Page 7 of Midnight Whispers
“But I don’t have a lot of stuff. Just clothes and maybe some smaller things, like pictures I want to keep. And some of mom’s important stuff.” Like the locket her mother gave her. And the picture album from her childhood.
“I used to know a guy. He owns a moving company. I’ll call him. He owes me for ditching me at prom. The fucking coward.” Griffin had made up his mind. Riley would get help no matter how much he protested, whether from Riley or Dad. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.
“Okay.” Riley switched gears. He grabbed a box and put his mother’s jewelry box along with the photo albums fromher closet inside before going into his own room and putting clothing on top of it. “And dad?”
“Yeah, son.”
“I’ll take you up on the offer for college.”
“We’ll work out getting you signed up when you come home. Don’t forget to pack your laptop.”
“I don’t have one of those.”
“What?”
“I don’t have a computer, Dad.”
“No worries. I’ll get you one.”
“You also might want to clean out his bedroom, Dad,” Griffin added.
“I already started. I was hopeful after our last conversation.” Dad said that last part to Riley. It warmed his heart.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve always wanted you here, Riley.”
“Mom was—”
“I know. She was sick. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve always had room for you. I’ve dreamed of the day when you’d come home.”
Home. Dad had called it Riley’s home twice in the same conversation.
Riley wasn’t sure if Fortune Falls felt like home. All he knew was the house he’d shared with his mother no longer did. Maybe it never had. Maybe it had always felt like Vivianne’s deathbed.
“I can’t wait to see you guys.”
“We can’t wait either.” Dad and Griffin said at the same time.
“Give me a couple of days.” He had to tie up loose ends. Paying his landlord for last month’s rent was in order. He had enough in his bank account to pay off his bills and gas money, but not much else. He didn’t need much to get to Fortune Falls.
Chapter Five
It turned out Riley didn’t have enough money for gas. He knew he’d run out when he’d only been able to put twenty dollars in his tank the last time he refueled. It had gotten him almost all the way to Fortune Falls. According to the GPS on his phone, he was ten minutes from his dad’s house, which meant he was just outside town. The road had to be the darkest and spookiest on the planet. It didn’t help that it was after midnight.
His car sputtered to a stop as he gently guided it to the side. When the engine shut off, silence took over. The only things surrounding him were the skeletal trees and snow-covered leaves. The forest seemed to take over everything, which would have been a nice change from the city where he’d grown up, if it were during the day.
He didn’t know how he was so used to the noises of the city, cars, and buses, and people always moving around, even at night. And the lights made it so it was never really dark. Riley panicked, letting fear grip him. It didn’t take long for him to get over it, though. He checked the door locks before calling his brother.
Griffin kept daytime hours, so it didn’t surprise him when it went to voicemail.
His hands shook when the cold ate up the heat. Riley couldn’t see his breath yet, but it wouldn’t take long.
He hesitated to call his dad next. He’d have to explain why he was stranded. It wasn’t from neglecting his tank but the lack of funds, which would be way worse of an explanation because Dad offered to send him money more than once and he’d said he was fine.
Instead of calling Dad’s cell, he looked up the number for the station and called it. He decided not to say anything about being the sheriff’s kid. He’d just tell them his name and let them figure it out on their own. They might be less likely to alert his dad if he didn’t help them connect the dots.
The best-case scenario would be the deputy helping him by putting just enough gas in his car to get him to his dad’s house and no one else had to know about it.
