Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires #2) - J. S. Scott Page 0,72
punch you in the face, too. You know she’d side with your tree hugger.”
“Hopefully this will be over before she gets back,” he replied. “Call me tomorrow and let me know how things worked out.”
I nodded and walked out the door, suddenly eager to straighten out the mystery of why Skye had lied to me, now that I was thinking straight again.
By the time I arrived home, I was considerably more composed than I had been when I’d left my house.
If I could get the truth from Skye, I was going to listen and put myself in her shoes. I was ready to fight for us if she was ready to never lie to me again.
Dammit! There had to be some compelling reason for her not to be truthful.
And Maya would be my daughter. I wasn’t all that concerned about whether or not she shared my genes. Seth was right. Love wasn’t about DNA. I was pretty sure I already adored her a lot more than her natural father—wherever and whoever the hell he was. If it wasn’t Marino, I certainly hadn’t seen any other male ready to step up to the plate.
The house was dark, and the first thing I noticed when I pulled into one of the garage stalls was that Skye’s beat-up old vehicle was gone.
Where in the hell would she go at this hour?
I glanced at the clock and realized it wasn’t really as late as it felt. For me, it had already been a damn long night. Still, it wasn’t like Skye to take off with Maya late on a school night.
I went into the house through the garage and hit the lights.
I heard something I hadn’t experienced in a while, and I discovered that I really didn’t like the sound.
Everything was dead silent.
I ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, and found Skye’s bedroom empty. I went to my room, because more often than not, she slept there since we’d returned from Vegas.
The bed was neatly made, and no Skye.
Hoping she might have fallen asleep in Maya’s room, I ran there.
My heart started to race as I found my daughter’s room unoccupied, too. The bed was still made and hadn’t been slept in at all.
“Dammit,” I cursed as I went back downstairs. “Where in the hell is she, and why did she go?”
I’d said some pretty shitty things to her, but I’d never given her a reason to be afraid of a confrontation with me.
But she’s never seen me as angry as I was earlier.
And then I saw the note.
There were only four words, scrawled on the back of the paper where she’d written the name of the sandwich I’d tried out earlier in the day:
Maya is your daughter.
She’d left the bracelet I’d given her and my mother’s necklace, right next to the note.
I picked them up and toyed with them, noticing that the stones felt cold.
Where in the fuck did she go?
And where in the hell was my daughter?
Did leaving the jewelry mean something? Maybe that she didn’t want anything from me?
I placed the bracelet and necklace back on the counter.
I need to find them.
A fierce protectiveness overwhelmed me, made me forget that I was ever angry.
I had no idea where she’d go at a moment’s notice. She’d given up her apartment, so maybe a cheap motel?
That thought didn’t go over well with me. Granted, Citrus Beach was a small city without a ton of crime, but I didn’t want her in a place where she and Maya weren’t completely safe.
But since I wasn’t sure about her financial situation, it might have been all she could afford.
I kicked myself mentally for never asking Skye if she had enough money in her personal accounts.
She’d never said she was short on funds, but I doubted she ever would. Skye and Maya had been taken care of here, but I had no idea what she had in the bank.
I’d encouraged her to close the restaurant, so it wasn’t currently bringing in income. Hadn’t been for weeks.
I grabbed my keys, and I was out the door a few seconds later.
CHAPTER 28
SKYE
The next morning, it took several cups of coffee to get my eyes completely open.
I’d fed Maya and put her down to sleep early enough the night before. But even though I’d hit the bed not much later, I hadn’t been able to sleep.
Around noon, I was still feeling completely exhausted, and more than a little jittery from all the caffeine I’d consumed.