Page 62 of Legends Luke

He saw a reflection in his side mirror that told him Easton had arrived. He was thankful for the backup. Not necessarily for a deterrent to keep Drummond from doing something stupid, but for him to keep from acting on the rage building inside him.

“Neither am I. There’s no proof I’ve done anything other than be a friend to some young people who needed one. Much like Mr. Barlowe did for you many years ago.”

Luke glanced in his mirror when he heard applause coming from nearby. Easton clapped as he walked up to the side of Luke’s truck, keeping the bed between him and Drummond.

“Nice performance,” Easton said. “No wonder no one’s been able to figure out what a nutcase you are until now.”

“You showed up just in time. Drummond was telling me how he’ll go after our friends and family if we don’t back off.” Luke kept his eyes trained on Drummond and was pleased to see a brief flinch.

“He didn’t threaten Ray, did he?” Easton played along, shaking his head incredulously. “Big mistake, man. I mean, our brother Jackson is a big guy and all, but Reagan? She’s meaner than all of us put together. And when you threaten our family, well, she goes for the jugular. You get what I’m saying?”

Drummond’s expression didn’t change, but Luke studied him close enough to see the flash of fear in his eyes. Drummond ignored Easton’s veiled taunt and focused on Luke.

“It seems we understand each other. I’m going back inside, and you’re free to leave since there’s nothing here for you,” Drummond said.

He backed up a couple of paces, and when he seemed satisfied Luke had nothing left to say, he turned and walked back inside, his minions following behind him.

Easton climbed into the cab and closed the truck door. “Tell me there was a point to that little standoff. Besides me wanting to cut the prick down to size.”

“I don’t know if the girl is in there or not, but I’d bet my truck she is. And something is going on. I don’t know what, but they’re planning for something.”

“Time to involve Tater.” Easton said it as a statement, and not a question, but Luke nodded anyway.

“Yeah, but it may not be a good idea for all of us to go to the police department and bring any more attention to ourselves than we already have with this case.”

“Yeah,” Easton agreed. “We’ll get him to come over to the garage. It’s close enough to the police department that he can break away, even with all of this other stuff going on. We can have English talk him into coming. What do you think about calling in Alex and his guys to watch out for Ray, Jax, and Melody while we’re busy?”

Alex Crandell was the owner of Atlas Security and was a long-time friend of Jackson. The Legends had called on him to help when English’s life was threatened and then when Reagan and her mother were kidnapped.

“Good idea. If he’s got the manpower, maybe he can have someone watch the Bleekleys too. I don’t trust the asshole not to go after Erin’s family.”

Easton nodded. “Agreed. The dude is crazy and desperate to keep us off his back. It’s not a good combination.”

During their time as Legends, they’d seen exactly what crazy and desperate could lead to, and none of it was good. As soon as Easton stepped out of his truck, Luke pulled out onto the street, anxious to end Blake Drummond’s criminal activities.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Melody reached for the document she printed and jumped when she realized she wasn’t alone. She had to blink to make sure she wasn’t imagining what she was seeing. Instead of the polished, professional boss she’d come to know, Sandra stood by her cubicle dressed in a matching pant set and athletic shoes. Her hair fell limply about her shoulders, and her face was devoid of makeup, making the red splotches on her face and bags under her eyes hard to miss.

Melody stood and hurried to her boss’ side. “Sandra, what are you doing here? Is there any word on Erin?”

She shook her head, blinking against the glistening tears in her eyes. “No, nothing. The police are trying, but it’s like she vanished into thin air. Hayden and I are going crazy at home, waiting, worrying, thinking the worst. He finally went for a walk to clear his head. When he got back, I went for a drive, and I ended up here. I don’t know why.”

Melody hastily stood. “Come and sit down. I’ll go and get you a cup of coffee.”

Sandra shook her head again, but she sat down as Melodyrequested. “No coffee. I don’t need anything. Except Erin. How can I not know where she would be? She’s my daughter. I used to know everything about her, but now? She’s like a stranger.”

Melody looked around them, glaring at her colleagues until they had the wherewithal to look away. “Erin’s not a stranger. She’s mixed up right now. The police will find her, and you and Hayden can get her the help she needs. It will be all right.”

Sandra pierced Melody with a blank stare. “You can’t promise that. Erin’s been crying out for help, and Hayden and I ignored it. We punished her. We tried to keep her from any of her friends we thought were bad influences, but we didn’t fix the problem. We were too busy with our careers to notice what she was going through. Good parents don’t do that.”

Melody squeezed her hand. “You were doing the best you could. There’s nothing wrong with building your careers. You showed your daughter what it meant to work hard and enjoy a career doing something you love. You showered Erin with affection and anything she could need or want. You couldn’t change her bad choices any more than you could change her good ones. If you were bad parents, you wouldn’t have put your lives on hold and moved heaven and earth to find her.”

Sandra didn’t react, and Melody wasn’t sure her words got through. Then Sandra pulled her hand away.

“This isn’t the first time she’s run away.” Sandra swallowed and wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye. “She ran away when she was eight. She asked for a doll house for her birthday. Iwas building the law practice, and Hayden wasn’t making a lot of money at his job at the time. We were doing all right. We had a nice house, and little debt, and paid our bills on time. But the doll house was too expensive for us to buy when she would get tired of it after a few weeks and lose interest. She was like that. She could have this laser focus on something for a while, and then she would get bored with it and move on to something else.”

Sandra gave her a watery smile and continued. “Anyway, the day of her birthday party, after she opened her presents, she threw a tantrum and locked herself in her room. We had to call her friends’ parents to come and pick them up from the party. While we were dealing with that, Erin sneaked out of the house and hid in the backseat of one of the parent’s cars. She hid at their house until the next afternoon without anyone realizing she was there. Hayden and I were frantic. They found her when she slipped into the kitchen to get some food. She had been hiding in the doghouse outside with the family’s lab. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry at her.”

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