Page 16 of Silver Sanctuary (The Silver Springs #3)

Ten

“ W hat’s got you so down today? You did a great job with the crew on the range. I’d think you’d be floating on cloud nine.” Stone slapped Nash’s shoulder as he sat in the chair beside him in the simulator control room.

“Yeah. That was fun. You see Hawk nearly shit a brick when I shot three straight through the center and he missed his second and third?”

Stone laughed. “Yeah, don’t think I’ve seen him that shaken in a while. He said he’s staying late tonight to practice.”

Gage turned in his chair. “How the fuck did you come up into this control room and mope around for the last hour and not tell me that story? Are you okay?”

Nash huffed out a laugh. “I’m fine. You know I’m not normally here on Mondays. But I get why, with the Rangers coming in this week and SAR being here next week, I need to be here too.”

“But?” Gage poked.

“I normally see Lacy today—at lunchtime. Mondays are when I go in to buy flowers for the office and I get to see her for a bit.”

Both men were silent.

“Well, shit. I wouldn’t have put my money on it being you, Wings. But congratulations!” Gage was now smiling ear to ear.

“Sorry, what am I missing?”

“I thought it would be Stone, for sure. I mean, we all know Mae is a ticking time bomb for getting him to commit. I thought for sure he’d be the next one to fall.” Gage chuckled.

“Mae is riding me hard?—”

“Don’t tell her brother that.” Nash snorted.

“For fuck’s sake,” Stone groaned, running his hand down his face. “This isn’t about me. Nothing is changing between me and Mae. I’ve got too much to figure out about going back to school and what it means for me here. She and I have talked it to death.”

Gage met Nash’s eyes. “Sorry, Doc.”

“It is what it is.”

“So.” Gage cracked a smile. “Things are getting serious between you and Lacy?”

“She’s a single mom. I think she’s scared to let me in, but I made it clear after the whole window-shattering situation that I will step up for her—that I want to.

I don’t know… is it weird that, from the moment we met, all this”—he pointed around the control room—“just doesn’t seem like the most important thing in the world anymore? ”

“Nah.” Stone crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “It sounds exactly right for someone who finally found their person.”

For fuck’s sake, his eyes were going cross reading over the report.

Nash groaned as let the paperwork rest on his lap.

That scenario had been a flop. The team needed at least two more weeks at the training facility before their leadership should even think about letting them work in the field, but Nash knew that, somehow, they needed to get every one of those guys up to their department’s standards within the next four days.

It wasn’t going to be easy, it wasn’t going to be pretty, but they’d get it done.

A number he didn’t recognize flashed across his screen. Lord. Telemarketers were getting desperate if they were trying to call him at almost midnight. He declined the call and set his phone back on the cushion next to him.

But when the call came through again just a few seconds later, something about its persistence made his stomach churn with unease.

“Hello?” Damn, his voice sounded harsh even to himself.

“Nash?”

Fuck.

Embrie’s voice shook as it came across the line. He sat up on the edge of the sofa, reaching for the remote to turn down the volume on the television. There was no missing the fact that she was upset and it instantly put Nash on edge.

“Hey, Cheese. What’s going on? You okay?”

“My teacher said if there was ever an emergency, I should find an adult I trust, and Mom only smiles when she’s around you, even though she told me not to bother you about stuff, but I knew ? —”

The sick, sinking feeling poured over him again. His left leg began bouncing as he fought the urge to run down to his truck and drive to them.

“Embrie, I’m so happy you called me. I am absolutely someone you can trust. But you have to tell me what’s wrong so I can help, okay? ”

“Um, I was wondering if you’ve seen my mom today?” He could hear the tears in her small, soft voice.

“What do you mean?” He was supposed to be there—it was Monday.

He always went into the shop on Monday for flowers.

But he wasn’t there. The unanswered messages he’d sent to Lacy when he got home from work flashed as a warning inside his mind and something in his stomach turned sour as Brie continued to talk.

“Um, well, she’s been working at night at that restaurant in town. I think she doesn’t want to take me there because it makes her sad whenever she walks by it.”

Working at a restaurant that makes her sad? “Dolly’s, sweetheart?”

“ No. Mama and I love Ms. Dolly. She works there on the weekends.”

For fuck’s sake. How many fucking jobs does she have?

“Davney’s?”

“ Yeah, that’s what it’s called. I knew I had to ride the bus after school, but she was supposed to be home to let my sitter go like two hours ago, and Ms. Sandra is nice and all, but she gets a little mean when she's tired, and she’s getting tired.”

“Embrie, are you saying your mom never came home tonight?” Nash stood, grabbing his keys and wallet off the counter on his way to the door.

A sniffle from the other side of the line broke his heart. “She hasn’t. Ms. Sandra is saying mean things about her, but they aren’t true. She wouldn’t leave me. I snuck Ms. Sandra’s phone into the bathroom. I know I shouldn’t have, but Mama has your number on the fridge and I knew you would help.”

“Okay. I’m going to check the shop, and the restaurant, and then I’m going to drive over to you. If she’s not back by the time I get over there, I’ll take over for Ms. Sandra and we’ll figure out what the next step is, okay?”

“O- okay.”

“Embrie?

“Yeah?”

“I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks, Nash.”

He was out the door and down to his truck faster than he thought possible. With his cell phone to his ear, Nash hopped into the driver’s seat and peeled out of the parking lot.

“Lace, it’s Nash,” he barked into her voicemail. “Embrie called me worried because you haven’t made it home. If you get this, will you call me back, please?”

It took all of five minutes to drive to the flower shop where she very clearly wasn’t, before making it over to Davney’s.

The place would be open for another hour or two, but was already looking like most of the regular crowd had cleared out.

Nash parked his truck as close to the front door as he could, and made his way in.

“Hey, man, what’s got you out so late?” Rudy nodded from the host podium as Nash walked inside.

“Does Lacy Graves work here?”

His face instantly changed. “Yeah. Should have known giving her a chance would let me down.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have her on easy stuff—trash, washing dishes. The other lady I have, Clarissa… she’s been having some back problems and needed time off.

Lacy’s been filling in for her. But of course, that good for nothing bitch didn’t even show up for her shift tonight.

Had to tell Clarissa to get her ass down here or she’d be fired too. ”

Nash moved on instinct alone, burying both hands in Rudy’s shirt before slamming him back into the wall.

“Don’t you ever fucking talk about Lacy like that again.”

Rudy’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, man. Didn’t realize she was anything to you. ”

Nash pushed him one last time and set the asshole back down on his feet.

“Although, I would expect you to be taking better care of her. Overheard her the other day saying she hasn’t had hot water in a while—was picking up hours at Dolly’s too to try and get it fixed.”

What. The. Fuck. He was going to find Lacy and put her over his knee for being so goddamn stubborn about asking for some damn help.

“You didn’t hear from her at all today?” Nash asked, hating that the pit in his stomach was going to be right. Lacy was missing.

“Like I said, she didn’t fucking show up.

If you find her, which I’m sure you will cause you got that protective bulldog-in-love bullshit going on, make sure you tell her she’s done working here.

I was trying to help out of the goodness of my heart, but I don’t have room for people who want to take advantage of that. ”

“Yeah, you’re a real fucking saint, Rudy. I got it.”

Nash stalked back out to his truck, furious at himself for not seeing how bad things really were for Lacy.

It made sense now, how she always tucked away the food that he would bring her.

She hadn’t just eaten—she was saving it.

Fuck, was she saving it for Embrie? Was she not eating at all?

He remembered the way she moaned when she’d eaten the meal he made for her during their date night.

The way her shoulders relaxed when he insisted on packing up the leftovers for them to take. How could he not have seen it?

It was easy to beat himself up, to rage over all the signs he missed. It was easier than letting his worry rise to the surface. Because if she wasn’t at the flower shop, and she wasn’t at Davney’s, and she never made it home to Embrie…

Nash started flipping through his cell phone, searching for Embrie’s soccer registration. He knew it had her home address on it.

“Thank fuck,” he whispered, punching the address into his GPS. They lived just outside of town, but it would take him longer than he wanted because it was on the opposite side from where he was.

Nash turned on the last road he needed to take to get to their place when his high beams caught movement up ahead.

His foot pressed down on the breaks as he flipped his blinker on and pulled to the side of the road.

The sight of familiar chocolate brown hair captured in two braids that looked like they’d gone a round or two with a feral cat made his stomach sink.

He didn’t bother closing the door as he stepped onto the pavement.