“Rent a room?” I parroted in disbelief. “He told Drey he wanted to buy a house.”
“Plans change,” Chuck sniped. “Apparently he has decided to leave the country but that has to wait until after the baby is born.”
Oh, fuck.
“But..why?” When Chuck didn’t respond, I groaned. “I mean, why does he want to leave the country?”
“I didn’t ask,” Chuck huffed. “I figured I’ll have plenty of time when he gets here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Obviously, you’re pissed at me but it’s not like I threw him out. I came in from the patio and found his keys on the table with a huge-ass check.” I knew from the sharp intake of breath that Chuck was going to argue, so I kept going. “Look, can we do this later? His asshole family hasn’t been arrested yet so he shouldn’t be wandering the streets without protection.”
As expected,thatgot Chuck’s attention. “Shit.”
“Yup,” I agreed. “Now, do you know what route he was taking to the compound?”
“Not really,” Chuck muttered. “He’s never driven here before, so I’d assume he’ll use the navigation program on his phone?”
“Okay, good,” I said thoughtfully. “I’ll set my phone and see if I can catch up to him. Chuck, if you hear from him again, would you see if you can get a location and talk him into sitting tight until I can catch up?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Great.” I ran my fingers through my hair, tugging on it as I tried to concentrate. “I better get going.”
“Be safe, man.”
“Yeah, I will. See you soon. And Chuck?” I waited for his responding grunt. “I’ll be sharing that room with him.”
Chuck snorted out a laugh. “I guess we’ll see about that when he gets here.”
Ignoring that, I disconnected the call and reached for my go bag, detouring through the laundry room to add the clothes that Chuck had brought to the motel. I locked the house up and was on my way down the road, following the map on the smart phone screen at nearly twice the posted speed limit. With a little luck, I’d catch up to Paul in plenty of time to be sure that no harm could come to him.
Chapter Forty-Four
Paul
I hadn’t even been driving for an hour when the stress of the situation began to overwhelm me. Chuck had been more than kind when I called to beg for a temporary place to stay. He’d explained that they couldn’t actually rent me a room like I’d asked because of the way their non-profit licensing was set up, but he said they could allow me to stay in a small guest cottage while I sorted things out. Still, the thought of not only being completely on my own for the first time ever, but also being responsible for the safety of an entirely new and completely helpless little person was enough to make my stomach roil. Deciding that it might help to get a cup of tea and something to eat, I pulled off the road when the flashing neon sign of a roadside diner came into view.
The place was empty, but it seemed that I had just missed a rush. A middle-aged waiter was clearing dirty dishes from a table near the door and a few more dirty tables waited their turn further into the large room.
“C’mon in and have a seat, hun,” he called out without raising his eyes from the table he was wiping. “Be right with you.”
“Great,” I called back, picking my way to a table against the back wall that gave me a good view of the parking lot through the oversized plate-glass window.
The waiter dumped the dishes unceremoniously into a big tub on the dining counter and walked over to me, the loud clatter apparently catching the attention of someone in the kitchen.
“If you broke that shit, I’m gonna take it out on your ass,” a deep voice growled loudly.
The waiter laughed and rolled his eyes. “Not sure exactly what kind of threat he thinks that is for an old queen like me.”
Caught off guard, I choked on a laugh.
“Never seen you around here before,” the waiter commented as he placed a laminated single page menu on the table in front of me. “My name’s Gene, hun. What can I get you to drink?”
“Um, do you have tea?”
“I do,” Gene said with a warm smile. “but you look a bit peaked. How does a nice cup of warm apple cider sound, instead?”
My stomach rumbled, catching me by surprise. “Really good, actually,” I admitted.
