Waiting to hear the gossip in a small town had never been so nerve-racking. Especially when it was about someone you cared so much about.

Parker drove Sara back to the Golden Oar and helped her and the crew clean up all the mess. She pulled out every number on her list and had more than two dozen employees sweeping glass and putting everything back in order.

Several other people from town had stopped by to help once the rumor mill had spread far enough.

Within the hour, the restaurant was back to its former glory, except for the blocked off area where Parker’s workers were back to work hanging the new ceiling.

When three o’clock rolled around and the doors opened, they still hadn’t heard from Robert. He’d told her he would text her once they had Parker’s father in custody.

When Parker’s crew was done for the day, she wasn’t surprised to see Parker take up residence in the back office as if he was prepared to stay there until she clocked out. She tried to convince him to go home, but he just lay back on the sofa and read a book her uncle had on the shelf.

She was halfway through the dinner rush when Robert and a few of his deputies walked in. Seeing them, she set down the empty tray she was holding and crossed the room.

“Well?” she asked a little winded.

Robert shook his head. “Their hotel room was cleaned out. The clerk said that she hadn’t seen them and that they hadn’t officially checked out. She gave us a description of the vehicle they’d been driving.” He glanced around. “How about seating us? We’ve been going since early this morning.”

She nodded and took them to a large table that sat along the row of windows.

“What kind of car?” she asked as she handed them all menus, even though most of the men probably knew it by heart.

“Ford truck, F-250, tan,” David said. He was one of the older men in the group and had been on the force with Robert for as long as Sara could remember.

“We’ll be looking out for it,” she added. “Cara will be your waitress.” She motioned to the high school student who worked most evenings. “Take good care of them.” She winked at Cara as she made her way to the back to relay the information to Parker.

She’d had to do some quick talking to keep him from going to the small hotel with Robert and his men earlier when they’d received a tip about the man’s whereabouts. When Robert hinted that the man might still show up at the restaurant, Parker had stayed put.

Now, as she told him the latest, he seemed even more determined to stick by her side. He talked to Robert for a few minutes and found out that they were transferring his mother later that evening to Douglas County, where she had two outstanding warrants. Then he sat at a table in the main dining area and nursed a beer until the last customer left.

She’d received a text from Robert shortly before closing, letting her know that the transfer had gone smoothly. She should have felt relieved knowing that his mother wasn’t an issue any more, but with Parker’s father out there, she was more on edge than ever before.

Having Parker beside her as she locked up helped, but she still doubled-checked every dark corner as they walked out.

“He won’t come around again,” Parker assured her. “Most likely he’s following my mom’s trail.”

He jumped behind the wheel of the Jeep after opening the passenger side for her.

“What about your brother?” she asked as he started the engine.

“I did some research. I think I might know where he is.”

“How?” She turned towards him, eager to know more.

He chuckled and handed her his phone. “Easy enough. He’s on Facebook. The kid looks like I did back when I was his age.” On the screen was an image of a young man. Parker was right, he could have been a younger Parker.

“How old are we talking?” she asked, searching the page. “Thirteen.” She answered her own question.

The boy was living in Portland in what seemed to be some sort of home for abandoned and troubled teens.

“What do you plan on doing about Palmer?” She set the phone in her lap and glanced over at Parker. They were just pulling out of town and heading towards his place. For the first time that day, she felt tired and figured she would fall asleep quickly once she crawled into bed.

“However screwed up my parents are, the kid shouldn’t have been dumped in a place like that. I’m going to drive up there this weekend and—”

Sara had no warning. One minute she was listening to Parker’s plans and the next, the right side of the Jeep exploded, sending glass and metal her way, pushing her entire body into the middle console. The gear shift slammed into her knee as the door squished her body even more.

The entire right side of her body screamed in pain and the right side of her head was slammed against the upper part of the Jeep’s door.

She reached out for Parker’s hand as the Jeep flipped over and over, but the spot next to her seemed oddly empty. When the world finally stopped spinning, everything was dark, so dark. She panicked. She didn’t know if she’d passed out or if it had been just moments since the Jeep had stilled.

Fumbling around frantically in the dark, her fingers brushed against Parker’s phone. When she clicked it, the screen’s light spread in the cramped space.

She was laying at an odd angle, which told her the Jeep was in fact, laying on its side, with her side on the ground.

She tried to free herself, but her knees were trapped between the dash and the twisted metal that used to be her door. Then she moved the light over to the driver side and cried out. Where Parker should have been was now an empty space. The seat belt was hanging free, falling towards her, sliced in half. The steering wheel was bent at an odd angle and his door was completely gone. She was looking up into the night sky, totally in shock.

She cried out for him but didn’t hear anything. Panicking even more, she tried to wiggle herself free, but every time she moved, the twisted metal cut further into her skin. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears, she doubted she could hear it if Parker called out to her.

She struggled for a full minute before it registered to her that she could use the phone and call for help.

Her father answered on the first ring.

“Daddy,” she cried, feeling the tears roll down her face, blocking her eyesight, “help.”

* * *

Parker felt like he’d been hit by a truck. His head hurt, and his shoulder felt like it had been through a shredder. When he tried to open his eyes, crusty dried blood stopped them from opening all the way, which meant his head had been bleeding at one point. It also meant that he’d been unconscious long enough for the blood to dry.

“There you are, son.”

