CHASING SUNSHINE: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK THIRTEEN)

by Honey Palomino

“And Sage. Well, I know she came here yesterday. I heard her talking to her best friend, Corinne, about you last night. They didn’t know I could hear them and Sage said…what was the word? Oh, yeah, she said you were mesmerizing. That she understood what Mom saw in you. Because Sage saw the diary, too. I mean, I’m sure she told you that, right?”

  He nodded, urging me to continue.

  “But there was another reason Mom was going to stop seeing you. Did you know that?” I said, standing up and walking to the edge of his desk. “The thing is, she thought you were amazing, right? But there was one thing about you that bugged her. She thought you wanted to talk about her daughter too much. Not Sage,” I said, pausing to stare into his eyes. “Me.”

  He swallowed, his eyes trailing me around the room as I kept talking.

  “She told me you suggested I come see you, more than once,” I said. “In fact, she said you were annoyingly persistent. It was the only red flag. Other than that, you were perfectly kind and charming. But when she brought me up, you wouldn’t let her change the subject. She said your eyes changed. You brought me up yourself, all the time. Asking probing questions. Questions that had nothing to do with why she was there or wanted to talk about that day.”

  I walked around to his side of the desk and he moved to face me.

  “Tell me, Leo. Why are you so obsessed with me?”

  He stared back at me for a minute before slowly shaking his head.

  “Maddy, you shouldn’t…”

  “Shouldn’t what? Question you? Don’t you think I want to know about you? After all this? I mean, I’m here. You can ask me anything you want now. Do you want to know where I go to school? If I’ve ever had a boyfriend? If I’ve ever been kissed? Is that your thing?”

  “No!”

  “No? Then what is it?” I demanded. “Because I don’t get it, Leo. I’m pretty sure you’ve got my family, that you took the three of them, for some reason, but I don’t know why. Why not tell me? If it has something to do with me…” I leaned in, bringing my face close to his. His eyes were dilated, his breathing shallow. I was getting to him. He wasn’t expecting me to be so aggressive, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off, but I knew he needed me to pull the rug out from under him, to catch him off guard somehow, or I’d never get a reaction from him.

  I was pleased to see that channeling my inner Olivia Benson was working.

  “Just tell me,” I said. “Or take me instead. How about that? A trade?”

  “Stop,” he said, shaking his head. “Enough!”

  I smiled. “I can help you, you know. I can help you out of this. Just take me to them. And then, you’ll have all of us. How would that make you feel? Because it’s got to feel like something’s missing now that you have them and not me.”

  He stood up, towering over me suddenly, trying to gain his composure.

  He grabbed my arm, not too roughly, but firmly, as he leaned down and sneered into my face.

  “Fine,” he said. “You think I want you all together? You’re right. Let’s go.”

  “You’ll take me to them?” I asked, trying to hide the shock in my voice.

  “Yes, let’s go,” he said. I could tell I’d annoyed him. I’d gotten too close to the truth, come too close to the edge of his madness.

  A thrill ran through me as I let him lead me out the door of the office and out to his waiting car.

  I didn’t dare look down the street for the Gods. I didn’t want to tip him off.

  I just had complete faith they’d be behind us.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  COLT

  Slade, Wreck and Blade left their bikes parked and jumped in the SUV with us, the three of them cramming into the back with me. I watched with dread as Maddy got in Leo’s car.

  “Stay close, brother,” I said to Ryder. Slade nudged me, reminding me that I’d just told the boss how to do his job.

  “I know you’re worried, Colt,” Ryder said, eyeing me in the rearview mirror. “But I got this.”

  “I know, Ryder, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all good.”

  I kept my eyes trained on Leo’s car ahead, forcing myself to keep my mouth shut. I felt responsible for her now. She was Sage’s family, and while Sage and I were hardly family, last night sure felt like maybe that could happen someday.

  I couldn’t help but be disappointed that she’d not felt like she could confide in me about going to see Leo, but we’d talk about that. Trust takes time to build, I knew this. And she’d been working on finding her Mom for a few weeks before she ever met me, but now that I was here — now that we were here — this needed to be a partnership. We had to work together as a team.

  Of course, all of that was almost over and irrelevant now.

  My heart raced with excitement to think that we might be so close to finally finding Frannie. Maybe Sage was already there with her. I just had this very strong feeling that all of this was almost over and my body was tingling with anticipation.

  “Looks like we may have found our guy,” Slade said.

  “Sure does,” Riot said.

  “Fucker,” I said, thinking about all the pain this Leo guy had caused.

  “Tell us how you really feel, Colt,” Slade laughed. “Maybe you need to get the first punch in.”

  “You might wanna keep me away from the guy, actually,” I admitted.

  We were close behind his car, my eyes never straying from it, in case Ryder somehow got lost. Not that all other eyes in the car weren’t doing the same thing. Sure, it was ridiculous, but it was all I had.

  If anything happened to Sage, I don’t know what I’d do. We had to stay close. Nothing could go wrong, we just couldn’t afford any mistakes.

  “Sonofafuckingbitch!” Ryder shouted, to the surprise of everyone. He rarely shouted, he was calm as a cucumber at all times. “We’re getting fucking pulled over!”

