Page 29 of Doctor Grump

“Fuck. She didn’t give you any hints that she was going to pull this?” I questioned. “You were supposed to be watching her closely. Isn’t that what I hired you for?”

“I can’t be on her ‘24/7,’ Ian. It’s not realistic,” Piper defended angrily. “And no, she didn’t give me any hints. I’m not a mind reader either.”

“How did she get the money for a bus ticket?” I pondered. “I halved her allowance after her last stunt.”

There was a pause on the phone. “I might have been giving her a few bucks here and there for some bets we made,” Piper said somewhat sheepishly.

I frowned. Did I hear wrong? “You’ve been gambling with my daughter?”

“It wasn’t gambling. It was just a game we played.”

“A game that earned her enough money to buy a fucking bus ticket.”

“No, I didn’t give her half that much!” she said insistently, but at this point, it didn’t matter. I took a deep breath. Rather than pointing blame, it was more important right now to find my daughter and bring her back home.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“In the car. On the way to check out the other bus station across town.”

“She’s not at the bus station,” I told her. “She wouldn’t use the bus again, not after I caught her the last time and everything we told her.”

“But her friend’s mom said she dropped her off there.”

“She said she dropped her near there, probably as a distraction. There’s a train station about ten minutes away from that. That’s probably where she went. Meet me there.”

I probably broke a few of the speed limits to get to the train station. Piper remained on the phone as I drove, giving out suggestions.

“This is stupid. I should just call Vinny or Santiago and have them contact the train station. They can ask the conductor to look for her if she already got on, or even ask the booking clerk to hold on to her.”

“No,” I refused stubbornly. I would rather have my right hand cut off than owe any of those men a favor.

“Why not?”

“We don’t need their help,” I said simply.

Piper gave a frustrated huff. “Seriously? Your daughter is about to get on a train to God knows where, and you’re going to let your pride get in the way now?”

When she put it like that, it did sound stupid, but still, everything in me resisted the idea of having to ask those men for a favor. I had to grit my teeth to say, “Fine.”

“Okay. I’m gonna hang up quickly and call them.” She hung up and then called me back within the next ten minutes, telling me that she had called the mayor and quickly explained the situation to him.

“He said he would have every security guard on-site looking for her,” she told me. “I gave him her description and sent over a picture.”

“Good.” That would help. “Thank you.”

“There.” Despite the situation, I could hear the amusement in her voice. “Was that so hard?”

I muttered under my breath.

“What was that?”

“I said I don’t know who’s driving me crazier, you or my daughter.”

“Excuse me, how on earth am I driving you crazy?” She sounded offended at the implication. “I have been nothing but nice and understanding to you, even though you’ve been an ass and broken your word to me on several occasions already.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You never showed up for dinner after you explicitly told me you would. You also barely show up for breakfast anymore. I told you how much it hurt Kendy, and you didn’t even care. Who knows, maybe if you did, then your daughter wouldn’t feel the need to continuously search for the warmth and comfort of another parent.”

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