Redemption Road: Jackson Falls Book 5 (Jackson Falls Series)

by Breton, Laurie

  Colleen

  Mikey hadn’t come home last night.

  At eighteen, he was a legal adult, one who’d been living away from his parents for nearly a year. Considering that she wasn’t the one who’d raised him to manhood, Colleen tried to stay out of his personal business as much as possible, avoiding asking nosy questions. But if he wasn’t coming home, a phone call would have been nice. Just because he was of legal age didn’t mean she stopped worrying about him. If you were a parent, that worry never went away. It was tempered somewhat when the kid was away at school, or with the other parent. But when said kid was living under your roof and expected home, and then he didn’t show, that fear magnified tenfold.

  She got up at her usual time, went downstairs at eight and opened the office. There was no sign of Rob, but then, she hadn’t expected to see him until later. After Saturday’s catastrophe, she assumed that he and her sister were laying low. At eight-thirty, she drove into town to get the mail and a box of doughnuts. Rob couldn’t get through the day without the damn things. If she ate doughnuts the way her brother-in-law did, she’d look like a beach ball with arms and legs. But Rob, the lucky bastard, had a metabolism that allowed him to eat whatever he wanted without gaining a pound.

  The phone wasn’t exactly ringing off the hook, and now that she’d picked up the mail, sorted it, tossed out the junk and put the important stuff on Rob’s desk, there was nothing else to do but babysit an empty studio. They had a local band coming in this afternoon for a recording session, but her morning stretched out ahead of her, empty, boring, leaving her with too much free time to listen for the sound of Mikey’s truck pulling into the driveway.

  So she pulled out a steno pad and began making random notes, just as a way to distract herself and pass the time. Need to set up a business plan, she wrote, then underlined it twice. Desired amount of product divided by annual pounds of wool per sheep equals number of sheep needed in herd. It had been some time since she’d taken the Forming A Small Business course, and she had to dig deep to pull some of the material out of her head. She’d scribbled a couple dozen pages of notes when the door opened and Rob blew in, grim of face and breathing hard. Colleen glanced up, and for an instant, her heart stopped. “Casey?” she said, pen still poised over her steno pad.

  “Casey’s fine. Where’s your son?”

  It wasn’t the question she’d expected. She blinked twice. “He’s not here.”

  Rob leaned over the counter that separated them. “I know he’s not here. His truck’s gone. Where the hell is he?”

  Colleen set down the pen. “I don’t know. He didn’t come home last night. Why? What’s wrong?”

  “I’ll tell you what’s wrong. My daughter is missing!”

  A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her this wasn’t going to end well. “What do you mean, she’s missing? Isn’t she at school?”

  “She’s not at school. They called because she’s on the absent list. Casey and I slept late this morning. We never gave her any thought, just figured she got up on time and got on the school bus like she does every weekday. After the school called, I went upstairs and checked her room. Her guitar’s gone. Her suitcase. Most of her clothes. Her cosmetics are missing from the bathroom.” He began to pace frantically. “I swear to God, Colleen, when I get my hands on your son, I’m going to strangle him. What the hell is he thinking?”

  “Maybe they’re not together. Maybe it’s coincidence.” But even as she said the words, she realized how ridiculous they sounded. If Paige was gone, and Mikey was gone, given her suspicions, it wasn’t much of a stretch to assume they were together.

  “Call Jesse,” he said. “Get him over here.” He spun and headed for the door.

  “What are you doing?” she said.

  “Me?” He paused, hand on the doorknob. “I’m calling Cousin Teddy.” And he slammed out the door.

  ***

  “There’s really not a lot I can do,” Teddy said. “The boy’s eighteen, and if he wants to take off, he has a legal right.”

  “My daughter just turned seventeen!” Rob snapped. “She’s still a minor!”

  Teddy crossed his arms over his protruding belly. “Well…technically, if he’s taken her over state lines, he’s guilty of a Federal offense—”

  “Mikey’s a good kid,” Jesse said with surprising calm, given the situation. “He’s not a kidnapper.”

