Faithful (Wanted 3)

She pushed up and looked at me. “What? They just left a few hours ago. Now, he’s coming back out? What the hell for?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Said he needed to talk to Gunner and me, and he sounded desperate. ”

Ari sat up straight and pulled the sheet around her. “You know, they were both acting so weird. They weren’t even talking to each other. At one point…well…oh shit, never mind. ”

“What? Tell me, Ari,” I said.

“Okay, but you’re gonna think I’m crazy. At one point, I swear Brad was high. He went outside to take a call. When he came back in…I don’t know…he was different. I swear, Jeff, he was high on something. ”

Running my hand through my hair, I shook my head. “Impossible, Ari. Brad would never do drugs. No way. ”

Ari frowned and just looked at me. “I don’t know, Jeff. I would stake a million dollars on it. Even Ells thought he was acting strange. ”

Just then, we heard Luke over the baby monitor. Ari got up and started getting dressed. Lying there, I thought about everything Ari had just said.

Brad’s doing drugs? No fucking way.

Chapter Twelve

Sitting on the porch with Ellie, I was holding Alex in my arms while she was asleep. Jeff had called a few minutes ago to tell me he was on his way to pick me up to meet Brad. I had the worst feeling in my stomach.

“Ells, how did Brad act when he was here with Amanda?”

Ellie looked at me with concern in her eyes. “Well, um…honestly, Ari and I both thought something was wrong. Ari swears he went outside and got high, but Amanda told her that she was crazy. He was acting differently though after he came back in from taking a phone call. ”

“How did Amanda and Brad act toward each other?”

“Like strangers. She told me she was going to call me later. She’d talked to Brad this morning, and she said things were not good. Maybe that’s why he wants to talk to y’all?”

Jeff was pulling up, so I handed little bear to Ellie before I leaned down and kissed her good-bye.

“I’ll see you in a bit, sweetheart. ” I gave her a sad smile. I hated leaving her again.

When I looked up, I saw my mother standing in the doorway. She smiled and nodded as if she knew it was killing me to leave my girls. I was so grateful my parents also lived on the ranch.

“I love you, Gunner. Just don’t beat the shit out of him, okay?” Ellie said with a wink.

I laughed as I turned to walk to the truck. The feeling in my stomach was telling me something was very wrong with this whole picture.

Jeff parked in front of Grams and Gramps’s place. I jumped out and glanced over at Brad’s BMW. I waved to Grams and Gramps as I walked up to the porch.

“Brad inside or down at the barn?” I leaned down and kissed Grams on the cheek.

“He’s down at the barn, but he did come up and say hello. He looks tired. That boy needs to slow down,” Grams said with a smile.

I glanced over at Gramps. The look he was giving me told me he thought it was something different.

As Jeff and I walked to the barn, I could see Brad pacing back and forth in front of it. He was wringing his hands together, and—

What the fuck? Is he talking to himself?

“Hey, dude!” Jeff called out.

Brad jumped. “What the fucking hell, asshole? You scared the shit out of me!” he yelled as he threw his hands in his hair.

He looked like shit, and Grams had been right. He did look tired.

“You want to tell us what the fuck is going on? You told Amanda you didn’t want kids? What kind of game are you playing?” Jeff asked, not even giving Brad a moment to think.