Page 112 of Cuffed (Everyday Heroes 1)
Every part of me seethes at whoever the prick is on the answering machine. I mean, I know he’s the loan guy and it’s clear as fucking day what he wants in exchange for loan approval. It’s just that he’s using his position to try to take advantage of Em, and his boldness makes me think she isn’t the first woman he’s done this to.
“Fucking asshole,” Leo mutters as his face reflects how my temper feels.
“Is this a typical thing?”
“The slimy bullshit? Yeah. It is. The guy’s a grade A prick.”
“Who is it?”
Leo stares at me for a moment, and I can see him gauging whether to tell me. “Emerson has him under control,” he says after a prolonged second, not giving me the answers I fucking want. “If she needs help, I’m sure she’ll let you know.”
I give him my best cop beat-down stare, but it doesn’t faze him. On one hand, I like knowing he has her back, on the other hand, I wish he’d have it a little more so that he’d tell me and I could help her.
“So she has the day off?”
“A few days off.”
“Where’d she go?” I ask, hating that the fucked-up feeling I had in the pit of my stomach when I woke up to an empty house is back.
“She said she needed to get out of dodge for a while. She’s probably jumping somewhere else for a change of scenery. According to Desi, she’s known to do that from time to time when she needs to clear her head. I’m surprised it took this long, actually. With the pressure the Blue Skies owners are putting on her to get loan approval and this asshole holding it for ransom, I bet she just needed some space.”
“Huh.” His explanation does nothing to explain why my calls and texts to her have gone unanswered. “I thought she never left this place.”
“It isn’t often, but it does happen.”
“Thanks. If she calls, can you let her know I was looking for her?”
“Yeah. I will. But don’t expect her to. When she goes off the grid . . . she goes off the grid.”
Fucking great.
I walk out of the office and stand with my hands on my hips as I look across the parking lot to where her car should be but isn’t.
I have my interview to prepare for and cold case files to go through.
I have a life to live.
So, why I am at Miner’s Airfield, wondering where in the hell Emerson is and why she left? I have no idea where she might have gone, but if I were a betting man, I would put money on her leaving having something to do with what happened last night.
Waking in an empty bed sucked.
The worry that followed was even worse.
“I met a guy—well, not really met, but more like saw him again—and I think you’d approve of him, but while you would, he’s really screwing with my head. I don’t know what to do.”
My voice carries on the breeze as it whips through my hair. I tilt my face to the sun, close my eyes, and try to feel her presence beside me. One hand rests on her marker and the other twirls one of the wild daisies between my fingers that cover the top of her grave.
“It’s Grant Malone.” I smile at his name. “Yeah, I know. You always had a soft spot for him even though I wouldn’t acknowledge him or the Malone family when you brought them up. But I ran into him again, Mom, and I’m really struggling like never before.”
I watch a hawk soar through the blue sky over where I sit on the hill that overlooks my mom’s hometown of Miltonville. She picked her resting place because, according to her, if she were on the top of a hill, she’d be able to watch over me no matter which direction I decided to wander.
“Things I don’t remember, I’m remembering. Good stuff. Bad stuff. You were always so proud of how strong I was, but I don’t feel so strong anymore, Mom. I feel like I’m losing my grip on reality. One day, all I’m trying to do is keep Blue Skies, get the loan, and keep on top of Travis’s to-do lists, and the next day, Grant Malone comes barreling into my life, and it’s as if none of that matters anymore.”
“Why is that a bad thing?” I can hear her asking, just like she always used to, and the common refrain makes my heart twist in my chest because I miss her so damn much.
?
??It’s bad because I need rules and structure and control, but all of that goes out the window when it comes to him, and I can’t have that. Without the rules, my mind wanders, and it can’t wander, Mom. I can’t remember any more than I already do. I just . . . I can’t . . .”
