He glared at me with watery eyes and a stone-set jaw. The conversation was apparently over.
The chair scraped the floor as I stood up. “I’ll find out who did it, Padre.” Without another word, I left his office and shut the door behind me.
* * *
To sayI was upset would be an understatement. I truly couldn’t believe that Padre would accuse me of stealing from him. After everything that had happened between us! I thought of him like a father, and I thought he considered me a son.
As soon as I left the shop, I headed straight to the gym. I needed to get my head clear from all the shit going on. First, the trouble with Lily and Scorpion. Then, there was Paige and how I found myself thinking about her all the time. And now, this.
I always kept workout stuff in my bike bag and so I didn’t need to stop. The one female member of Outlaw Souls, Swole, was the manager of a gym just down the street from the Blue Dog. She gave me and the rest of the guys free memberships, although these days I was pretty much the only one who took advantage of it.
“Hey Ryder,” she said as I walked in the gym. “Wasn’t expecting you today.”
Swole was our Sergeant at Arms. She was in charge of security for the Outlaw Souls and she did a great job. She got the nickname “Swole” when she became a member because of her muscular physique. I didn’t think she used steroids, but I couldn’t be sure. Her biceps were bigger than mine, and when she was in a fight, she was like a ferocious dog that wouldn’t stop until her opponent was unconscious and bleeding. You did not want to fuck with Swole.
I didn’t want to talk, so I just nodded hello and headed to the locker room to change. My life might be spiraling out of control, but there were a few things I was still in charge of, and one of them was my body. I was going to run fast, lift hard, and force my body to remember who was boss. No more sexy dreams about Paige. No more feeling helpless with Lily or feeling betrayed by Padre. Just me, sweating until I couldn’t think anymore.
Twelve
Paige
As I pulled my car out of the parking space that I knew would be gone by the time I got back, I was a combination of angry, worried, and sad. I was angry because Bailey had just taken off without even thinking to leave me a note. I had no idea where she was, but knew she couldn’t get far on foot. La Playa was a big town inside an even bigger city.
I was worried about her on two levels. One, I was worried about what could happen to her in a town like this. A rich white girl walking around in last night’s party clothes is an invitation for trouble. But on a deeper level, I was worried about her acting out like this. Sneaking out, getting drunk at a college party, and then not even thinking to tell me where she went this morning—that wasn’t like Bailey.
The reason I was sad was that I saw so much of myself in her. We had the same judgmental parents who were as emotionally unavailable as they were critical. Unlike me, though, Bailey had an older sister who actually cared and was someone who would literally come to her rescue at one in the morning. Which led me back to being angry again.
Driving around on a Sunday morning, I tried to think of where she would go. Where would I have gone?
For one thing, she was likely to be hungover. I doubted she’d go to Tiny’s and have a sit-down breakfast all by herself. It was more likely to be somewhere that she could go and grab something to eat or drink and get back to my apartment before I woke up. Which led to one place near here—the Southgate Martinez market.
Sure enough, just as I pulled into the parking lot, Bailey came walking out of the store, eating a burrito that was wrapped in tin foil. She had a horchata drink and a white plastic bag draped over her arm.
I pulled the Honda up and rolled down the passenger window. “Bailey!”
Her face lit up and she even had the nerve to smile. “Oh, hi Paige. Thanks for coming to get me.” She pulled open the car door and got in the passenger side.
“‘Hi, Paige?’ That’s what you have to say to me?” I was mad and not doing a very good job of containing it.
“Should I have said hola?” She took a big sip of her drink, grinning.
I sat there for a moment, contemplating my response. If I blew up at her now, there would be no chance of her listening to me about the bigger stuff I needed to say. So I just took a deep breath and exhaled and smiled back. “Yes. ‘Hola, Paige’ would have been more appropriate around here.”
“How did you know where I was?”
“I just thought about where I would go for hangover food and realized this was the closest place.” I pulled the car out into traffic and asked, “Since when do you drink horchata?”
“Oh, I met this girl at the market. She was wearing the same Twenty One Pilots shirt as me. I don’t see a lot of those in Verde Hills.”
“Speaking of which, did you leave anything at my place or can we go straight there before Mom and Dad get back?”
“No, we’re good.”
I turned the car in the direction of the freeway and listened to her talk before getting into the serious stuff. She reminded me of myself so much at sixteen. Half of her was innocent and naïve and the other half was rebellious and ready to take on the world.
As she talked about the girl she met and how they exchanged phone numbers and how Bailey realized that La Playa is a lot cooler than she thought it was going to be, I realized that I had my moment to interject.
“I’m glad you called me last night and came to spend the night. I think we should try and spend more time together.”
