Page 50 of Peaks and Promises

Pressing her lips together, she shook her head.

“I don’t know what she told you about her family, and that’s not important now.” The lies came easily. “Our mom is in the hospital. It’s serious. Summer won’t take my calls, so I’ve been trying to find her so I can let her know. She needs to come see Mom. It might be the last time.”

“Oh no.” The woman put a hand on her chest. “That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, it’s rough. Our stepdad is with her now. It’s hitting everyone hard.”

“I didn’t even know she had a stepdad.”

“She has a whole family who misses her.”

The woman glanced away again. “I can’t tell you anything.”

Anger flashed through me again, but I kept it off my face. “Look, Summer would want to know. And there isn’t a lot of time.”

“I don’t know where she is,” the woman said. “That’s the truth. She didn’t tell me where she was going.”

“Where she was going? Do you mean she left?”

“Um…” She sputtered a little. “No. I don’t know. She just said she didn’t need me to watch Nate after school anymore.”

The bitch was pissing me off. Squaring my shoulders, I stepped closer. “Tell me where she is.”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

She flinched away. “I really don’t know.”

I leaned in, dropping my voice to a growl. “Where the fuck did she go?”

The woman’s eyes filled with tears. “She didn’t tell me. She just said she was leaving. I swear, I don’t know where she went.”

“But she isn’t coming back?”

“I don’t think so.”

Stepping back, I looked the woman up and down. I doubted I’d get anything else out of her. She wasn’t worth my time.

Without another word, I turned and strode back to my bike. And when I left, I made sure the woman heard me go.

A block up the street, I parked again, swung off my bike, and veered around the back, coming around through the gap between two buildings. The woman was gone, so I went up the stairs to Summer’s apartment again.

Without bothering to knock, I pulled a wire out of my pocket and picked the lock. It opened easily.

Inside was quiet, but their stuff was still there. It didn’t look like they’d vacated the place. There was furniture, dishes, clothes, food in the fridge. The kid’s room had a neatly made bed, a shelf full of Lego shit, and a cartoon poster on the wall.

Something about that poster enraged me. A fucking cartoon? My kid—the future of Mayhem—lived like that? With cartoons and fucking Legos?

Rage built to a breaking point, and I didn’t try to stop it. I unleashed, leaving destruction in my wake.

CHAPTER 12

Reese

The first part of the day passed in a blur of endless road and occasional pit stops. I was surprised at how little Nate complained. He fell asleep again not long after we left the motel, but even after he woke up, he stayed fairly quiet. A long road trip could be grueling for a kid, but he handled it like a champ.

I tried to stay focused on driving. But my brain kept offering a replay of the morning’s bathroom incident.