Grant
I woke up with my arms around a woman. It had been a long time since that had last happened. Normally I woke up first and dashed, or she did. I wasn’t the kind of guy to stick around. Have a good lay and walk away. That was what I did.
But waking up to Victoria was something else. We had gone several rounds last night, and we didn’t fall asleep until around five in the morning. It was only ten now, and I wasn’t sure what had woken me.
She shuddered in her sleep and clung to me closer. Her eyes were moving rapidly beneath her eyelids, and I couldn’t help myself. I kissed her forehead.
Victoria sighed, settling against me.
I chuckled softly, my chest rumbling. She didn’t stir.
I didn’t know a lot about her. Fuck, there was too much I didn’t know about her. But I did know she was loyal and fierce and frightened. She was desperate and a fighter. She would do anything for Sage, for her family.
She reminded me of myself in some ways.
“You weren’t meant for this,” I murmured, brushing her hair back so I could stroke her cheek.
“Meant for what?” she asked groggily, her eyes still closed.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Her eyes fluttered open. “It’s all right. Not meant for what?” she repeated.
I grimaced. I hadn’t meant for her to hear that.
“Meant for…” Her eyes widened with understanding. “Yeah, well, meant for or not, doesn’t matter. Sage…I’ll admit that she went through a really rough patch right after her mom went to jail. She wasn’t suicidal or anything like that, but she did a lot of reckless, dangerous things, pulled a lot of stunts, that kind of thing. Getting her to let me in, to trust me, to let herself have a real parent for once took a long time. Her mom never was meant to be a parent, and then she found herself with an adopted mom who actually gave her rules and cared about what happened to her. She didn’t realize just how things would be when she agreed to my adopting her.”
“It’s not easy being a parent.”
She jerked back slightly. “Are you speaking from experience?”
I laughed long and loud. “No. Not yet. Maybe one day.”
Victoria side-eyed me. “You sure?”
I laughed some more. “Don’t trust me? I’m not lying. Well, I guess you could say if I’m a father to anyone, it would be Trenton.”
Her lips pursed.
“Prodigal son,” I muttered. And I gave her a few details about his past, but I did keep the detail about finding the drugs in his apartment from her.
“I had no idea about the drugs.” Her lips pursed.
“I’ll admit I don’t know much about his relationship with your daughter, so we kinda had been growing apart. I’ve been busy with other stuff, and he seemed to be doing fine. I’m sure I would’ve seen or been notified by one of the guys if anyone saw or suspected he was messing around again.”
She stiffened. “You don’t think Sage did any, do you?”
“Like I said, I didn’t know much about her and him together, so I don’t know much about her at all. But lately it seemed to me Trenton was doing well, and maybe that was a reflection of their relationship.”
She flushed. “I don’t think Sage would ever do drugs. Not after her mom.”
“Her mom?”
“She loved her drugs too much, preferred them to her daughter. She was a waitress for me, and that was how I got to know Sage in the first place. She was just a young girl then. She still is a young girl. Nineteen.” Victoria had a faraway look in her eyes. “I adopted her to try to give her a real shot at life. I want her to have it all. And I know she can be so much more than what her mom was. She can do so much with her life.”
My stomach twisted sourly. “You didn’t like her with Trenton, did you?”
Victoria glanced away. “No,” she said after a long moment. “Do you blame me?”
I wanted to argue, but I stopped and thought about it. She had a point to some extent. “Everyone makes mistakes, right?” I asked after a long while.
“Yes, but—”
“Everyone deserves a second chance, right?”
She said nothing.
“I know he doesn’t seem like the best of guys, especially now that you know about his dark past, his issues, but if she could turn him around, make him a better guy, doesn’t that mean he’s good for her?” A pang of guilt hit me. That damned bag of drugs. That wasn’t good. No doubt about it. Maybe I was just making excuses for him because I wanted him to be a decent guy. I wanted him to turn it around. Maybe I had a blind spot when it came to the guy.
“You’re right. I gave Sage a second chance at life by adopting her. And I haven’t seen Trenton be overly chauvinistic toward her lately. Maybe she is helping him to not be such an…” She cleared her throat. “Ah…”
“Chauvinistic? Maybe he’s been brainwashed by that book and movie about that rich guy who liked to spank his girls.”
