by Sophia Gray
For once, there was silence on the other end of the line.
“Maybe you should take a day and just do what you wanna do. Separate from him. And separate from other guys, too,” I felt the need to add. “See who you are when it’s just you.”
“Just be by myself? And do what?”
“Do you have any hobbies?”
“Guess sex doesn’t count.”
“No.”
“I…I kinda don’t know who I am without a guy,” she admitted.
“How does that make you feel?”
“I don’t know. I guess I can do that. One day can’t hurt, right?”
“Sure!”
“Watch Netflix, eat ice cream…”
“Or go out to the movies,” I suggested. Something to get her outside. “Do you like to paint? Maybe there’s an art class or something.”
“You mean you want me to do stuff with random strangers?” She sounded horrified.
“I mean do things that might help you connect with others on a nonsexual level. You know, what’s the word?”
“Friendship?”
“Yes!”
“Okay. I’ll try. Not expecting much, but it can’t hurt any. Thanks, Sage’s Mom.”
I laughed. She always called me that.
“Guess you aren’t too bad with the advice thing.” And she hung up.
I rubbed my forehead. “You heard how much?”
“Enough.” Grant chuckled, the sound low and deep, and I found my gaze roving down his body, hesitating over his lips, over the swell of his crossed arms, down his shirt that covered his six-pack, to below his belt.
“Sage’s best friend,” I said by way to clarify.
“Gotcha. She hasn’t heard from her I take it.”
“Nope.” I exhaled. “She’s basically making me her substitute best friend.” I braced myself. “I take it you came here to talk about something other than Corinne and her oversharing.”
“Yeah.” He took a deep breath himself.
“You have a new lead.” I jumped to my feet, my heart pounding. It couldn’t be a good one. “Don’t tell me. They’re alive, aren’t they? They have to be.” My hands flew to my throat. I couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t know. I haven’t found them. No further lead than what we already have except…” He grimaced.
I slapped my palms onto the table. “Just spit it out!” I snapped.
“I found something in Trenton’s apartment. I hoped that it wasn’t connected, but that might be—most likely is—wishful thinking.” He closed his eyes.
My blood ran cold as a guess came to mind based on everything Grant had told me about Trenton. I’d admit that I had a lot more sympathy for the guy after I learned what kind of upbringing he had, but becoming a user wasn’t the answer. It seemed like Grant had done everything he could to help clean up Trenton, and it seemed to me Trenton had cleaned himself up the rest of the way. I never once thought Trenton had been high around me, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have gone drugs when he hadn’t been around me.
That he might have introduced Sage to drugs made me want to kill him. Sage was impressionable. She constantly was looking for attention because her mother had never given her any. I tried to make up for it, but let’s be honest, a teenage girl wanted more attention from a guy than her adopted mom. And Trenton did give her plenty of attention—not that all of it was positive.
“Drugs. You found drugs in his place.” I stared at Grant.
He nodded. “I didn’t tell you right away because…”
“You want to shield me, protect my memory of Sage, in case anything should happen to her, in case we find her…” I couldn’t say it.
“I should’ve told you.”
“You did tell me.” I rubbed my jaw. Maybe this wasn’t a terrible thing if—and it was a big if—we could use it to find them safe and sound. “Do you know who his supplier used to be? Do they have a connection to the bar? We have another angle to work.”
“Getting into the drug world isn’t simple.”
I made a scoffing sound. “Even I could find access to drugs if I wanted them.”
“Access is one thing. Intel into who is dealing what and the inner working details, that’s another thing. It’s why agents have to go deep undercover for years to be able to bust up huge drug circles.”
“So what you’re saying is we can’t use it to our advantage.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t say that. I’ve had a few run-ins with his old crewmates. They know my face.”
“So it is a dead end.” I winced. Terrible word choice. It was a horrible phrase overall. No one should use it ever.
“They know my face,” he clarified, “but I do have someone in the loop. One of my guys is inside. Someone Trenton doesn’t even know is a member of Devil’s Horns. It’s not that I don’t trust Trenton. It’s just that I know how devastating drugs can be, how much of a hold they can have on people. Once a user, always a user isn’t always true. People can overcome addiction. It’s not easy, though, and relapses can and do happen. I just wanted to know if they ever came back around. It isn’t always easy to walk away from drugs, from both ends of it.”
“You also wanted to know if he ever came back around to it.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped as he nodded. “I thought he was doing better. He sure had me fooled.”
“Have you asked your guys if they thought he was using again?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away.
“They thought so, huh?” I assumed.
Curiously, his right hand closed into a fist.
