Page 52 of Property of Stone (Kings of Anarchy MC: Pennsylvania #1)

“No, not yet. I’ve been too busy building my online business. You suggested I stay for a few more months and I figured it would help you out when it came to Sunny. Speaking of, have you looked for someone else to take my place when it comes to her?”

“Like you, been too busy.”

The man didn’t have any official employment. He occasionally was busy with a “job.” He had plenty of time to start putting out feelers.

It was weird that he hadn’t.

“Do you need help with that?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I only have a few more months here.” Staying longer would help her financially settle elsewhere. It might help her with a down payment on another home since it turned out she had zero equity from the sale of the house last month. She was just glad to have that monkey off her back.

“Stay as long as you need, babe. Know that you bein’ here benefits you as well as me. Ain’t kickin’ your ass to the curb.”

“I’m both relieved but also worried that I haven’t heard from Vic at all. Not even to argue over getting Wren for visitation.”

“Maybe it was never ‘bout the kid in the first place and more ‘bout the scratch.”

Of course it was and that made her heart hurt for Wren. Her son still loved his father, despite what he’d witnessed. “My concern is he’s quietly planning something with his lawyer.”

“He ain’t gonna get custody. Not with what he did to you.”

She wished that were true. But the justice system wasn’t always just. “I don’t know. With the right lawyer… ”

“Judge’ll see it differently.”

She chewed on her bottom lip as she considered his words. “I hope so.”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford another legal battle. It would wipe out the little bit of savings she had accumulated.

She didn’t mind staying longer, especially now that the kids were getting along a lot better, but she was afraid she might continue down a slippery slope of wanting a different kind of arrangement with Stone.

One that didn’t have anything to do with financial stability or with her safety.

It was finally her turn in line. If Stone couldn’t pick the kids up from school, then Taryn paused whatever she was working on to do so since the school wasn’t far from The Castle.

After putting her Honda in Park, she watched a herd of children race out the front doors and either head toward the school buses or toward a vehicle waiting in line to pick them up.

She scanned the flow of kids.

Sunny was usually impatiently waiting out at the curb when Taryn got there. Stone’s daughter couldn’t wait to get outside to use her cell phone while she waited. Going without her cell phone all day had to be torture.

Taryn snorted softly. If she had acted like that at ten, she’d have that phone permanently welded to her fingers by sixteen.

She still wasn’t thrilled that Sunny had a cell phone at her age, but when it came down to it, it really wasn’t her place to say much about it. That was between Stone and Sheena.

If she had to guess, Taryn doubted Sheena gave a shit. She was probably glad the phone kept Sunny occupied and out of her hair.

A book would do the same.

Her heart swelled as she saw Wren squeeze between two fellow students, then run to where Taryn was parked.

When he reached the Honda, he jerked open the back door, slipped his backpack from his shoulders, and flung it inside before climbing into his booster seat.

“Hey, kiddo! How was your day at school?” Taryn watched him over her shoulder to make sure he buckled up.

“It was really, really, really good!” he spouted loudly as he strapped himself in.

“Wow. What made it really, really, really good?”

“Someone came from the Hershey Zoo and brought a bunch of snakes! I got to hold one!”

Yuck. “You did? How exciting! Do you mean ZooAmerica in Hershey?” She had taken him there while at Hershey Park last summer.

“Yes. I want a snake, Mommy. And I wanna go to the zoo again.”

He would not be getting a snake while they shared the same roof. “Okay, I’ll take you and Sunny soon. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it, too. Speaking of…where is she? She’s not out here waiting like she normally is.”

Wren shrugged. “Dunno.”

She glanced back toward the school, ignoring the honks and nasty looks from the other parents picking up their children. Taryn didn’t care. She wasn’t moving until both kids were in the car.

Five minutes later with still no sign of her, Taryn texted Sunny, asking where she was. Her heart began to pound when she didn’t get an immediate answer.

But that also didn’t surprise Taryn. While Stone’s daughter was slowly softening around the edges when it came to her and Wren, she still had plenty of bristly moments.

Today could be one of them. Or it could simply be that her battery died.

With a sigh, she reluctantly moved out of the pickup line and parked where she could still see the school’s doors.

After another five minutes and no sign of her, the fine hairs on the back of Taryn’s neck began to stand.

Something had to be wrong.

Either that or Stone forgot to tell her that his daughter was being picked up by someone else for whatever reason.

Or she could be stuck in detention. At ten. Because why not follow in her father’s footsteps and get started early with being detained for acting out?

She rolled her eyes at her own ridiculous doom and gloom.

She should get out, head into the school, and speak to the staff. Someone had to know where she was.

But before she went in there looking like a clueless idiot, she texted Stone. Maybe Sunny had contacted her father and he forgot to pass on the info to Taryn.

Do you know where Sunny is?

School , came his answer. Apparently, he didn’t have a clue either.

“Shit,” she whispered and quickly texted back: I’m at the school. She never came out.

She glanced in the rearview mirror to see Wren’s nose already tucked in a comic book. “Did you see Sunny at all today? In the hallways? At lunch? ”

He didn’t even bother to look up. “Last time I saw her was when Stone dropped us off.”

Her heart began thumping in her throat and her stomach churned.

Sunny always came out on time, even if Taryn was picking her up, because she hated school. She didn’t want to spend more time there than she had to.

Ghost-like fingers walked down her spine.

She didn’t like this. Something was off.

Would someone from the Kings pick her up without telling her father?

Before she rushed into the school and looked like a paranoid fool, she called Stone.

The first thing in her ear was, “You find her?”

“No. I’m still waiting out in front of the school. Wren said he hasn’t seen her since you dropped them off this morning.”

“Fuck,” he grumbled. “No idea what got up her ass to pull this shit.”

“Can you try calling her? She might answer for you. Maybe today was a hate Taryn day.”

“Already tried. Only got her voicemail. Left her a message to call me ASAP. Told her if she don’t, her phone’s gonna be confiscated again. That usually gets her to respond fast.”

“Did Sheena get out?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Think she’d run away?”

“She only knows how to run her mouth. She ain’t runnin’ anywhere. Her bitchin’ is all for show since she knows she got it good with me. With us.”

With us.

Like Taryn was a permanent fixture in their life.

“What do you want me to do? I can go into the school and ask around.”

“Yeah, do that. Lemme know if you find out anythin’. Gonna head home to check for her there. Wouldn’t put it past my damn nut nugget to thumb it home.”

The thought of a ten-year-old girl hitchhiking scared the crap out of Taryn. As it should. “Okay, you do the same if you find her or hear from her.”