Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell #1)(144)

Uh-oh.

“Uh… Hap, we have company,” I announced, beginning to move toward the door that I saw Skip was not going to knock on.

No.

He was coming right in.

Then he came right in and I was halfway across the living area when he stopped, sent daggers from his eyes at Hap, declared, “You do not exist,” then his eyes sliced to me. “What’s this I hear, you movin’ in with Sam?”

What?

“Uh –” I started.

“Luci called me,” he shared.

There you go.

“Well –” I started again.

“Know about your windfall, so you got money. Still, Sam’s got a f**kload more money than you.”

I guessed this was true. Though I had no clue why he’d come to Sam’s and barge right in to inform me of that fact.

“Yes, that’s –” I tried and failed again.

“Known each other, what, a month? Who the f**k moves in together after a month?” Skip demanded to know.

“It’s been more than a month,” I informed him.

“Yeah?” he asked belligerently. “How much more?”

I paused to calculate it which was a mistake.

“Skip, dude, this is hardly your –” Hap started, Skip’s eyes cut to him and he clipped, “I said, you do not exist.”

Oh man.

“Skip,” I called his attention back to me but that was as far as I got.

“This is a gold diggin’ operation, you fail, you answer to me.”

Oh my God!

Cantankerous character was one thing but rude and offensive was another.

“Skip,” Hap growled, leaving his seat. “That was out of line. What the f**k?”

Skip looked back at Hap and asked, “What’d I say?”

“Your crab shack, your rules,” Hap shot back. “But right now, like it or not, you’re standin’ in Kia’s house. I exist here and I’m tellin’ you to stand the f**k down.”

Skip assumed a battle stance which was to say hands up in fists, one foot behind the other, body turned to Hap and he invited, “Make me.”

Seriously?

I moved in between them saying, “Skip, Hap, really. There’s no –”

I didn’t finish. This was because I saw more movement on the deck and that movement was Celeste running, yes, running toward the door.

I was picking her up and wasn’t supposed to be at Luci’s place for another hour and a half. I didn’t even know how she got there since Luci was driving her everywhere and Celeste didn’t have a car. It was my understanding that Luci lived in a beach house down from Sam’s but it was a trek, at least a mile of beach and more if you took the winding coastal road.

What I did know was her running and the look on her face when she got inside did not bode happy tidings.

Memphis felt it instantly and yapped.

“Celeste –” I started but she cut me off.

“Luci’s disappeared.”

My chest depressed.

“What?” Hap asked and Celeste looked to him.

“This morning, she said she was going for a walk on the beach. That was three hours ago. She hasn’t come back. I’ve been up and down the beach. No sign and no one I asked has seen her.” Her eyes came to me. “I called you four times. You didn’t answer. I found the keys to her car and came here.”

My phone was upstairs in my purse in the bedroom.

Shit!

“She take her phone with her?” Hap asked, on the move to his bag which was sitting in a corner of the living room.

Celeste shook her head. “Left it on the kitchen counter.”

“Oh God,” I whispered.

“What’s goin’ on?” Skip asked, looking around the lot of us, eyes stopping on Celeste. “And who’re you?”

“I’m –” Celeste started but I bolted into action.

Darting toward the front door, my eyes on Hap who was pulling his cell out of the jeans he wore the night before, I said, “Gordo.”

“Yeah,” Hap said to me.

“Gordo what?” Skip put in.

I ignored him, shoved my feet into the flip-flops I left by the front door and asked Hap, “Where would she go?”

He pressed his lips together and shook his head, flipping open his phone. “This isn’t my place, babe. I come down. I crash at Sam or Luci’s. I hang but I don’t know their gigs.”

I turned to Skip. “Where would she go?”

“What in the sam hill is goin’ on?” Skip fired back.

“Luci’s not good,” I told him.

“Sam, Hap,” Hap said into his phone.

“Tell me somethin’ I don’t know,” Skip said to me.

“Celeste is here. Says Luci went for a walk three hours ago, didn’t come back,” Hap kept talking into his phone.

“Luci’s more not good than the normal not good, Skip, we have to find her,” I said to Skip, watched his leathery face pale and I finished, “Fast.”

“Would she go to his grave?” Celeste asked quietly.

“He’s buried in Arlington,” Skip muttered.

“Well that’s out,” I whispered and my eyes went to Hap.