  “What the fuck?” Slade said, turning around, as Ryder pulled over to the side of the road and the car with Maddy in it just kept on going.

  “You can’t pull over!” I insisted. “What about Maddy?”

  My heart sank as the car carrying her disappeared in traffic ahead.

  “Fuck!” I cried, as I turned around and my blood ran cold.

  “Oh, look,” Slade said, when the cop got out of the car. “It’s our friend Mac. And he looks pissed.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  SAGE

  A shove on my shoulder pulled me out of the fog.

  “I told her not to drink the fucking tea,” a voice murmured, far away, too far to see, too far to touch. I reached out anyway, moaning, searching.

  “Baby?” Another voice broke through, this one so familiar, so haunting. “Sage? Baby, wake up, please…”

  Another shove and the first voice was back, right in my ear.

  “Sage, c’mon, mama, you got this…”

  “Oh, baby, I thought I’d never see you again,” the second voice said, and this time I felt her touch on my face. Cool and comforting, so familiar…

  My eyes blinked open, fluttering a few times before I could focus. I looked up at an unfamiliar ceiling, dark and low over my head. I peered through the darkness, trying to make out the blurry figures in front of me.

  “There she is…”

  “Oh, Sage!”

  Now I understood. This was a dream. I’d dreamt of Mom before. They’d always been too disturbing to linger on them for too long, so I always let them drift away. But now they were back. Only different. This was darker. Colder.

  More realistic…

  Her touch…

  Her voice…

  It sounded like it used to. When she was alive. Before she was —

  “Mom!” My eyes blinked rapidly, focusing in on her face.

  Her beautiful face.

  “Sage!” she cried, throwing her arms around my neck.

  “You’re alive, Mom!” I sobbed, the realization that she was actually in front of me, alive and apparently fairly
well, overwhelmed me.

  “I am, baby,” she said. “I’m so sorry. You must have been so worried.”

  “We were,” I said, hugging her tight. I didn’t want to let her go. “I love you so much.”

  “Excellent, we all love each other,” Corinne said, over her shoulder. “Look time is running out, okay? We don’t know when he’s coming back!”

  “Who?”

  “Who? Dammit, Sage. Next time I tell you to stop drinking the fucking tea, maybe listen to me, okay?”

  Ignoring her, I looked my Mom over. She was frail and disheveled, but she was moving and talking and breathing…

  It was a miracle that threatened to overwhelm me but Corinne was right.

  I took a quick glance at the room. It was low-lit, a basement of some sort, a small window at the ceiling told me the sun had set outside, but I had no idea how long I’d been out.

  “Where are we?” I said. “What happened?”

  “It was Leo, dammit! He’s locked us in this fucking hole! He kidnapped your Mom and he drugged us and now here we are!”

  “Oh, no,” I said, everything rushing back. At least up to that first sip of tea. And then I remembered. I’d never told Colt where we were going. In fact, I hadn’t told anyone.

  “Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!”

  “Yeah, we’re fucked.”

  “Oh, no, we aren’t,” Mom said, lifting her chin. I saw something in her I’d never seen before — a steely resolve, a strength, a hardness in her eyes. I shuddered at the thought of what she’d survived these last few weeks. “I’ve got a plan. This bastard isn’t taking us down.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY

  MADDY

  “So, what’s your story, Leo?” I asked.

  “You can call me Sunny,” he said, glancing at me quickly before turning back to the road.

  “Okay, Sunny. What’s your story?”

  “Are you always this direct?”

  “You don’t hang out with a lot of thirteen-year-olds, do you?”

  He laughed, shaking his head.

  “No, I suppose not.”

  “Didn’t think so. So, are you gonna tell me?”

  “My story?”

  “Yeah.”

  He sighed and I fell silent. I wanted to keep him talking. I needed to memorize the route we were taking, so I could remember how to get back. If I had a pocket full of breadcrumbs, I would have used them.

  “Okay, what do you want to know?”

  “Sunny’s your nickname, or what?”

  “It’s what my mother always called me.”

  “Why?”

  “She used to say I was the only light in her life. Her sun. Her sunshine. Sunny.”

  “Got it,” I replied. “Where are we going?”

  “To my home,” he said.

  “Where’s your Mom now?” I asked.

  “Mother? Oh, she passed away a long time ago.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

  “She’s in a better place.”

  Something about the way he said that, slowly, as if he took pleasure in the way the words fell off his lips made me shudder in fear.

  “You were close?”

  “Oh, yes, very,” he said, his eyes almost glossing over.

  “She was a good Mom?”

  “The absolute best,” he gushed.

  “That’s cool,” I said. “You’re lucky. I’m lucky, too. Frannie is a great mom, too.”

  He paused, then looked over at me sadly. “Frannie needs work.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  “You think so?” I asked.

  “She doesn’t listen to you the way she should,” he said. “A girl your age needs somebody she can talk to, someone who really hears her, who really sees her.”

  “Is that what you were working on with her?”

  “I tried,” he said, his words laced with a twinge of exasperation. “She was, I guess you would say, reluctant to change. She was distracted easily. She certainly didn’t make you as much of a priority as she should have.”

