CHASING SUNSHINE: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK THIRTEEN)

by Honey Palomino

  “My mother is Frannie. Francine Templeton.”

  He blinked, cocked his head, and nodded.

  “Okay,” he said, waiting for me to go on.

  “I think she may have been one of your clients.”

  “I’m sorry, Sage, I’m not at liberty to disclose my client’s names.”

  “Oh!” I replied. “Yes, I know. I meant to say…she’s gone missing. It’s been a few weeks and we haven’t found her. So, that’s why I’m here.”

  “I’m sorry to hear your mother is missing, Sage,” he said, nodding somberly. “I’m afraid that I still don’t understand, though.”

  “She had a diary, a journal…”

  “Is that so?” he asked, staring at me intently.

  “Yes,” I said. “And she said she was seeing a therapist - someone named Leo. I thought that it might be you.”

  “And that’s why you’re here today?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I see,” he nodded, quiet for a long moment. “Sage, it must be so hard on you for your mother to be missing. I can’t imagine the stress you must be under.”

  “Yes, it is,” I agreed.

  “I’m so sorry you’re going through that,” he said. “Would you like to talk about how you’re feeling?”

  “Well, yeah, it’s stressful. My sister, Maddy — I’ve been taking care of her. It’s hard. I dropped everything to come out here and try to find her.”

  “And you haven’t been successful,” he stated, furrowing his brow.

  “Well, no,” I said.

  “That must be so frustrating.”

  “It is!” I agreed, relieved to be understood, even for a moment. “But I’m not giving up.”

  “Have the police been helpful?” he asked.

  “No,” I replied. “Not at all.”

  “Oh, dear, that’s unfortunate.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ve gotten some help from — well, from friends. But like I said, Mom had this journal…”

  “Right, the journal,” he replied. “That must have provided lots of information for you.”

  “Well, not really,” I said. “But it did lead me here.”

  “Right,” he nodded. “Well, Sage, I’m very sorry, but even if your mother is missing, I still can’t provide any information about any of my clients. I’m terribly sorry.”

  “Can you at least tell me if she was seeing you? There’s only one other possible therapist in town named Leo that I can find.”

  He shook his head, looking over at me apologetically.

  “I’m very sorry, I can’t,” he said. “I can only provide patient information with a warrant signed by a judge.”

  “Like I said, the cops haven’t been helpful,” I replied, dejectedly.

  “The HIPAA laws in Oregon are very strict,” he said. “I wish I could help you.”

  “Me, too,” I said, standing up and walking towards the door.

  “Oh, Sage?”

  “Yes?”

  “I think it would be very helpful for you to see someone for what you’re going through right now,” he said.

  “Therapy?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course,” he replied. “It’s very effective at managing stressful situations. I’d be happy to see you. I have another appointment available tomorrow at this same time, if you’re interested.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  LEO

  I wasn’t sure she’d take the offer, but I was pleasantly surprised she did. She looked so much like her mother, it was uncanny.

  I hated that I couldn’t give her the information she was searching for, but the laws were clear. So were the fines and punishments for breaking them. I couldn’t risk it.

  But I couldn’t turn her away either. Just let her leave, so dejected and sad.

  It was the eyes. She had Frannie’s eyes — clear and grass-green and hopeful.

  From my window, I watched her walk down the sidewalk of the building and get into a small red car not far away.

  As the car drove by, the driver caught my eye.

  It was the woman from the bar yesterday — Corinne, I think she said her name was.

  So, they’d been stalking me. Which meant that it was possible Frannie wrote a whole lot more in her journal than Sage was letting on.

  I wondered how much they knew.

  I wondered if she would come back tomorrow to her appointment.

  I wondered if she would open up to me.

  I was crossing a boundary seeing her, I knew that. If there was ever a conflict of interest, this was it. But I needed to get close to Sage. I needed to find out what she knew.

  It was a risk I was just going to have to take.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  SAGE

  “Well?” Corinne asked, as soon as the car door shut behind me.

  “He wouldn’t tell me anything. Cited HIPAA laws.”

  “Well, we know all about them,” she said. “God, were those the most boring classes ever, or what?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “What else?” Corinne asked, squinting her eyes over at me as we drove past Leo’s office building. My stomach fluttered with nervousness, even though I was out of there.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “He wouldn’t even confirm she was seeing him at all, even after I told him she was missing.”

  “Did he seem surprised?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “Well, that right there is kinda weird, right?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “But I have another appointment with him tomorrow.”

  “What? Why?”

  “He invited me to come back. I seemed stressed out, I guess.”

  “You can’t go to your Mom’s therapist for therapy!” Corinne insisted.

  I shrugged. “I probably won’t go. I’m not sure. Maybe he’ll tell me more if I keep going?”

  “I don’t know, Sage. That’s fucking weird.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, staring out the window. “This whole thing is fucking weird, isn’t it?”

  She reached over and grabbed my hand. “We’re gonna get through this.”

  “I know,” I whispered.

