by Sophia Gray
He stared at his phone. “A text. Someone spotted Sage on the eastside of town.”
“Let’s go.” I shrugged out of his grip and started toward the front door.
“As much as I love how you look in that towel, I think you might want to get changed before we go.”
“Oh. Right.” I dashed back to the bathroom. Who cared if I wore the same clothes? If we could find Sage already, everything would be perfect!
I threw my clothes on and applied some of Grant’s deodorant. It smelled strong, and it thrilled me to smell like him.
To say I was pissed and annoyed to find Grant’s bike gone and him not in sight in his loft would be an understatement. He had left me a note on the counter. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Make yourself comfy. Time is of the essence.
He was right about that, but I had only taken three minutes to change. He couldn’t have waited three minutes?
I paced around the table a few times before my stomach started to churn. I was both nauseous and hungry. By the time I decided eating might be a good idea, I heard the roar of his bike and the flashing of his lights.
Quick as a rabbit, I rushed to the door. Grant’s grim face greeted me.
“It was a false lead. I’m sorry. I went to the place and scoped it out, but I found nothing.”
“Where was it?” I asked. My heart sank, but honestly, I wasn’t surprised. Something in my gut told me Sage was in trouble. We hadn’t gotten in a fight. She had no reason to run away.
“A bar. Cowboy’s Lasso. You know the place?”
I stilled. Sage might only be nineteen and underage, but that was a place she frequented. “Cowboy’s Lasso. Sage often went there with Trenton. You sure that it was a false lead?”
“She wasn’t there. Neither was Trenton. Could they have been there earlier? Not today, at least. I asked the bartender, and he said no. Trenton never mentioned the bar to me himself, but I’ll go back tomorrow and ask more questions.”
“I’ll come with.”
He reached over and patted my hand. “You need to get some supplies and clothes. Maybe call around a few more friends or other places that the two would hang out.”
“Why do you want me to lay low?” I demanded, pulling my hand back and putting it on my hip.
“I want you to stay safe. I don’t want anyone else to go missing.”
“And you assume that because you’re a big, tough guy you’ll be fine?”
“Exactly.” He brushed his knuckles against my cheek. “I’ll go in the morning alone, but I’ll notify you the second I learn anything. Do we have a deal?”
“I’m not gonna change your mind, am I?” I sighed.
He laughed. “If I’m anything, I’m stubborn.”
“I am, too, but fine. Just this once.”
“Just this once.”
Chapter 5
Grant
That night, I had a hard time sleeping, and it wasn’t because I was on my couch. It was because Victoria was in my bed, sleeping.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I kept trying to think about Trenton and where we might be able to find him and Sage, but my other head wanted attention.
Maybe I was in denial. I didn’t want Victoria to be hurt, but I was afraid that was exactly what was going to happen. Because if Trenton was mixed up with drugs, then Sage might’ve been snatched specifically to keep Trenton in line. Or, if Sage was in on it, maybe Victoria was in danger, because then she could be the one snatched to keep Sage in line.
It was enough to make my head hurt.
My other head, now that was throbbing. When Victoria had come out of the bathroom with beads of water on her soft skin, crashing into me, I hadn’t even thought about stopping myself. I just went for it and kissed her.
It had been an incredible kiss, and I had had more than my fair share of kisses. Make no mistake about it, I wasn’t interested in settling down. I had no idea if I ever would. Didn’t mean I didn’t want Victoria any less, though, and from the way she responded, she definitely wanted me, too.
Her curves, those lips, her lithe body, I could just imagine how it would go, how she would respond.
Maybe it was animalistic of me to be thinking about her like this when Trenton might be in trouble. Hell, worst case scenario, Trenton would be dead already. He deserved better than that. He could’ve been better than all of this. I thought I’d helped him, that drugs weren’t a part of his life anymore. I guessed I had failed him.
I didn’t take failure well, but this wasn’t about me. Trenton had always had his demons, and while I did my best for him, there had been only so much I could do for him. He had to want to get clean himself. It seemed to me that he hadn’t started using again, at least, but that he might be dealing it, selling it, when he knew first hand just how terrible the stuff could be, well, it just ate away at me.
So maybe I wasn’t sleeping for a few reasons.
With a groan, I got up and grabbed myself an apple from the kitchen. Maybe a snack would help me settle. Before going back to the couch, though, I made a detour and peeked in on Victoria. She looked so peaceful, but then she rolled over and back again. She was restless. Small wonder.
I could climb into bed with her. Hold her. Comfort her. Take both of our minds off our worries.
The sound of a soft sigh came to me. Was she waking? No. It seemed to me that she was settling into a deeper sleep. Better to leave her alone.
