Page 173 of Craving Consequences
All three of us turn to him.
“You know where she is?” I snap.
That idiot smile vanishes from his face. His green eyes flick from me to Lauren, wide with panic and confusion.
“I mean, maybe? I think?”
Annoyed by his sputtering, by the way he keeps looking at Lauren like she can somehow save him, I step between them and peer into his stupid face.
“Speak!”
“Dad!” Lauren grabs my arm and jerks. “What is wrong with you?”
Setting aside the very pressing matter of finding Everly, I scowl at the kid staring at me like death itself has come for his soul.
“What the hell were you thinking driving my daughter on that thing?”
“Are you serious right now?” Lauren shrieks.
“Do you have any idea how many deaths are caused on motorcycles?” I snap. “Just how fast were you going?”
He fidgets, poking his glasses higher on his nose. “The respectable amount of speed, sir. I would never put Lauren’s life in danger. I’ve been riding since I was fifteen. I’m very careful, and never had a single accident.”
My eyes narrow. “Get a lot of girls to ride on the back of your bike?”
“Oh my God, Dad!”
Teddy’s entire face turns crimson in a manner I almost find comical. “No, sir. Lauren was my first ... on my bike.”
“Oh my god,” Lauren groans again, face falling into her hand. “Can you stop?”
“Where’s Everly?” I demand, tucking the rest of my questions away for later.
“I ... it ... she...”
“I think you broke him,” Lachlan mutters when Teddy seems to be having a stroke.
I’m tempted to smack him like my grandpa used to do to our TV back when it had the rabbit ears made out of a twisted, metal hanger. But Lauren squeezes herself between us and shoves me back.
“Can you back up? What’s wrong with you? Jesus.” With a huff and a look that says we’re having a long talk later, she faces the kid actually sweating. “Teddy, where’s Everly?”
The little punk all but melts when Lauren touches his arm. All that beautiful fear I had generated vanishes the moment he drops his gaze to her upturned face.
“She mentioned this morning that she might not get reception where she’s headed.”
“You saw her this morning?” I start, but stop when Lauren shoots me a withering glower.
“She came to my apartment to sign the papers.”
Lauren beats me asking, “What papers?”
Nervous all over again, Teddy shifts. “To sell the house.”
“Everly’s house?” Lachlan speaks up. “This house?”
Teddy nods. “Said she wanted to travel and needed the money.”
She’d been planning to leave.
