Page 59 of Run For Me (Until You’re Mine Duet #1)

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Jaxon

I get back to the house later than I expect to. My favorite diner isn’t far from her house, but the line was long and they were short a cook. I let myself into the house and put the food down on the counter.

“Sailor!” I call out, smiling to myself over how normal this is.

Coming home to her with food. Waking up with her in the morning. Calling out her name, knowing she’s here waiting for me.

I never thought myself domestic, but fuck, Sailor makes me want this with her every fucking day.

“Sailor!” I call again, leaving the food on the kitchen counter to head to her room. Maybe she fell back asleep. We had a busy night. Or maybe she’s lying in bed, naked, waiting for me to enjoy her for an appetizer.

She isn’t in her room, though, so I pop my head into the bathroom. I don’t see her there either, so I check the spare room. Empty.

What the fuck.

Her car is in the driveway, so she didn’t leave that way. Did she go for a walk? Weird, but I guess it could have happened.

I pull my phone from my pocket to call her. It rings, the sound loud in my ear and echoing from her bedroom. A heavy pit forms in my stomach as I walk into the room and find the phone on the bed.

I end the call, then pull up the camera feed. I see myself in her room, and swipe to the living room camera, then use the bar to rewind. What I find has me seeing red.

Mindy standing in the living room, arms crossed, watching as some meathead carries Sailor out the door. My fingers tremble as I call Mindy, only to realize I blocked her number.

“Fuck!” I roar as I pace, working my way through my settings to unblock her and then hit dial.

“Hey, baby,” Mindy coos. Fucking coos as if she’s not about to be gutted by me.

“You stupid fucking cunt. Where is she?” I seethe.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” she says innocently. “I’m doing you a favor.”

“The only thing you did is get yourself killed.”

I end the call and storm out of the house to my car. There is no way Mindy is working alone. She isn’t that smart, nor does she have the means to do so. And that meathead looked familiar. Meaning my mother is involved.

I speed the entire way to her house, swerving into her driveway and nearly smashing into the garage. I kick through the front door and storm into the house.

“Mother!” I shout, knocking things down as I search through her house. The coat rack, lamps, books off the shelf. “Where the fuck are you?” I call out as I move through the rooms, checking each one and ready to murder.

“What is with all the shouting?” she complains from somewhere behind me.

I whirl around and barrel back into the main room, finding her at the bottom of the staircase. My hand is around her throat, shoving her against the wall before she can say a word. Despite being able to end her life at any second, she looks calm. Composed. She knows I won’t do it.

I would. I so fucking would. But I can’t until I know where Sailor is. It’s tempting though. So fucking tempting to squeeze until the life leaves her eyes. I’ve wanted to do it for years. I’ve dreamt of it.

“You’re wrong to think I won’t do it,” I growl. “I’ve cleaned up bodies before. Yours will be easy.”

Her face turns a light shade of red, but still, she shows no sign of fear. What a fucking crazy bitch.

Her hand wraps around my wrist, and she applies pressure to push me off. I growl, squeezing tighter. Her eyes flash with something, and then I let go, worried I am going to kill her. It has to wait. She has too many people in her pocket. I’ll never find Sailor without her.

“Where is she?” I ground out.

“Oh, please, Jaxon. As if she matters all that much.” She rubs at her throat casually. “You hardly know the girl.”

“This isn’t a fucking game,” I roar. “And I have no problem killing you.”

“Everything is a game, Jaxon. You should know this by now.”

“What are you getting out of this, hm?”

She gives a little shrug, smoothing down her shirt. “She’s in the way.”

“Of what?” I bark.

“You and Mindy, of course.”

“You don’t even know her. You met her like one time.”

She smiles that evil smile. “See, and that’s where you’re wrong.” She moves past me to go into the kitchen, and it takes everything in me to not shove her so she flies into the wall and breaks her nose, or better yet, her neck. It could look like an accident.

When I go after her, I find her pouring a whiskey. She takes a sip before turning toward me.

“You broke her heart. She loved you.”

“Mindy loves designer bags and her own face in the mirror—nothing more. Now, I’m running out of patience. Tell me where the fuck Sailor is.”

She holds my stare for a long time, and I know I’m not getting anything out of her.

I know it. Panic sets in because I’ve seen this before.

I know what my mother is capable of. Not only destroying lives but ending them.

She’s powerful, more so than she should be.

Maybe I was wrong about not siding with her.

Perhaps if I had, this wouldn’t have happened.

If I had just played along, pretended, Sailor wouldn’t be in danger.

But then her phone dings from in her slacks pocket.

