Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(175)

“They got to her,” Rocky hissed while she tugged on her panties under her big nightshirt. Then her head flew back and her blue eyes pierced him. “We waited too long.”

“We don’t know that,” Layne replied and Rocky glared at him so he went on. “Settle, Roc, you need your shit together to make this call.”

“We waited too long,” she repeated, her face so filled with worry it was twisted.

“Raquel, settle,” Layne ordered low.

She stared at him. Then she walked to him, around him and back into the bathroom. He went to stand in the doorway and he watched her preparing her toothbrush.

“What do I say?” she asked then shoved the toothbrush in her mouth.

“In this scenario, you’re not Ms. Merrick, high school Lit teacher. You’re Rocky, Tripp’s Dad’s girlfriend, Tripp’s your boy and your boy likes their girl, their girl likes your boy. You’re equals. You’re makin’ a special dinner for a special occasion, it’s a surprise and you want Giselle there.”

She pulled the brush from her mouth and through the foam demanded to know, “What special occasion?”

“Doesn’t matter. Make it up. Anniversary. Birthday. They don’t know and won’t care. Then you lead the conversation another way, is Giselle okay? She was actin’ funny at school yesterday. You didn’t see her at the game last night. She and Tripp are tight, you and her are tight, but you’ve noticed a difference.”

She nodded, bent, spit, rinsed and wiped. Then she walked to him, snatched his phone from his hand and walked out.

Layne used the toilet, brushed his teeth with the toothbrush she’d given him the morning after the night Astley came to visit then he walked down to the kitchen to see the coffeepot filling and Rocky getting down mugs.

She didn’t even look at him when she whispered, “I want this done, Layne, all of this done. I want it to be you and me and the boys and Blondie and the worst thing that could happen is Jas burns the pasta bake.”

“I get that, sweetcheeks.”

Her neck twisted fast, her hair, that she hadn’t taken the time to put up, flying over her shoulder.

“You need to make that so, Layne,” she ordered.

He grinned at her because she was cute when she was bossy, because he loved it that her concern ran that deep about a kid she didn’t know all that well and it ran deeper because that kid meant something to his boy and because she ordered it because she knew deep down he could do it and that meant she believed in him.

“Aye, aye, captain,” he muttered, her eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth, probably to yell, but he lunged toward her, hooking her with an arm around her waist and stepped back, pulling her into his body. She tilted her head back and he looked down, speaking before she could get a word out. “It’ll be okay,” he assured her softly.

“They hurt her, I’ll kill them,” she whispered fiercely.

“It’ll be okay,” Layne repeated.

“It better be,” she snapped.

“If it isn’t, it will be, baby. Shit happens, you know that better than anyone, and people deal. We just gotta move now to make certain, if it’s already happened, nothin’ more happens.” She opened her mouth to speak but Layne kept talking. “I’ve given you a job, Roc. Quit f**kin’ around and do it.”

She went stiff in his arm then she nodded.

Then she turned toward the coffeepot.

* * * * *

“Hello, Adele?” Rocky said into her phone, she was tense and she’d taken three big breaths before she’d dialed the number.

Layne was sitting on the counter, holding a mug. Rocky was standing on the floor, her waist pressed to his knee, her hand resting lightly on his thigh.

Then it squeezed as Layne watched her face go pale and her eyes go unfocused.

“What?” she whispered. “Yes, sorry, of course, I’ll let you go. If you need anything…” She trailed off and Layne put a hand to her chin, gripping it between thumb and finger, he forced her eyes to his and he sucked in breath at what he saw. “I’m… yes, I’m with him. He’s right here. You want to talk to him?”

Shit, shit, f**king shit.

“Just hang on one second, okay?” Rocky said into the phone.

She took her phone from her ear and wrapped her other hand around it.

“Giselle was supposed to go to the game last night. They live close to the school. She walked there but her friends say she never showed and she never came home,” Rocky whispered, her eyes bright, the tears not forming but they were threatening.

This was unexpected and definitely unwanted. Withdrawal was one thing, missing another.

Layne put his mug down, jumped off the counter, grabbed the phone she was holding out to him and put it to his ear.

“Adele?” Layne said into the phone.

“No, Tanner, you’ve got Wade, Wade Speakmon,” Giselle’s father spoke back and his voice was tight.

“Wade, Rocky told me Giselle didn’t come home last night,” Layne said.

“The cops know, we called them already. They’ve been here. Still, I know what you do, I want you to look for her and I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you whatever you want. You come over right now, I’ll give you a thousand dollars.”

He had called the cops but Layne didn’t get a call.