  “I don’t want him arrested,” Rob said, “I want him castrated!”

  Ignoring Rob, Teddy said, “That’s exactly my point, Jess. While technically, this could be called a kidnapping if they’ve crossed state lines, the fact is, the girl’s seventeen years old and she left of her own free will. There’s no evidence to suggest otherwise. She took her things with her.”

  “So what are you saying?” Rob’s face was getting redder by the minute. “Because she left willingly, you’re not going to do anything?”

  “That’s not what I said. There are gray areas in the law. If Mikey was some thirty-five-year-old with a yen for young girls, we’d take this a lot more seriously. But he’s eighteen, and she’s seventeen, and he’s not some stranger who picked her up on the side of the road. Which means I don’t believe she’s at risk. If I did, I’d treat this differently.”

  Rob squared his jaw. “Do you have any kids, Ted?”

  Teddy scowled. “I do. I have two little boys.”

  “And you’d go to the ends of the earth to protect those kids.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “That’s exactly the point!”

  Casey, seated beside her husband on the couch, took his arm. “Babe,” she said.

  He looked at his wife, then back at Teddy. “If they’ve gone over state lines, it’s a Federal offense. Why can’t you call in the FBI?”

  “Are you serious, MacKenzie? You think your kid is the only thing law enforcement has to deal with? Or maybe just the only important thing? Just because you have beaucoup bucks? Get a clue, buddy. Do you have any idea how many runaway kids are out there? Millions. Some of them are twelve years old, and you know what they’re doing? Working the streets. Peddling their asses so they can eat. Some of those kids will survive. The rest won’t. A spoiled rich kid taking off on some la-la-la adventure with her boyfriend isn’t the same thing at all.”

  “Teddy,” Colleen snapped. “Kitchen! You and me. Now!”

  “Look,” he said quietly, when they were out of hearing, “there’s only so much I can do. Your brother-in-law is being ridiculous.”

  “Come on, Teddy, it’s his little girl. Two years ago, he didn’t even know he had a daughter. Of course he’s worried! He loves the kid, and now that he’s found her, he’s terrified he’ll lose her again. And he’s not the only one who’s worried. Mikey’s my son. I’m not happy with him right now, but I still love him, and yeah, I’m worried, too. But I’m more concerned about my sister and her husband. They’ve had a really shitty couple of days.”

  “I understand that.”

  “No. You don’t. Friday night, Casey and I were in a car accident, on our way back from dinner with your mother. It was minor, but scary. Rob just about had a coronary. Then, on Saturday—” She took a deep breath. “Casey lost the baby she was carrying.”

  “Shit.”

  “Shit is right. And now, Paige is missing. I don’t know what this thing is between you and Rob, why the two of you seem to hate each other so much, but you need to cut him a little slack right now. As far as Paige being a spoiled rich kid, that’s absolute bullshit. Until she was fifteen, she lived with her mother. The woman was a single mom, struggling to get by. Rob wasn’t paying child support because she’d never told him he had a daughter. My brother-in-law is a good guy, and right now, he’s scared shitless. Show him a little respect.”

  Teddy’s face flushed, and a muscle twitched in his cheek. Without speaking, he spun around and headed back to the living room. “Look,” he said to the group, “if you can give me pictures of the kids, a
description of the truck, the plate number, I can put out a BOLO, and—”

  “What’s a BOLO?” Jesse said.

  “It stands for Be On the Lookout,” Teddy said. “We can send it to every police agency in the country. If the kids are driving around in that truck, sooner or later, somebody will see them. That’s the best I can give you.” He glared at Rob, then turned to Casey. More gently, he said, “Colleen just told me about the baby. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Mikey

  There was only one bed in the motel room, so they shared it. Both of them exhausted, both of them wound like a coiled spring, both of them fully clothed, they clung awkwardly to their respective edges of the mattress. He wasn’t about to push her for any kind of intimacy. The truth was, he didn’t think she was ready. If she wanted to wait until after they were married, he had no problem with that. They had the rest of their lives to have sex. There was no need to rush it. Besides, all he could think about was how pissed off her father would be if he touched her before they were legally married. Afterward, it would be a moot point. Once they were husband and wife, she’d be his, flesh of his flesh, cleaving only unto him, and Rob would no longer have any say in the matter.