“So they didn’t think so.” I furrowed my brows, confused, but then it hit me. “You don’t think he was using. You think he was dealing!” Oh fuck. That was worse, wasn’t it? Fuck! “If he is selling…” I swallowed hard. I felt lightheaded and had to try to focus on my breathing so I didn’t pass out. “Do you think they’re in trouble? That they might be dead already?”
Grant crossed over to me and embraced me tight against his chest. He rubbed my back, and I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the strong sound of his steady heartbeat. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think poorly of Sage. I didn’t want you to lose hope.”
Tears burned my eyes. It would be easy to crumble, to burst into tears, to scream and rage against the injustice of it all. It would be so easy to just lie down and roll over and give up.
It would be so difficult to fight through the pain, to ignore the worry, to turn my fear into fury, to dare to not give up on that hope.
To try to find them, even if we only end up finding their bodies, or worse, finding out what had happened to them with their bodies being unable to be recovered.
Blinking away my tears, I took a deep, body-shuddering breath. I never had been one to take the easy route. If I had, I would still be a waitress. No. I was a businesswoman. I was a go-getter. I was determined.
I was a mom.
And I would do whatever the hell it took to get my daughter back.
Chapter 10
Grant
I could almost see the gears churning in Victoria’s head, and I fought back a grin. She was no damsel in distress, and if that was the case, what was her daughter like? She had been through hell, just like Trenton. In an ideal world, the two broken kids would’ve been able to work through their troubles together and come out stronger for it. They would be perfect together and end up married and have two point five kids and a house with a white picket fence.
But this world was far from ideal, and they could be heading down a very different and dangerous path instead, one filled with vice and darkness and drugs. Maybe death, too.
Had Trenton gotten Sage into drugs? Doubtful. Victoria would’ve noticed a chance in her daughter’s behavior, and it also seemed unlikely that Trenton was doing the drugs himself. Which did suggest he was dealing. Was Sage helping him? Were they partners? Or was Sage innocent in all of this? Only involved because she was hung up on a bad boy?
“I haven’t lost hope,” Victoria said, squeezing me tightly for a moment before stepping back slightly to look up at me. “Don’t worry. I won’t give up hope until we find out what happened to them.”
The steely resolve in her eyes and the fire burning there all made for one very determined woman. A woman who looked hotter every second.
She grinned slightly and pushed me away. “Calm down, tiger,” she murmured. “We have an undercover operation to finish setting up.”
I adjusted myself—she had felt me digging into her, but could she really get upset that she had turned me on?—and I grabbed her hand and brought her outside. We got onto my bike, and we rode over to the bar. Holding her hand again, I had her follow me up to the office, where Daryl and Charlie were already there, waiting on us.
I slapped the guys on their backs. “Guys, this is Victoria. Sage’s mom.”
“No way,” Daryl said, gaping at her and giving her a once-over. “This bird is the mom of Trenton’s bird? She’s too young for that. You had her when you were two or something?”
Victoria gave a tight smile. “Adopted mother,” she said.
I smacked Daryl upside the head. “Knock it off.”
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“This fool is Daryl, and I’m Charlie.” He held out his hand. “I’m sorry. Daryl should’ve been named Richard instead.”
Daryl frowned. “What are you talkin’ ’bout?”
“Dick. You should’ve been named Dick.” Charlie smirked.
I sighed. “You both need to can it with the jokes and get serious.”
“Yessir.” Charlie saluted me. He had been in the military, just for a stint to be able to pay for his college. He was a hacker, and a damned good one at that. He was a major asset to the team.
“Got it, boss.” Daryl nodded. That was as serious as he could get.
Victoria shook her head. “You guys don’t have to be serious on my account. If you need to joke around to whatever, go for it.”
“Good.” Daryl winked and pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. “I can’t ever be serious for long.”
I wagged a finger at him. “He’s a clown, all right, but that’ll work in our favor. His jokes make others feel comfortable, and when they’re comfortable, they start talking.”
“I make people feel at ease and make ’em give me their secrets.” Daryl winked again. “And if my jokes don’t work, I can turn on the charm and crack ’em that way.”
“So, here’s the drill. Daryl, you’re gonna go in and work the people. I want you talking to everyone. Customers, servers, the cook if you can. Don’t leave out anyone.”
“Got it.”
“Charlie, you’re gonna do the snooping. The back area seemed to be watched, so you might wanna start there. Be careful, and don’t get caught. If you can, see if you can hack into their system. See what they’re hiding. Because even if they aren’t involved with Trenton and Sage going missing, they’re messin’ in something, and it’s always a good idea to have dirt on people.”