He knew that voice. His entire body tensed as he frantically glanced around.

He was lying in the bed of a truck. The dark sky was above him and he felt a light rain falling on his face. The man he’d known as Jack stood at the tailgate, smiling down at him.

“Knew you’d come around sooner or later.”

“Where am I?” He tried to keep his voice calm, but his body was aching and that threw him off. “What happ—” He stopped midword, remembering everything. “What have you done with Sara?”

“Easy, your little girlie is fine. Or at least, she looked like it when I peeked in the Jeep. She was thrashing around hard enough.” The man chuckled. “That one’s a fighter, just like your mother.”

Parker was thankful he couldn’t move, since he was pretty sure he would have killed the man.

“You did this? Why?”

“Well, you see, your mother and I have plans to secure our future, and everything would have gone smoothly had you not gotten in the way.”

“This is about my grandfather’s money?” He tried moving slowly, but his head spun, and his stomach lurched.

“Her money. Our money. Joanne’s old lady changed everything. That last fight was about our monthly payments.” The man hopped up on the bed of the truck and knelt beside him. Parker could see it then, what he’d been blind to for the past few weeks. He was almost a spitting image of the man. Somehow, it made his stomach roll even more. “You see, the old lady found out about Palmer and demanded that we turn him over to her. She stopped our checks and called Child Protective Services on us. They took the boy away. If we turned over parental rights to her, she promised she would start the checks back up. It was extortion.”

He tapped Parker’s knee and he cried out in pain.

Jake chuckled. “You don’t look so good,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, we figured we were owed a lot more that those small monthly checks and came up with a new plan. Before the stroke, we had a lawyer, a buddy of mine that owed me, write up a new will, all legal like. Joanne took it over to her and told her that if she signed it, the kid was all hers. What do we care anyway? We’d dumped Palmer off at my sister’s place years ago. But that old bitch wouldn’t sign the new will. She ripped it up and threatened to have us arrested. She’d found out about Joanne’s warrants and held those over her head.” His voice rose as he talked. “Her stroke was a godsend.” He relaxed again. “Now she wouldn’t know what’s what, and we could easily make her sign a new will. But by the time we found her, you’d shoved her in that place that has her under lock and key. They won’t even let me in. Joanne tried going back, but each time, they blocked her way.”

“You tried to get her at the home?” he asked, feeling his vision fade and his mind turn slightly fuzzy. “You’ll never get a dime. I’m legally my grandmother’s power of attorney now. She signed it almost a year before Joanne attacked her.”

“Joanne never laid a finger on the old lady.”

Parker’s mind cleared temporarily. “You?” He felt anger replace pain and, suddenly, a surge of power throbbed through every muscle.

“The bitch wouldn’t sign the new will, so I tried to force her. How was I to know—” His father didn’t get another word out. Parker’s fist moved fast and before he had a chance to swipe out, the man fell backwards, off the opened tailgate of the truck.

Every inch of Parker screamed as he jumped up, ready for a fight. The man hadn’t gained his feet yet, and when Parker jumped off the high truck, his knee buckled, causing him to fall in the dirt.

The rain increased and water dripped in his eyes. It was mixed with the blood that had started flowing again from a deep cut on the side of his head, just above his ear. He used his sleeve to swipe at it as he stood up again. His father had gained his wits and was also standing.

“I’ve waited for this day for years,” his father said, holding up his fists. “’Bout time I taught you some manners. Never could get any through when you were younger.”

“I’ve learned them from an old woman and they’re better than yours will ever be.” He didn’t even raise his fists. Instead, he prepared to dodge his old man’s fists, something he hadn’t known how to do as a five-year-old.

Jack’s fist swung out and missed him but crashed into the truck’s taillight, causing the red plastic to shatter into shards. The man’s hand came back bloody, and Parker was pretty sure he had a broken knuckle. Still, that didn’t slow down the man’s fists. Parker dodged the next swing easily enough and backed up, putting some room between them.

It was then that he noticed where they were. The truck was parked on the edge of Mill Road. He’d driven it a few times up to the national park. The road was winding and rose above the coastline, making the drive one of the prettiest and deadliest in Oregon. He realized he had his back to a very steep cliff.

Taking his steps carefully, he tried to position his back to the truck, but his father’s fists kept flying and he kept dodging them. With his head hurting badly and the rain intensifying, he lost track of which way he faced. Even the truck was now out of view.

He tried to keep his body and mind focused, but the adrenaline that had caused him to stand was slowly seeping out of his body. He had to do something fast, or the old man was going to throw him off the cliff. He’d wager that was the guy’s intention.

“What were you going to do? Toss me over the cliff?” He ducked another swing and noticed the old man was winded and wheezing.

“Why not? With you out of the way, Palmer is the only living heir. The kid will do anything I tell him to, unlike you. You never did fall into line.”

“That kid is my brother, and if you think I’m going to let you harm a hair on his head now that I know he exists, you’re wrong.”

His father laughed harder. “I’ve warned him all about you.” His swings were slowing down. “He’s just like me. Just wait and see. The kid will never accept you.”

Parker swung out for the first time, catching the man under the chin. He’d learned long ago that when you threw a punch, you had to make it count.

His father’s body flew backwards until the man lay in the dirt, unconscious.

Parker fell to his knees, breathing hard and praying that he wouldn’t join him.