But that left me all the more frustrated when I returned to the couch. My cock was throbbing, long and hard. Maybe this was a nature reaction to fear and worry—to want to fuck, to crave something life-affirming. Because, man, did I want to fuck, to pound good and long, again and again.
She was aggravated with me, though, and I didn’t blame her for that. I wanted to keep her safe, and I was keeping her in the dark. The possibility of there being a threat to her was real. She just didn’t realize how real. I’d keep her safe, even if it meant that I had to keep her at arm’s length. If she learned I was holding back, she’d be pissed, and she might understand, but probably not. If Sage was in on drugs, Victoria obviously had no idea. She thought the world of Sage. She loved her like she was her own. If she wanted to have kids of her own one day, she’d make a hell of a mom.
Kids. Now that was something I hadn’t thought about. Did I want some? It would mean having a family. More like having another family. My men, my crew, they were my family.
I wasn’t a praying kind of guy, but I kind of felt like I should be praying now. I wanted Trenton and Sage to be safe. I wanted the drugs to have been planted there. I wanted everything to work out.
But I had a feeling that it was going to be a long time before anything would work out, and who knew how exactly it would all shape up.
***
I woke the next morning before Victoria did, although it might be more accurate to say that I hardly ever slept. I had gotten up after I finished an apple and wrote down every possible place Trenton had ever gone to since I had known him. I then looked up the numbers and left the list on the table. I wasn’t specifically asking Victoria to call the places for me, but if she wanted to do it while I was out investigating, I would appreciate it. I wanted to find Trenton as badly as she wanted to find Sage.
Before I went back to Cowboy’s Lasso, I scoped out my place. None of the guys had any other new leads for me, though it took me some time to track them all down, since a few were out chasing down what turned out to be false leads.
I figured it wouldn’t be best to return to the bar until it was at least dinnertime, so I tinkered some with my bike. Working with my hands, getting dirty and grimy, always helped to get my mind working. I came up with a few others places Trenton liked to hang out at that I hadn’t thought up earlier, and I checked out the movie theater and the restaurant, but he hadn’t frequented either recently.
Of course not. I’m starting to feel like we’re chasing ghosts.
By now, it was nearly five o’clock. I at
e dinner with the guys, all the while wondering how Victoria was holding up. Maybe I should’ve gone to her, ate with her, kept her company. I had given her a few text updates but that was it. I wanted to try to put some distance between us. Distractions right now weren’t good. The couple had been gone for days now. The longer they went without being found, the less likely we were to find them. If they really wanted to disappear, we might not be able to find them.
Again I considered the drugs. If Trenton and Sage were running—not from us but from drug dealers—they might very well be trying to disappear. If we never found them, what then? Victoria would never give up on finding her daughter, and I wouldn’t want to give up either.
We would have to find them. One way or another.
Figuring enough time had passed by now that a trip to the bar would hopefully prove worthwhile, I said goodbye to my boys and instructed them to keep on searching. It might take all of us to find them.
It didn’t take me long to ride back to Cowboy’s Lasso. It was a dark little place, a little out of the way, tucked into a corner. I could see the appeal to it. The place had been really busy last night, which was some of the reason why I had to go back now to get more intel.
Before she had gone to bed last night, Victoria had texted me a pic of Sage and Trenton, and I showed that around to everyone who walked into the place. The first few people I asked hadn’t heard anything, but I struck gold when I asked the guys sitting at the bar—the regular drunks who I wished hadn’t recognized Trenton.
“Oh yeah. Them. Yeah, we know them, don’t we, Bob?” a guy who had a stain on his shirt said.
Bob, who was missing one of his front teeth, squinted at the pic, then nodded. “Sure do.”
“Let me see.” The third guy, whose pants had some questionable holes in them, leaned over. Man, did he need a bath. Smelled like he hadn’t showed in years. “Yep. Trevor, right?”
“No. Trenton.” Stained-Shirt stared at me. “Right? That there is Trenton.”
“Yes,” I said. What were the chances these guys knew anything worthwhile? Still, I had to try to follow up every lead. “Trenton and his girlfriend, Sage. I got a call that Sage was here last night.”
Smelly stared at Bob and Stained-Shirt. “I didn’t see her.”
“And you always notice her when she comes in,” Bob hooted.
“She ain’t ever gonna let you buy her a drink.” Stained-Shirt grinned.
Smelly’s nostrils flared. “One day she will. She’ll dump that ass of a…She’ll want a real man.”
And Smelly was a real man?
“So I gather she wasn’t here last night, then,” I cut in.
“Nope.”
“When was the last time you tried buying her a drink?” I tried to smile at Smelly. I tried. I failed.
“About a month ago.” He shook his head. “Can’t try to buy her one when dipshit is around, and she don’t come here alone too often. Pretty little thing. Doubt she’s legal. Such perfect ripe tits that—”
“Right on,” I said to shut him up.