“Dirt on people.” Victoria blinked. “You often try to find skeletons in closets so you can squeeze people and businesses?”
“We might’ve turned in a few businesses once or twice,” I admitted. “I might not like the police or being a snitch, but it’s good to have them on our side.”
“Yet you don’t want the police to help find Trenton.” She crossed her arms. “Care to explain that?”
“Because of the drug connection. And because the police aren’t always loyal friends. Some are corrupt, and some don’t give a shit about anyone. Some are all about the law. It’s complicated.”
“Everything with you is complicated,” she muttered. “Do the police know Trenton did drugs? Was he ever arrested?”
“Trenton was a lot of things, but he was also smart. He never got caught. He hid it well, just not well enough from me.” My lips curled downward. “’Til now.”
“I just can’t believe you would be in bed with the cops and—”
“Do you know how many motorcycle clubs get a bad rap?” I demanded. “We show up and we get the blame for whatever shit is going down, even if we don’t have a damn thing to do with it. Besides, the only businesses we turned in are ones that screwed us over. One time, this place—”
“I don’t need the details.” She held up a hand, and I found myself staring at her fingers. She knew just where to touch me to make me beg, to make me groan.
I shook my head. Now was not the time to get all hot and bothered. “You guys clear on the plan?”
“All set.” Charlie nodded.
“Clear and ready.” Daryl grinned, but there was that glint in his eyes. I always could count on him. He knew when to cool it down. “If they’ve got anything on our guys, we’ll sniff it out.”
“All right. Let’s eat dinner and then you should go. Don’t want you two poking around before the after-dinner crowd gets there. You’ll stick out too much if there aren’t enough people there.”
I ordered a bunch of sandwich platters and ate my fill. Victoria picked at her food at first, but the more she talked with some of the guys, the more she seemed to relax, and then she started to eat.
While she was relaxing, though, I was getting more anxious. I was a man of action. I wanted to be the one out there snooping and asking question. I had no issue with delegating work, but this was different. Trenton was part of the club, and everyone wanted him back, but none more so than me.
Once Daryl and Charlie finished eating, they slipped out the back. They were going to take separate cars and different routes there so they wouldn’t arrive at the same time.
Victoria excused herself to the bathroom.
I helped the other guys clean up the room then grabbed Hank by the arm. “You’ve travelled a lot. I want you to write me down a list of towns one hundred miles north of here.”
Hank nodded. “Can do.”
“Supposedly Trenton and Sage might’ve gone to a town that way. Got the info from Cowboy’s Lasso. Not sure it’s good info, but—”
“Gotta chase down every lead.” Hank nodded. “I miss it,” he muttered. “Camping out every night. Hitchhiking. It’s a rush, man. You gotta do it someday.”
“Someday,” I agreed. I would never hitchhike across the country, though. But with my bike? Maybe. Would be great to explore everywhere.
Victoria walked past the room and continued on down the hall, her cell to her ear. Now I wouldn’t want to go on a trip across the US like that by myself. If I had the right woman to go along with me…
Might be the best way to get over our grief.
Because I had a feeling that things weren’t going well for Trenton and Sage. And if we found them dead instead of alive, it was going to take a lot for us all to get through it. Leaving on a trip might actually be a smart way to try to sort through things.
But Victoria was picking hope, and maybe I should try to take a page out of her book. I’m the one being realistic, though.
Hank nodded again and walked off. Probably going to track down an atlas. He wasn’t one much for phones or computers. He really did like to rough it old school style, although the one piece of technology he did enjoy was a bike, of course.
Daryl was supposed to arrive at the bar in ten minutes, so I left to find Victoria. She was pacing in the hallway, her cell in her hand. She had just hung up.
“Everything all right?”
Her eyes were stormy. “Of course not. I can’t trust anyone to handle anything without needing to be babysat.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “It’s the restaurant. Heather Franklin, the one I left in charge so I can help track down Sage? Well, she just called me to say she screwed up and didn’t place an order for the meat we use to make our homemade meatballs. And we run a special every Tuesday night on spaghetti and meatballs. If we don’t have the meat, no meatballs, no happy costumers, no money.” She yanked on her hair. “I have to try to deal with this. Not that I want to, but…”
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br /> “You can trust me.”
She blinked as if only realizing now that she was talking to me and not fuming to herself.
“The boys and I have got this. You go handle things with your restaurant.”
“But—”
“Would Sage want you to lose the restaurant over her?”
Victoria’s eyes clouded over. “I’m not gonna lose the restaurant over this!”
“I didn’t mean…” I sighed and held out my hand. “I just don’t think she would want you to risk anything for her. Not the restaurant, not your life.”
