Page 107 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
I tried to keep my shit together.“Hickey, we need a plan B or C right now.Either Kate and Zoe went off on their own, or someone took them.If it is the latter…” I swallowed.My throat closed up on the words I couldn’t move from my brain into speech.The next sound out of my mouth was something between a croak and a whimper.
“Hang on, I’m looping in Sprout.”
Great,another idiot.
“I need backup and a location.You said the interstate, right?”I got in the car and dug between the seats for the little box with the key.I drove over the weeds and gravel behind the lot and onto a small access road.I was on the interstate and running at five over the speed limit before Hickey got me dialed into a GPS signal heading west.Despite my speed, assholes were still passing me.They didn’t have to worry about mismatched plates, fake registration and insurance cards, or cops with long memories and even longer grudges against me.
“Sprout says he slipped Danielle’s GPS inside Zoe’s hood.”
Hell to the yes.“Tell him thanks.”
They kept a running tally of locations, and I was closing in on them as they exited the freeway and paused for a grand total of two minutes at a Walmart.I’d barely missed them.But the turn-by-turn directions Hickey gave me were shit.I got fucking turned around twice when he led me under the freeway with no on-ramps.“Dude, look at a fucking map or something.”
“I’m trying.But you wanted this kept under the radar.I don’t have help here.”
The rage threatening to erupt got bit back down.“I know, you’re trying.”
Sprout got on the call.“Turn right; half a mile, there’s a ramp heading east.”
“I don’t need to go east.”
“I know, but if you get on it, then keep right; it circles to the other side of the bridge and then you can go west.”
Finally, someone witha plan.
“Ask Hickey if he still has a good signal.”
“Affirmative.”
Thank God.But my signal wasn’t as good.No sooner than I got on the interstate, Kate got off it.
At that point, I lost Hickey’s updates in the no-man’s-land of steep hills and even deeper valleys.It wasn’t until I hit a peak about five minutes later that I found out I didn’t go in the same direction they did.Both Hickey and Sprout worked to get me pointed toward them and back on their tail.
I’d make up the lost time and get to them.Then, find out if this was Kate’s idea or someone else’s.
Which scenario would be better?Kate ditching me because of all the fucking around I did, or someone kidnapping her?
I’d like to think that ditching me was the better choice.
But my dumbass heart didn’t.
Chapter 30
Kate’s Childhood Home, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—Kate
“You lived here?”Zoe’s voice echoed in the large foyer.Cara insisted my daughter come in with us.I bit my argument back because separating from my daughter also felt wrong.
Cara replied when I stayed silent.“I lived here with your grandfather.”
Lovely.That was an image I didn’t want in my head.Nor did I want my daughter acknowledging that coked-up pile of human shit was any relation to her.
“It’s almost fancier than some of the houses we cleaned.”Zoe’s comments faded as she wandered into what used to be my music room.“Is that a grand piano?”
I stayed glued to the foyer.
“Zoe, get back here,” I called out.The sooner we got out of this nightmare, the better.“Nice marble,” I indicated the floor.It used to be tile.
“Thanks, I picked it out.”Cara directed me to Dad’s study.The same place he’d signed my life away.That room was unchanged except for the bars installed on the windows.Their oddity finally registered.Every window had bars on it, like a prison.I shuddered.