  I nodded, completely unnerved. He was beginning to get angry talking about her and it made me very worried for my mother’s safety. He’d not exactly confirmed if she was safe or not. I still had no idea what I was walking into here.

  Thankfully, I had the Gods to back me up.

  I looked in the side mirror, my eyes searching for the SUV they were in. When I realize I couldn’t see it, panic rose in my throat.

  Where the hell were they?

  A few minutes later, Leo, or Sunny, rather, pulled off onto a side road and began winding down a series of secluded curves, tall, towering pines dancing around us in the shadows.

  It was dark now, a cold, misty rain falling down like silent kisses from the heavens. Here in the darkness of Leo’s car, I’d never heard a silence so loud.

  When he turned off on another road, leaving behind any hint of civilization, with no sign of the Gods behind us, I wondered if that silence would be the last thing I ever heard. When we pulled up in front of a modest log cabin, set way back away from the road, I couldn’t help but think that this is how horror flicks begin. I reached up and tapped on the hidden microphone, hoping like hell the Gods would find me.

  Leo turned off his car and turned to look at me.

  “Is my mom here?” I asked.

  Without answering, he got out of the car and came around and opened my door. I wondered if his mother taught him those manners but the look in his eye when he talked about his mom freaked me out so badly, I didn’t want to bring her up again.

  This guy had serious mommy issues, that much was clear, and I knew I was skating on very thin ice playing games with him.

  I got out of the car and followed him inside. Decorated like an old lady lived there, the living room was cozy in a crocheted-quilts-and-antique-furniture kind of way. A small piano was set up in the corner, along with a record player next to it.

  I walked in behind Sunny and waited as he took off his coat.

  “Can I get you some tea?”

  “No, thank you,” I said.

  “Very well,” he replied, walking over to the record player.

  “Do you like music?”

  “Sure,” I said. I scanned the room for any sign of Mom, but I didn’t see anything that was hers. I realized I’d been hoping she’d come out to greet me.

  “Excellent,” Sunny said, as he pulled a record out of its sleeve and put it on, his movements slow and methodical, his face awash in what I could only describe as a sort of unadulterated ecstasy.

  My hands began trembling. I’d never really seen crazy up this close before and here I was locked alone in a room with it. Sure, there’d been the usual population that frequented the area around Voodoo Donuts in Portland, or the occasional wild-eyed spirit hanging out at the beach, but Sunny’s crazy was on an entirely different level.

  I couldn’t believe he was a psychologist.

  He was supposed to help people? This man?

  His eyes lit up as soon as the first crackle of the record echoed through the room and then as the song began, he began floating through the room, dancing like he was on air.

  “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,” he sang along with the record, dancing over to me and grabbing my hands. “I’m so glad you’re here, Maddy.”

  “Uh, yeah, me too,” I replied.

  “Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind,” he sang, spinning me around, and then pulling me close, his hot breath on my face. “You’re much prettier than I imagined, Maddy.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, taking a step back. I swallowed hard, knowing I had to keep up the act. I glanced at the door quickly, wondering where the Gods were.

  “Sing with me?” Sunny said. “It’s gonna be a bright, bright, bright, bright sun shiney day!”

  “I”m not much of a singer,” I admitted.

  He kept dancing around the room until the song was over and then he went over to the record player and
turned it off. With a long, slow sigh, he turned back to me with a smile.

  “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve brought you here.”

  “I just want to see my family, Sunny,” I admitted. “Are they here? Can you take me to them?”

  Finally, he nodded. “Come with me. I suppose the time has come.”

  My heart skipped a beat as he walked down a hallway and opened a door at the end of it. Stairs descended into a basement and I hesitated as he motioned for me to follow him. I reached up and tapped the microphone again three times.

  “So, we’re going into your basement now?” I said, out loud, just for the God’s sake. I knew they were listening. I just didn’t know how close they were. Had we lost them on the road? The idea of that seemed absolutely preposterous. And terrifying. Because if I didn’t have them to protect us, what did I have? Just then, I remembered the GPS in my boot.

  Even if they’d gotten lost, they’d find me.

  They’d covered all their bases. They’d do their job.

  I just needed to do mine.

  I followed Sunny into the basement, my heart in my throat.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

  COLT

  “Yep, that’s Murphy, alright. And his friend, Mr. AK-47, apparently.”

  “A pissed cop sporting an assault rifle is never good,” Slade said.

  “I’d agree with you on that,” I said.

  “Let me handle this,” Slade said.

  “Slade,” Riot said, turning around and wagging a warning finger at Slade. “This is no time for games —.”

  But it was too late.

  Slade was already out of the car, his hands up, his crooked grin spread across his face in a sign of friendly surrender.

  “Howdy, officer,” Slade said. “What seems to be the problem?”

  I watched from inside the car, waiting for Slade’s head to get blown off. Murphy didn’t strike me as a sucker for a cocky man’s charms. Ryder had pulled off to the side of the main road, leaving us in full view of the stream of cars going by. I was banking on the sheer visibility of us all to keep Murphy from doing anything stupid.