Something shifts on her face, something that tells me all I need to know.

I lunge for her, and she moves to the side, the glass slipping from her fingers and shattering when it hits the tiled floor.

I grab her arm, yanking her against the counter.

She cries out, trying to fight me off with a smack to the face, but I hardly feel it as I go for her pocket to pull out the phone.

“Jaxon!” she shouts. “You’re making a mistake!”

“The only mistake I made was keeping you in my life,” I say, pointing a finger at her.

I hold her phone up with the other. “Now I have all I need.” I tilt my head to the side.

“Tell me, Mother, how many people would kill for this?” I hold the phone up.

“I know you’re capable of a lot, in charge of a lot, but what about the other side? What about your enemies?”

“Don’t!” she shouts as she takes a step forward, but I push her hard with a hand to her chest, and she hits the counter again, falling against it dramatically.

“Don’t fuck with me,” I growl, taking a step closer to her. She cowers. “It’s best you remember where I came from. I am your child, after all.”

She calls after me as I leave the house, but I don’t look back.

I sit in my car, staring at the cell phone as I try to figure out what the passcode could be. It’ll only allow me so many wrong codes. Do I want to attempt getting locked out?

On the screen are text messages from an unknown number, and I have no doubt it has to do with Sailor, but the view is private, so I don’t know what they say. I hate that the bitch is smart.

I’m confident that my mother is the ringleader here. I don’t know how this all came to be, but I don’t think Mindy is capable of murder. At least, not without help. But why the fuck is this happening at all? Why does my mother care who I am dating?

“Come on, come on,” I growl as I stare at the phone just as another text pops up.

Then it hits me.

I know exactly where I need to go.

Greenberg’s door is locked when I reach it, so I bang on it over and over until he pulls it open.

“Wh—”

I move in, shoving him aside and holding out the phone.

“I have no time for bullshit today. I need you to get into this phone.”

“I ca—”

“I said no time for bullshit!” I scream, moving closer to him. He cowers away, falling against the wall. “Get me into this fucking phone before I fucking murder you.”

“Okay, okay,” he says with a trembling voice. He takes the phone, then keeps his eyes on me. With a growl, I step back, giving him room.

He hurries down the stairs, and I follow after him. The place looking exactly as it did the last time I was here. Good thing there are no girls here against their will. I was worried when I passed his info onto that girl he wanted to date. No idea what came of it, and I don’t fucking care either.

He drops into his chair, closes out of the game he was playing, and pulls up a program I know nothing about.

He plugs the phone into a wire that’s connected to the computer, then presses a button in the program.

It shows cascading numbers and letters before, one at a time, they stop in the middle of the screen.

7-8-1-5-8-3

Completely random. I never would have guessed that.

Greenberg unplugs the phone and punches in the numbers on the screen, then hands it to me.

“Here,” he says, shoving it toward me.

“That’s it?” I ask.

“Yes. Take it.”

I grab the phone, looking at the home screen, shocked that it actually worked. I snap out of it and press on the text message app that has five unread messages.

Unknown: We’re here.

Unknown: What do we do now?

Unknown: Hello?

Unknown: What is going on?

Unknown: Hello??????

What is the best way to handle this? I don’t know where they are and there are no previous text messages for me to look through.

“Is there a way to get deleted texts?” I bark.

Orville gets up and takes the phone, pressing a few buttons, then hands the phone back. “There is a folder to see them. It was added in the most recent upgrade.”

I browse through the list of deleted texts, restoring all of them because I can’t take any chances. Clearly my mother wasn’t that smart. She had no idea her deleted messages would be saved. Thank fuck for that. Time is dwindling.

“Thank god she’s so fucking stupid,” I mutter when I see the address she sent to the same number these recent texts are from. “Pull this address up,” I say, shoving the phone at him.

Orville goes to his computer again and types in the address to a search bar. It loads and zooms in on a broken-down house in the middle of nowhere. I move closer to look at it over his shoulder.

“How close to a police station is this?” I ask.

He types something into the search bar. “Thirty minutes. The area isn’t very populated.”

“Where can I hide a body out there?”

His jaw drops. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” I bark.

He groans, then turns back to the computer and types in a few things and moves around on the screen.

“Here,” he says, pointing to the screen. “The bluffs. Just… toss them over, I guess.”

I grin at the screen, then pat him on the shoulder. He flinches. “Thanks, Green Bean. I owe you big time.”

I turn to leave. He calls out after me, “Repay me by not telling anyone I helped you with this!” I chuckle. “I refuse to be an accessory to murder!”

I guess I can do that.