by Amber Burns
He was talking about Pearlwater and the morning after our sex-turned-fight. After spending a couple hours cooling down in my truck, I met Vanna back in our room to change and pack. Then we checked out at some un-godly morning hour, and I drove her to the city to drop her off at her apartment. During that whole time, not a single word had passed between us.
Wes was calmer when he finally asked again, “Vanna isn’t with you?”
“No, I don’t have her stashed somewhere.” I immediately realized that wasn’t the best wording, and to try and quickly smooth any ruffled feathers I added, “What’s all this about anyways?”
“So now you care?”
I deserved that. I waited patiently, silently, for Wes to get to a place where he was willing to answer.
“It’s pretty simple. Vanna wasn’t herself for the past week and then, poof. I went by her apartment today, as I have been every day, to get her to eat something, but no one answered. I got in using my spare key only to see her drawers and closet cleaned out.”
“She left with her clothes? Maybe she went on a trip… maybe to forget me?”
I wasn’t hopeful though. It seemed unlikely that I had gotten under her skin enough to push her to do something so un-Vanna like. The line was silent for a few moments before I added, “And you’re sure she didn’t leave a message?”
“Yes, we’re sure. Violet checked her voicemail, too.”
“Why did you think she was with me?”
Wes was quiet long enough for me to check if he’d disconnected, “You there?”
“I’m here. I’m just trying to not cuss you out, that’s all.”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you really going to act all cute and stupid? Vanna loved your big, dumb ass, and you dropped her flat. You should get hit by a bus, shot by a drug dealer, or meet some equally grotesque but quick end.”
I was nearly, but not quite, speechless.
“Remind me not to invite you to my funeral.”
“Done.” Wes sighed, and like that, he went from hoping for my death to wheedling some sympathy from me.
Despite the big pit in my stomach and hole in my heart, I felt worry tugging at my emotions.
Fuck, I’m really a goner.
“Where else could she have gone?” I asked, now determined to get to the bottom of this. “Any places she’s talked about recently, or favorite places she’s visited and mentioned before? Do you have family anywhere close by?”
“Not that I’m aware of. Violet?” I waited for Wes to consult Violet and come back with a negative. Vanna was the wallflower type to the T.
I remembered how she ate up my tales of traveling while on active duty. Now it made sense, and man, I wished she could have given us a chance. Cliché as it is, I would have shown her the world - handed her the world if she had let me.
“Oh my god,” Wes was saying, “she wouldn’t.” He was talking to Violet, but the receiver had to still be pressed to his ear.
“What is it?” I asked, trying to insert myself into the conversation.
“We have an idea of where she could be,” he directed to me before going back to Violet, “She wouldn’t though. Vanna couldn’t be that stupid, could she?”
I resisted telling him to watch his mouth. Vanna wasn’t my girl anymore, and the only thing worse than being a shining knight is being a knight for an ex.
“If you’ve got something, then I hate to be the bearer of reason and sanity here, but time is of the essence.”
Wes and Violet spoke in muffled tones for a few more moments before I heard a hand being removed from the phone and Wes said, “West Virginia.”
“West Virginia?” I echoed.
“Specifically a little hillbilly place called Rosebay. Lovely, really, if you’re a Caucasian, heterosexual man or a woman who has no clue we’re in the twenty-first century.”
“I’m sensing a history. Why would she be in this Rosebay?”
I leaned against Jordan’s desk; I was now in this for the long haul. It was just more proof of Vanna’s magical sway over me.
After Wes glazed over all the history and some big ordeal with his parents, he said, “We should call them now.”
“If she’s with your parents, isn’t that fine? Wait, they aren’t cultists or anything are they?”
Wes laughed and his mirth was genuine. “That would be kinda awesome and so much better if they were crazy cultists instead of dumb-as-doorknobs rednecks. No, trust me, they’re way more dangerous as yokels. So don’t hang up. Give me a minute and we’ll do this.”
“Do what?” I asked, but he’d already clicked off, and I was talking to dead air.
He told me not to hang up, so I waited and gave him the minute he had asked for. At a minute and forty-two seconds - I had counted to a hundred and two - the silence was broken from the other end.
“I was about to hang up,” I admitted when I heard another ring tone and wondered where it was coming from.
“Thanks no thanks for the honesty,” Wes intoned, “and be quiet, you’re not supposed to be on this call.”
“What?”
“That’s the point of three-way, dummy. Now shut up.”
The other line picked up and I was greeted with a tinkling feminine welcome. Wes had apparently given the phone to Violet.
“Violet! Is that my sweet, precious girl? Oh, what a lovely surprise! Donald, Donald you big oaf, come here. Oh, your dad’s coming to say ‘hello’. I’m going to patch you through speaker. Okay, dear?”
Violet didn’t reply, and instead seemed to be waiting for her father to come to the phone.
