I sighed. “Here’s the deal. We have around nine hours left to get there. We shouldn’t have stopped so early last night. We’re having a good breakfast and then we have to drive. If we stop every hour it’s going to take a week just to get there.”
I didn’t want to tell her that I had picked up a rental car for the trip just in case that did happen, and then I had to fly us back home. I was anxious to get there and get eyes on the creep who was trying to best me.
I was amongst the best of the best in my field, and I was convinced that despite his skills this guy was a grade A amateur. Just having me showing up at his front door should be enough to scare the living daylights out of him and stop the attacks on Westin Force cybersecurity.
“Okay,” Nonna said jolting me back to the conversation. “I’ll try.”
“Good. Now, while you went to bed early last night I stayed up and downloaded a few movies to your tablet that I thought you might enjoy. You have plenty of books already stored offline.” I passed her a shopping bag. “I also ran out and bought you these for an emergency.”
She peeked into the bag and sneered at the pack of Depends she found there.
“Caleb McCrea Tarron, I am not some baby and won’t be treated as one.”
“Nonna, you know I love you and only want what’s best for you. You also know that even if I gripe about it, I’d still stop at every rest stop between here and our destination, but I checked the map and those will be very few and far between on this trip, so unless you’re peeing on the side of the road, we may not find places to stop every hour.”
She snickered. “I don’t go every hour.”
“We’re only four hours from home Nonna. We stopped three times yesterday.”
She frowned. A part of me suspected she had only been doing it to drive me mad, or more likely to slow down the trip to have time alone with me. I could appreciate the latter, but today that time needed to be spent on the road to reach our destination of Womack, Idaho, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
“Fine. I’ll do better, but I’m not wearing those things. You hear me?”
“Like I said, just for an emergency.”
“I’d piss on a cactus first,” she muttered defiantly.
I chuckled and got up to go pay the bill.
“Please try to go to the bathroom before we leave. I’ll meet you in the car. No shopping.”
She scoffed but there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
Nonna had never had kids of her own and so there had never been anyone to boss her around the way I could.
To my disbelief, she obeyed and was waiting in the car when I walked out.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Yes. How far are we driving today?”
“Nine hours roughly.”
“Nine hours! That’s insane and isn’t safe,” she protested.
“It’s perfectly safe and if we’d left two hours ago as planned, we’d only have seven left.”
“I see your point. Just drive.”
The day was long, but amicable. Nonna watched two movies, read a book, and spent hours just talking with me. I stopped as often as I could for her and on two occasions that was just to stretch our legs for a minute at beautiful lookouts along the road.
We’d picked up fast food lunch and subs for dinner when I stopped for gas.
It was after ten when I finally pulled into the hotel I’d booked in Womack. The nine-hour drive had taken us almost fourteen hours, but we made it.
Nonna was fast asleep before I got out of the shower. I knew I needed to crash because morning would come much too soon. Before that though I couldn’t stop myself from checking in online. I hadn’t received a text in two days alerting me of a breech. I didn’t trust it though. He had made such progress that I couldn’t imagine any reason at all that he would just stop so suddenly. There was something disturbing about the silence.
With a thorough check I was convinced everything was tight and secured.
There were a million different thoughts going through my head, but the second it hit the pillow, I was snoring.
Susan
Chapter 8
Things had been strained in the house since Shay’s return. I had considered blowing off work the next day, but I couldn’t do that to my employees. I knew they would worry too much and that was enough to have me getting up and going in early. I had even beat Jimmy there because I simply didn’t want to be under the same roof as my mother.
I was sporting a bright red handprint across my face that makeup hadn’t fully covered.
When Michelle saw it, she was livid, and it had taken a lot of convincing to stop her from stalking across the street and giving Mom a piece of her mind.
“I’m fine and she isn’t worth it,” I’d lied.
I knew Michelle needed the job and there was no doubt in my mind that Shay would fire her on the spot if she spoke up or caused trouble.
Sage didn’t return after school and when things died down early again, I didn’t dare close even a second ahead of time of the posted hours.
After closing I sat in the dark restaurant just thinking through my life and what it had become. I didn’t go home until all the lights were out and then I snuck in and straight to bed.
I’d gotten up early the next day to do it all over again.
This time Sapphire was waiting for me in the living room as I tried to sneak out under the cover of darkness.
“We need to talk.”
My shoulders sagged and I nodded knowing her fox eyes could see me even with the lights off.
“Not here.”
She agreed and walked over to the café with me.
Jimmy was already there half an hour earlier than usual.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Checking on you. Are you okay?”
My eyes cut over towards Sapphire. “I’m fine,” I lied.
“She’s not,” my sister told him.
“She hit you, didn’t she? Shay?”
Sapphire nodded even as I refused to answer. I glared at her. I didn’t want our family business aired in public.
“I’ll kill her,” he said and started to walk out the door.
I grabbed his arm and begged him not to get involved.
“It was one time Jimmy. She came home early from her trip, probably to spy on me. I had closed up early because this place was dead, and she was really angry about it. It won’t happen again.”
Sapphire didn’t look as certain about that. She had crossed a line this time and we all knew it.
“She wasn’t home to spy on you. The spa we were at was inside a casino and she blew all our money. I’m not excusing what she did, Susan. She is two hundred percent in the wrong. She shouldn’t have gambled all of our money away, and she most definitely should not have laid hands on you. I think when she saw this place closed early and not earning anything she just snapped.”
“I’ll show her what snapped looks like,” Jimmy threatened.
“Don’t, Jimmy. Please. It won’t help anything. If things have gotten that bad then I have other financial things that are more concerning at the moment.” My mind was already reeling with this new situation, and what I was going to have to cover for the month, because it was still early in the month and I had no illusions that she had done the responsible thing and actually paid her bills first.