Victoria sat up and crossed her arms. “Books and movies aren’t a reason to be an asshole.”
“No, but some guys like to be in charge.”
“To be the alpha dog, huh?”
I grinned and pulled back toward me. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
“I’m not sure I like that idea.”
“Why not?”
“If you’re some kind of alpha dog, what does that make me?” She flushed. “I’m not your bitch.”
“Of course not. You don’t want me to be an alpha, fine. I won’t be. But I still like to be in charge sometimes.”
Her cheeks turned an even brighter shade of pink. “So long as I get a chance to be in charge, too.”
I reached for her nipple and rolled into between my fingers. “I think I can live with that.”
And we had another round right then and there.
***
After a late lunch, I checked in with the guys. So far, there was nothing to report, which didn’t surprise me, but Victoria was disappointed, and I couldn’t blame her.
“We’ll find them,” I promised.
“Not if we’re in bed all day long.” She glowered at me.
I crossed my arms, flexing them. “You’re gonna pin that on me? If I remember correctly, you pinned me.”
She flipped her hair back, a sexy move that didn’t look practiced and made it all the more sultry. “If we’re gonna…you know…it can’t affect finding them.”
I gripped her shoulders and stared her straight in the eyes. “I promise you. Our activities won’t affect anything.”
Her eyebrows arched at my word choice, and I grimaced. “Activities” wasn’t the greatest term, but what could I call it? Fucking? Sex? Making love? Fucking amazing, that was what it was.
“Good.” She sighed as she nodded, a slight curl to her lips. “I don’t want that to end.” Victoria flushed, and I could tell she didn’t know how I was going to take hearing that.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to take it. She seemed like a great gal and all that, but I wasn’t really looking for a long-term thing. And we only crossed paths because of her daughter and Trenton having gone missing. It seemed kind of random. Or maybe not. Maybe our paths would’ve crossed anyway because of Sage and Trenton. Maybe the universe wanted us together.
I wasn’t the kind of guy to believe in coincidences. I had seen too much shit over the years to believe things were random. There was a reason to everything, even if we didn’t always know what it was. So, we were forced together. Maybe it was only to find our people. Maybe then we would split up and go our separate ways.
Which was fine. We could enjoy the high stakes and enjoy each other at the same time, and then go back to our lives once Trenton and Sage were found. But what if they weren’t found alive? Could I just leave Victoria to her misery? And I would be crushed, too, if Trenton didn’t make it. He could be a good guy; I know he could. He just had to want it. At some point, you had to cut the strings and let them fly or fall.
Looked to me like Trenton was falling, but only time would tell if he was going to crash and burn. And if he was going to take Sage down with him.
“Someone’s thinking hard,” she remarked, drawing me out of my wonderings.
“I don’t think hard. I work hard. I play hard.” I wiggled my eyebrows and grinned recklessly at her. “I fuck hard.”
“Hm. Hard is right,” she said, smiling back, but her eyes were sad. She was slipping away from me, back into her misery. Our time was at night, when the lights were out, and we could cuddle together, taking away each other’s hurts and pains with caresses, kisses, and orgasms. Right now, the days belonged to the search.
I cleared my throat. “I’ve arranged for two guys to go in tonight. We already have the wire set up.”
“Would it be smarter to have three guys? Four?” She bit her lower lip. “Or would a large group draw too much attention?”
Always a thinker. I liked that. “Probably draw too much attention.”
“Even if they all came in by ones at scattered times and kept to themselves? Or one group of two, and two other groups of singles? I just didn’t have a good feeling there, Grant. Something’s up.”
“I agree. Something is definitely up there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in conjunction with Trenton and Sage and their disappearance.”
Her expression fell. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that. I just want them found, you know?”
“So do I. Believe me. So do I.”
Just then, her cell rang. She grabbed her phone, answered it, and left the room. Keeping a secret from me? I had to admit I was curious, and it burned me to think she might be keeping something from me. Not that that was something I should be feeling, considering I hadn’t mentioned the drugs to her.
I wearily wiped a hand down my face. This whole thing was a mess, and maybe it wasn’t fair for me to keep the drugs from her. She knew about Trenton’s past, but she didn’t know that drugs might have remained in his life or made a reappearance.
Would telling her make her go off and leave? That wouldn’t be safe for her. Maybe I shouldn’t risk telling her.