She wasn’t owed a damn thing, but I’d discovered over the past year it was easier to give her what she wanted. It kept her from contacting my siblings. They’d all done so much for me already, this was the least I could do for them. Keeping this vile woman out of the happy lives they’d built for themselves.
“How much this time?” The words burned like acid coming up my throat.
“Ten grand.”
I nearly threw up all over again. “I don’t have ten thousand dollars. You need to be reasonable.”
“Bullshit,” she hissed. “You got that fancy-ass store. I know you gotta be making money, and I want my cut.”
I nearly choked on my tongue. “I own a small-town bookstore. It’s not like I head a Fortune 500 company or something. I don’t have ten thousand.” The pounding in my skull intensified. I’d officially reached the point where noise was enough to do me in. “The best I can do is five.”
There was a moment of silence. “Fine. I expect to see it in my account tomorrow, or you’ll see what happened today is the least I can do.”
With that, she hung up.
I managed to find the strength to clean up the worst of the mess. Then I turned off all the lights, silenced my phone, and crawled into bed, curling around Yoda and shutting out the rest of the world.
Chapter Twenty
Tanner
Iwent to Holly’s contact in my phone and tapped the screen for what felt like the millionth time. Just like all the times before, it went straight to voicemail.
The knots in my stomach twisted tighter every time her cheerful, melodic voice came through, asking me to leave a message.
I glanced at the clock on the mantel again. Holly was supposed to have been here over an hour ago for dinner, but she never showed and wasn’t answering her phone.
I couldn’t keep my concern at bay. A thousand different scenarios played through my head as I paced the floor like a caged animal, each one worse than the one before. Was she ghosting me? Had she been in some sort of accident? Is she in the hospital, hurt? And if so, would anyone bother letting me know?
I couldn’t stay still for more than a handful of seconds at a time. When it all became too much, I did a quick Google Search for her store and pulled up the phone number.
My heart felt like it was lodged in my throat as I waited for someone, anyone, to answer.
“One More Chapter,” a bright, chipper voice said into my ear. “This is Cara. How can I help you?”
I fisted my free hand, flexing and unflexing my fingers. “Yeah, hi. Is Holly there?”
“No, I’m sorry. She actually left a while ago. Is there anything I can help you with?”
It felt like my lungs were being squeezed in a vise. “Uh, no... thank you.” I hung up and dropped my arm to my side like the phone in my hand was too heavy to keep up.
“Fuck it,” I muttered to myself, then I stomped through the living room and into the kitchen, snatching my keys off the island and rushing out the door to my Range Rover.
I managed to shave a couple minutes off the drive time from the cabin on the outskirts of town to the shop in downtown Hope Valley.
I didn’t bother parking out front since she wasn’t at the shop. Instead, I drove around to the back alley. The sight of her SUV parked in its normal spot only made my concern grow.
I killed the engine and climbed out, my long legs eating up the distance to the back door in no time. Holly had given me the code to the back door the week before, and I didn’t hesitate to key it in. As soon as the door buzzer sounded, I grabbed the knob, jerked the door open, and rushed up the stairs.
Please let her be here. Please let her be all right.
As soon as I hit the landing, I pulled a steadying breath into my lungs before slowly blowing it past my lips, using the same breathing exercises I did every time I stood in the crease. It usually helped center me, to get my mind right and my focus on the puck, but right now, I needed to calm my racing heart.
I rapped my knuckles against the wood of her front door. “Holly?” I called out after a few seconds with no answer. Icounted five heartbeats before knocking again. “Sunshine, it’s Tanner. You here?”
I reached for the knob and tested it with a small twist. It turned with no problem, and I slowly eased it open farther. I leaned past the threshold, unable to see anything through the pitch black. I was a few steps into the apartment when Holly’s strange looking cat appeared in front of me, letting out that short, quiet meow.
He wound around my feet, headbutting my ankle and demanding affection. I bent and gave him a scratch between his ears. “Hey, buddy. Is your momma around?”
