Clutch (Custom Culture)

by Oliver, Tess

  With no other idea what to do, I sent her a text message knowing full well that there would be no response. I stared at my phone hoping I could magically draw out an answer, that she would tell me she was safe. I texted Scotlyn and Jason to see if they’d heard from her but neither text went through. “I don’t even have any bars on my phone. We’re in the middle of the fucking North Pole up here.”

  Barrett pulled the jeep back onto the road.

  “What the hell are we going to do, Rett? Do you know where the police station is? Maybe she ended up there.”

  “That’s where I thought we’d start. Try not to freak out yet because you are the guy who always keeps his cool and his head. If you lose it, then I’ll lose it right behind you.”

  I shook my head. “There’s no way I can keep my head when it has to do with Taylor. She has been the biggest thorn in my side for two years.” I stared out at the lethal looking storm clouds. With every minute of daylight disappearing, the rain came down harder and colder. I thought about Taylor out there somewhere all alone. “If anyone ever pulls that thorn from my side, I will bleed to death. Shit, Rett, I need her. I can’t even think about life without her.”

  “No kidding. I was wondering when she’d finally penetrate through that iron skull of yours.”

  The jeep’s windows frosted up, and it seemed there would be no relief from the defroster in the dash. I reached forward and wiped off the condensation with the edge of my coat sleeve, but I only made things worse.

  “Great,” Barrett quipped. “I used to at least be able to see where the road ends and people’s yards begin.”

  “Sorry. How much farther is the station?” Taking charge of stuff was always easy for me. My confidence had always led me successfully out the other end, and it was rare for me to feel despair but I was definitely feeling it. Dozens of horrid scenarios danced around my head, and I could not rid myself of them.

  “It’s still a few miles.”

  “She has no money, and worse, she probably doesn’t have much more that a sweatshirt to keep warm. It seems colder than even the coldest winter night in California. There was no way she was prepared for this physically. I can barely stand it myself.”

  “It’s a small enough town that someone somewhere had to have seen an unfamiliar, pretty girl dressed in ridiculously light clothing,” Barrett said. “We’ll find her. She can’t have gotten far.”

  Visibility seemed to decrease around every corner, and Barrett had to slow the jeep. My body was rigid with tension. I knew if he went any faster we risked hitting something, but it still didn’t decrease my urge to slide my leg over to the gas pedal and step on it.

  We entered the downtown area, which, aside from the tall, tree covered mountains looming above the city, looked like any other small town with shops and buildings lining a two way main street. Being closer to civilization and the conveniences of a city, no matter how small, made me feel better. If Taylor had just managed to get to Juneau, she would have been able to find help.

  Not surprisingly, the Juneau Police Station was quiet and calm. The officer at the front desk looked up as we walked in. “Is there a problem down at the lumber yard?” he asked.

  “Don’t know anything about the lumber yard.” I pulled out my phone and thumbed through my pictures. Taylor smiled up at me from the screen, and I showed it to the officer. “We’re looking for this girl.”

  He looked at the picture a few seconds then handed the phone back to me. “How old is she?”

  “Eighteen. She flew up here with someone, and now he doesn’t know where she is. She’s from California. She’s probably underdressed, and she has no money or phone.”

  “She’s an adult.”

  “Believe me, no one is more aware of that than me. Can’t you put out a bulletin or whatever it is you send out to the squad cars so they can keep an eye out for her?”

  He looked at Barrett and then at me with a touch of suspicion. He seemed to be assessing whether or not all of this was legit. “What’s your name?”

  “James Mason. We’re from California.”

  “You mentioned that. Do you have some identification?

  I yanked out my wallet and pulled out my license. He looked it over and handed it back to me.

  “Do you have a picture besides the one on your phone?”

  “No, just the phone, but I can give you a description.”

  He sighed as if he was not pleased to have to attend to any actual police business. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a pad of paper in slow motion. I clenched my fists to keep from pounding the counter to speed him along.

  “You said she’s an eighteen-year-old female?”

  Barrett sensed my angry tension and placed a hand on my arm to warn me to stay cool. “Yes. She is about five-foot-eight with long, copper colored hair.”

  The officer’s brow lifted and he looked up at me. “Copper? Like a penny?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “How much does she weigh?”

  “I don’t know that.”

  He peered up at me over the counter. “You don’t know?”

  I looked pointedly down at his wedding band. “When was the last time you asked your wife how much she weighed?”

  “Good point.” He returned his attention to his pad of paper just as a door opened from the back room.

  Another officer walked out. “Hey, Henry, I’m going out to old man Cooper’s place.”

  The guy looked up from his pad of paper, and my fists clenched tightly again. This had been a mistake. We would have been able to cover more ground without the police.

