Page 69 of Lorna's Savior
“Shit, now I get it.” He chuckled, and it set them all off. After Grover dished up the food, they settled in to eat, and made plans for the day.
Chapter 28
Lorna slowly woke to nothing but a pounding headache, and her shoulders were wrenched behind her. She had the foresight to keep her eyes closed as she became aware of her surroundings. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was tied up and lying on the floor of some dirty warehouse. Too afraid to call out, she wanted to get as much information as she could, before the ominous feeling she had in the pit of her stomach came to fruition. When she heard several pairs of footsteps, she closed her eyes and monitored her breathing. Trying to find out where she was. She almost lost her shit when she heard her mother’s voice.
“Is she alive?” Kristen asked.
“Yes, I believe she is faking it,” said a heavily accented voice. “I will wake her for you.”
“No, just keep her alive long enough for me to find out what trouble she’s made for me. If she would have just listened, then I wouldn’t have had to stoop to these measures.”
“I do not understand, why are you doing this to your own daughter.”
“She’s my meal ticket to a hundred grand a month from her worthless father. Without her, I get nothing. I don’t care what you do to her, Rio, just keep her alive.” There was a long pause before she added, “For now.” Lorna heard her mother turn on her heels and walk away, but the noise suddenly stopped, and her mother’s next words froze the blood in Lorna’s veins. “Oh, and if you don’t feed her for a few days, it wouldn’t hurt her any. She’s such a fat, ugly cow that a few missed meals wouldn’t hurt her.
“Fuck you, bitch!” Lorna screamed as she rose to her knees and looked her mother dead in the eye. “You are nothing to me, I hope you rot in hell. And I know for a fact that Marvin will make you pay all the fucking money you stole from him back.” When the man reached out and punched her in the face, she welcomed the oblivion.
* * *
Finn walked toward Lorna’s office with a frown. He looked at Silver and asked, “Is Lorna in?”
“Not that I know of, I haven’t seen her all day,” Silver said as she frowned at her boss. “Last time I saw her, was when she flew out of here yesterday. She looked upset.”
“She was.” Finn sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He went back to his office and tried Lorna’s phone. When it went to voicemail, he left a message.
“Lorna, it’s Finn. I know you’re upset with me. I’m sorry, but I’m worried about you. Please, call me when you get this message, and I understand perfectly why you didn’t come into work today. If you need more time to wrap your head around things, take it, but please call me to let me know you’re okay.” He hung up the phone, then tried to get to work. After two hours of doing nothing, he went out and told his assistant something came up, and he was leaving for the rest of the day. Trusting that work would carry on without him, he left. The only place he wanted to be was with Veronica. He needed to clear his conscience with her, then he could handle the Lorna situation.
Finn glanced at the clock on the dash of his truck and pulled into a restaurant. After making his selections, and taking them when they were ready, he went back out and headed toward the vet clinic where Veronica worked.
He walked in and smiled at the receptionist. “Veronica around?”
“In the back.” She smiled at him. “Go on back, Finn. I’m sure she’d love to see you. Oh, and Grady’s back there too.”
“Thanks, Amy,” Finn said as he walked back. He headed toward Veronica’s office and smiled when she came out of a room and ran smack into him.
“Finn, what are you doing here? Not that I don’t want to see you, but this is a surprise.”
“I need to discuss something with you. Can you take a break?”
“Let me tell Grady we’re doing lunch.” She grinned as she pointed to the bags in his hands. “I’m starving.”
“I’ll be in your office,” Finn laughed and continued on, while Veronica went in the opposite direction. Ten minutes later, she joined him. Finn didn’t say a word until she’d eaten half her sandwich, then looked at him. “What’s up? And don’t tell me nothing, because you don’t leave work in the middle of the day unless absolutely necessary.”
“I have a problem, and I need to tell you about it. Then I think together, we can figure out what to do.”
“Okay, but let’s get something on the table right now. Did you cheat on me?”
“NO!It has nothing to do with the two of us. It’s something else.”
“Okay, then I can handle it. What’s wrong?” When Finn explained about the meeting Lorna had the day before, Veronica stopped eating and glared at him. “Holy fucking shit, you knew about Andy?”
“I did. He’s the man I met with the night you went to Lorna’s. He’s the man Patch and I served with.”
“Son of a bitch,” Veronica said as she leaned back in her chair and pulled her hair. “This is bad, I mean like really, really bad.”
“How? Andy assured me that he never used Lorna to gain any information about her mother in his investigation.”
Veronica waved that off. “I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about Andy’s name.”
