13
Dillon
After Maggie and I got back to the shelter, she took off immediately. She had work to do, and she was itching to talk to Ted since he’d never responded to her text. We still weren’t sure if the girl they’d found dead was Nadine. I prayed it wasn’t.
By the time I walked into the shelter, I’d lost some of my anger, thanks to Maggie. I’d been serious when I told her that she had a way of tranquilizing me. Her hand in mine was like a drug. On the flip side, listening to her tell me about Cory was both maddening and enlightening. In one breath, I wanted to do exactly what she’d said she would do if he’d been in the park with us. Yet she was so sure of herself, and I admired how she knew what she would do. I had no idea how I would react if I saw Grace.
Norma’s laughter filled the room. Then a baritone voice echoed as a man chuckled. At first, I thought Norma had invited her boyfriend over until I sauntered into the kitchen and found Hunter Thompson, or Hunt as he liked to be called, standing at the island with a soda in his hand. I was a tall guy, but Hunt had three inches on me at six foot four, and he was built like a bear.
We exchanged a manly hug. The last time I’d seen Hunt was at Kade and Lacey’s wedding back in June when he was dressed in a tux and holding Kade’s hand as his best man. Now he sported a golf shirt with the Guardian logo embroidered on the sleeve. He wore a holster around the waist of his jeans but didn’t have a gun.
I dropped my keys on the island. “Thanks for coming on board.”
His head dipped, and when it did, a stray blond curl fell over the scar he had above his left eyebrow. “It’s a nice change from the crazies I usually protect.”
He had no idea what he was in store for, particularly with men like Norton. But I would fill him in later. Right now, I needed a stiff drink. A laugh broke out in my head. A dormant part of me was my father’s son. I did want to down something so strong, it would take away all the fucked-up emotions raging inside me. That calming effect Maggie had on me was wearing off.
Grace could be alive, and she’d never bothered to contact me.
She may not be able to. Someone may be holding her hostage.
Syd had led me to believe that Grace was happy and healthy and living her life without our father degrading her and swinging his fist at her face.
“You need to sign the contract before Hunt can start.” Norma’s soft voice cut through the hell that was waging a war in my head. When I blinked, she was hurrying out of the kitchen. “I’ll get the documents.”
Hunt straddled the stool. “You don’t look so good.”
I padded over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water then slid onto Norma’s warm stool.
“Norma tells me you were chasing a lead on your sister. Is that why you look like someone pistol-whipped you?” Hunt brought the can up to his lips. “Do you need some help? The Guardian is a security firm, but they also have a couple of private investigators on staff.”
I twisted the cap off the bottle. “I hired a PI about a year and a half ago, but he wasn’t successful. Do you know of a bar called the Crow?”
Hunt worked many jobs at the Guardian, and one of them was a bouncer for clubs around the city. The only thing I knew about the Crow was what Maggie had shared in the car, which wasn’t much except that it was in South Boston.
Hunt shifted his brown eyes back and forth, studying me hard before the scar over his left brow crinkled. “It’s a dive bar, or more like a biker hangout. Did someone see her there?”
I sucked my lip ring into my mouth. “Nah.” I proceeded to tell him about the conversation I’d had with Syd.
When I finished my story, he said, “Anything could have happened in six months. I’ll take some pressure off you around here. I’ll work with your man, Rafe, and we’ll keep things here buttoned up. Norma seems to have a handle on things too. So go fish out that lead.” He glanced at his watch. “The bar should be getting busy in a few hours.”
“Are you my knight in shining armor?” I teased.
He grinned, showing a set of perfect choppers. “I don’t swing that way, dude.”
I was about to ask him how his best bud, Kade, was doing after his honeymoon, when his phone rang. Fishing it out of his jeans, he headed outside to the small deck in the backyard, making himself right at home.
I played with my bottle cap, hoping someday I could have a relationship like Kade and Lacey had. I always knew the Maxwells loved hard. But seeing Kade say “I do” with enough love pouring off him to fill the lake behind their house shot shards of envy through me, almost tempting me to get married.
I laughed out loud.
Norma glided in. “Something funny?” She set the contract down in front of me then handed me a pen.
“I was thinking of Kade’s wedding.”
She sighed and gave me a funny look. “Oh my God. Why are you thinking about a wedding? I know you and Maggie are old rival gang buds, but jeepers, she didn’t swoop you off your feet already, did she? And where is she, by the way?”
My cheeks heated. Before we’d gone to the tattoo shop earlier, Maggie and Norma had started chatting up a storm about scarves and shit. I took comfort knowing that Norma approved of Maggie. “She had work to do.”
