“You look gorgeous. I hope to see you soon, my dear.” She gives me a gentle, swaying wave.
“Oh, this is for you,” Dawn says, handing me a cold glass bottle of Coke.
“Thank you.” I hum as I take a sip, the bubbles tickling my throat. I dig out my cell phone and send a quick text to see how Faith is doing, then tuck it back in my purse. “Can we hit some of the shops along the street? I want to get Dad something as a thank-you.”
“Aw, sure. He will love that and then after can we eat? I’m famished.”
“Ruby, you haven’t even done anything.”
“I’ve sat here,” she protests, aghast that I’d ask such a thing. “And I need food.”
I chuckle as I push the door open, the bell jingle signaling our exit. The day was bright when we first came to the salon and now it’s overcast with a cool breeze. It feels great. It’s a relief compared to how hot it usually is.
“Hey, isn’t that Badge’s truck?” Dawn points down the street at a black Ford with a large Ruthless Kings sticker on the back.
My heart thumps as I look around, wondering if he can see me or if I can get a glimpse of him. I straighten my back and lift my chin. I don’t need him to see me. I need to stop acting like a girl with a crush and start acting like a woman.
A woman. That’s probably what he wants, not some eighteen-year-old girl with a baby. Badge is older, mature, and I doubt he wants anything to do with someone like me.
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asks as we head into a small little boutique filled with clothes and random items like books, jewelry, candles, and such.
“Nothing.” I plaster on a fake smile when it hits me that I’ve never really been good enough for anyone. Patricia hated me and used me and although I loved Killian, did I love him because I was meant to or because I was forced to?
I’ve never experienced any want or need outside of the emotions that I was abused into feeling.
Now I’m free. I can feel anything I want, whenever I want, no questions asked—but all I have are questions.
“Hey, Faith is in good hands. Bullseye loves her so much.”
“I miss her. I haven’t been away from her this long before,” I explain. It’s the truth, but I trust Dad with Faith more than I trust anyone else with her.
Except Badge.
The way he was with her… I swear it was like he had a kid himself, but he doesn’t. Maybe he has brothers and sisters and he had to help raise them.
“Oh, look at this. This would look amazing on you.” Ruby holds up a gorgeous pink nightgown and holds it up to my body. It has lace around the neckline and hem, classy but still not showing too much. I rub my fingers against the material and sigh when it slips through my fingers. I don’t think I’ve ever owned anything so beautiful. “There’s a matching robe,” she singsongs.
“Guys, this is so nice, but who would I even wear it for?” I run my hands down the front, not wanting to part with it just yet.
“Who says you need to wear it for anyone but you? You’re the only person that matters. If you like it, if it makes you feel beautiful and sexy, then you wear it. You don’t have to please anyone anymore, Hope. The only person you have to worry about is you and that precious little baby of yours.”
“You know, what? You’re right. I’m going to get it.”
“That a girl!” Ruby cheers.
I drape the nightgown over my arm and continue through the store, picking up a candle that I like because it smells like frosted sugar cookies. I pass a necklace tray and step back when I notice a thick leather band. I rub my fingers over it and the band is braided with a metal clasp in the back. There’s a silver pendant of a bear hanging from the middle.
“That’s from the local Native American tribe,” the sales lady says as she walks around the table, her colorful long skirt flowing as she walks with a straight spine and a smile on her face. Her long silver hair flows past her waist. She’s wearing big turquoise earrings and a necklace with blocky gems to match. She picks up the necklace and hums. “They say the grizzly bear is sacred to many Native American tribes.”
“Really? Why?” I ask.
“The grizzly means protection, courage, and strength. Some tribes believed that bears held magical powers because they always kept fighting, even when they were wounded. Some believed they brought luck, and some thought that wearing parts of the bear, like the pelt, or a claw hanging from a necklace—” she places her hand on her chest as if one is hanging there, but it isn’t, “—would bring health. So many different reasons. Some call them stories, some call them rituals, but they are ancient traditions,” she says, hanging the necklace gently on the rack. “And some still believe in their power. Does this necklace call to you?” she asks.
Such an odd question.
“Not for me, but for someone I know,” I say.
“Is he a bear?”
I nod. “I think he’s been fighting for a long time,” I whisper, rubbing my finger over the engraved snarling bear face that appears to be hand-carved.
“I think if something calls to you, it’s best you answer.”
I snag the necklace. He’s going to think it’s lame, but it’s the only thing I can think of to repay him for what he did for me last night. And it reminds me of him. He kind of is a grumpy bear, so it fits.
If something calls to me, I have to answer, right?
But what if that something is Badge?
I swear I just caught a glimpse of Hope, but I have to be seeing things. I’m thinking about her too much lately. I shouldn’t be thinking of her at all while I’m on the job.
No, let me backtrack for a second. I shouldn’t even be having a fleeting thought of her at all since she’s Bullseye’s daughter.
His eighteen-year-old daughter.
“Did you hear me?” Mr. Zachary asks, huffing as he taps his foot.
“I heard you,” I grumble. I can multi-task. “So she was interested in giving the baby up for adoption?”
“Interested? She wanted to. She’d been planning it for months.”
I try to refrain from moving my brows in surprise. No one ever really knows anyone, do they? Her parents think they are going to have a grandbaby, but what they don’t know is Morgan never planned on leaving the hospital with a child in her arms.
“After she left here, do you know where she went?”
“She usually goes down the street to get a smoothie. That’s all I know. I have an appointment in five minutes. Are we done?”
Ass.
“Yeah, have a good day.” I click my pen against the file I’m creating and tuck it in my pocket. My skin crawls as I pass several pregnant young women, some maybe even teenagers, and try to walk as calmly as I can out the door.
Figures my first case would be a missing pregnant girl. It’s bringing back too many memories. Why would she want to put her baby up for adoption? I couldn’t imagine doing that to Amber, but then again, everyone’s situations are different.
I glance left and right, watching a car very similar to Ruby’s head the opposite way, with three women in it. Now I’m just seeing things. I’m being an idiot wanting to see her again.