of the guys who came to visit you?” Skye asked again. Maybe Ryker and his mystery wonder kid could find out who these guys were too.
“No,” her mother said. “I was too nervous trying to pretend that I wasn’t nervous to even think about it.”
“I grabbed a picture of the license plate as I drove the tractor by,” her dad told her and Skye’s heart rate picked back up.
“What is it?” Skye asked, moving her phone to speaker and pulling up a text to Trent. She typed in the plate number, the make, and the model of the SUV they were driving and then sent it to Trent.
“Skye,” her mother said the second her father stopped talking. “What is going on?”
Skye leaned back against the cushions and sighed. “I wish I knew. I’ll find out though. I have my phone so you can still reach me. Let me know if the men come back or if anyone calls you.”
“Call us?” Her mother said with a serious laugh that showed it wasn’t funny at all. “We’ve been getting calls from Lenny and Jim almost every hour. I can’t believe that they don’t know where you are. Half the time I can’t even get in touch with you because of the stranglehold they have on you.”
“Wait, what?” Skye asked, sitting up quickly as Trent walked out the door with two mugs of hot apple cider and a blanket over his arm. His phone was also in his hand and his brow was creased in a way that said he knew something was up and he was trying to figure it out.
Skye held out the phone and pressed speaker once again. “What do you mean, Lenny and Jim put a stranglehold on me so that half the time you couldn’t get in touch with me?”
The line was quiet and then her father cleared his throat. “Well, most of the time we’d call and he’d answer your phone and tell us you weren’t available. And we came to surprise you for your birthday when you were on set and he turned us away. He said you were too busy and in the middle of a really important scene and that we’d be a distraction.”
Skye would have dropped the phone if Trent hadn’t reached out to take it from her. He sat down next to her and put a supportive arm around her. “I didn’t know. I swear. I always want to talk to you or see you.”
Skye’s mother gave a relieved sob and Skye’s heart broke at the sound of her father comforting her. Skye turned her head slightly to see Trent’s jaw tight in anger. He too had his own bone to pick with Lenny. Skye had felt controlled and manipulated, but this was worse that she ever imagined.
“Mom, Dad, I promise I’ll get to the bottom of all this. I’m safe, but I’m not sitting back doing nothing. I’m done letting other people control me.”
“There’s my girl,” her father said with pride. “You give ’em hell, and if you need us we will come to you any time, anywhere.”
“We love you with all our hearts and you know, the farm is big enough to bury some bodies. Shoot, we can feed them to the pigs if we have to. Although, I have to admit, that’d be really gross.”
Skye felt the first tear fall as she laughed. “Thanks, Mom. You two are the best. I’ll call or text soon, okay?”
“Okay. Goodnight, sweetheart. We love you,” her mother said before the line went dead.
Trent reached over to hang up the phone and then set it down. Instantly she was in his arms and pulled onto his lap. He didn’t say anything. He just held her as she cried. “I can’t believe Lenny did that to my own parents and I never realized.”
Trent was quiet for a second, but then said what she’d been thinking. “He’s an asshole.”
Skye nodded against Trent’s strong chest. She took a deep breath to center herself. “I don’t like who I’ve become.”
“Skye, you’re an exceptional woman who has accomplished a lot in a very short time. How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“And how long have you been acting?” Trent asked, already knowing the answer.
“Seven years.” Skye took a deep breath to calm herself. “It’s not a professional thing. I know I’m a damn good actress. What I’m talking about is the farm girl who got into college on a lacrosse scholarship. The girl who took no shit from anyone. The girl who