing. She was sure that she’d parked it by the front of the building so she could get out fast if she had to. Looking around, trying to get her bearings, she finally realized that she’d not come out the way she’d gone in. That, her mother would have said, was a bad omen.

  Her mother had had a lot of old sayings of crap like that. Don’t go in a door that you didn’t leave. Never spill salt in the morning or you’ll have a nasty visitor. The one that Merriam thought was the most stupid was don’t sit in the grass or you’d get a cold where you can’t take medications.

  “Like you could catch a cold in your butt. Stupid woman.”

  Running her hand over the nice car, she wished that she could have found herself a driver. Not that she didn’t enjoy driving—she really did—but the club would make her park in the lot then walk across the parking lot to the building. She thought that with a name like Addington and how much she spent there, every week they’d make sure she had her own parking space.

  Driving to the country club, she thought of little else but living in her home again. Driving by the hair salon, she saw that the police were there, as well as a bunch of men that were just milling around sniffing the air. Whatever that was about made her giggle.

  Her home was on the next block, so she went there. But there was trouble there too. A line of cruisers with their lights on were parked on her lawn and driveway. She made a mental note to call the mayor of their fine city and have him pay for a sod replacement.

  If Merriam wasn’t worried about her clothing and her name, she worried about the way her house looked. Picture perfect all the time was what she wanted, and the gardeners were well aware of what happened to them if it had one bush shorter or taller than the others.

  She was just driving by her home when she felt something knock her head from behind. It didn’t really hurt, and after a moment, she didn’t even think of it again. Looking around, Merriam had trouble making out the street signs, as well as whether or not the lights were green or red. Wiping her head with her gloved hand, she felt slightly sick to her stomach, but chalked that up to all the stress she’d been under lately.

  The club was hopping tonight. She only just remembered that it was fish fry Friday. Not that she cared for the foul smelling fish, but she did enjoy seeing all her friends there as they came to gorge on deep fried fish and coleslaw. They all looked at her too, she thought, vying for her attention like she was queen of the roost. Merriam would always have a new outfit on, and made sure that the reflection of the diamonds in her rings could dance off the ceiling if someone wasn’t paying her the due that she deserved.

  When this nonsense was all finished with Roger and Raven, she was going to see if she could run for president of the club. She would no doubt win, but she’d have to have a platform to run off of. She had thought of this before, and had written down a few things that she wanted to get changed. Like no children should ever be allow in the place without handcuffs on their filthy little hands and their mouth covered in tape.

  Pulling into the closest parking space that she could find, Merriam repaired her lipstick and made sure that she had her membership card ready. That was another thing she’d change. Carrying around a card when you were there almost daily seemed unimportant. She’d make sure there were other means of getting in the place. More secure, she thought.

  Getting out of her car, she held onto the door handle. Her head was swimming a little, and she wasn’t sure when it had started raining. The back of her dress was going to be ruined if she didn’t get inside soon.

  There was a new man at the door. Winking at him as he allowed her entrance, Merriam wondered if she could get a little bit of him when she left. While she never wanted another child, she certainly did like her sex. Random sex, not with the same boring ass every night.

  Entering the dining room where the dinner was going on, she paused in the doorway when she noticed that no one was in there eating. Sitting at her usual spot, Merriam asked the waitress who brought her a glass of water and a glass of wine where everyone was. There must have been a big meeting, she thought, and she’d missed the letter. When the girl didn’t answer her, Merriam asked if she was deaf.

  “No, ma’am. I can hear you just fine.” Merriam asked again where everyone was. “They’re here. Everyone is here. We’re really busy tonight. Do you just want the special?”

  Merriam looked around at the empty tables. There were plates and drink glasses on each of them. Napkins were on the chairs, but there wasn’t a single person in the room except the dummy taking her order and herself. She asked her again if she wanted the special.

  “I do not eat that greasy stuff. I want a Porterhouse steak, rare, baked potato, as well as a cup of the soup of the day. It’s tomato basil, correct?” The dummy told her that they didn’t have any potatoes as they’d run out, and the soup was what it always was on Friday nights, Manhattan chowder. “No, that’s not right. I know better than anyone what sort of meals they serve here. I’ve been a member for longer than you’ve been alive. Not too much longer—I’m not that old—but a while now.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.” Dummy stared at her for a moment and asked if she was all right. “You’re bleeding from your head. Want me t
o get you some ice for it?”

  She was? Merriam waved the waitress away and pulled out her compact. There was blood on her head. It was running down not just her forehead, but her cheek as well. Wiping at it with her napkin, Merriam stuck the end of the fine linen into her water and tried to clean herself up. It was doing her very little good.

  A man, a huge great man, sat down at the table with her. He took her wine glass from her table and drained it in one drink. She wanted to say something to him, demand that he replace her drink, when he stretched out on his chair and she could see that he was a very good looking male.

  “What are you going to do to replace my drink, big boy?”

  He laughed, and it sounded sexy to her. Looking around the room again when he waved at the table next to them, she asked him what his name was.

  “Gunner.” She loved the way he said it too. like he was grunting his name for her. “You’ve not been a very good person, have you, Janet Stipple? In fact, I can say for a fact that you’ve been downright nasty.”

  She liked the sound of that too.

  ~*~

  Raven didn’t want to go in and sit with her mom. Nor did she want to sit calmly by her and pretend like nothing had happened over the last twenty-four hours. Gunner had found her when no one else could, and she would be forever grateful to him. If only someone could find her Molly, then her life would be perfect.

  “What the hell are you doing here? Of all the tables in this place that are empty, why the hell are you sitting with me?” Raven looked around at the crowd of people in the room, then back at her mother when she laughed. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but apparently they want me to believe that there are hundreds of people in here instead of just the three of us. But I am so glad that you’ve come to visit me. I thought that you’d died that night.”