Jade, and if he was, why does it matter now?”
He looked back down at the table.
For several minutes.
Then, finally, “Do you have anything keeping you here?” Colin asked.
“What?”
“Would it be possible for you to go away for a while? You and Jade?”
“Are you kidding me? Jade is pregnant and just adopted two kids. You think she can just up and leave?”
“I want the two of you safe.”
“We are safe. Safe at home with Talon.” And Bryce, but I didn’t want to tell Colin about Bryce and me. I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t a secret. It was just too new.
“Marj, things are heating up.”
“What things? You come to us and you talk in riddles. If you want our cooperation, you need to start spilling some facts.”
“I don’t have any facts. I mean, I can’t substantiate anything. Not yet, anyway. But I’ve been looking. My father…” He rubbed his chin. “I don’t want to believe everything I’m seeing, you know? Things I’m finding out.”
My mentally ill mother was missing, and I was getting nothing from Colin. I’d had enough. “What the hell is this all about?”
He took a drink from the brown liquid in his glass. Probably Scotch. Colin used to drink a lot of Scotch. “My father has been meeting with someone. I don’t know who it is.”
“Man? Woman? Black? White? You’ve got to give me something here, Colin.”
“It’s a man. A white man. He has dark hair.”
“Eye color?”
“I haven’t seen him close enough to tell.”
“Height?”
“Average.”
“And why do you think this person has anything to do with us?”
Colin held his drink, swirling the amber liquid in the glass. “It’s a feeling.”
I shook my head. “You’re lying. You wouldn’t bring me here and tell me Jade and I have to leave town over a feeling.”
He stared at the mahogany wood of the table. “Like I said, I can’t substantiate anything. Not yet. That’s all I can say.”
“I’m not buying it.”
“You don’t understand. That’s all I can say.” Without moving his head, he looked to the doorway. Someone had entered.
Someone I knew.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Bryce
“We’re done here. At least for now.” I closed the file and regarded Joe. “I can’t deal with this anymore tonight.”
“Amen to that.” Joe stood. “We can talk tomorrow. Most of these files look like dead ends anyway. I’ll let myself out.”
I nodded. I tidied up the desk a little and then headed to my bedroom. Big. Big and empty.
I wanted Marjorie. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to call her.
She didn’t respond, so I called the landline at the main house. “Yeah?” Talon answered.
“I’m trying to reach Marjorie,” I told him.
“Oh? Didn’t she answer her phone?”
“No.”
“I assume she’s in her bedroom. Hold on a minute.”
He hadn’t asked why I wanted to talk to her. Why should he? We were all adults.
“She’s not in her room,” Talon said. “Jade hasn’t seen her.”
Worry boiled in my gut. “It’s after nine.”
“I know. I don’t like this. Not with everything that’s going on. I’m going to try texting her.”
“I will too.”
I hurriedly wrote out a text.
Is everything okay? No one can
reach you. Where are you?
I didn’t get an answer.
“Anything?” I asked Talon.
“No.”
“I’m going out to look for her,” I said.
“I’ll come along,” he said.
“No, you need to stay with Jade and the boys. I’ll handle this.”
“But—”
“I got this. I’ll find her. I promise.” I ended the call.
I raced to my car as my phone rang again. I looked at the name. Ted Morse. Seriously?
“What is it, Morse?” I said angrily.
“Hello to you too.”
“I don’t have time for this bullshit. What do you want now?”
“I know where she is,” he said.
My heart nearly stopped. “If you’ve so much as touched one hair on her head, I swear to God I’ll fucking mutilate you.”
“Why are you threatening me? I called to help you.”
“You have no intention of helping me.”
“Why do you think I’ve been warning you—”
“Shut the fuck up. You know where she is, huh? Where is she, then?”
“In town. At the hotel. With my son.”
Jealousy tore into my gut. “At the hotel?”
“Relax. They’re in the bar having a drink.”
I didn’t reply. I ended the call abruptly, got into my car, and raced into town.
“Hold it like this, son,” my father said.
I smiled from ear to ear. I was holding a pistol. A real pistol. Not the toy cap guns Joe and I played cowboy with.
“Keep your finger off the trigger. Never put it on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.”
“Tom, he’s awfully young,” my mother said, coming out from the cabin.
“A