“Hey, what are you doing out here?” His tone definitely sounded like he was trying to sound okay, unfazed by the argument he must suspect she’d noticed.
“I, uh, wanted to make sure you were okay.” It wasn’t exactly the reason, but she needed to broach the conversation carefully. She sensed the animosity between the two men was something Lance tried to make light of, but that’s not what she’d just witnessed. If it hadn’t seemed to affect Kaia, she wouldn’t care.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just have to get back to North Mountain Sports for some meetings.”
“On a Sunday?”
“Executives are in town,” he said, checking his watch. “But we’ll grab a drink later, right?”
“Actually, no.” No time like the present to have this conversation. “I don’t think you and I should see each other anymore.”
He frowned. “Really? Since when?”
Wow, he really thought a relationship could survive one half-hearted text in over a month and casual dates that had been going nowhere fast? “Well, since you were gone, I guess. Actually, Eddie and I were dating.”
He nodded. “Okay, that’s a little unexpected. Don’t you think you should have mentioned that?”
Seriously? With the way they’d left things at the hospital and the lack of communication between them? No, he was right. Just like Eddie was right. She should have made a clean break of things. “Yes, I should have. I just thought we were keeping things fun...”
“But not anymore?”
“No.”
He stepped forward, and his expression was actually one of disappointment.
Oh, shit. What was happening? He was supposed to not care. He was the playboy snowboarding god of the mountains. He wasn’t ready to be serious with anyone. Especially not her—a single mom, former extreme athlete.
“I can’t say I’m not upset. Like I said in my text, I started to really miss you when I was away. Maybe my feelings were stronger than I’d realized.”
Either way, hers weren’t. And this was coming a little too late...or maybe she’d never have reciprocated the feelings he was now claiming to have.
“Sorry, Lance,” she said, rubbing her arms for heat.
He nodded slowly. “And this change...it’s because you have feelings for Eddie?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes.” Ones she knew were not just going to go away. Ones she desperately wanted to confess to him, to see if maybe they could start over...
“Okay, then...” He turned to walk away, but she stopped him. Breaking things off hadn’t been the reason she’d chased after him. Though, she was relieved to have one tough conversation out of the way. “Wait, um, about your dad just now...”
Annoyance, then a flash of anger appeared on his face. “My father’s and my business is none of yours,” he said, storming away to board the shuttle bus, leaving her standing there, uneasiness growing stronger. What was he hiding? Was this feud with his father more than the older man’s anger over Lance firing him?
Montana shivered and headed back inside the resort.
At least whatever had been happening between them was officially over, and there was no reason Ralph Baker would ever be near Kaia.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
IT WAS THE last training day of the season before the weather was too inconsistent to bring new jumping groups to the peak for the Fundamentals of BASE course, and Montana wished she had the same enthusiasm for this group as she had for the others. They all deserved her at her best, but the last forty-eight hours had been emotionally exhausting. She missed Eddie, she’d pissed off Lance and subsequently her father in the process, and something was definitely up with Kaia again, despite her daughter’s insistence otherwise.
She was meeting Cassie and Tank at the bar that evening for a parents’ meeting to discuss how to approach the situation with the little girl. Three heads were better than one, and she was so grateful for the two of them to navigate this journey with.
The group had only consisted of six participants, but she anticipated at least four of them would return in the spring for the next level that would have them soaring over the mountainside. As they all dispersed, Montana climbed onto an ATV and rounded out the pack as they headed back down the muddy trails toward town.
But even the noise of the all-terrain vehicle didn’t help to drown out her own troublesome thoughts. Returning home the day before, she’d wanted to talk to Eddie. The breakfast mimosas and the clarity she’d found that day gave her confidence and courage to go to him and tell him how she felt, and she was hoping to coerce him into telling her why Kaia had gone to see him, but Eddie’s van hadn’t been in his usual stall, so she’d tried to keep herself busy cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, even cooking the one meal he’d taught her, all while checking for his vehicle or listening for sounds of him next door. But by midnight, he still wasn’t home. She hadn’t been able to break up with Lance by text message, so she sure as hell couldn’t tell Eddie she loved him through one.
She suspected he was at the station, which she was happy about. He was ready to go back to work. He was feeling better, ready to continue his life.
She hoped it wasn’t too late to be a part of it.
Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled the ATV to the side of the trail, flagging the rest of the group to continue on. She cut the engine and reached for the phone. Tank’s cell number lit up the screen. “Hey.”
“Did you pick up Kaia from school today?”
Her eyes widened. Shit, had she mixed up their days? She’d been so preoccupied that it was possible, but a quick mental tally revealed that no, it was definitely not her day to pick her daughter up. “No. It’s not my day. I just finished up a training course. Everything okay?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t get off the school bus ten minutes ago, and I thought maybe I’d messed up our schedule.”
“No. She’s not with me.” Her pulse started to race, and she forced a calming breath. “Maybe she was going to a friend’s house today?”
“Maybe,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “She may have told me but I forgot. Whenever I try her cell, it goes straight to voice mail, so I’ll call around to some parents.”
