The plea in her tone shattered something inside of me. “When will you be ready?”
“Maybe never.”
“You can’tseriously?—”
The gaze she leveled at me was the closest she came to looking like the Isabel I’d known most of my life. Proud, defensive, fierce.
I should walk away. Respect her wishes and leave her to whatever she was trying to do. But every instinct I had was screaming that this was very wrong. That whatever had sent her here had nothing to do with her dad.
“Just go. Please.”
“No,” I said.
She blinked. “What?”
“I’m not leaving. You want to stay here and hide? Fine. But I’m staying too.”
“That’s insane.”
“Probably.” I crossed my arms. “But I’m not going back to Paso Robles without getting some answers. And I’m sure as hell not leaving you alone when you look like you haven’t slept since I last saw you.” I reached for my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling Baron. Not to tell him where you are, but to let him know I’m with you.”
“Kick—”
I was already dialing. Baron answered on the first ring.
“Did you find her?”
“Yes. She’s safe, and she’s with me.”
“Where?” His words were sharp. “I’ll send someone?—”
“She doesn’t want to come home yet. She needs time.”
A long silence. “Time? Is this about the trust fund? Tell her if she thinks running away will change my mind?—”
“This isn’t about money.”
“Everything with Isabel is about money. Or attention.” Another pause. “What’s she doing? Who’s she with?”
“She’s working?—”
“Working?” His laugh was bitter. “My daughter has never worked a day in her life.”
I bit back the response about how he maybe didn’t know his daughter as well as he thought. “She’s safe. That’s what matters.”
“What matters is she disappeared without a trace. Do you know how that looks? Jesus, now, I have to call the sheriff and tell him sheneeds some time.” His voice hardened. “You tell her she has two weeks to stop this nonsense and come home. After that, I’m cutting her off completely. No trust fund. No credit cards. Nothing.”
I glanced at Isabel, who stood close enough to hear her father through the phone, except his words didn’t seem to faze her.
“I’ll let her know.”
I hung up without saying goodbye and looked into her eyes.
“He gave you two weeks,” I said softly.
