“It’s done?” he asked.
“She’s cut off. For good,” I confirmed. “All the money is cut off, and I gave her ninety days to get the fuck out of my house.”
“I know it’s not my place to say anything Miss Cross, but you should have done that a long time ago,” Rick told me. “No offense, but your mother is a selfish bitch who never thought of anyone but herself. She’s been living the high life on your money and never showed an ounce of appreciation. I’m glad to seeyou finally getting her out of your life. Life’s too short for toxic people, and Barbara Cross is as toxic as they come.”
It was literally the most words I’d ever heard my security chief say before, and he’d worked for me for fifteen years. He looked almost as shocked as I was by it. He might be quiet, but he certainly was wise. And loyal.
“Thank you for saying that, Rick,” I said, patting his arm. “It means a lot.”
He gave me a small smile. “Now let’s figure out if we can locate your girl. She’s the opposite of toxic.”
Hailey
“How are you feeling, honey?”
I looked up from harvesting some spinach to see my mother standing next to me, giving me a concerned mom look.
“I’m mostly fine, Mom. I just… I really miss Tori.”
“You could call her from the landline,” Mom reminded me. “You’ve been here four days now. I bet your Tori is probably really worried about you by now.”
“I didn’t bring a charger,” I said. “My phone is totally dead so I can’t power up enough to get her number.”
“This is why I don’t like cell phones,” Mom said. “If you don’t have the phone, you’ve lost everything.”
“I need to buy a new charger, I’ll probably head into town after lunch.”
Although Ferndale was tiny, there was a larger town about twenty minutes away where the community members went to get anything they couldn’t grow or make themselves.
“Sounds like a good idea. You can use the cell tower while you’re there.”
I had to smile at my mother’s rudimentary understanding of cell phone technology. “I’ll go today.”
I should have gone earlier, but part of me was afraid that someone in town would recognize me from whatever salacious pictures were posted on the internet.
“Tori is probably wondering why you haven’t called her,” Mom reminded me.
I’d filled Mom in about our relationship, including the fact that I’d fallen for Tori and she’d been making noises about me moving to L.A. with her.
I shook my head. “No, I texted her and told her I was coming here and would be off the grid for a while. She knows you live in the middle of nowhere.”
Mom squatted down and started pulling some kale in the next row of the garden.
“If something crazy happened to me like what happened to you girls, and the person I loved disappeared, even if I knew where they were going, I’d still be worried. And maybe a little hurt to not have any communication.”
“My apartment was surrounded by those vultures,” I said defensively. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Mom shrugged. “You know I love having you here, honey. Hell, if it was up to me you’d get a plot of land, build yourself a little cabin, and live here with us again. But it seems like another option was going back to Tori’s house and handling everything that went down together.”
I stared at my mother, surprised that I hadn’t thought of that myself. It’s not like Tori wouldn’t have contacted the pilot and asked him to turn the plane around to come back and get me. I guess I was just too used to handling things myself. Not that I’d ever handled anything like this before.
Just then we heard a car coming down the gravel road that was the de facto Main Street of this little community. It was a big black SUV, driving slowly, but still kicking up dust and gravel.
“Fucking cops,” Mom muttered, her distrust of police evident in the way her spine stiffened and her expression soured.
“It’s Tori,” I assured her, my feet moving in that direction before I even realized what I was doing.
Sure enough, as soon as the SUV pulled to a stop, Tori was throwing open the passenger’s side door and running towards me. I met her halfway, throwing my arms around her waist and tilting my head up to meet her lips as they came crashing down on mine.