“Melissa, what is it?” Donald Sterling sounded like a bear rudely woken from its winter nap. Until he began speaking to Violet, at which point he turned the gruffness down by about a notch.
They said their greetings and then it was down to business. I was still sorely confused as to why Vanna would be in any trouble with her parents. They couldn’t be abusive, could they? Sure, they sounded syrupy and like a postcard couple, but sweetness can sometimes mask the craziest, evilest things.
“Vanna?” Mrs. Sterling chuckled. “Oh, is that why you’re calling us? Isn’t there a better reason to check in on your parents, love?
Violet spent a few moments trying to placate her mother while also finding out about Vanna.
“And anyways, you don’t have to worry your pretty head. Oh, and I know Wesley is there, so please tell him that even though he doesn’t want to speak to his poor, aging parents, his and your worry is unfounded. Vanna is absolutely fine and safely back home.”
‘Where she belongs’, she meant, though she didn’t say it. Something about her tone was off. It was smug, like ‘I have a secret and just wait till you hear it’ smug.
I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t liking a lot of things nowadays. Even the things I used to like.
“You should be home, too, Violet,” Mr. Sterling cut in. “Your brother might be off sinning, but he shouldn’t be influencing you none.”
The Sterling patriarch clearly had no love for Wes. I imagined Wes was seething on Violet’s end, but Violet was still answering, so he had found a way to control himself. Surprisingly.
“I’ll visit someday soon, Daddy, promise. It’s just that Vanna was supposed to help me cook this amazing pecan pie, and well, you know how I am in the kitchen, Mama. Could I talk to her?”
It was all lies, but it did the trick. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling were buttered up by their other daughter.
“I’ll call for her. She’s next door at Mabel’s getting her hair done.”
Violet sounded surprised. “Why?”
Mrs. Sterling laughed that tinkling laugh. “I promised I’d keep mum… but since she’s out and you’re her sister and my daughter and – well, you’re next in line to hopefully make me and your Daddy proud.”
“Mama, what’s going on?”
Violet’s tone was freaking me out. I was about to reveal my presence to these virtual strangers when Mrs. Sterling said, “It’s we
dding bells, dear. Your sister’s getting ready for her walk down the aisle. Finally.”
And that last word undid me. I set the receiver to my chest and heaved loudly. Everything I’d kept bundled up came flooding to the front. All I wanted to do was slam the receiver down, go find the punching bags, and work out my frustration, anger, hurt, and disappointment.
It was right then that Jordan walked in.
“What’s up?” he asked, stopped in his doorway. He looked less like the boss and more like a concerned friend in that moment.
I was trying to think of something to say to Jordan when I heard a voice yelling through the phone.
“Wesley Sterling!” Mrs. Sterling was shouting. Mr. Sterling was in the background, making his anger just as vocal before there was a click and Mrs. Sterling’s wailing vanished.
“Are you still there?” Wes asked.
“I’m going to assume you’re referring to me,” I answered.
“I am,” he sighed. It was filled with his hot anger. “Did you get all that?”
Loud and too fucking clear.
“What happened to Violet?” I asked instead.
I decided I would channel my wrath into productivity. My mind was spinning with a plan, and I hoped Wes would be on the same page.
“She’s right here,” he said then his voice faded as he turned to speak to his sister, “You were being way too nice.” Violet murmured something back. “Yeah. So do you see what I mean now? She’s gone for a bloody day and they’ve already got her marrying off.”
“Like hell.”
“Oh? Mr. Macho’s got a plan then. Do tell.” Wes didn’t cover the intrigue in his voice.
“I’ve just added myself to the guest list,” I said.
“Swoon. You know this would totally redeem you in my eyes, even if you and Vanna continue to live in Splits-ville.”
“So, are you going to give me the details I need?”
Wes prattled off the address of the Sterling family home in Rosebay, West Virginia. He also warned me to quote ‘bring backup’.
“Dear old dad is all about the self-defense. He’s a long time member of the NRA chapter in Charleston. He went to the monthly meeting, without fail, for as long as I lived with them.”
“So he’s packing, and I should bring my own heat. Is that what I’m sensing?”
“You’re sensing correctly.”
When I hung up with Wes, I re-read the address I had scribbled on the back of my completed transfer form.
I looked up to see Jordan giving me the stink eye. I was occupying his office and ignoring him. And now I would also have to tell him that I was bailing for an indefinite period in order to talk my ex out of marrying some other guy.
Some guy she had met a week after we broke up…
Vanna, you better have a good reason, because I’m coming for it.
14
“When you rang I thought it was to say hello,” said the man lingering behind me. “You know how to hurt a guy, Amos.”
“Stop being weird,” I tossed over my shoulder.
