by Sophia Gray
I tried to tail them, but as soon as they slowly drove through the parking lot, they took off at a blazing speed. Traffic laws be damned, I tore after them, but the town was starting to wake up, and I got caught behind traffic, and soon their taillights disappeared from view. I tried to find them again, but I had lost them.
Feeling defeated, I started back toward Grant’s loft. I was still a few miles away when my phone dinged from a text. Probably about the restaurant.
I pulled over just in case, and thank fuck that I did.
I’m safe, Mom, but I wanna come home.
Tears filled my eyes, blurring the words. I cried and cried and cried, the hardest I ever cried in my life. My girl was alive. She was safe.
But why couldn’t she just come home if she wanted to?
I wiped away my tears and did my best to compose myself, reading and rereading the text a hundred times.
Only once I was sure that I had myself together did I call her. Maybe she couldn’t talk. Maybe she wouldn’t answer. Maybe she had texted instead of calling me for a reason.
But she picked up.
“Mom?”
Hearing her call me that almost made me burst into tears again. “Sage. Honey. Are you all right? Where are you?” My voice shook, but I sounded comforting, at least I thought and hoped I did.
She burst into tears.
Oh no. It took everything in me not to cry, too. Was she hurt? Had Trenton hit her? Had bad guys come after them? I had so many questions, but I bottled them all up inside. The last thing I wanted to do was to make her stressed out. I wanted her to feel safe while talking to me. I wanted her to take her time telling me what happened. I wasn’t going to demand answers.
So I made comforting noises and whispered to her that it was all right, all while hoping I was helping her feel better and praying I wasn’t lying to her.
“You’re all right,” I repeated for the twentieth time. “You’re all right.”
“Mom…” She sniffled.
“Take your time,” I said. “Take a deep breath.”
She listened.
“Another one,” I coached.
She did.
“Do you feel any better?”
Fresh tears all over again.
Damn it. Me and my big mouth.
It took me even longer to get her to calm down again, but that didn’t matter. I was just thrilled to hear her, even if she was crying. Sage was alive! She might not be happy, but she was all right!
When she seemed to be calming down once more, I ventured asking, “Where are you?”
“Douglastown,” she said, still sniffling but not outright crying anymore. “Moonshine Motel. Mom, you can’t tell anyone where I am, though. It’s not safe. I…I have to go.”
And she hung up.
I immediately dialed her back, but she didn’t answer. I sent her text after text, but she didn’t reply.
Douglastown, huh? Moonshine Motel.
I sent Grant a few texts. I’m all right. Then, Sage texted me. She’s all right…for now. And then, She’s at Moonshine Motel in Douglastown. Going now.
I was near the highway. There wasn’t a point in going back to his place to get him. He could meet me there. I couldn’t wait. I had to get to Sage.
Chapter 12
Grant
When I woke to find my arms empty, I shot right up out of bed. Where was Victoria? My bed felt so cold without her.
I checked the bathroom, calling out for her, feeling like a fool. I wasn’t the kind of guy to be whipped, but with Trenton and Sage being gone, maybe hurt or even killed, I wasn’t about to take any chances.
I was just about to enter the kitchen when my phone rang.
Hank.
“What did you find?” Hell, did he work fast. Had to love that about him.
“I went around to just about every fucking hotel and motel there was. Even scoped out a few shacks in case they were laying up in one of ’em.”
“And?” I demanded. Was he only calling to say it had been a dead end?
“The girl was seen at a motel called Moonshine Motel.”
I exhaled a sigh of relief. “What about Trenton?”
“No one mentioned him.”
“Stick around but lay low,” I ordered. “Don’t put your neck out on the line. We’ll be up quick as we can.”
“Will do.”
I hung up and continued into the kitchen. There was a note from Victoria. She’d gone over to Trenton’s place.
I tried calling her, but my phone was acting up, and the call wouldn’t go through. Texts wouldn’t either. Great. My cell did this every so often, and I always meant to get it looked at but never made time for it.
I hightailed it over to Trenton’s. I’d just tell her in person, only Victoria’s car wasn’t out front. Didn’t matter. I still ran up to Trenton’s apartment anyway. The sight of the place being ransacked made my blood run like ice through my veins. Had Victoria been here when the fuckers who messed with the place still been here? Had they taken her? Was she all right?
As if by magic, a text came through form Victoria. I’m all right.
Thank God.
I kneeled down in all of the crap on the floor. She was all right. All the worry and dread in my stomach just let go. I didn’t know how Sage and Trenton were doing, but at least Victoria was all right because if she hadn’t been, heads would roll.