“Let me know what you find out. Please.”
“Of course,” he said before the line went dead.
An hour later, he opened the front door of his house right as she reached for the doorknob. The worried expression on his face was a mirror image of her own. “Still nothing?”
“No. And she’s not answering her phone or messages.” Tank said, instantly redialing Kaia’s cell phone.
Even Diva paced the hallway back and forth, sensing something was wrong. The husky brushed against Montana’s leg and gave a small whimper as she lay on the floor, ears still perked and tail swiping nervously.
“I even tried blocking my number to see if she was just ignoring us for some reason, but still nothing,” Cassie said, joining them in the entryway.
“Was she in school today, or did she skip class again?” Maybe if she thought the school had called them to rat her out, she’d be nervous to come home or answer them. Preteen minds didn’t always make the best, logical choices.
“She was there. We called her teacher already. She said she saw her head out to the bus with the other kids after the last bell,” Cassie said, biting her lip and peering out the front door, scanning up and down the street. “We checked the mall and the Snack Shack already, and Reed’s heading over to the station now to see if she had a wilderness-training thing she forgot to tell us about. Where else could she be?”
Montana had stopped by her place before coming to Tank and Cassie’s, but Kaia wasn’t there either. “Have you tried tracing the GPS on the phone?”
Tank and Cassie exchanged guilty looks.
Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. “
What?”
“She said it was an invasion of her privacy and gave a very compelling argument about why it should be disabled,” Cassie said.
“How about our very compelling argument that we are the parents and we can track her ass all day long, every day, to make sure she’s safe?” Montana sighed. Since when was she the hard-ass parent? And the fact that Tank and Cassie hadn’t discussed this with her prior to doing it annoyed her. She needed to step up more and be more vocal. Sure, in the past she was the lenient one, but if the last few months had taught her anything, it was that Kaia’s strong will and determined, stubborn nature needed to be matched not caved to.
“I know. It was dumb. Lesson learned not to get schooled by our kid anymore,” Tank said, looking devastated and severely on edge, so Montana let the lecture about coparenting communication slide for now.
“Well, do you think she did that on purpose? Do you think she was planning this—whatever this is—and that’s why she didn’t want us to know where she was?” Montana’s mind immediately went to that kid that she had a crush on, and she started to pace.
Tank either read her mind or he’d had a similar feeling. “Don’t worry—I called that Tommy kid’s parents. They are on a dart league at the bar. They’re away in Florida for a funeral. Tommy’s with them.”
“What about those other boys that Eddie mentioned were bothering her at the Haunted Trail event?”
“She said they weren’t bugging her anymore since Eddie put the fear of crazed, chain-saw-wielding madmen in hockey masks into them.”
The mention of Eddie had Montana feeling even worse. He’d helped Kaia that night. He’d be such a great role model for their daughter. Her gaze landed on the photo she’d bombed of Tank and Cassie and Kaia on the fridge, and her chest tightened. She could see Eddie as the fourth adult in their family photos. “So, where could she be?”
“I don’t know, but this is out of character,” Tank said.
“A lot has been out of character lately,” Montana said. She told them about the brunch the day before, and Kaia’s reaction to Lance’s father and the way the old guy had stared at her. “She seemed nervous. Scared, even.”
Tank’s fists clenched at his sides as he paced the living room, dialing one new parent after another.
“Has she ever met Lance’s dad before?” Cassie asked.
“I haven’t even met his dad. Since Lance fired him as a coach, the two men haven’t spoken—at least that’s what Lance said. They were definitely arguing, though...” The way he’d gone on the extreme defensive when she’d asked him about it the day before had the hair on the back of her neck standing up now. There was definitely something going on... Could Kaia somehow know something about it? “I’m going to the police station,” she said, heading for the front door.
“She’s only been gone an hour. Will they do something this quickly?” Cassie asked, right on her heels.
Tank followed, the cell phone to his ear, the sound of Kaia’s phone ringing and her not answering terrifying all three of them.
Montana swallowed hard. “The station might not, but Eddie will.”
* * *
EDDIE HADN’T LEFT his desk at the station for over twenty-four hours. Six half-empty coffee cups littered the space between folders of convicted drug dealers in the state and beyond. Words started to blur on the page, made even more difficult to read due to his dyslexia, but despite the exhaustion creeping in from hours of research, he was feeling better than he had in days. Working again was giving him back some of what the breakup with Montana had taken away.
Some.
Staying busy and away from the apartment building kept him from being consumed by thoughts of her—or the sight of Lance having brunch with her family the day before. So much for ending things with the other guy. Eddie backing away seemed to have given Montana the green light to continue pursuing a relationship with Lance instead.
Which was for the best, really, and all he had to do was keep repeating that to himself whenever the urge to reach out to Montana was overwhelmingly tempting.
Like every five minutes, when he wasn’t engrossed in a police file.
Unfortunately, he’d yet to make a physical-description match to the man Kaia had described. Research into Olympic coaches hadn’t provided much clarity, either. The only recent scandals were stories about sabotaged efforts or, like in Lance’s case, big public disputes after a high-profile firing. Drug-testing policies in these elite-level sports were intense and taken very seriously.
