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Her eyes were wide with anger and accusation, and I took a step back before I asked, “Who is who?”
“Who is the guy who has your head up in the clouds so much that you’ll turn your back on your family?”
I immediately felt my chest seize up. Had Casey said anything about where I went? God, did they know it was Zane?
“I don’t care,” my mother said, answering her own question and gesturing in anger. “Since you love him so much, you can go be with him while your father is dying.”
The shot struck clear to my chest, unleashing all the guilt and despair I had been holding back. It was an emotion so strong that it sent my stomach roiling and made my throat tight.
“That’s not fair, Mom,” I said indignantly, my voice shaky with emotion. My mother was not appeased.
She shook her head. “I don’t care. You can run around like a little hussy if you want. But if you get pregnant, you’ll only have yourself to blame.”
I was about to respond, but then I froze. Not necessarily because of what she said but because I realized I hadn’t seen my period in over a month. I had been busy, so I hadn’t realized, but I was typically regular. And today, I was officially a week late.
With that realization, a wave of nausea hit me, and I quickly ran to the bathroom before I threw up all over the floor.
20
ZANE
The air was so cold that it stung my nostrils as I drove with the windows down. I didn’t mind. The pain was familiar. So was the mountain air and the dry tumbleweed that I saw rustling over in the desert.
New Mexico. The place I called home for most of my life.
This place had seen my blood, sweat, and tears. It had also seen the little happiness I managed to hold onto, but even that was snatched away from me.
The truck had just gotten an overhaul, and it moved pretty smoothly, but I couldn’t enjoy much of the ride though. Because my mind was too choked with what I came to do and the conversations I had this morning.
I’d woken up from one of the most peaceful sleep of my life and found Charlotte gone. That was an immediate mood downer even before I got up and found the note she’d left behind.
Don’t worry. I’m not expecting anything. Last night was fun.
That was all she’d written. And for some reason, I was unduly annoyed at the fact that she’d left without telling me or at least waking me up to get her some breakfast or something. It didn’t make sense because I should have wanted her to leave. The fact that I had sex with her twice last night was already a mistake, so I should have been relieved that she didn’t have any expectations after that.
But apparently, I did. Have some expectations, I mean. And honestly, a huge part of me wanted to wake up next to her this morning like I’d done the last time. Except, this time, I wanted to take my time and study her features, maybe skim my hands over her soft skin and brush kisses on her neck again. Maybe make love to her one last time.
Even though that would have been the wrongest thing to do.
After I distracted myself from my discontent by scanning my messages, I noticed one from James. He was the PI I asked to trace the text messages about Toby, so I called him back instantly.
“It’s weird,” he said when I asked him about the number. “The guy might be using a burner phone or something like that because the signal kept jumping around, and it masked itself a few times. He might have also installed some technology to mask it, which is pretty difficult to do.”
Yeah, Toby was always a smart-ass kid. “So you don’t know where it’s coming from?”
“Not exactly. All I know is that the guy is somewhere in Greston, New Mexico.”
“Did you say Greston?”
“Yeah,” James replied. “Know the place?”
“Yeah.” Because I’d lived my entire life in Greston, a small town close to Albuquerque—a town known for nothing but farms and dry tumbleweed.
And the crime, of course. Couldn’t forget the crime.
After all, that was how I reconnected with Toby again. I caught him trying to steal parts from my bike. The kid was a whiz with electronics, but the mechanics of the old bike confused him. After I accosted him and let him go with a strong warning, he began to show up everywhere around me again. At first, it was annoying having the teenage kid follow me around everywhere, but then I got used to him and his chatter. He got used to my bad moods too. Together, we made a good team.
But then, I hadn’t been there for him when it mattered.
