Page 139 of Peaks and Promises

I still had a few tables, so Reese waited while I finished up. When my customers were gone and my tables cleared, I clocked out, got my purse, and followed Reese to his SUV.

“I want to stop at our house before we head up to my folks’,” he said when we got in.

Our house. I tried not to sigh. It wasn’t really ours.

“Sure. I need to grab a few things, too.”

We were quiet as he drove, winding through town on a circuitous route to make sure we weren’t followed. Far from being comfortable, the silence felt heavy, like a force gradually but insistently pushing us apart. He’d been closed off since the confrontation with Axel, and the distance grew every day.

He seemed to decide it was safe enough and turned onto our street. The house looked cheerful, with its fresh paint and tidy landscaping. His vigilance didn’t ease, even once the garage door lowered behind us, and the sense that he was on a job—providing security—was comforting, despite my mixed-up emotions.

Still silent, we got out and went into the house. Frustration ate at me as I grabbed a few things from the bedroom. It hadn’t been long since I’d been in my old apartment, hastily packing a bag so Nate and I could stay with Reese. Almost immediately after that, we’d been on the road, heading for Tilikum. We’d stayed in motels, then with his parents, and finally moved into this little house, only to be chased out again.

I aggressively shoved clothes into my bag. I just wanted to be able to sleep in my own bed without worrying about my stupid ex kidnapping my son. Was that really too much to ask?

There was food in the fridge that would go bad if we didn’t use it, so I loaded up a couple discarded grocery bags while Reese was busy in the other room.

On a whim, I took out my phone—I was still using the burner phone Reese had given me—and called my mom. She probably wouldn’t answer, and I wasn’t even sure what I wanted from her if she did. But the fact that she kept ignoring my calls added to my irritation.

“Summer?” she answered.

I’d been expecting to get her voicemail again, so her voice startled me. “Mom.”

Her tone was casual. “What’s going on?”

Wait, didn’t she know? “Other than my ex terrorizing me and threatening to kidnap my son?”

“No, he’s not.”

“Mom, please don’t gaslight me. I saw him. He put a gun in my face.”

“He did what?”

Was that anger in her voice? She’d never even hinted that anything a Mayhem member did to me bothered her. But it almost sounded like that made her mad.

“He put a gun in my face and told me he’s going to take my son.”

She hesitated for a moment. “Well, he won’t do that again.”

“How can you say that? Of course he will.”

“No, he won’t.”

It was impossible to keep my voice from rising. “He tracked me halfway across the country and now he’s here, biding his time until he finds a way to kidnap my child.”

“He’s not there. He’s here. Stryker ordered him to come back.”

“Wait, what? He’s there? Right now?” I paused, my tone going cold. “You’ve seen him.”

“Yes, I’ve seen him. He’s on thin ice. Did he tell you he torched a restaurant out in Elko?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. “No. It’s not like we sat down over coffee to catch up. And what does that have to do with anything?”

“He thought you worked there. Turned out to be some other chick named Summer. Looked like you, I guess. But Stryker can’t let him go rampaging around. He’s too reckless. It’s putting the club at risk.”

“So he was ordered to come back? And he did?”

“Of course he did. He wouldn’t dare disobey.”