AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After my long shift at Merry Field Medical Center, I couldn’t wait to get home, pour myself a glass of wine, and take a hot bath. I checked my phone one more time before I turned onto the highway. Cam still hadn’t responded to my text message three hours ago.
Sorry, sweetie. Working overtime. Will be home late. Feel free to order pizza for dinner.
After moving out here two months ago, I wondered if it had been the right idea. Reno had been too busy at the hospital which meant I was rarely home. A smaller, quieter town like Merry Field was supposed to give Cam and I more time together. In two years, she would be eighteen with a decent selection of colleges to choose from. What would I do in that big house all by myself while my little girl braved the world on her own?
I shoved that thought down. I’d worry about that another time.
Pulling into my driveway, I put my van in park with a tired sigh and trudged up to the house. I got the battered old farmhouse for a song. The yard was overgrown and a wayward wild rose had made its way up the western side, flower heads bobbing outside my window in a pretty pale pink color. It was too much space for just the two of us, but after living in a cramped apartment for years, it would be good to have some room to spread out.
As soon as I stepped inside, tossing my keys in the bowl on the table by the door, I knew something wasn’t right. It simply felt…off.
“Cam?” I called.
Silence.
Concern nagged at the back of my mind. Cam had joined a softball league last month and she occasionally spent time with a few of the girls on her team. None of them were close friends as far as I could tell, but I was grateful she had other kids her age to hang out with.
She would have told me that though. The fact that my phone remained silent only made my worry grow.
“Camila, I’m home,” I said, stern this time. “Please answer me.”
A quick check of the house showed no sign of my daughter. There wasn’t even a pizza box in the trash which meant she probably hadn’t eaten yet. I made my way to the garage, hoping and praying Cam had left her bicycle here. That would mean a member of her team probably picked her up for a movie or a sleepover at the last minute and she got caught up in the moment, forgetting to contact me.
But her bicycle was gone, too. And the box that usually sat on the top shelf of the garage, with ABBY scrawled in bold black marker ink, was on the floor. I kept everything from high school in that box—yearbooks, old diaries, my favorite faded Coca-Cola shirt that I always hoped I would manage to fit into again after Cam was born, graduation photos…
My blood ran cold. Then my heart lurched and I darted back into the house, grabbing my keys. I should have known this would happen. Cam had been asking dozens of questions about her father lately. Despite my best efforts to shut down the conversation, she kept digging and digging for more information.
Cam must have gone looking for him.
I had no idea where Joel McDowell was these days and I made it a point to maintain that ignorance. There was a reason I’d walked out and never looked back after that one-night-stand sixteen years ago. And when I found out I was pregnant with his child? No. I knew I couldn’t let that man be in our lives.
Peeling out of the driveway with my heart racing, I headed to the bus station. I held no hope that I could catch Cam. She’d probably been gone for hours by now. But I might be able to find out where she went and track her down that way.
When I reached the bus station, no one recognized Cam despite the myriad of times I shoved my phone in their face with her picture. Empty-handed, I considered alternatives. She was too young to rent a car. The nearest train station was two towns away—well over seventy-five miles—and it would take too long to get there on her bike. What if she hitchhiked somewhere? God, I really hope she was smarter than that…
My mind flew through possibilities. Had she fallen in with the wrong crowd of kids around here? Did she run away from home? Why hadn’t I thought to check her room to see if she’d packed any clothes?
The pit in my stomach grew sour with worry. Maybe she was visiting neighbors. Or babysitting. Or walking dogs. She did odd jobs like that now and then. But if that was the case, why wasn’t she answering her phone?
Returning to my car, I decided to start over with a clear head. Go back home. Talk to the neighbors. Someone might have seen Cam earlier and knew where she went.
Taking a bracing breath, I clutched the steering wheel to steady myself. Everything would be fine. Cam was sixteen years old. She’d always had an independent streak a mile wide.
A flash of familiar purple plaid caught my attention. I slammed on the brakes so hard that the car behind me swerved to avoid a collision, blasting their horn as they blew past me.
There was Cam in her signature purple plaid shirt with her battered black sneakers and ripped jeans. She stood in the parking lot of a brick building that looked like a biker bar. A neon sign read ALPHA RIDERS MC with the pale outline of a wolf’s head thrown back mid-howl.
Next to her was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a sparkling red paint job. It was an older model—not quite vintage, but far from new—and I would recognize it anywhere.
In front of Cam stood a man I had buried in my past years ago. Joel wasn’t the same rangy twenty-one year old I used to know. His hair was still short, but his shoulders had filled out. Tattoo ink scrolled down his forearm, peeking from underneath his rolled-up sleeve. I could have sworn there was a hint of silver hair beginning at his temples but at this distance, I wasn’t sure. And there was no way I would get closer for a better look.
He said something to Cam as he tugged at a grease-stained rag in his hands.
There are lines around his mouth that weren’t there before,I thought. A lot can change in a person after sixteen years.
Cam jerked her thumb over her shoulder and when she half-turned, she did a double-take. She must have spotted me, stopped dead in the middle of the road as cars streamed around me. She gulped and I could see the moment when she faltered, realizing she’d been caught.
Joel followed her gaze and his solemn gray eyes met mine. I wanted to run. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. A long-forgotten ache settled between my thighs and my chest hurt.