The man had to be old enough to be her father. Hell, maybe even her grandfather. While I respected the desire to want a younger woman, there was a line. Sage was legal, but I had a feeling this guy liked them as young as he could get them.
So much for that question working out for me. I’d figured from what his friends said that he asked to get a drink every time she came in, but that obviously wasn’t the case.
“When was the last time she came in with her boyfriend?” I asked.
Smelly glowered at me.
“With her dipshit of a boyfriend,” I amended for him.
“Asshole.”
Now I was the one to glower at him.
“Not you,” he muttered, holding up his hands. “Hey.” He slapped his hand onto the counter. “Grab ’im one. On me.”
The bartender looked over, nodded, and a few minutes later handed me an ice cold beer.
Little early for drinking. Then again, these guys were already drinking, and it wasn’t like I was short on reasons for drinking anyhow.
I took several long swallows. “As you were saying,” I growled.
Smelly nodded. “The two of them were here a week ago.”
Bob nodded, too. “A week ago is right.”
“Yeah, the game was on.”
Smelly smiled widely. “That’s right. My team scored, and she walked on in, and I thought I might score, but then he came in right behind her. He probably just wanted to stare at her tight ass.” He drained the last of his beer.
I took a sip of mine. “A week, huh? That typical? Or do they come by more often than that usually?”
“More like two to three times a week usually.”
“Can always tell when they stop by.” Stained-Shirt jerked his thumb in Smelly’s direction. “The amount of beer he drinks a night is insane.”
“Insane in the membrane,” Bob muttered.
Smelly slapped him upside the head.
The bartender cast them a glare.
Smelly straightened for a second before hunching back over his glass. He cradled the empty glass in his hands. “I keep hoping she’ll turn up.”
“Yeah. He’s been missing time at work for it.” Bob shook his head. “Got it bad. If he’s not careful, he’ll get himself another restraining order.”
I snapped him a long stare. He seemed obsessed, yes, but would he have the drive to do anything about it? Had he taken Sage as his own and offed Trenton?
Smelly hiccupped. “Whatever. I don’t need that job anyhow. My boss’s an asshole—”
“You think everyone’s an asshole,” Stained-Shirt said.
“That’s because they are.”
I cleared my throat. I definitely planned on finding out more about him. “What’s your name again?” I asked.
Smelly grimaced and didn’t answer.
I flagged down the bartender and held up two fingers.
Only after we got our beers did Smelly start talking. “Paul. Paul Jonstone.” He gave me a side glance. “Who are you, and why are you asking so many questions about Sage?”
“She’s a friend of mine,” I said. No way did I want him to start thinking I was a cop. Cops made people nervous, which actually could work in my favor because nervous people tended to talk too much and give things away, but it could also work against me because nervous people tended to shoot first and ask questions later, and I did not want to get shot.
“A friend?” Paul grimaced. He wasn’t the kind of guy to want competition. Not that he was competition. Trenton had nothing to worry about from him. I was going to keep an eye on him, but I doubted he had anything to do with the disappearances.
“Just a friend,” I assured him. “Been trying to call her and she won’t answer.” I drank some of my beer. “All right. Fine. She owes me. She wanted to buy a really expensive dress to impress her…dipshit. I’m talking really expensive.” I shook my head. “Women and their clothes. Anyhow, I need to collect. My girl’s starting to be suspicious about the missing money, and what kind of bird is gonna believe I’d loan that kind of money to a friend?” I shrugged. “Help a brother out, man. Got any idea where she is?”
Paul nodded. “Yeah, actually. I was walking to the bathroom to take a piss—”
“He wanted to try to sniff her hair,” Stained-Shirt cut in.
“I do not do that!” Paul shouted, but I wouldn’t put it past him. “They were talking, the two of them. Kinda hushed tones, but you can only talk her so softly if you wanna be heard. Loud place at night here. Ton of good people, good food, good music, good—”
“Everything’s good,” I interrupted, hoping he would get to the point soon, and that the point would turn into a reliable lead. “Did you hear what they were saying?”
“You bet I did. They were talking about leaving town.”
Hope grew in my chest, hot and warm. Or maybe that was my stomach and the beer. Could it be that the two were just lovebirds? That they just
wanted to get away and make a break from their own lives, start over anew with a clean slate?
Doubtful. There wasn’t a reason for Sage to want to duck out of town without contacting her mom. And that didn’t explain the drugs.
That was what had me worried. The drugs. What the hell was Trenton messing around with? What had he gotten himself—and Sage—into?
“Leave town, huh. Typical. Wants to skip out on me.” I gave him more side-eye. “Any idea where?”
“Some town. One hundred miles north. Can’t remember the name of it. Sorry, man. I doubt you’re getting your money back.”
