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Zander frowned. She had to be hungry. Hell, he was hungry but he’d been so focused on getting to Noir that he’d ignored the growl of his stomach.
Looking at his niece now, he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have stopped while they were still on the major highways with all the fast-food joints. Should he have woken her up and forced her to eat something? Or was letting her sleep better? He could have let her sleep and grabbed her something but it would have gone cold by now anyway. What was the right thing to have done? He didn’t know the answer to those kinds of questions but he hoped that Zoey would.
He slowed the Bronco as they rolled into town, looking for a sign that anything was open this late. It was a small town, quiet and quaint even. He passed a large store promoting outdoor goods and then a bank and post office. There were some small-businesses in the glass front buildings that lined the road. A hardware store, a beauty salon, a bookstore and a couple of clothing stores. He saw the lights of a convenience store but when he got close enough he realized only the outside lights near the gas pumps were lit up, the inside as dark as everything else in this little town that likely closed up at sundown.
“Your destination is ahead.”
His GPS was so loud in the quiet of the Bronco that Zander jumped. He glanced back at Violet to see her hiding a giggle behind her hands. He gave an uncomfortable laugh, trying to remind himself that there was no reason to be so jumpy.
Zander gave Violet a good-natured wink before turning his attention back out the windshield. The next set of buildings looked to house a bakery, a diner and a bar. The bar was the only place with lights still on inside but even Zander knew better than to take a child in there at this late hour. His GPS was flashing now, telling him he’d reached his destination, and since there were no cars behind him he slowed to a stop.
He glanced from his phone to the bakery with the street number above the glass door and back again. It was the same. Weird. He rubbed his stubbled jaw and frowned as he looked around.
Was it possible that he’d come all this way and Zenia didn’t even have the right address? It was late and his head hurt right along with his back. He should probably backtrack to the little motel he’d seen before they got into town. They could both get some sleep and then try to figure out if Zenia had transposed a number or something in the morning.
“Look up there.”
It was Violet’s voice in the backseat that made Zander glance up and he narrowed his eyes. There was a second story above the bakery. It could have been used for storage but something deep inside of him said it wasn’t. Maybe it was an apartment, and maybe that was why the address for Zoey was the same as the bakery. He stared up at the dark windows with their simple white curtains and felt a distinct pull towards the place, towards his long-lost sister who he had come all this way to find.
“Good catch kid.”
“Thanks.” Violet’s voice was soft.
“Let’s just pull around the block and see if we can find an entrance.” he said, as much for her benefit as for his own.
He rolled the Bronco past the bakery and ignored the strange magnet pull that tried to convince him to turn around. He rubbed at his chest, at the strange pain that had seared him when he’d looked up at that apartment. He drove past the diner and the pub, turning left and then left again to circle back.
“The windows were dark. Do you think she’s asleep?” Violet sounded worried when she spoke again and Zander fought the insane urge to tell her that he didn’t care if Zoey was asleep because he wasn’t leaving now that he’d found her.
Instead he locateda small parking lot behind the bakery and parked next to a sporty red Jeep, noticing an expensive looking motorcycle parked beneath the staircase. He put the Bronco in park and looked up at the stairs that led to a door on the second floor of the building. He gripped the steering wheel tight, refusing to pay any heed to the little voice in his head that said to run, not walk or wait a moment longer.
“Maybe.” he admitted truthfully.
“She might not like us if we wake her up.” Violet was worrying her bottom lip with her teeth and Zander’s heart squeezed painfully. He remembered Zenia doing that same thing as a child, often resulting in bruised and chapped lips because she was always worrying.
“She’s going to love you, kid. I promise. Now come on.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the Bronco, stretching his legs and popping his back after the long ride as he waited for Violet to crawl out of the back. When she didn’t open the door, he finally opened it for her and peered in to find her sitting just where she’d been, chewing her lip nervously. “Are you coming?”
“I… are you sure, Uncle Zander?”
“I’m sure.” He reached in and plucked her from the seat, putting her on her feet with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “We didn’t come all this way to chicken out now, did we?”
Violet shook her head.
“Good, come on.” He let the little girl take his hand as he started for the stairs.
They were metal and the sound of their footfalls was loud in the quiet night. Zander had Violet go up in front of him, that way if she slipped he was behind her to catch her. They used the guardrail as they climbed and once they reached the door at the top Zander leaned over and pulled it open as soon as he realized it was only an exterior door. He herded Violet into a hallway that was much longer than he’d thought it would be judging from the outside.
The second floor ran the entirety of the building, not just the bakery. There were several doors down the length of the hall and Zander silently cursed since he couldn’t know for certain which one belonged to Zoey. The address had only been for the bakery. There hadn’t been an apartment number. But then, as he stood there, looking up and down the hall, trying to decide what to do next, that little voice in the back of his head tugged at him again and he looked at the first door, the one that had to be directly above the bakery.
It was that one. He knew it. The strange magnetic pull told him that was the door he needed, that what and who he was looking for was on the other side of it, and he was moving towards it without even thinking about it.
He raised his hand and then looked at where Violet stood just inside the entry, eyeing him nervously. He went back to her and took her hand. He led her to the corner of the hallway.
“Stand right here, okay?” He met her gaze seriously.
“Why?”
“Because as much as we hope this is Zoey’s place and we hope she’ll want to see us, I can’t make any promises and I don’t want you involved until I know more. Stand here. It’s out of sight of whoever answers the door. Okay?”