She had found a way beneath my defenses. She wasn’t just a one-night stand. She wasn’t just a woman I wanted to fuck a couple of times before sending her away. Victoria wasn’t meant for that. She was meant for something more. I wanted to be a part of her life—a major part.
I tried calling her, but my phone began acting up again. That was all right. I’d get ahold of her.
The rest of the apartment looked the same—like someone had unleashed a tornado inside of it. I had no idea if anything had been taken, but if someone had been looking for the drugs, they wouldn’t have found it. Unless Trenton had stashes in other hiding places. Which wasn’t exactly smart. Honestly, the amount I had found hadn’t been as big as it could’ve been. A little more than for recreational use, but not enough to go out and sell. Just what was Trenton’s endgame?
The puzzle was missing way too many pieces. I had a feeling Trenton was just a pawn in someone else’s game, and if I could find the kingpin, I would have the complete picture.
Fleetingly, I thought about calling the police and telling them they might want to scoop out the bar, but if I were wrong and the bar was mixed up in something else altogether, it might just complicate things further, and if they were involved, I didn’t want to make them go underground. What if Trenton had ditched Sage, and that was why he hadn’t been seen at the motel? But why wouldn’t Sage have come home? Then again, if he stranded her without money or a cell, she’d have no way to get back home outside of hitchhiking. Yet she was at a motel. If she were staying there, that meant money, right?
Man, I was giving myself a headache.
I walked over to the window and glanced out. A black car turned into the parking lot. I didn’t think much about it, honestly, not until I walked out of Trenton’s apartment and spied a woman staring at the car outside a window.
She turned toward me, eyes wide, her gaze shifting from me to the room I just left. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“A friend of Trenton’s.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I could see her mind churning.
“And a friend of Sage’s mom.”
Her gaze relaxed ever so slightly. “What’s the girl’s mom’s name?”
I had to suppress a laugh that she was quizzing me. “Victoria.” Just saying her name made me want to smile.
She snorted and turned back to the window, nodding at the car. “Seen it a few times, like I told Victoria.”
“Connected to Trenton?”
“Seems to me. They give me the creeps. Always coming at night.”
“It’s not night now.”
�
��No. Makes me even more nervous.”
“You just go back to bed. I’ll take it from here.”
The woman eyed me. “Might not wanna get involved,” she warned me.
“I’m already involved.”
She tilted her head and then nodded. “I see that. I didn’t know the girl that well, but her mom cares enough about her for me to start. I don’t want nothing to happen to either of them.”
“Neither do I.”
“I see that, too, but sometimes biting off more than you can chew can lead to bullet holes.”
I laughed. The car made one loop around so far, driving real slow. What were they looking for? Had they been the ones behind the ransacking? Were they hoping Trenton would show up back here?
“You should sew that quote. Knit it or whatever the term is.”
“I would, but the people who need to read it won’t take it to heart. Might not even be able to read.”
I grimaced. “Just don’t stick your neck too far out.”
“You too,” she called as I raced down the steps.
I darted out of the door just as the black car made another loop around. A Mercedes Benz. Not a bad-looking car, actually. Kind of sleek. I tried to make my nonchalant way back to my car, but the Benz stopped right in front of me, blocking me.
“Excuse me,” I said pleasantly, trying to avoid eye contact and yet scope them out at the same time.
“Who the hell are you?” the passenger asked.
Since they were talking to me, I saw no reason not to look their way. They had already spotted me already. The driver was staring straight ahead, one hand on the wheel. Even though he didn’t seem to be paying me attention, I had the feeling he didn’t miss much. He had a red moustache, but the hair on top of his head was brown.
The passenger had a hard look to him, added by the scar down the side of his face. Maybe from a knife fight. He glared at me. “I asked you a question.”
“I’m nobody,” I said easily.
“You’d better start talking,” the passenger demanded.
“You’re Grant Reardon, aren’t you?” the driver said, still not looking my way.
“Maybe. Who’s asking?”
“We have some questions for you. About your boy Trenton.”
I shook my head. “Can’t talk right now, fellas. I’m on my way—”
“You’re gonna make time.” The passenger got out.
I wasn’t the least bit intimidated. The guy might have that scar, but I had twenty pounds on him. I could take him.
But then he flashed me something, and I got into the backseat of his car without another word.
Fortunately, our talk didn’t last too long, and the moment I climbed out of their car, they sped away.
I didn’t bother to watch them leave or see where they were heading. Instead, I rushed back to my loft. Victoria wasn’t there. Damn. I really hoped she was. Where was she? I’m all right, her last text had said.
My cell still wasn’t cooperating. Damn it. Too fucking bad on my part that I hadn’t memorized her number. I couldn’t call her from one of the guys’ cells.
Maybe something was hope with her restaurant. I kind of hoped that was the case and that it wasn’t. She was dealing with enough shit that she didn’t need to have more piled on her.
I left her a note that explained what I had learned and asked her to call me as soon as she could. Even when my phone was acting up like it was, it tended to still receive calls, at least.
Riding like the devil was at my back, I motored it toward my bar and the Devil’s Horns’ headquarters.
But then I got a phone call, one that changed my life, and not for the better.
Chapter 13
Victoria
My stomach was churning like mad, so badly I almost thought I would have to pull over to be sick. While I was thrilled that I would be seeing Sage soon, the way our last conversation ended left me on edge.
At a red light, I grabbed my phone. A few of my texts hadn’t gone through. Great. Before I could try to resend them, the car behind me honked, and I slammed down on the gas to jolt forward. I merged onto the highway and managed to call Sage as I wove between traffic, driving a good fifteen to twenty above the speed limit.
She didn’t answer.
Was Trenton holding her somewhere against her will? I wanna come home, she had texted, which suggested she couldn’t come home, right? Or else she would’ve just come home.
I want you to come home, too.
Or maybe Trenton wasn’t the bad guy in all of this. Maybe someone was holding them both against their wills. I appreciated Grant telling me Trenton’s backstory. Even though I hadn’t liked him from the start, I was a firm believer that everyone deserved a second chance.
Even Sage’s birth mom?
Okay…maybe I wasn’t as firm of a believer as I liked to think I was, but if Trenton really did turn his life around, if he really did love Sage, if he was trying to help her out of whatever situation they were in, I would change my mind on him so fast I would get whiplash.
But the drugs in his apartment…
Maybe they had been planted there. Maybe someone from Trenton’s past didn’t like that he was clean. Maybe they hunted him down…but for what?
Yeah right, Victoria. You know that’s not the case.
Deep down, I had a hunch this was all Trenton’s fault, but was that just my hope for both Sage and Grant? He had such hopes in the boy, and I hated to think they were misplaced, but that was exactly what I was thinking. Trenton had struck me as bad news right from the start. I prided myself on being a good judge of character.
One time, shortly after I acquired the restaurant, I had been on-site to work out an issue between the cook and the meat packager when I spied two men enter the place. They were rough and tough looking, and they kept looking around. They asked for a table in the corner, and my hostess granted it to them.
Now, honestly, I had no reason to take an interest in them, but I did, and I broke off my conversation to see to them personally. I asked if they needed something to drink. They brushed me off. No big deal. I always tried to see to every table when I was at the restaurant, to try to make sure everyone was having a good time, and I had learned when exactly was a good time to approach a table so they weren’t in the middle of eating and could answer me.
So I smiled and nodded and told them to feel free to flag me down if they needed anything. And I went rounds with the other tables but kept an eye on them.
And it was a good thing I did because I witnessed a drug deal. No lie.
I discretely told their waiter to purposely delay them—their food, their drinks, their bill—and called the police on them. I guess you could call me an informant, too. No way was I going to allow drug deals to happen at my restaurant.
The very next day, two more guys showed up, and they were just as rough and tough looking as the previous two guys, but for some reason, these ones didn’t send off any signals to me, and they soon became regulars. I wasn’t ageist, racist, sexist or anything like that. I would serve anyone, except for those who might pose a threat to my other customers, and, yes, that included drugs.
My gut warned me about Trenton right from the start, but Sage hadn’t listened, and I feared if I went too hard at her against him, she would cling to him all the more. Maybe I should’ve done more, said more, did something, anything to keep her away from him.
Had I given her too long of a leash that it turned into a noose? When was it up to the child to step up and take responsibility for their actions? Yes, Sage was nineteen; she technically wasn’t considered a child, but in my mind, she still needed to be protected. The world had taken so much from her and hadn’t given her nearly enough back. She was still trying to find her place in this world, and I wanted to give her a real shot at working at the restaurant, but I wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.
I was babying her. I was holding her back. In some areas—like dating—I was giving her too much leeway for
fear she would just rebel and do what she wanted anyway, and in others—like work—I was not letting her stand on her own two feet for fear she wouldn’t do right by me, by my business, and by herself, too.
Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a mom, but I had never been one before, and I knew when I took her in that it wouldn’t be easy. I was rolling with the punches as they came, but it was time to take off the kid gloves and to go for it.