  He slept fitfully, hyper-aware of the bright sunlight outside the window, attuned to every move Paige made. Finally, after several hours, he fell into a deep sleep. When he woke, the room was in total darkness. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and when he rolled onto his side and reached for her, Paige was gone.

  His heart rate accelerated. Had she left him? Then the door opened and she came through it, silhouetted in the light from the street lamp in the parking lot. “Where’d you go?” he said.

  “To that little convenience store across the street.” She turned on a lamp, and he blinked at the sudden brightness. “I brought you a Pepsi and a hot dog. It was the best I could do.”

  “It’s great.” He stretched and groaned. “What time is it?”

  “Almost eight-thirty. I didn’t know what time you wanted to be on the road.”

  “We probably should start early tonight. Put some miles behind us.” He sat up, ran a hand through his hair, then took the food and drink she proffered. She sat beside him on the bed, and they ate their evening meal while he studied the road atlas he’d brought in from the truck. “Two more days,” he said. “Two more days, and we should reach Las Vegas.” She nodded somberly. Those green eyes of hers were serious, but her face showed no fear. Paige was the bravest person he knew, boldly unafraid of what lay ahead of her. Which was ironic, considering that although this had been his idea, he was the one with the shaky hands. Mikey leaned forward, found her lips, and gave her a gentle kiss. She tasted of mustard and heaven. “You okay?” he said.

  “Fantastic.”

  He held her gaze for a few seconds and then leaned in for another, longer kiss, one that set his blood pumping and affected other portions of his anatomy as well. Before things could get out of hand, he broke it off. Said, “You smell wonderful.”

  “It’s the shampoo.”

  “What shampoo?”

  “In the bathroom. I took a shower while you were sleeping. It was nothing to write home about, but the water’s hot, the towels are fluffy, and the shampoo is out of this world.”

  Following her lead, he took a shower. Then they packed what little they’d brought in with them, checked out of the motel, and hit the highway. Traffic was heavy for the first fifty miles. After that, it grew sparse, and he was able to make good time. He turned on the radio, and Paige did her best to tune in a local station, finally finding one that played Top 40 music. When they reached the limit of its range and the signal grew fuzzy, she spun the dial again and found another one. Mikey checked the rear-view mirror constantly as he drove at a steady speed, rarely passing other vehicles. He didn’t want to draw attention. The radio grew staticky again. By now, Paige was asleep, slumped against the passenger door, her breathing deep and even. He reached over, pushed a button, and the static silenced.

  He’d been driving for six hours and had just passed an exit for Elkhart, Indiana, when a car pulled up rapidly behind him. A moment later, blue lights flashed. “Crap,” he muttered, pulling into the breakdown lane. “Paige,” he said, shaking her, “wake up. We have company.”

  She straightened and nervously met his eyes. His heart pounding double-time, he watched in his side mirror as the officer, flashlight in hand, got out of his car. The cop shone his light on Mikey’s license plate, then walked up to his driver’s window. He rolled it down and said, “Evening, officer.”

  The cop look at him, at Paige. “Long way from home,” he said.

  “I’m driving my cousin to her mother’s house in Nebraska,” he said, shocked by how easily the lie tripped off his tongue.

  The officer eyed him. Mikey stared back. “License and registration,” the cop said.

  Mikey took out his wallet, pulled his license, and handed it to the cop. He leaned over Paige’s knees, opened the glove box, and took out his registration. The cop trained his flashlight on both documents and studied them carefully. Nodded and handed them back. “I pulled you over,” he said, “because your right rear tail light’s out. The brake light’s working, so we’ll let it go until morning. How much longer will you be on the road tonight?”

  “Just a little longer,” Mikey said. “My uncle lives in Joliet.”

  “Good. Get that bulb replaced tomorrow.”

  “Will do.”

  The cop pulled a pad from his pocket, wrote out a warning, and passed it through the window. “In case you get stopped again,” he said. “You both have a good night.”

  As the cop walked back to his car, Mikey exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Paige, and let out a hard breath.

  “Holy shit,” he said, and shifted the truck back into gear. “That was close.”

  ***

  It was five a.m. when they rolled into Joliet. After the scare with the cop, he wanted to be off the road well before daylight. By now, they’d been gone for nearly thirty hours, and he imagined they’d left quite an uproar behind them. He tried not to think about the people they’d let down, sneaking away like this. People they both cared about, people who cared about them. His parents. Her parents. Their kid sisters. Hell, even Leroy, as long as he was counting.

  They ate a cheap breakfast at a truck stop, got directions to a nearby motel, and went to bed. Paige fell asleep almost immediately, but he lay awake, his mind alive with images that wouldn’t go away. For the first time, he recognized the seriousness of what they’d done. Paige was underage. If he chose to, her father could press charges against him. It would be a hell of a thing if he didn’t make it to Camp Pendleton on time because he was wasting away in a jail cell in some hick town in the Midwest.

  He finally slept, woke up around two, unrefreshed, his mind still a jumble. He left Paige on the bed watching soap operas and went out to find an auto parts store and a McDonald’s. While they were sleeping, it had snowed. Nothing significant, just a couple of inches. Just enough to make the roads greasy and sloppy. He returned an hour later with their lunch. They watched an afternoon talk show while they ate. Then, she played her guitar softly while he opened the road atlas and studied it some more.

  At dusk, they were back on the road, his wipers working overtime as passing trucks threw sand and slush all over his windshield. Paige was deathly silent, and he wondered if she was having the same thoughts that were badgering him. “Paige?” he said.

  “What?”

  “Do you think we’re doing the right thing? Are you having second thoughts?”

  She looked at him, but didn’t say anything for a long time. “It’s not that. It’s just…I didn’t expect it to be like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “I guess I had all these romantic visions of what it would be like. Instead, I feel like a fugitive. Sleeping during the day, driving at night, hiding from the world.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just scared. Let’s
face it: You ran away from home, and we’ve driven halfway across the country. By now, the cops are probably looking for us. That traffic stop last night scared the hell out of me. It’s not that I don’t want to be romantic. Because if you said the word, I’d probably cave. But we’re already in enough trouble. I just thought it would be better if we waited till our wedding night. If he caught us together, your dad would crucify me, and I’d like to keep my hide intact.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “You’re scared of my dad?”

  “A week ago, I would’ve said no. But now, yeah. I could see him ripping me to shreds with his bare hands.”

  She snorted. “If you only knew what a marshmallow he is.”

  “I don’t know; I’ve heard him lose his temper a time or two, and it wasn’t pretty.”

  “It’s all window dressing. Casey calls him an Irish drama queen. That about fits.”

  “You really like your dad, don’t you?”

  “I do. Things were rough at first, because I’d resented him all my life. Mom lied to me. I don’t know why she did it, but it’s the truth. Dad never knew about me until she died. It took me some time to get past the resentment and see the truth.”

  “There’s something else that concerns me.” His palms were sticky against the steering wheel. “If we did, um…you know…what if you got pregnant? I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not ready for fatherhood.”

  “You do realize that’s why they make birth control?”

  “You’re not on birth control.” He considered the possibility. “Are you?”

  “Are you implying I’ve had some reason to be on birth control?”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant we should take care of that ahead of time. We don’t want any accidents.”

  “Would it really be that awful if I got pregnant?”

  “Jesus, Paige. We’re too young to be parents. It would be nice if you at least finished high school first.”