I stood to straighten from the snooping I had been doing in a complete stranger’s living room bay window. The irony didn’t escape me. And neither did my companion’s throaty chuckle. Leaning against the stair railing, he smiled down at me. His dark eyes were glinting and his lips were quirking just a hint of a smile.
I did another double take at the suit staring down at me from under the bushiest eyebrows I’d ever seen. It was a whole lot of hair stuffed in that smart tie, tailored blazer, and trousers.
“Now who’s being weird?” he asked, catching my stare.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. I broke my stare to turn and gaze across our surroundings. “It’s strange to see you so…”
“Clean? C’mon, you can say it. You’ve called me worse. Also clocked me if I remember correctly, right here.” He stroked his jaw. “And your sister kissed it all better.”
River’s bellowing laugh was going to blow our cover, and I knew I should shut him up, but I found myself joining in. It felt nice to let some of the tension go.
The seven-hour drive to Rosebay was a torture. I was trapped in a metal cage on wheels when all I wanted to do was transport myself to Vanna’s side, haul her over my shoulder - if reason didn’t get through to her - and carry her off to the life I had dreamt up for us.
I called for that ‘backup’ Wes had highly suggested, and it came in the form of my sister Iris’ fiancée, River. The verdict was out still out if backup was actually needed, but nevertheless, I definitely appreciated the company
“You look like hell and back. I’d tell you to relax, if I didn’t think you’d slug me for it.” His meaty palm clamped on my right shoulder.
A former wrestler and current Reservist, River Garza was a bodyguard, bouncer, and ass-kicker material. A small guy, more wide than tall, his grip compensated for what he lacked in height. Scary, beefy, and loyal to boot, I’d come in to Rosebay with all the ammo I needed.
Unfortunately, River’s sharp observation skills were not wanted. Though a few inches off me, River had me locked in a staring match. He was waiting for me to talk, to explain why I’d pulled him out of Columbus for his own three-hour drive to Rosebay. It was a place he’d likely never set foot in prior to me dragging him out with so vague a reason.
All I’d given up to him was that I was after my girl. And that’s all I planned to give up. At least for now.
River must have sensed this, as he dropped his hand and tucked both of his palms into the pockets of his pressed dress pants. “So, where do we go from here, Sergeant?”
I ignored the sarcasm that laced his comment and the ‘Sergeant’ crap he threw in just to annoy me into giving up answers I didn’t want to give up. Rather than tell him to fuck off and stop screwing around, I gestured to the small, square-ish lawn to our side.
“Big enough for a tent, do you think?”
River knew I got him. He smiled, the corner of his eyes crinkled with the genuine emotion.
Going to have to try harder than that, bud.
“Seriously though, I’m going to call my contact,” I told him and pulled out my cell to dial Wes.
I was at the second ring when an older lady emerged from the house, and River tapped me on the shoulder before pointing me in her direction. I hung up the phone once I had her attention. She paused and readjusted the burgeoning garbage bag she was carrying before deciding to drop it at her feet. The bag kicked up some dust, and the wind rustled the hem of her floor length muumuu. She looked at us, and brushed the flyaway strands away from her sagging features, but said nothing
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am,” I blurted out to break the silence. “But we’re lost on our way to a wedding. Would you know where I’d be able to reach the Sterlings?”
“And you are?” Her gaze flitted to River then back to me, encompassing us both in an aura of suspicion.
“Family friends of the bride,” I said, giving her some serious half-assed truth. River had yet to even meet Vanna. I was realizing that if this lady couldn’t help us, it was likely Wes and Violet wouldn’t be able to do much on their end, either. “We drove in for the wedding,” I added.
Her rumpled features lightened and her jowls wagged as she nodded.
“Oh. Well, you’re still a day early. The wedding’s tomorrow.” She pointed her chin toward the Sterling residence. “Donald and Melissa are over the moon, they are. Melissa especially.” She was sniffing now and her eyes narrowed. Her conspiratorial lean in toward us brought with it a wave of her overpowering deodorant mingled with burnt toast and coffee. “I think it’s downright odd of that Sterling girl to return home and be marrying so soon.”
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought this whole marriage shit was totally crazy.
“Can’t tell you where Melissa and Donald rushed off to so early in the morning, but if you’re looking for the men, they’d be at one of them nudie shows in the city.” By ‘the city’ I figured she mean
t Charleston, which was a little over half an hour from Rosebay. “Now if you’re searching for the Sterling bride and those girls who are her so-called bridesmaid – I know for a fact my granddaughter, Mindi Lou, never walked in the same social circle as that Vanna. No counting for why she’d sign up to be in this sham of a wedding…”
She ranted on long enough to give me a chance to throw a silent plea at River. He saw my pain, and he was enjoying it. This was probably his way of meting justice for keeping him out of the loop so far, which meant I had to go this part alone.