  “Why are you going out there?”

  “His neighbor, Penelope, called. She said Cooper’s got his shotgun pointed at that old shed of his. Thinks he’s cornered a bear or wolf inside, but Penelope was sure she could hear a girl crying.”

  “This is Mr. Mason and he’s looking for a lost girl.” The officer behind the counter looked up at me. “Follow Officer Tucker. Sounds like we found her.” He looked at his fellow officer. “You’d better hurry. You know that senile, old man can’t see past his nose. And he loves to point that gun at anything that moves.”

  Every muscle in my body tensed. “We’ll be right behind you. Is it far?”

  Officer Tucker was already at the door. “It’s just around the corner, but we need to hurry. It only takes a second to fire off a shotgun.”

  I drove, thinking we’d be flying through the wet streets like race car drivers. I was wrong. Officer Tucker’s definition of hurry was to go five miles over the speed limit. He even stopped at the light.

  “This can’t be fucking happening.” My frozen fingers gripped the steering wheel like steel vices. “He hasn’t even put on his lights or siren. I could have followed him on foot and kept up.”

  “This isn’t Los Angeles. Life moves much slower and stress free out here.”

  “Stress free? There’s nothing stress free out here if they allow half-blind old guys to have shotguns.”

  “Everyone has a gun out here. It’s like living in the wilderness.”

  We turned the corner along a narrow road with no paved sidewalks or streetlights. The sun had gone down, and the layer of clouds made it one of the darkest nights I’d ever seen. We pulled up in front of a house with a porch light that blinked on and off like a strobe. It was hard to make out much, but there was a small white shack adjacent to the house.

  Moving with the speed of a sloth, Officer Tucker climbed out of the car, and Barrett and I were right behind him. A small, unsteady figure stood in the shadows of the house wearing a yellow rain slicker and holding a gun that was far too heavy.

  Tucker lifted a hand to stop us. “We don’t want to startle him. He’s pretty out of it, but at least it looks like he has fired his gun yet.” Tucker looked at me. “And with his eyesight, he might just mi
stake you for a grizzly.”

  “Mr. Cooper, it’s Officer Tucker.”

  It took a long, torturous moment for the old man to respond. He turned and stared at Officer Tucker, but he didn’t lower the gun. With no city sounds and tree covered mountains to absorb any noise, it seemed as if someone had put the whole world on mute. And then, through the stillness, a small, helpless sound drifted out from the shed, and my heart broke with the sound of it. Loaded shotgun or not, I had no more patience for slow motion. At the risk of being gunned down as a grizzly bear, I pushed past Officer Tucker and the barrel of the gun. Before the officer could open his mouth to stop me, I yanked open the door of the shed, nearly pulling it off its hinges.

  It was pitch black and freezing cold inside the shed. Junk was piled and cluttered along the walls. The soft sobs had stopped, and I could hear shallow breathing.

  “Taylor,” I called into the darkness.

  A beam of light came through the doorway from Officer Tucker’s flashlight. She stepped out of the shadows and relief surged through me. Her face was pale and tear-streaked, and her lips were nearly blue from the cold. She had only a hooded sweatshirt for warmth, and it was soaking wet. A heavy backpack hung from her fingers. Her lips parted and it seemed to take all of her energy to speak. “Is it really you or am I unconscious and dreaming this?”

  I closed the gap between us with two steps and pulled her against me. She trembled almost uncontrollably, and her knees weakened. I slid the backpack onto my forearm and swept her up into my arms. Officer Tucker led us back to the jeep with his flashlight. “Do you all have a place to stay tonight?”

  “We’re out at the motel on the highway,” Barrett answered.

  “Get her there quickly and into a hot shower.”

  I lowered Taylor into the backseat and climbed in next to her. Barrett fired up the engine and cranked the heat as high as it would go. I unzipped her sweatshirt and pushed it off her shoulders. She was wearing only a thin shirt beneath. I took off my coat and wrapped it around her. She laughed weakly as it engulfed her completely. I pulled her, giant coat and all, into my lap and wrapped my arms around her.

  She lowered her head to my shoulder. “You came for me.” Her wavering voice drifted up from the thick folds of my coat.

  “Of course. You belong with me, Taylor, and don’t ever scare me like that again.” I tightened my arms around her.

  “I always knew nothing bad could happen to me in these arms,” she said softly. Her words went straight into my chest.

  Chapter 29

  Taylor

  Both of my parents’ cars were in the driveway. I squeezed Clutch’s arm nervously. “They are going to kill me or send me off to a convent. I’d prefer the first option.”

