by Avelyn Paige
Grabbing his face, I pull it away from my pussy, my wetness glistening along his lips and chin. It’s honestly the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. Swiping my thumb across his moistened lips, I lock eyes with him, demanding, “Fuck me.”
He grins. “What the lady wants, the lady gets.”
The bed wobbles a little as he climbs up over me, positioning himself at my entrance. It’s been so long. So many wasted years. I’ve missed this. I’ve missed him.
His nostrils flare as he looks into my eyes, and without a doubt, I know he’s missed it too. “You ready?”
I nod, more ready for this than I’ve been for anything. “I need you.”
With his eyes gazing intently into mine, he begins to fill me, slowly. It’s everything, and so much more.
I glide my fingertips over his muscular back, allowing myself to feel every inch of him. Goose bumps race along his skin as I drag my nails across it, and I can’t help but revel in the fact that after all these years, I can still do that to him.
Our kisses grow long and deep as he thrusts harder, faster. I move my hips in rhythm with his, like a dancer moving to the beat of a favorite song. Moans of pleasure echo off the walls, surrounding us as we grind into each other.
My head spins as I near my release for a second time. My breaths become choppy, and I come, basking in the pleasure.
Wyatt groans softly, holding me to him as he releases, giving me what used to be mine. What should have always been mine.
He holds himself above me, his lips grazing the tip of my nose, my brow, and finally my lips.
As our heartbeats slowly level out, I don’t move a muscle. As much as I’m enjoying being in the arms of the only man I’ve ever loved, I can’t help but wonder: what now?
The question plays over and over in my mind for the hundredth time when my cell phone chimes.
Wyatt drops his head and groans, rolling to his side. My heart warms a little when he doesn’t pull away completely. He leaves a hand on my waist as I lean to the side to reach for my phone.
“It’s from Kasey,” I say, using my thumb to unlock the screen.
Kasey: Blox World files are in. I’ve forwarded them to your email so you can get started, but also have hard copies here at the office. If you need them, I can deliver them tomorrow.
I lift my gaze to meet Wyatt’s, hope blooming in my heart. “We have the files.”
Hashtag
Shelby stands, looking over my shoulder as I click the link Kasey sent to her phone. It takes me to a virtual cloud folder filled with subfolders, organized by date.
“There has to be hundreds,” she murmurs.
“You ready for this?” A question I didn’t know if I could answer honestly myself. Looking at her conversations is a necessary evil to help find her or her online friend. But knowing what could be lurking inside of them is bothering me more than I care to admit out loud. I’ve seen for myself the sadistic shit predators say and do to groom kids online with some of the work I’ve done for the club. Those fuckers deserve to rot in hell, and this guy would be getting a one-way ticket the second I found his ass. There’ll be no running from what I have planned for him.
“We have to do this for her, Wyatt. Even if…” She trails off, tears glistening in her eyes. “What if she sent him things?”
“We’ll deal with it together, Shelby, and when we get her home.”
“You mean if we get her home.”
“When we get her home, we’ll be having our first family meeting about internet safety while I install every type of tracking software known to man on her and her electronics for the rest of her life.”
Shelby tries to smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
With a deep sigh, I dive in and click on the first folder, dated nearly a year ago.
P4r4D0X: Cool castle.
P4r4D0X: Do you like mine?
P4r4D0X: Hello?
A conversation that went without a reply. The next few are similar messages that again show no replies from Hayden’s username. Whoever was sitting on the other side of the screen clearly wasn’t getting the hint that she didn’t want to chat. If he was looking for an easy mark, he’d have moved on quickly to someone interested in chatting with him. The fact that he hadn’t given up after so many weeks of silence is surprising, which begs the question: what changed? I find my answer a few more folders down, dated six months ago.
P4r4D0X: You have a logic error in your coding.
HayDay: No, I don’t.
P4r4D0X: The second level door won’t open. I can fix it for you.
HayDay: No.
The fucker pointed out a flaw in her build, and she responded back. He knew what he was doing, no doubt about it. He waited and kept trying until he dangled bait to get her to respond, knowing that a serious coder wouldn’t take lightly to someone questioning their skills.
“He baited her.”
“He what?”
“Outwardly questioning someone’s work is a huge insult in the coding community. He had to have watched her build and found, or maybe even created the error himself in order to open the door to talking to her.”
“Why would he do that? With what you’ve mentioned about the game’s safeguards, how would he have known he was talking to a teenager?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. When did she start playing in the tournaments for Blox World?”
Her beautiful lips thin as she thinks. “The first one was a few months back… April, I think. Why? Do you think she may have met this guy at one? I always went with her.”
“It’s a possibility. But let’s see what else we can find.”
My attention goes back to the files. The next conversation between them, she initiates it, thanking him for pointing out the error she’d missed. From there, the conversations become more friendly and frequent. Almost all of them seem innocent enough: coding debates, critiques on each other’s current world builds, and pop culture. From the outside, it seems normal enough for two kids talking, not the adult I suspect is on the other side of the screen. Nothing makes sense until I click open one of the more recent chat threads.
P4r4D0X: Can I have your number?
HayDay: How? The bots block that info.
P4r4D0X: It’s easy. Watch. if (x == 5661365) See? The game just thinks we’re sharing code.
HayDay: My mom wouldn’t like it if I gave my number out.
“Damn right, I wouldn’t,” Shelby growls while I jot down the phone number to search later. “What was she thinking? Hayden knows better. Or, at least, I thought she did.”
“She’s a teenager. They make bad decisions all the time.”
“How would you know?” she questions sarcastically.
“Because she has half my DNA.”
She rolls her eyes at me, but we both know it’s the truth. I may never have been a part of her life growing up, but she’s my daughter. My blood is in her veins. Rebellious streaks are just a part of it.
“What does the next one say?”
Clicking on the file, I hit pay dirt.
P4r4D0X: Big tournament this week. You playing?
HayDay: No. My mom has to work.
P4r4D0X: Go on your own. I could meet you there.
HayDay: My mom would kill me.
P4r4D0X: If she’s at work, how would she find out?
HayDay: I can’t sneak out like that.
P4r4D0X: I want to meet you. Just take a bus. You can call me when you get there.
“That’s a few days before she disappeared.”
“Looks like her friend convinced her to bail and bus it down to Austin to meet him, and we know what happened when she got there.”
Pulling from the notepad with the number on it, I exit out of the files and pop it into the location software I had used to ping Hayden’s phone. Nothing comes up. I try to call it using a fake number online, but it never connects. Fuck. Another dead end.
“It’s probably a burner phone.” I spin to look at Shel
by, who shrugs. “What? I like crime shows. What’s next?”
“With the kid in the wind, and this number being a dead end, we’re stuck. Judge sent Priest and Burnt out to keep an eye on the place in Martinsville and the comic store for the kid.”
“I hate not knowing, Wyatt. I wish she never started playing that stupid game. If I had put my foot down, none of this would have happened.”
“Hindsight is a bitch. You could have never predicted she would go rogue like this.”
“I hate that she’s out there, alone and scared, while we’re here playing this stupid game.”
Shit. Playing the game. “Why didn’t I think of that sooner?” Shoving out of my chair, I grab Hayden’s laptop from my other desk, bringing it back with me and opening it up.
“Think of what sooner?”
“If he found Hayden playing this game, what’s not to say that he’s not still doing it under a new name? I could go create my own account and follow what Hayden did. Maybe he’ll take notice and try to chat with me.”
“Would that even work? What if he just bailed on it the second they had Hayden?”
“Because predators never get enough, and they always want more. And when something works, they’ll keep doing it until their supply runs dry or they get caught.”
Shelby stalks over to the other desk and wheels the chair over next to me.
“Let’s play.”
Shelby
One thing this game proves, without a doubt, is that Hayden didn’t get this particular interest from me. Holy crap, this is boring.
At first, I try watching the way Wyatt builds a world, digging things and developing others, but honestly, it looks like nothing more than a bunch of pixelated blocks to me, making my brain hurt.
Wyatt and I never were very similar, but when we were younger, that’s what always made us special. He was into computers and classic rock, while I was into art and heavy metal. He loved quiet days spent online, and I loved nights out on the town.
His fingers fly at lightning speed. This man is the father of my child. The same man who stole my heart all those years ago. And when I ran, I’d left it with him. There’ve been guys since him, but none of them lasted. There’s never been anyone who could fill those giant motorcycle boots.
“I’m gonna go for a drive,” I tell him, unable to sit here in this room for another moment. It still smells like sex, and I desperately need some time to wrap my head around the revelations made earlier tonight.
The clicking at the keyboard stops abruptly as he turns to me. “Everything okay?”
No, everything is not “okay.” In fact, it’s far from okay, but I can’t get into that right now. I need to figure it out for myself. “Yeah. I just need some fresh air, and a chance to clear my head.”
He narrows his eyes, studying me, before finally nodding. “You’re coming back, right?”
“Of course. I won’t be long.” My words are casual, but inside, my gut is churning. I need to get out of here to think. I need to fucking breathe.
Reaching out, he snatches my hand as I pass, lifting it to his lips. When he presses a gentle kiss to the back of it, I melt a little right there on the floor. “Be careful.”
I swallow past my swirling emotions and force a smile. “I will.”
I hadn’t realized how late it was, but outside, the birds are singing their morning song, and the sun’s just barely peeking up on the horizon. It’s not until I climb into my car and turn on the engine that I see it’s nearly five o’clock in the morning. No wonder I feel tired.
I pull out of the parking lot and onto the deserted road. There’s no traffic at this time of morning, and with all the distractions swirling around inside my head, that’s definitely a good thing.
It wasn’t him.
That’s the thought I can’t put out of my head. All these years, I’ve cut him out of our lives because I thought he’d betrayed me, and it wasn’t even him!
What kind of person does that make me? I reacted first, never bothering to ask questions. I just packed up and ran. I’ve struggled all these years as a single mom and kept Hayden to myself, never offering her a chance to even get to know her father. How will they forgive me? How will I forgive myself?