The day before, he’d taken a break from the files and had stopped by both the community hall where most of the teens hung out on the weekend and the Snack Shack to ask around about the drugs showing up at camp and at the school, but he’d been informed that Tommy was away with his family, and of course all the other kids claimed to know nothing about it.
Apparently, Kaia was the only one brave enough to come forward.
Eddie ran a hand over his face and blinked the tiredness from his eyes. More coffee. He needed more coffee.
He went down the hall to the vending machine and waited for the dark roast to brew. He still wasn’t sure what to do about telling Montana and Tank and Cassie about Kaia coming to him with the lead. He hoped to talk to the little girl again and convince her that telling her parents herself was the right thing to do.
“Eddie!” Montana’s voice made him drop the coffee cup as he reached for it.
“Shit,” he mumbled as hot coffee hit his legs. He reached for the cup and several napkins, happy to have a distraction while he composed himself over the unexpected sight of her. He hadn’t showered in three days, and he was now smelling like dark-roast coffee. Probably an improvement, though.
“Sorry for startling you,” she said, quickly helping him clean the dark liquid.
“No problem,” he said, staring at her. Damn, he’d missed seeing her, being near her, touching her these last few days. He couldn’t avoid his apartment forever, and he had no idea how he’d survive run-ins with her without feeling the sting of disappointment and regret each time. It was so strong now, it was a sucker punch to the gut.
Then, the sight of Tank and Cassie coming down the hall told him she wasn’t there because she missed him. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his gut twisting, now for a different reason.
“Kaia’s missing,” she said.
“What do you mean missing? How long? When was the last time any of you saw her?” he asked, his head swiveling between the three of them.
“This morning when she left for school,” Tank said. The man looked wrecked as he texted on his cell phone.
“The teacher saw her a few hours ago, though, getting on the bus, or at least heading to the buses,” Cassie said, her voice thick with emotion.
“Okay, so only a few hours.” He felt a little better. Not much. “Obviously, you’ve tried friends and hangouts?” It wasn’t really a question. He knew they’d have exhausted all other possibilities before coming to the station.
“Yes. We’re worried, Eddie.” The deep concern in Montana’s dark eyes made him instantly want to fix things.
He was no longer tired as he headed back to his cubicle. “Follow me.” At his desk, Eddie grabbed a pen and paper. “What was she wearing this morning?”
“Her usual—jeans, ball cap, sweatshirt...” Tank said.
“Colors?”
“Blue—light blue hat and black hoodie,” Cassie said. “I remember because she was looking for her green one in the laundry. I said she couldn’t wear the same hoodie to school four days in a row, so she wore the black one.”
“Great. This is helpful, Cass,” Eddie said. “Was she upset this morning? Other than about the hoodie?” He doubted Kaia would run away but he needed to eliminate all possibilities.
Tank and Cassie shook their heads. “No. She seemed fine,” Tank said, as a call came in to his c
ell. “It’s Reed,” he told them before taking the call. “Hey, man. Any sign of her at the station?”
They all listened. Waited. Hopeful.
“Okay. Thanks, anyway.” Tank sighed as he disconnected the call. “Nope. He’s going to head to the hospital. He said he texted Erika already, and she said she hadn’t seen her.”
Relief and fear washed over Eddie, and he could tell the rest of them were battling with the same conflicting emotions. “Okay, any idea where else she might have gone?”
They all shook their heads.
“There was an incident yesterday at brunch with Lance’s dad,” Montana blurted out. She looked sheepish, but right now, the fact that she appeared to still be seeing the guy and he was integrating into her family took a back seat.
“What happened?” Eddie asked.
“I don’t think it’s anything, really, but Kaia saw them fighting at the resort. It was the way she looked at his dad that stood out.” Montana shivered. “And the way he stared at her.” She shook her head. “Probably nothing, but it was as though he knew her or something.”
Eddie’s heart raced. “She looked at him as though she’d seen him before as well?” he asked, typing Ralph Baker into a Google search as he asked. The man was notorious for being a loudmouth and disgruntled ex-coach. He was constantly on the media discrediting his son’s talent. Real nice guy.
“Yeah...” Montana said.
The image loaded on the screen, but the man really wasn’t a fit for Kaia’s description. That’s why Eddie had already dismissed the idea. Still, he turned the monitor to Montana. “This guy?”
She leaned closer and frowned. “That must be a really old picture. He’s skinny now, with long—”
“White hair,” Eddie finished. Shit. Of course the man would be older now. He hadn’t been coaching his son for a few years, and this picture was from the last winter Olympics.
“What’s going on, Eddie? What do you know about it?” Tank asked, stopping his pacing.
“Kaia saw this man at camp. She said he’s the one supplying the kids with the new performance-enhancement drug that’s been circulating,” Eddie said. That’s all he’d say for now. The late-night kayak trip was irrelevant, and he didn’t want them focused on other issues, just finding Kaia immediately.
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