you found her? Or Adelaide?” Copper asked, stepping in to give me a moment to collect myself.
Underwood shook her head. “No, not yet. We’re still looking. We’ve got an APB out for Adelaide as well as a warrant for Phyllis Banner’s arrest. We’re keeping a watch on both houses, but so far, neither one of them has returned to their place of residence. Do you know of anywhere else they may have gone?”
“No, none that I can think of.”
“If you see or hear from Phyllis or Adelaide, be sure to give us a call before you take things into your own hands,” Dunk said seriously.
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise more than that.”
“Is there anything else?” Copper asked, clearly trying to hurry the conversation along.
“Yes,” Dunk said excitedly. “We want to know if we can hold the baby. Neither one of us has even gotten a good look at her yet.”
Thankfully, they only stayed for a few minutes, each briefly holding Blue before returning her to me. The moment they were gone, I turned to my brother. “What in the actual fuck?” I asked, miraculously remembering to whisper.
“Should I leave?” Layla interrupted.
Copper shook his head. “That’s up to Bronze. As far as I’m concerned, this is family business, not club business.”
I turned to Layla. “You’re welcome to stay, but you might not like what you hear.”
“You don’t need to leave, Locks,” Copper said and directed his attention to me. “Ain’t no use in wasting time speculating. You’d be better off waiting until the police finish investigating and focus on other important matters in the meantime.”
“Such as?”
“Such as securing your parental rights now that paternity’s been proven. Especially since the mother’s been found dead.”
11
After Bronze left, I turned off all notifications and spent the rest of the day alternating between searching online and completing my daily word count. By the time I decided to call it a day, it was well after dark, and I was mentally exhausted, which is why I once again fell asleep on the sofa holding my laptop. At some point during the night, I managed to sleepwalk to the bed, which saved me from waking up with a sore back.
Since I didn’t have any plans until the following afternoon when Bronze said he would come back, I treated myself to several in-room spa services, which took up most of the morning. Feeling like a new woman, I got in my car and set out to explore Devil Springs.
After eating lunch at a locally owned diner, I parked along Main Street and started checking out the downtown area on foot. As I got closer to what appeared to be the central area, the sound of rushing water became louder and clearer.
I wanted to squeal in delight when a bridge and waterfall came into view. Pulling out my phone, I snapped a few pictures and saved the location as a potential site for a photo shoot in the future. The bridge had suspension cables only on one side, allowing for a multitude of unencumbered views as it curved in front of the falls.
Surveying the area, I was pleased to find a park filled with numerous places to sit and enjoy being outdoors—or sit and write some dirty stories as it was in my case.
Far too many hours later, my phone whistled at me and scared the shit out of me since I'd never heard it make that noise before. Looking down to see Frankie's name on a notification from an app that I didn't know I had, I closed my laptop and planned to respond once I got back to my car. However, I changed my mind once I realized it was very close to being dark and there weren’t many people out and about.
"When did you install this on my phone?" I asked.
"Well hello to you too," Frankie answered. “Wait, what are you doing?"
"I'm walking back to my car. What are you doing?”
“Don’t try to deflect. We have more important things to discuss once we’ve established where you are or that you’re safe. I’ll accept either at this point.”
“I spent the day in a park downtown working on one of my stories," I explained. “The day got away from me, and now I'm walking back to my car with you as my security guard.”
“Tell me, my dear demon, why are you lolly-gagging around this town? You’re there for some reason I’m not privy to, yet you spent the day outside writing. Don’t get me wrong; I'm always