He kissed the top of my head. “Sleep, girl.”
A small smile teased at my lips, and I gave in. Forcing all my muscles to relax again, I burrowed against him. “Love you.”
“Love you, baby.”
Chapter Five
Rory
“COME ON, COME ON,” I muttered to myself as I searched my room for my keys. I was already ten minutes late for class, and if I didn’t find the damn keys to my car, I was going to be even later. “Shit. Shit. Shit!”
All I needed was for my asshole professor to call my father and let him know I was late—again. But that was what was going to happen if I didn’t get out the door and park my ass in the front row of his class in the next five minutes. Groaning, I glanced around my room one more time, hoping I had just misplaced them. My bed was a mess because I had overslept and hadn’t even bothered to make it. I had clothes scattered everywhere, a mixture of clean and dirty littering my floor. My desk was a disaster because I had disarranged everything in my rush to find my keys, while the top of my vanity looked like a makeup artist’s worst nightmare come to life.
I had searched the entire room from top to bottom—twice—but had come up with nothing. My keys had either gotten up and walked off, or…
Anger twisted in my gut, and I grabbed my book and purse as I stormed downstairs. “Dad!” I raged as I hurried to the back of the house where my father’s home office was.
It wasn’t the first time he’d taken my keys without telling me in the week since I had been home, but I was getting fed up with his trying to control me. I was twenty years old now, not seventeen, damn it. I marched down the hall, so pissed I could feel my face turning red.
A laugh I knew belonged to my father was quickly followed by a voice I was familiar with. The DA,
Royce Campbell, was my father’s best friend. He always seemed to be around, and I couldn’t stand him.
It took a few seconds for what Royce was saying to register, but when it did, I froze several feet from my father’s office door.
“Reid’s truck is a pile of ash right now,” the DA was saying, an amused tone in his voice that set my teeth on edge. “The sheriff said there was nothing but bones left when he got there earlier.”
Something inside of me squeezed hard, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t even understand what the creep was talking about, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Creswell Springs was a pretty small town, so it wasn’t like there were many Reids they could have been discussing, but only one of them owned a truck as far as I knew.
Matt!
No. No. No.
Tears stung my eyes even as my father chuckled. “Well, I guess that’s one less sonofabitch we have to worry about. Now if I can just get rid of the rest of those MC bastards, I can run this town the way I want. And get that fucking Samson dickhead off my back. I don’t need some damn senator putting his nose in my business. But he wants the Angel’s Halo motherfuckers taken out as much as we do… He didn’t do this, did he?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. But, no. Those MC dumbasses have pissed off Carlo Santino, and his crew likes to play with explosives. He took two out with that bomb, so I want to shake his hand.”
Bile rose in the back of my throat as the first tears began to fall. On legs that shook, I turned and ran back the way I had just come. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that I didn’t have my keys. I didn’t need them, didn’t fucking want them. That stupid car belonged to my father, not me. It, along with everything else, belonged to him and was just one more thing he used to control me.
Never again.
Outside, the air felt slightly chilled, reminding me I hadn’t grabbed my jacket, but I didn’t turn back. I had to get away from this place, away from that vile man who ran Creswell Springs and with whom I unfortunately shared DNA. I ran down the driveway, my heeled boots catching in the slight grooves of the asphalt every now and then, trying to trip me. Nothing could have stopped me, though. I could have fallen and broken an ankle, but I still would have gotten back up.
Matt. I have to get to Matt.
“Please be okay. Please be okay.” I fought back a sob, bile churning in my stomach as my imagination became overactive and I pictured Matt’s truck exploding. “Please, babe, be okay.”
I thrust my hand into my purse, searching blindly for my phone even as I continued to run. My fingers wrapped around it, but when I lifted it out, I realized it was the one my father had given me as a Christmas present the year before. The one he probably tracked my every move with. I tossed it on the ground, leaving it, along with everything else in my purse, behind as I searched desperately for my other phone. The one Matt had given me so we could talk every night without my father fucking it up. Again.
When I touched it, I jerked it out and swiped my thumb over the only number in the call history. It rang and rang, making my heart pound even harder. Fear for the only person who mattered in my life made it impossible to breathe. A generic, automated voice mail filled my ear, telling me to leave a message.
“Matt? Matt! Call me back. I need to know you’re okay. Please be okay.”
I hung up and called him back, only to get the voice mail all over again. “I love you, Matt. I’m on my way to the clubhouse now. I need you to be okay.”
Six more times I called him, and each time he didn’t pick up. Tears blinded me to the point that I could barely make out where I was going, but I didn’t pause for even a second. I knew in my bones Matt needed me. I left him one message after another, telling him I loved him and that I was going to be there soon.
I passed car after car, but I ignored the drivers and passengers when they tried to honk or stopped to ask if I needed help. Everyone in Creswell Springs knew who I was and was probably already coming up with their own theories as to why Aurora Michaels was running like her life depended on it in the direction of the local MC’s clubhouse. The entire town knew about my history with them, knew I had been sent away because of one particular member. There wasn’t a single person in town who didn’t know.