Page 10

Hank

“What’s going on with the biker thing?” Abby leans in as the waitress delivers two cokes to the table. We ordered a few appetizers as well, though I’m not sure either of us are that hungry.

“Red and Tennessee found them in a hotel room out by the highway. No hideout, no plan, no nothing. One was on a bike, the other in a truck. No sign of the girl on either. The hotel room was clear too. They said they saw you two last night, but didn’t notice you’d left.”

“But they were talking about Duke. I know they were talking about Duke. I heard them. They sounded angry like they had a personal vendetta against him.”

“Maybe they do. A lot of bikers around here hate Duke. He’s stirred bad blood with everyone, but I don’t think these guys took Maci.”

Abby blows out a heavy breath and leans back in the booth. “You really don’t think they have her?”

“No, I don’t. The guys are pretty good at this stuff. They could find a spaded snowflake in a blizzard.”

Abby leans forward, holding her head in her hands. “So then where the hell is she? It doesn’t make sense. She couldn’t have just disappeared. People don’t just disappear.”

“No, they don’t. We’ll figure it out. Maybe she wanted a break and left town for a bit.”

She tilts her head to the side and wets her full lips. “She wouldn’t, though. The waitress said she didn’t even pay the bill. That’s not like her. People love her in this town. She writes all those good doer articles.”

A dish clanks in the kitchen and the distinct smell of apple pie wafts through the air as though someone has just taken a sky high pie out of the oven.

“She’s a grown woman, Sunny. If she wants to disappear, she can disappear for a while. Tell ya what, I’ll see if I can get Ghost to hack into her phone records. Maybe he can get a trajectory on her cell tower pings. It’ll take a couple of days, though.”

She nods and grabs a cheese stick, dipping it into the marinara before taking a bite. “Okay, sounds like the next logical step. Now we just have to figure out what to do with my brother. My psychopath of a brother.”

“ I think we need to talk about how you said you love me.” I watch her fidget with her straw as she thinks over her response.

“Yeah, I—”

“I love you too, Sunny.” I reach across the table for her hand. “I’ve loved you as long as I can remember.”

“You have?”

I nod, brushing my thumb against the back of her hand. “I think about you all the time. We can work this out.”

A tear spills down her cheek. “And what if we can’t? Duke keeps rattling on about justice. I don’t know… I think he’s lost it.”

She stares at me, takes a sip of her coke, and stands from the booth, glancing toward me as though something has clicked, something that needs to be addressed right now.

“Where are you going?”

She doesn’t answer, so I throw down some cash, and follow as she flies out the front door of the diner and into the street toward her brother’s bike still parked at the end of the road.

Fuck!

“Abby!” I shout through the small crowd of people gathered on Main Street. “Abby, stop!”

She doesn’t stop. She doesn’t even turn around. She keeps going and going until Duke catches her eye and they’re standing face to face. “You’re an asshole!”

He stands tall, flexing his bicep as he crosses his arms over one another in the early afternoon light. “I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. You say you want to help me, but you don’t. You say you love me, but you really just want to control me. You don’t care about me at all. You don’t even see me, Duke. You can’t because you’re going after the guys that ran Mom and Dad off the road, aren’t you?”

He rolls his eyes. “Jesus Christ, Abby. Get a grip. I’m busy because I’m moving the entire ranch out here.

It’s a ton of fuckin’ work. We came out here for a fresh start, and so far, no one is fuckin’ listening, and my best friend is sleeping with my baby sister who I haven’t spoken to in a year. So… shit sucks.”

Abby stares down at the sidewalk before glancing up again. I want to console her, but I know that’s only going to cause more drama. “You could communicate your thoughts, then I’d know this stuff. We could talk it out.”

“I am,” he laughs sarcastically. “Don’t fuck my best friend. That’s pretty fuckin’ clear communication.”

“Ugh!” She tugs at her hair and spins away from him. “You’re impossible!”

“No, you just have selective hearing.”

“Look, I love you, Duke. I miss what we used to be. Maybe when you come to your senses, we can—”

“I’m never going to be okay with you and my buddy.

He’s way too fuckin’ old for you. He should know better.

I meant it when I said twenty-four hours to be out of that clubhouse.

If I see you two together, there’s going to be problems.” He pauses for a moment, letting his words sink in before he climbs on his bike and kicks up the stand, leaving us both in a cloud of musty, acrid exhaust.

I pull Abby into my chest and hold her close, unsure of what to say to fix any of this, but I know what I’m doing is wrong.

I can’t hold her life hostage. She’s too young for me.

Dragging in a deep breath, I stare down at the only woman I’ve ever really loved.

“Sunny, I want to take you home and make you mine. I want to hide you away until you belong to me for good, but what the fuck am I supposed to do? Your brother isn’t wrong.

You have your whole life ahead of you and I’m in a different stage.

” Fuck. I hate saying this. “You need someone who’ll still be around for you in thirty years.

Someone who can take care of you until the day you die. ”

She shakes her head back and forth quickly, pleading in her voice as she says, “I don’t want someone else, Hank.

I want you. I don’t want some younger guy who’s going to stumble all over his words and treat me like shit because he doesn’t understand life yet.

I want you. I want your worn hands, your strong body, your knowing lips.

I want us. Maybe I misunderstood what last night was. I—”

“You didn’t misunderstand anything, Sunny. I want you. I want us.” I rub my hand over her stomach. “I want that belly filled with my babies. I want your heart next to mine every night. I want a life with you. I want it more than anything.”

She steps forward, her stare heavy on me. “Then take that life. Take me . It doesn’t matter what Duke thinks.”

I huff out a heavy breath, my hands digging into her hips as though she’ll disappear if I let go. “You don’t understand. If I let myself believe for even a second that you’re mine, I can’t go back. You’ll belong to me, and then we have a Duke problem.”

“I’m not afraid of him,” she says, her heartbeat thumping against her throat.

“You should be.”

Her fingertips draw up my chest slowly and deliberate. “I’m afraid of losing you more.” She glances down at her phone vibrating in her hand. “That’s my lunch break. I need to get back to the record shop.”

Fuck. I don’t want her to leave, not like this.

“When are you off?”

“Four.”

“Okay.” We walk back toward the record shop in silence, her tiny hand brushing against mine as we pass by shoppers and folks around town. I don’t know many people yet, but I know they’d be disgusted if they knew a man my age was in love with a twenty-five-year-old girl.

When we reach the record shop, she looks at me, her gaze soft but broken. “I’ll be okay here for the afternoon.”

“I know, and I want to stay, but I’ll be back in a bit.”

She nods and turns toward the steps inside. And though I know I have to let her get back to work, every sense inside of me screams to grip her tight and hold her safe from the world instead.

The responsible thing to do is let her go. I’ll see her again in a few hours. Whatever I’m feeling can wait, right?