  Clutch hadn’t said much the entire ride over from his house, which didn’t help the insane flurry of butterflies in my stomach. We climbed out of the truck, and he took my hand as I walked around to the sidewalk. He pulled me toward him and his free hand pressed against my face. My throat tightened as my gaze met his. I’d always been head over heels for him, but now my emotions for him ran so deep, I could hardly breathe when I was near him.

  He leaned down and kissed me. “I love you, Taylor Flinn.” Then he took hold of my hand and we walked to the front door. My parents met us in the entryway. My mom gasped in relief and broke into sobs when she saw me. Dad was equally relieved, but he played it much cooler.

  “Thank goodness, you’re all right, Taylor,” he said sternly, leaving no doubt that I would soon be in for a major lecture and whatever other fun they had in store for me. Dad looked at Clutch. “Thank you for bringing her home.” There was a dismissive tone to his thank you, and I was about to say something but Clutch spoke up first.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Flinn, you’ve known me for a long time. Jason and I have a good partnership, but to please you, he has threatened to break up the business if I don’t stop seeing Taylor.” He paused. “That’s never going to happen. I’m going to date Taylor. I waited until she was eighteen. I make good money. I’m a decent person.” He looked at me. “I won’t give her up. So, if that means the business is finished then so be it. Jason needs me a lot more than I need him. I need Taylor a lot more than I need any of it. She wants to go to art school and learn fashion design, and I’m going to pay for her to go. So, you can learn to accept that we are together and still have your amazing, incredible daughter in your life, or you can lose her forever because I’m not giving her up.”

  A hush fell over the entryway, and I thought I could almost hear my dad’s pulse pounding through his veins. And then he looked over at my mom and silently they seemed to come to an agreement. Dad stepped forward and shook Clutch’s hand. I walked over and put my arms around my mom, and we both cried as we hugged for the first time in years.

  I walked Clutch out to his truck. He leaned against it and dragged me against him. I peered up at him. “That was a good speech.”

  “I felt like one of those guys from the eighteenth century having to ask for permission to court the king’s daughter.”

  I hopped up on my tiptoes and kissed his chin. “Do you think the Vikings had to ask permission to court their ladies?”

  He smiled down at me. “Nah, I think they just took women whenever they wanted them.”

  “Really?” I wriggled suggestively against his hard body. “No wonder I have a thing for them.”

  “Yep, that’s what they do.” He lifted me on to my toes and kissed me lightly. “And the wilder the woman, the better.”

  “Perfect.” My arms went around his neck and I kissed him.

  Tess Oliver loves hearing from her readers.

  contact her via email: toliverbooks@gmail.com

  website: www.tessoliver.com

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  Other Books by Tess Oliver

  Freefall (Custom Culture, 1)

  Camille (Camille Series, 1)

  Heart of the Huntress (Camille Series, 2)

  Safe Landing

  Bitterroot Crossing

  Blackpool Cove

  Distraction (Years from Home, 1)

  Unbreakable (Years from Home, 2)

  Destined (Years from Home, 3)

  A Little Less Girl

  Cowboy Dark

  Angel Beach

  Home is Where the Heartbreak is

  Strangely Normal

  Bittersweet Obsession

  Paradise

  Book Description:

  A unique summer job lands eighteen-year-old Eden Saxon into a lifestyle completely different than her own. She becomes a companion for nineteen-year-old Finley King, the daughter of a rock legend. Finley suffers from severe anxiety, and her father fears her being alone. Eden leaves her loving, but wildly dysfunctional, parents and dreary apartment and enters a world where no luxury is overlooked. She instantly adores Finley and her charming, quirky personality. The whole situation has only one flaw– Finley’s older brother, Jude. Jude King is cocky, arrogant and irritating. Unfortunately, he’s also completely irresistible.

  Eden realizes she’s underestimated the depth of Finley’s problems, and suddenly her dream job turns out to be a lot more than she’d expected. Eden soon finds herself in over her head . . . and her heart.

  Teaser:

  He placed down his pencil and walked across the floor toward me. The crackling energy I’d felt between us the night before when he’d stood over my bed returned now and grew with hot intensity as the space between us disappeared. I was not the only one noticing the sudden charge in the atmosphere between us. He stopped directly in front of me, and even with loud music bouncing off the walls, I could hear the unnaturally fast rhythm of his breathing.

  He hesitated a moment and then his hand came up slowly and brushed the hair off my face. His fingertips had only grazed
my cheek, but I felt the sensation of his touch through my entire body. He looked back at me as if he’d smoothed his hands over every inch of my skin. The air between us heated and what had started out as a casual session between an artist and his subject had somehow erupted into something completely different.

  Tess Oliver’s New Adult title, Strangely Normal, is now available on Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo.