Page 31 of Silver Sanctuary
“Hello?” Damn, his voice sounded harsh even to himself.
“Nash?”
Fuck.
Embrie’s voice shook as it came across the line. He sat up on the edge of the sofa, reaching for the remote to turn down the volume on the television. There was no missing the fact that she was upset and it instantly put Nash on edge.
“Hey, Cheese. What’s going on? You okay?”
“My teacher said if there was ever an emergency, I should find an adult I trust, and Mom only smiles when she’s around you, even though she told me not to bother you about stuff, but I knew?—”
The sick, sinking feeling poured over him again. His left leg began bouncing as he fought the urge to run down to his truck and drive to them.
“Embrie, I’m so happy you called me. I am absolutely someone you can trust. But you have to tell me what’s wrong so I can help, okay?”
“Um, I was wondering if you’ve seen my mom today?”He could hear the tears in her small, soft voice.
“What do you mean?” He was supposed to be there—it was Monday. He always went into the shop on Monday for flowers. But he wasn’t there. The unanswered messages he’d sent to Lacy when he got home from work flashed as a warning inside his mind and something in his stomach turned sour as Brie continued to talk.
“Um, well, she’s been working at night at that restaurant in town. I think she doesn’t want to take me there because it makes her sad whenever she walks by it.”
Working at a restaurant that makes her sad? “Dolly’s, sweetheart?”
“No. Mama and I love Ms. Dolly. She works there on the weekends.”
For fuck’s sake. How many fucking jobs does she have?
“Davney’s?”
“Yeah, that’s what it’s called. I knew I had to ride the bus after school, but she was supposed to be home to let my sitter go like two hours ago, and Ms. Sandra is nice and all, but she gets a little mean when she's tired, and she’s getting tired.”
“Embrie, are you saying your mom never came home tonight?” Nash stood, grabbing his keys and wallet off the counter on his way to the door.
A sniffle from the other side of the line broke his heart.“She hasn’t. Ms. Sandra is saying mean things about her, but they aren’t true. She wouldn’t leave me. I snuck Ms. Sandra’s phone into the bathroom. I know I shouldn’t have, but Mama has your number on the fridge and I knew you would help.”
“Okay. I’m going to check the shop, and the restaurant, and then I’m going to drive over to you. If she’s not back by the time I get over there, I’ll take over for Ms. Sandra and we’ll figure out what the next step is, okay?”
“O-okay.”
“Embrie?
“Yeah?”
“I’m really proud of you.”
“Thanks, Nash.”
He was out the door and down to his truck faster than he thought possible. With his cell phone to his ear, Nash hopped into the driver’s seat and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Lace, it’s Nash,” he barked into her voicemail. “Embrie called me worried because you haven’t made it home. If you get this, will you call me back, please?”
It took all of five minutes to drive to the flower shop where she very clearly wasn’t, before making it over to Davney’s. The place would be open for another hour or two, but was already looking like most of the regular crowd had cleared out. Nash parked his truck as close to the front door as he could, and made his way in.
“Hey, man, what’s got you out so late?” Rudy nodded from the host podium as Nash walked inside.
“Does Lacy Graves work here?”
His face instantly changed. “Yeah. Should have known giving her a chance would let me down.”
