AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She clicked off.
He immediately called her back.
She didn’t answer.
He tried again.
This time he was certain the call didn’t go through. Lucy had turned off her damned phone.
Cascade Mountains, Oregon
Now
“I hate you!”
Renee’s harsh words echoed through the old cabin and cut deep into Lucy’s soul. They were uttered in anger and frustration, she knew, but they hurt nonetheless.
“You’re just mad.”
“No. I really hate you.” And to prove her point, Renee upended the little table, scattering the Uno cards from their last game and sending Lucy’s half-drunk cup of coffee sailing across the room, to shatter against the floor.
“Stop it. Ren—Grace, don’t!”
“It’s stupid that we’re up here! I want to be with Daddy.”
I do, too. That thought surprised Lucy. Gave her pause. She did miss Ian. And not just because of Ray Watkins; no, that just put an edge on the need, to the thought that she’d been rash when she’d divorced him. But this was not the time to second-guess herself.
Once they were through this current nightmare . . .
But will you ever be?
Yes, yes, of course. She would make certain. “Come on, help me clean this up,” she said, and Renee, still petulant and sending her dirty looks, picked up the cards while Lucy righted the table, gathered the big pieces of the destroyed cup, and wiped up the coffee that probably would stain the area rug. So she could add property damage to trespassing, breaking and entering, and whatever other crimes she’d committed.
Get it together!
She held on to the rapidly disintegrating rags of her patience. “Look, I know you miss Daddy, and I promise, we’ll go home soon.”
Renee still gave her the cold shoulder and cuddled with Merlin instead.
San Francisco, California
Now
Zhou was wearing yoga pants, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail when Ian met her at the office. “This better be important,” she said. She settled into her desk chair and started switching on computer screens. “I was on my way to a very important spin class.”
“I need to find my wi . . . Lucy.”
“You have any clues, or is this a needle-in-a-haystack kind of deal?” she asked, fingers already flying over the keyboard.
He handed her his phone. “This is the number of the phone that called me. Probably a burner.”
“Got it.” She entered the number in her computer. “Any clue to where she is?”
“Just that she’s in the ‘mountains’ of Oregon.”
“That narrows it down,” Zhou said sarcastically.
“She’s in a cabin.”
