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“They’re eleven now.” I respond and move back to the table to take a seat.
Gabe sets a cup of coffee in front of me before sitting down himself.
I watch him out of the corner of my eye as he adds a ton of sugar to his own cup, hiding my smile as I take a sip of my own.
He still looks the same for the most part. A little older, more muscle and apparently a shit load of tattoos.
“Do the cops back in Chicago have any leads on the shooter?” He asks, bringing my eyes back to his own and I hope like hell he didn’t notice me ogling him.
“None that I’m aware of. Last time I spoke with the detective, he said they had nothing.”
“What about the young woman the guy took from the store?” He almost growls and my brows shoot up at the sound.
“Nothing at all. There were no ransom notes, no body. It’s like she disappeared into thin air.” I shrug, folding my arms across my chest.
“Guess, I’m just not understanding. If the guy was robbing the store, why would he take the girl?”
“I wondered about that too until I started paying more attention to the newspaper.” All of my old thoughts start to reemerge. Part of the reason I wanted to get my girls out of Chicago.
“What do you mean?” He asks.
“Almost every week there was a girl missing. Sure, there were a few that were real runaways or mischievous youth but there were quite a few every month that just vanished for no reason anyone could think of. It was odd. At least I thought it was. The detective thought I was nuts when I mentioned it to him.”
“He was a fucking idiot because even I think it’s fucked up. It’s a valid point and I’m surprised no one is looking at it from that angle.”
To hear him say he thinks the same as I do about it makes me feel better. Even my mom kept telling me I was just looking for things instead of letting the law handle Hank’s murder case.
“You going to tell me what you’re doing in Montana or at least how you ended up here?” I ask in a rush, truly curious about what he’s been up to since he disappeared from our life.
“I’m guessing since you didn’t call to let me know what happened, that Hank didn’t tell you we’ve spoken a few times over the last 12 years.” He raises a brow at the surprise on my face.
“No. I didn’t know that.” All kinds of questions run through my mind as to why he wouldn’t tell me but deep down, I already know why he didn’t. “Your number wasn’t in his phone. I looked.” I say quickly.
“It’s okay. I know he was still pissed at me for leaving the way I did but he called me about once a year. Usually on my birthday.” He laughs. “One time, he was picking the girls up from school because they had gotten into trouble for something.”
Covering my face, I groan into my hands. “There’s no telling which time that was. Those two are always in trouble.”
“So, what made you choose to move to White Summer?” He asks.
“We threw darts.” I laugh at the look on his face.
“Come again?”
“The girls and I threw darts at a map. The first three all landed in Montana and then I took one more dart to throw. It landed on White Summer.” I shrug. “Now we’re here. That’s something else that feels odd.”
“What’s that?”
“Us three picking this place by chance and you being here all along. Almost like fate.” I look at him as I say the last part and he just stares back at me until he finally stands up from the chair.
“I need to get going. I’m supposed to meet someone over at the dude ranch to fix the security cameras.”
“So you did get a job doing what you love.” I smile, truly proud of him.
“Yeah, I did. I do a lot of freelance work for other businesses across the state. All private sector type shit but I love it.” He smiles back, putting on a jacket with an odd emblem on the back as well as Snake on the front.
“Are you part of a motorcycle group now?” I ask, remembering the bike out front the girls thought was the coolest looking thing in the world.
“It’s called a club and yes. The Wolfsbane MC. They are all really great guys. The club is who owns this cabin as well as most of the ones you see coming up this road.”
