Page 24 of Playing With Forever (Hollow Point #4)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

My eyes were blurry, and my head was going to explode if I had to read one more grant proposal, email, or incident report.

I’d have approximately fifteen minutes to introduce Lindy around to the staff and volunteers before I had to be back at my desk for a video meeting that lasted nearly an hour longer than it should have.

This meant I’d only had five minutes to poke my head into the art room and watch Lindy with her budding artists—six eight-year-old girls, one seven-year-old boy, and a ten-year-old girl—before I had a volunteer meeting I needed to attend.

During my next thirteen minute break between meetings, I was needed in the gym because someone had drawn an astonishingly true-to-life penis in the boys' locker room. Whomever the artist was, they needed to be in Lindy’s class. Though, not to draw more penises.

More meetings.

More emails to answer.

More. More. More.

I couldn’t remember a day that had been so draining. I was counting down the hours until I could go home.

And speaking of…

“Wow. That was a lot,” Lindy declared, practically falling into the chair in front of my desk.

“Kids will take it out of you.”

“You got that right. Phew.” She mocked wiped sweat off her brow.

“Are you sure you’re up for two days a week?”

“Oh yeah. For sure. It was a lot of work but fun. Though, I did axe the idea of taking them outside to paint the clouds. There’s no way I wouldn’t lose one of them without adult supervision.”

I smiled but didn’t remind her she was the adult supervision.

My desk phone rang. I couldn’t suppress my groan as I stared at the device like it had personally offended me.

“Phones are the devil,” I murmured.

“Would you like me to answer it and take a message?”

My sweet Lindy.

“No, it’ll go to voicemail.” I waited for the ringing to stop, then asked, “Other than being exhausted, did everything go okay?”

“Yes. I loved it. They’re messy little buggers, but we had fun. And the staff here is great. Anita showed me around, and Phil showed me where all the art supplies are and told me to give him a list of anything else I needed, and he’d add it to the order sheet and budget.”

Crap.

Budget.

One more thing I had to do today.

“Phil or Abigail work together on the order sheets, so if you can’t find Phil, look for Abi.”

“She’s the tall brunette wearing the white t-shirt, right?”

“Correct. She’s been here a long time. If you need help with anything, she’s another good resource.”

Ringing once again came from the Satan’s contraption on my desk.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m over dealing with people today,” I complained.

“I’ll let you get back to work. Dad’s picking you up, so I’ll go to the store so you don’t have to stop on your way home. Anything special for dinner?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

“As long as I don’t have to cook it, I’ll eat it,” I groaned.

“I’ll handle dinner tonight,” she said with a firm nod.

“God, I love you.”

Lindy froze.

I froze.

And we stared at each other, suspended in a moment that should’ve happened at home, not when I was crazy busy and she was covered in paint.

I remained frozen when Lindy smiled.

“Love you, too, Mamalious. See you at home.” With a wave, she sauntered out of my office like she’d told me she loved me every day since the day she could form words and she hadn’t just rocked. My. World.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to feel the fullness of the beauty Lindy gave me before my phone rang again, informing me that the sink in the bathroom near the main had flooded.

After that, I got a call from a parent informing me her child—who was at the center yesterday—had tested positive for strep—which necessitated a center-wide email.

One thing after another.

The only good part of how busy my day was that before I knew it, Anita was knocking on my doorjamb to tell me the center was empty and it was time to go home.

The bad part was I’d lost track of time, so I hadn’t texted Evan I was almost done.

Crap.

“Did Phil—” I stopped and shook my head. “I forgot he left early.”

“If you were going to ask if Phil took out the trash, I did it. All the doors are locked except the front.”

“Perfect. Thank you so much, Anita.”

“No problem. Would you like me to wait and walk out with you?”

“No, please go home. Evan’s coming to get me, so I won’t be walking out alone.”

I picked up my phone off my desk and opened my text thread.

“Are you sure? I can wait.”

“We live fifteen minutes away, and this time of night there’ll be no traffic.” I waved off her concern. “Plus, I have plenty of emails to keep me occupied until Evan gets here.”

I finished my text and set my phone back down on my desk.

“If you’re sure, I’m going. There’s a bubble bath calling my name.”

God, that sounded wonderful.

“It certainly has been one of those days.”

My phone chimed with a text from Evan.

I tapped my screen and sighed in relief.

“He’s on his way.”

I followed Anita down the hall when my phone ringing echoed through reception.

“Go. Answer the call.”

“I’ll watch you get to your car.”

Anita pointed to the brightly lit parking lot. “Phil’s got more cameras out there than a bank. And I’m right there in the first spot. Go answer your phone.”

Anita walked through the doors, and I waited until she was safely in her car, then I rushed back into my office. By the time I made it back, the phone had stopped ringing, but the voicemail was from another parent reporting another case of strep.

I needed a vacation.

A new text alert caught my attention.

Evan: There’s an accident. Taking the long way. See you in 20.

Of. Course. There. Was. An. Accident.

I barely contained my desire to bang my head on my desk.

I don’t know how long I’d been lost in my emails when I heard footsteps.

Thank God.

I was so ready to go home.

“In my office, honey,” I yelled.