  I didn’t know.

  I was quickly losing faith.

  I was lost and confused and had no idea how any of this was going to work out. All I did know was that I wanted it over and the thought of what that meant, other than finding Mom alive and well and happy, made me sick to my stomach.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  FINN

  It was getting dark by the time Sage and Corinne returned home. I didn’t want them to know I was following them, so I pulled into my driveway about five minutes later.

  They’d gone to the same address I’d seen Frannie go to. I was pretty sure it was a therapist she was seeing, but when I followed Frannie, I made a point to never get out of the car. I couldn’t risk her knowing I was following her. If she saw her next-door neighbor everywhere she went, things could get awkward very quickly.

  I sort of prided myself on my surveillance skills, actually. I’d followed Frannie and Maddy almost everywhere they went for many months and they never noticed. The closest I came to being caught was the other night at the column with Maddy and her boyfriend.

  Well, I’m completely excluding that situation with the biker, Slade, the other day. He’d caught me red-handed. That was humiliating and I’d chosen to block it out — it was too painful to think about.

  Maybe I was letting the stress of all of this trip me up. I’d never made a mistake before. I needed to make absolute certain I didn’t make another one. At the same time, I needed to know what everyone else knew. If I couldn’t hang out outside the house and listen that way, I needed to find a different way of listening.

  I was pretty sure I’d found a solution today, though.

  After feeding Sunshine dinner, I ordered a few pizzas to be delivered, then went to my office and tested everything out while I waited for them to arrive.
>
  Thirty minutes later, hot pizza in hand, I knocked on Frannie’s door.

  Maddy answered and reluctantly let me in when I told her I brought them some pizza. Sage and Corinne were sitting on the couch and Sage stood up when she saw me.

  “Oh, Finn, you didn’t have to do this,” she said.

  “I ordered pizza for myself, and I figured I’d order one for you, too,” I said. “Just being neighborly.”

  “Well, that’s very nice of you, thank you,” she said, taking the pizza from me and setting it on the counter. I stood awkwardly in the kitchen, hoping like hell she invited me to eat with them. It was the only way my plan would work.

  “Would you like to join us?” she asked.

  Bingo. Perfect.

  “I’d love to,” I said.

  “Maddy, can you get some plates and napkins?”

  “Sure,” Maddy said, heading to the kitchen.

  “Do you mind if I wash up first?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Sage said. “Bathroom’s down the hall, to the left.”

  “Thank you,” I said, my heart beating wildly with joy. This was perfect. Just perfect. I retreated down the hall and into the bathroom. I pulled the tiny microphone from my pocket and turned it on, setting it on the bathroom counter. I washed and dried my hands and left the bathroom. On the way down the hall, I took the device and stuck it to the back of a picture of Sage, Maddy and Frannie hanging on the wall, completely out of view, but in the perfect place to pick up most of the conversation in the living room and kitchen.

  The girls were waiting at the table, already digging into the pizza.

  “This is delicious, thank you, Finn,” Corinne said. I joined them, sitting across from Sage so I could look directly at her. She looked so much like Frannie. So did Maddy. In fact, Maddy was almost a splitting image of Frannie at her age, so many years ago. It took me back in a flash.

  High school was absolute hell. The only thing that motivated me to go to campus each morning was knowing I’d get to see Frannie Templeton, the most popular girl of Harrison High.

  Frannie was every boy’s dream girl and the list of accolades by her name in the high school yearbook was the longest every year. She was literally perfect in every way. Long, black hair that flowed down her back, and bright green eyes that took my breath away each time she looked at me.

  Everyone loved Frannie.

  But not only was she popular, she was kind. And she wasn’t just kind to most people — she was actually kind to me, too. I had the distinct honor of being known as the nerdiest guy in school. The exact opposite of Frannie.

  And yet, she went out of her way to be kind to me. Not just fake nice, either. She was genuinely my friend. She asked about my mother, about my classes, and — during our shared study hall period — we became close. We talked about anything and everything, in between getting scolded by Ms. Johnson, the study hall teacher.

  One day, I gathered up all the courage I could muster and asked her out. I waited till the end of class, after we’d been laughing together about a television show we’d both seen. Right before the bell was due to ring, I went for it.

  “Frannie, can I ask you something?” I asked, pushing my glasses up my nose.

  “Sure, Thomas, what is it?”

  I hesitated, my gut churning with nervousness.

  “I, um, well…I was wondering if you’d like to go to the movies on Friday night?”

  She stared at me like I’d asked her to jump off the Empire State Building. She blinked, twice, then smiled.

  “Like, a date, Thomas?”

  I nodded, my mouth dry and unable to form words.

  “Thomas,” she said, cocking her head and flashing me a gentle smile. “We’re not that kind of friends. I value our friendship but I don’t think we should date.”

  I nodded again, just as the bell rang out, releasing me from my own private hell. She reached over and patted my arm, gathered her things and leaned down to whisper.

