Page 128 of Love Collided

I had promised her that I wouldn’t permanently move in until she asked me. I wasn’t going to push her to make adecision, but I was already hoping she would decide soon because there was no part of me that wanted to be anywhere else. She walked such a fine line between being independent and needing others and I knew I couldn’t rush her decision in this. At least for now, I would temporarily live here as long as she would let me.

I shoved the last box into the Hellcat and headed to her place. The Porsche wasn’t out front or in the apartment garages, so I ran one of the boxes up before going back out. The only other place we could have agreed to meet was the garage, so I headed there next.

My stomach dropped a little more when I pulled in and didn’t see the Porsche. The garage bay doors were open and I could see most of the crew was here. Maybe someone just borrowed the Porsche. It’s not like they hadn’t all asked to drive it once or twice already.

“Hey,” I said, heading inside. “Is Scout here?”

Fox stood up as Ash smiled at me. “Lose your little love bird already? I thought you two were moving you in?”

“We were, but she left a bit ago to pick up food. I thought she was coming right back, but that was almost three hours ago now.”

“Not at her place?” Fox asked.

“No, I just came from there. I mean, if she was picking us up food, there’s only so many places she is going after.”

Kye headed over, sitting on one of the cars next to Ash. “Maybe she took the Porsche out on a drive. It’s not like we all wouldn’t take the opportunity.”

“But there would be no reason for her to take it out on a drive and not answer any call or text within the last three fucking hours.” I started pacing, my heart rate picking up as I pictured her wreck, the car slamming into the wall over and over in mymind. It only made me worry what that would look like out on the winding forest roads outside of town.

“What do you guys do if you wreck when you’re out on your own?”

They all looked at each other, Ransom and Quinn coming out of the office with Jax and Carly not far behind them.

“In our cars we set up radios, which help with the wrecking usually,” Fox said, a little more serious now. “But your car doesn’t have one.”

“If we wrecked without that and can’t reach our phones, you have to just walk somewhere or hope someone stops to help.”

I pushed a hand into my hair, the panic setting it. “Okay, is there somewhere else she would be that I wouldn’t know about?”

Quinn shook her head. “No where that I could think of that one of us wouldn’t know about too. She’s probably just out for a drive. There’s a lot going on lately and maybe she needed a little break.”

I didn’t stop pacing, though. There had been a lot going on, but all of it was good… at least I thought it was. If she really didn’t want me to move in, couldn’t she just call me back and tell me that? Or even just break the news to me face-to-face?

But no, she had kissed me and left for food, seemingly excited that we were all going to Jax’s tonight to have the buffet of food Carly had promised me in the hospital. I even told her we could skip lunch, but she had fussed that I was technically still healing and more food was necessary.

“Dammit,” I said, grabbing my phone and hitting her name again. The call rang and rang until it went to voicemail again. At least it was still on, but that didn’t do as much as I hoped to calm my nerves.

I hadn’t wanted to spill Scout’s secrets, but there was one thing she still wasn’t telling them about and I was worried that it was coming back to bite us.

I finally stopped and faced them all.

“The first night I actually hung out with Scout, without all of you, obviously, was when Jesse left her at a restaurant on her birthday. She was in a rush to get somewhere and I gave her a ride. That somewhere was a run down warehouse where she was meeting what I now know was some sort of gambling mob broker guy to give him money. A good bit of money, actually. All to go towards her dad’s gambling debts. He fucking told them that she would pay, and she did. Then it happened a second time. When we went to Vegas, her dad found her and Scout called him in to the Sheriff. As far as we understand, he was arrested, but now I’m worried that he had more debts waiting for him, and they went after her.”

Their faces had fallen more and more throughout the story, until the worry turned to anger.

“And neither of you thought to tell us? What the fuck is wrong with both of you?” Fox asked.

“It wasn’t my place to tell, and I handled it as best I could to help her. I even gave them two of my damn watches just so she didn’t have to keep killing herself trying to get money without you all noticing.”

“Why couldn’t we notice?” Ransom asked. “We would have helped.”

“From what she said, she felt like you all had been doing things for her all her life, and thought this was on her to handle herself. I don’t think she felt she was doing the right thing, and thought you all would disapprove.”

“So you think they came back after her?” Kye asked.

“I have no idea, but now I’m worried they have. She told me the first time they found her, they had waited until she was alone and cornered her. Maybe they found her alone again and took the opportunity.”

“If that’s what happened, wouldn’t the Porsche be parked at the diner?” Carly asked.

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