"Look, I know my sister isn't a saint, but I would never put her in any danger. I'm pretty sure Parker is the same. So if he trusts her with this, then he must be confident in her abilities. Besides, they might not find anything anyway. The theory has holes so he might not be anywhere near. And she'll only be pretending to bepushing Jake Wilson's campaign anyway. If she finds him, she'll report back to us, and we'll step in to take him down."
I shook my head and chewed on my cheek.
"No. No. That's stupid. Plain stupid. It won't work. I know it won't work."
But what if it did?
What if it was that simple and by this time next week Victor would be a thing of the past?
Something pulsed in my gut, but I dismissed it. I didn't need hope right now. Hope would only make things worse when Victor continued to wreak havoc in my life and the lives of everyone I loved.
No. I couldn't hope and I couldn't be happy.
What I could do...was bake. That’s what I did when things got tough. Even if it felt like I was sitting on a ticking time bomb that when detonated, would destroy everything and everyone in its path.
And then what? How would I feel then?
"Right. Let's make some crap cakes," I announced, practically shouting and got to work showing Teddy how when you added the wrong ingredients in the mix, it screwed up the balance of things and how when the balance wasn't right, everything went wrong.
TWENTY-SEVEN
DARE
Itapped my phone screen over and over again but there was still nothing.
It had been a few days now since Autumn had started her recon to uncover Lombardi and still no results. He was a ghost. At this point I was starting to doubt if he was even real. If it weren't for his effect on people, I'd probably believe we made him up. But he was still out there. He'd make a mistake one of these days and we'd find him.
I was about to pull out of my driveway and head to the fields when a black Lexus turned into the farm and I stopped to inspect who was here. I didn't get visitors very often and those that came here certainly didn't drive a Lexus.
As soon as the door opened I recognized the older man with the salt and pepper hair and glasses and I approached to shake his hand.
"Mr. Wilson, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Jake Wilson grabbed my hand tightly and shook it firmly like a true businessman, smiling.
"You know me. I was just doing the rounds, and I thought I'd drop by, see how you're getting on."
I raised an eyebrow barely holding back a smirk.
"Fishing for votes out in the middle of nowhere?"
He shrugged and chuckled.
"What can I say? I'm committed to the cause."
I leaned back against my truck and crossed my arms.
"How's that going? The elections must be soon, right? Feels like you've been running your campaign for ages."
"Is that your shorthand of saying you're sick of me?" Wilson pressed his lips together in an entertained pout and I laughed.
"No. Of course not."
"Relax," he said and put his hands up. "I'm kidding of course. Though should I be concerned you don't know when the elections are?"
I winced.
"Yeah. Fair point. Though to be fair it's easy to lose track of the days out here. I'm surprised we even know what year it is."