  “I hope you understand. I like you, just not like that.”

  “Sure,” I managed to croak out. She walked away and out the door and I grabbed my books and followed her out. Samantha Baker, another cheerleader, was waiting for Frannie in the hallway and they began walking to their next class together. Frannie didn’t know I was walking behind them. If she did, she never would have said what she did.

  “Thomas just asked me out!”

  “Thomas Collins?” Samantha asked, scoffing. “Are you kidding? What was he thinking?”

  “I know, right?” Frannie laughed. “I mean, he’s a nice guy, but he’s certainly not my type.”

  “Far from it,” Samantha said. “I mean, he’s so…nerdy.”

  “Exactly,” Frannie agreed.

  They giggled all the way to their next class.

  Not my type…

  Not my type…

  Those words stayed with me for years after, leaving me determined to become someone else. And I did.

  I changed my name.

  I changed my style, my personality, my body, my looks. I even hired a stylist.

  I become someone else entirely.

  All for Frannie.

  And then, many years later, after I sold an app I’d made for a small fortune, I retired and bought the house next door to Frannie. Within no time, I’d moved in next door, determined that with a little time, she’d learn to love me.

  She didn’t need to know who I used to be. She didn’t need to know I was Thomas Collins from high school, who wasn’t even cool enough to go by a nickname. Tommy or Tom would have lent an air of casualness, but I couldn’t even pull that off.

  Now, I was someone else entirely.

  Now, I was cool.

  I was certain she’d love me if she just got to know me as Finn.

  Unfortunately, my plan didn’t work out the way I thought it would. Everything went so very wrong, in fact. I spent more time pacing around the rug in my living room these last few years than talking to Frannie. She just wasn’t interested, even if I was someone else now.

  That didn’t mean that for the last few years I didn’t keep trying to get her attention. Every single day.

  But now, here I am, dealing with this massive drama and trying to just get through every day alive and sane without anyone seeing how close I am to breaking.

  It’s not easy, but I can take it.

  Thomas never would have been able to handle all this.

  Good thing I killed him off long ago.

  “Finn?” Sage asked now, all three of them looking at me suspiciously.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I drifted off. I do that sometimes.”

  “That’s okay, we all do that,” Sage said, smiling gently at me. Her mother’s smile. Her mother’s eyes. The eyes I’d been in love with for so many, many years. She was so beautiful, it was hard to look at her.

  I finished my pizza, and then stood up to leave, mission accomplished.

  “Have a good night, ladies,” I said. “Remember, I’m right next door if you need anything.”

  “Thanks, Finn,” Sage said, getting up and walking me to the door.

  “Bye!” I said.

  “Goodnight, Finn,” Maddy and Corinne called from the kitchen. I walked out the door and the short distance to my house next door. Sunshine was waiting for me at the door and followed me to my office. I turned on the computer monitor and smiled as the girl’s voices filled my room.

  “That was nice of him,” Maddy said. “I love this pizza.”

  “Yeah, but we need to start eating something a little more nutritious for dinner,” Sage said. “We’ve had way too much pizza lately.”

  “There’s a good Thai place in town,” Corinne offered.

  “I feel like I should cook,” Sage said.

  “I’ve had your cooking,” Maddy replied. “I’ll take the pizza and Thai.”

  “Oh, hush!” Sage admonished her.

  “Perfect,” I said to Sunshine. “We can hear everythin
g!”

  Sunshine wagged her tail appreciatively and I patted her head.

  “Thanks, girl, I think I did a good job, too.”

  I stood up, leaving the girl’s voices filling my office as I walked down to my basement. I stood in front of the locked door, pulling the key from my pocket and sliding it into the lock, the scraping sounds of metal on metal echoing off the concrete walls.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  MAC

  “Mac, get in here!”

  The Chief’s voice boomed through the precinct. I jumped up, knowing from the tone of his voice that whatever was coming wasn’t going to be pleasant.

  “Chief?” I asked, poking my head in his doorway.

  “Come in and close the door,” he said.

  I obeyed and sat down across from him. He stared at me with angry eyes.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “I just received a very interesting phone call.”

  I waited, silently trying not to freak out. “From?”

  “It was anonymous, actually,” he said. “Some guy who wanted to inform me that a guy on my watch wasn’t doing his job properly.”

  I blinked, confused.

  “That guy is you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Why didn’t you file the Templeton missing person’s case, Mac?”

  Oh, shit. Those fuckers…

  “I did.” I lied my ass off, hoping the Chief wouldn’t see right through me. He’d been the Chief of Police for decades for a reason — he was damned good at seeing through bullshit.

  “If you did, it would be in the system.”

  “I swear I did it, Chief.”

  “Well, it’s been weeks, dammit. So fucking do it again, right now, or I’m canning your ass!”

  “Chief, I —.”

  “Shut up!” he shouted. “I don’t want to hear excuses. This isn’t like you to make such a rookie mistake, Mac. Is there something going on with you that I need to know about?”

  “No, sir.”