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Then she changes the subject. She tells me to say hello to Dad and wish him well, which surprises me. We end the call a few minutes later.
I’m still mulling over my conversation with her when I go into Dad’s study to check on him. His color is better today, probably as a result of Hans, the nurse, making him eat a balanced diet. Hans and Gina have been butting heads ever since he came to work here. I think Gina takes his presence as an affront to her authority.
“Dad,” I greet him. “How are you feeling today?”
“I’m fine,” he grunts. “Getting sick of sitting here on my ass doing nothing. I should be at the office. This is for the birds.”
“Hans says you might be able to go in for a couple of hours next week, just to give it a try. But Dad, you don’t want to tire yourself out.”
“Doing nothing is tiring me out.” But he lies back against the pillows, closing his eyes. Part of me thinks he needs to complain about not working, to show me and himself he’s not that sick.
“I just talked to Mom,” I say tentatively. “She said to say hello.”
Dad’s eyes fly open. “She did?” We never discuss her. I know he hasn’t talked to her since she moved away.
I nod. “She says she hopes you’re well.”
Something in his face sags. “Your mother was a good woman. She wouldn’t be off in Europe shopping right now.” He pauses. “I should have done better by her.”
I don’t reply, because he’s right. He should have. He definitely chose the wrong wife.
“Do you think,” Dad continues, subdued, “she’d talk to me sometime, if you called her back?”
Something in the regretful tone of this man, who knows he’s dying, rips at my heart. I swallow to keep my voice steady. “I don’t know. Probably.”
We chat for a little longer, and then Dad drifts off. I leave him to sleep.
Back out in the front hallway, I swipe at the tears that are threatening to spill down my cheeks. I’m almost unbearably grateful that I’m here for my father. No one should be alone when they’re sick.
I’m going to stay in Ironwood, I realize. At least until Dad passes.
After that, who knows?
The melancholy I feel after talking to my dad has made me feel antsy. I decide to go for a run. I go upstairs to change, and as I’m leaving I cross paths with Hans. I tell him where I’m going, and that I should be back in an hour or so.
Shoving my ear buds in my ears, I punch in a playlist and head out the door into the warm day. I’m determined to leave everything behind for a little while and just be in the moment.
Running through residential streets in the nicest neighborhood in Ironwood, there isn’t much traffic this time of day. I don’t notice the car behind me at first. I have the volume turned up and I’m happily running in rhythm to “Shut up and Dance” by Walk the Moon. It’s not until the car pulls up alongside me and slows that I see it. I’m so startled I almost stumble, but I recover my rhythm and move closer to the edge of the road to let it pass.
It pulls ahead of me — West Virginia plates, I note — and then the brake lights come on.
The men are out of the car before I realize what’s happening. I skid to a stop, a scream in my throat, and pivot to start racing in the other direction — and that’s when I see the gun.
One of the men grabs me and pulls me toward the vehicle. My music is still blaring in my ears, an insane soundtrack to the nightmare unfolding. The earbuds are yanked from my ears, and the music is replaced by a scream that I realize is mine. A split-second later, a punch to my kidney cuts it off. As I gasp at the sudden, sharp pain, a hand goes around my mouth, I’m shoved inside the trunk of the car.
The world goes black.
26
ROGUE
“Where we going?” Thorpe asks as I turn off onto a side road. “This ain’t the way to the bar.”
“Got a pit stop to make.” I look in the back at Dante and Mal. “You guys good with stopping for a bit out here?”
“Sure,” Dante says. “We got time.”
You’d think Thorpe might have been immediately suspicious that we invited him out to watch a game at a sports bar, seeing as how none of my other MC brothers have ever hung out with him before. But you’d be wrong about that.
