I answer her question with a question, “The two men with her, was one an older man with a white ponytail and closely cropped beard, and the other a big, tall man… bald and kind of ugly?”
“Why yes, that sounds pretty darn accurate,” Lily’s neighbor says.
My heart hammers in my chest.
Lily is alive, and she’s with her father.
It’s a boost to my confidence that I might just find my girl.
Because that’s what she is. My girl.
She became that when we found each other amidst the darkness of captivity.
“Did she pass on a forwarding address?”
“For her mail? Yes, she did.” She smiles at me. “It’s a post box in Cottonwood Pass, I think. Let me get the note she gave me. It’s inside.” She disappears, and when she returns to the porch, she’s holding a piece of paper. “I wouldn’t give this to just anyone, you know, but you have trustworthy eyes,” she says.
At the moment, I have bloodshot eyes, but I appreciate the sentiment.
“One last question, did she seem all right to you? Like she was doing this of her own accord?”
The little old lady thinks for a few moments. “As I recall she was, I even asked her if everything was all right. Invited her in too, just in case she needed a friendly ear. But she just smiled and said that everything was fine. Mind you, her brother didn’t take his eyes off her the whole time they was loading up the U-Haul, and I remember thinking he was very strange. A bit over the top, you know the type?”
Otto. The possessive Neanderthal.
Just the thought of him with Lily makes my guts churn.
“Did she mention why she was leaving?”
“Apparently, she got a new job over in Cottonwood Pass. Funny, though, she never did mention looking for a new one. I thought she loved her job at the hospital.” She smiles. “You seem like a nice boy. Treat her good, will you? She deserves a nice strapping young lad like yourself taking care of her.”
On the way to Cottonwood Pass, we stop at a roadside diner.
“It’s a post office box,” Ares says.
“But it’s a start,” Jack replies. “We’ll give it to Paw, see what he can find out.”
Cottonwood Pass doesn’t produce any further leads. Our visit there is brief because it’s not our territory, and Jack is always hesitant about riding into what could be a town full of Inferno allies. As we ride out, I feel the flicker of hope in my heart grow bigger because we’ve got a lead, and it’s better than nothing.
Except, the lead doesn’t lead me to Lily.
A day later, Paw tells me it’s a post office box for the General Store on Main Street. Jack says it’s a dead-end, that I have to consider the fact that nothing was as I thought it was and that Lily is gone. But it doesn’t stop me from surveilling the post office in my downtime to see if any familiar faces drop by.
But they don’t.
Jack’s right.
It’s a dead end.
Days pass into weeks, then weeks into months, and slowly any hope of finding Lily hits rock bottom. Paw can’t find any activity on her bank statements, and her phone hasn’t been used since the day she left Maiden Forks with her father.
She’s vanished, but it doesn’t mean she’s dead. The Appalachian Inferno are masters at hiding and won’t be found unless they want to be found. And it kills me to know she’s out there, and I can’t get to her.
Life moves forward. Bronte gives birth to a healthy baby boy they name Rhett, and a lightness settles over the club. Shooter and Faith finally admit their feelings for one another, and in the worst kept secret of all time, announce they are a couple. And in a move that surprises everyone, Gabe ups and marries a girl he met while visiting his family in Las Vegas.
The world keeps turning.
But for me, nothing changes.
Lily is right there in the corner of my mind, begging me to find her.
Every day, I drag her memory around with me.
I try to fall back into my old routine and find my old discipline, but I can’t. I won’t rest until I’ve saved Lily from the monsters who held us captive.
But something bugs me.
Something that keeps me awake at night.
If she went willingly with Max and Otto, I have to consider that Jack is right.
That the girl I fell for played me and doesn’t want to be found.
DOC
Four Months Later
It’s the same dream that’s been haunting me for months.
I’m lying on my bed in my room at the clubhouse. It’s late. Midnight late. The door opens, and the hallway light wraps itself around the luscious female form standing in the doorway. My body hums as I squint against the sudden intrusion of light.