And Hayden. How is it possible to be both angry with someone and need them so damn much? I can’t believe she got caught up in this. I can’t believe she arranged to meet someone online, whether she thought he was a kid or not. She knows better than that. I may not know much about computers, but I began cautioning her at a young age about internet safety.
She always paid attention, followed the rules, and used her head. Until now.
A burnt-out house comes into view and I stop in front of it, staring at the remains. I hadn’t meant to drive this far. I hadn’t even consciously come here, but I think part of me needed to see it.
Was Hayden kept here? Does the kid who used to live here know where she is? Why did it burn down?
That last part worries me more than the rest. It shows aggression and recklessness by the people who have her. It shows they weren’t attached to their own home, let alone Hayden. They wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her if they had to.
A knuckle taps against the glass of my driver’s side window, snapping me to attention. I don’t know the man outside my car, but I recognize him. He’s a member of the Black Hoods, and he’s huge. I look down and read the name on his cut: Priest.
“You need to leave,” he orders through the glass.
“Are you following me?” I ask incredulously, not lowering the window.
He only responds with, “It’s not safe here. You need to leave, now.”
I glare at him, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. Instead, he turns and walks away, disappearing around the corner.
I take one last, long look at the house before pulling away from the curb, leaving my unanswered questions buried in the soot. I’m less than a block away when the motorcycles pull up behind me. Priest and another guy from the club aren’t even trying to hide.
I turn down a side street to test my theory, and sure enough, they turn too. Motherfucker.
Using the hands-free feature on the car’s dash, I call Wyatt.
“Yeah?”
“Do you care to explain why two very large men on motorcycles are following me all over hell’s half acre?”
He sighs. “You shouldn’t be there, Shelby. The whole town isn’t safe, and these fuckers know we’re onto them.”
In theory, I understand what he’s saying, but that doesn’t answer my direct question. “Why do you have them following me?”
“Are you listening to me?”
I slam my fist down on the dash. “Damnit, Wyatt! Why are they following me?”
“Because you’re mine!” he shouts. “And because you’re putting yourself in danger. It was a stupid fucking move, so I want to make sure you’re safe.”
You’re mine. Those two words extinguish my anger the minute he speaks them. Does he mean that? Does he still want me? After everything I’ve done to him and Hayden by keeping them apart, does he truly still want me?
“Shelby?” he urges, his voice softer.
“Yeah?”
“Come home, baby. Just… come home.”
Warmth washes over me. Mine. Baby. Home. “Okay.”
I’m still pissed, but now I’m pissed remembering just what it was about Wyatt that made me fall in love with him in the first place.
Hashtag
I have no idea what Shelby was thinking going back to that house, let alone to Martinsville, on her own. I know she needed to get out of her own head and worries for a while, but her decision put her in danger. Had Priest and Burnt not been keeping tabs on the place for the kid at Judge’s request, I could have lost her too. Once was enough. I’m not prepared for it to happen again.
I wait anxiously outside the clubhouse for a glimpse of her car to pull into the parking lot when Karma walks by and takes notice. He shifts direction, grinning his stupid fuc
king grin as he approaches me.
“You look like someone shit in your cereal. What did Shelby do now?”
“Priest found her driving by the Martinsville house.”
Karma busts out in a hearty laugh, and I sneer.
“Shit hasn’t changed one bit with her. When you say zig, she zags.”
“You’re not kidding. I don’t know what got into her.”
He smiles. “You did, and now there’s two of you. The world will never be the same again.”
Shelby’s car pulls into the parking lot at last, and relief washes over me. Her purple hair peeks out from the open door, but it’s her face I notice first, and she’s pissed. Great.
“Go easy on her, man. But if you don’t, I have fifty on her in the first round.”
Karma walks off just as Shelby gets to me. I raise my hand up to stop her from unleashing on me outside. We don’t need an audience for what I have to say to her. I lower my hand, grab hers, and drag her along behind me until we reach my room and close the door.
“You’re having me followed,” she snarls. Ding. Ding. Round one.
“No. Judge put the prospects on the house.” That’s the truth. When they spotted her driving by the house, I had them tail her for her own protection. “Why the fuck did you go there? You know Martinsville isn’t safe, yet there you were.”
She paces the floor in front of me. “I couldn’t just sit here anymore and watch you play games. We’re getting nowhere fast, and every second we’re not out there looking for her, we're losing out on our chance of finding her.”
“Is that what you think? That I’m just sitting here playing games? I’m doing what I can to attract the people who’ve taken our daughter. I’ve gone without sleep, trying to bait them into contacting me. Outside of finding that kid, which is like looking for a needle in a fucking haystack, this is our lead now. Judge has our guys watching every single place this kid might go.”
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing. Hayden’s out there, scared, and I can’t do a damn thing to help her.”
“Then let me do it. Let me take on your worries and your burdens. We can’t find her if you and I are on opposite pages. We have to be a united front—a family.”
