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(Jaron)
She blamed me.
I got it. I did. I would probably blame me too. Maybe I wanted to call the mayor’s bluff.
After Piper demanded to know why I never took the mayor seriously and brought both her and Brynn to safety, I left the room. I couldn’t look at her for fear that I would do something both of us would regret.
As much as I wanted to dive deep inside her and never come out, I didn’t and left her alone to her cries of anger.
Price didn’t call again but as I neared the entrance to the house, I was stopped short by my dad approaching me. “I’m leaving,” I told him.
“He’s moving but the video footage that I’ve been sent, shows that Brynlee is unharmed.”
That didn’t make me feel better. I wouldn’t be satisfied that she was in fact fine until she was back in Piper’s arms. “Where is she now?” I asked, stepping around him.
“Jersey,” was all Dad said. “If you go after him alone, you have to remember that it could very well end what you and Piper have.” His eyes burned into the side of my head. “She needs you. I get your rage. I’ve been there. But if you were taken and your mom wasn’t…”
“You still would have gone after me whether it tore you and Mom apart or not,” I answered for him and walked away.
I knew what I had to do, and if things ended between Piper and me as a result of it, as long as our daughter was home and safe, that was all that I cared about.
Jaron
I thought back tobefore Brynn was taken and how I took everything for granted. How I assumed that Piper loved me before we even uttered those words to each other. Or how I assumed that she would always be there when she had waited for me to come home. Nothing that happened to me while I was in jail was like the pain I was currently feeling. Her love was there but it was mixed with something else just the same.
Pain. Hate. Agony.
I couldn’t be sure but what I did know was that I needed to move fast. I walked around the house like a damn zombie, trying to soak up every single piece of information that I could. I needed to make my escape to go find our daughter and bring her home to her mama.
It was late in the morning and I had just checked on Piper. She was finally sleeping, although I was sure her mind was racked with nightmares that she would never see her daughter again.
The house was quiet except for the gentle murmurs of my father and a few of the other guys in the meeting room. They were still trying to figure out where the mayor was now. While I appreciated their help and what Lucas Crane, a friend of the family had done for my dad, I had a little contact of my own.
Thanks to Cyrus, Rowan Crane dug a little deeper than his father had and gave me the current whereabouts of the mayor. Not that Lucas wasn’t good at what he did, but Rowan didn’t fear getting caught by the law like his dad had. His words. I wasn’t one to ask questions, so I took the help where I could get it.
Making my way to the back of the house, I texted Cyrus and Sammy and asked them to meet me. I knew this meeting wasn’t going to end well. Sammy and I would probably get in a fight again. But it needed to happen. I couldn’t sit around anymore. Not when Piper looked at me like it was my fault this happened. Maybe it was.
Stepping out into the large backyard, I let out a heavy sigh. There was a swing set that sat in the far back corner. A little house sat to the right. It was my parents’ reading nook and a shed to get away when needed, so they wouldn’t have to go far. That was what they said anyway but I knew that it was so they could have some privacy.
“Jaron.”
My back stiffened at the sound of Cyrus and Sammy joining me in the backyard. I knew this conversation wasn’t going to go over well, so I had to prepare myself for the fallout. But as much as I tried, I knew I wasn’t ready.
“What’s going on?” Sammy asked, walking up to an ashtray that sat in the middle of the patio table. It was a ceramic frog holding a turtle and the shell was hollowed out for the butts. It was an ugly thing, but Piper had seen two of them at a yard sale. She picked up both, gave one to my parents and kept one for herself. I only knew of this because Sammy had mentioned how ugly it was when they had come to see me in jail. It was a small thing, but I had appreciated at the time that little tidbit into my girl’s life while I couldn’t be with her.
“Jaron, what’s up?” Cyrus came up to my side, while Sammy stood by the ashtray and lit up a smoke. He had been trying to quit, both of them had been, but we all knew it would never happen.
I had no idea what I wanted to say, let alone tell them that I was leaving. It wouldn’t be for good. But it would be until I could get Brynlee and bring her home to Piper. The longer she was gone, the further Piper and I grew apart. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I needed my girl. I needed both of them. Along with the baby currently growing inside of Piper.
I caught Sammy’s gaze.
He leaned against the fence, puffing on that damn cigarette.
“Jaron,” Cyrus barked, pulling me back to him.
“I need you to watch Piper,” I told Cyrus finally.