I sent the email I’d finished and was closing down my computer when it dawned on me Evan hadn’t come back to my office. I grabbed my phone and my purse and went in search of my man.

It was time to go home, eat Lindy’s food, and relax in front of mindless TV, or alternately go straight to bed.

For a day that started out phenomenal—not that every morning didn’t start out phenomenal now that I woke up next to Evan—this one certainly turned to crap.

I made my way into the lobby, but no one was there.

“Evan?” I yelled.

No answer, but someone was definitely in the bathroom.

A few more seconds went by, and still no Evan.

I just wanted this day to end.

Footsteps.

Finally, I could go home.

I don’t know who was more shocked—me or Tyler Havarth.

“Tyler, sweetheart, you’re not allowed in the center after hours.”

His eyes went round with a fear I’d never seen come from him. Tyler was tall for his age, popular—or he had been. He exuded self-confidence.

But that was before his big brother was shot.

Correction: before his big brother was gunned down picking him up from a place he should not have been.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he told me. “Your car’s not here.”

“Tyler, I run the center. Why shouldn’t I be here?”

“No.” So much panic drenched that one word. “You need to…”

Tyler’s gaze swung to the doors, mine did as well, but instead of Evan, a man I’d never seen before came strolling in like he owned the place.

“Thought you said no one was here,” the man snarled.

If Tyler was here to rob the center, there wasn’t much he could take beyond the computers.

“She’s not supposed to be here, Dad.”

Dad?

Oh, fuck .

This was Saul Trapp.

“I don’t know why either of you are here, but there’s nothing?—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Saul snapped at me, then to Tyler. “Did you find it?”

“No. It’s not there.”

Stay calm, Evan’s on his way.

“Where is it?”

It took me a moment to realize Saul was addressing me. “Where’s what?”

“The fucking backpack.”

On any given day, I saw dozens of backpacks.

“What backpack?”

“Fucking shit, keep up, bitch, Tyler’s backpack.”

I could wrap my head around why Tyler would come back to the center for a missing backpack.

“Did you lose your backpack? The lost and found?—”

“He didn’t lose it. He stashed it. Where the fuck is it?”

Stashed.

You didn’t stash a backpack full of books.

You stashed a backpack full of drugs.

“I haven’t seen your backpack. Where’d you put it?”

“Under the sink in the bathroom.”

Well, that was an incredibly reckless place to stash anything.

“No one uses that bathroom, and the cabinet in there is empty,” Tyler rushed on to explain his teenage idiocy.

“That bathroom flooded?—”

Saul moved so quickly I didn’t have a chance to react, but I did have the chance to feel, and what I felt was excruciating pain ricochet around in my head.

I wasn’t sure exactly where Saul’s fist had made contact since my face throbbed from temple to jaw.

But it was indisputable he’d packed one hell of a punch.

I vaguely heard my phone clatter on the tile floor and the thump my purse made.

“Where the fuck did you put the backpack?” Saul shouted in my face.

“I haven’t seen?—”

The next blow was to my stomach, but this one felt different—white-hot searing agony stole my breath.

“Don’t, Dad. We’ll find it,” Tyler pleaded.

“One last time, bitch, where the fuck is my kid’s bag?”

I would’ve given him the same answer as I’d already given if I could’ve caught my breath enough to speak. But as it was, my lungs weren’t cooperating, and I could feel something wet dripping down my stomach.

Saul shook me and yelled again. “Last chance.”

“I…don’t…” I wheezed but got no further.

Saul made contact again, and a stab of agony punched through me, but weirdly it didn’t hurt as badly as the first.

“What the fuck!” Three furious words thundered through the building.

Evan.

Thank God.

“Drop your knife and step away from Miss Lark.”

Miss Lark?

I blinked and squinted, trying to focus on Evan, but my head was fuzzy and getting fuzzier by the moment.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the dumbfuck Sanders,” Saul retorted. “How ya been, pig?”

If my stomach didn’t feel like I’d just had my gallbladder removed without anesthesia or pain meds, I would’ve had a lot to say about this asshole calling Evan a pig.

“Put down your knife. And step the fuck away from Miss Lark,” Evan demanded in a deadly tone.

Saul didn’t let me go he swung my body around like a ragdoll, and in my pain-filled state, I was helpless to stop him. My vision was dotted with bright flashes, and each breath was more painful than the last.

Not even Saul’s body behind mine, or the press of metal against my throat, had my arms cooperating.

“Dad, let Josie go. I’ll find the bag. Promise.” I knew that was Tyler, but he sounded far away.

“You don’t want this to happen in front of your son.”

“Who, the idiot kid who lost twenty grand of product? He needs to toughen the fuck up. Leave, and when I find my product, I’ll Miss Lark right here for you to find.”

I tried to mouth ‘I love you’ to Evan, but I don’t know if my lips moved. I squinted harder, trying to focus. I knew Evan was in front of me, but he was nothing more than a blurry blob.

“Last warning, Saul.”

“Dad, please.”

“You’re not going to fuck shoot me. Think of all the paperwork.”

Suddenly, my head was too heavy to hold up, and I felt my knees buckle, then more pain.

So much pain.

“Look away, Ty!”

The words echoed from the darkness.

The fall into oblivion was pain-free.

Relief.

Now I could go home.