Page 47 of Rage's Solace
Siege asks, “So what’s the plan for the two of you? Do you think Ashton is going to find out you talked?”
Harold looks truly mortified. “We’ve gotta run. Put as much distance between us and the Whitmores as possible.”
Rigs glances at Siege before speaking. “Or hear me out, we could provide you with a safe space until we resolve this situation with Ashton and his father. If they manage to survive, which isn’t likely, they’re going to wind up in jail. Having your witness testimony would go a long way towards putting Ashton away for a very long time.”
I interject, “Ifhe survives, and he ain’t gonna, if I have anything to say about it.”
Emily responds by making a cross over her chest. “God forgive me, but I think it’s for the best if he doesn’t.”
They end up accepting our offer of protection, but Emily’s words really drive home exactly how much of a danger they think Ashton is in general and to Priscilla in particular.
***
I think about that all the way back to the clubhouse. The minute we get there, I pull out my cellphone and call Priscilla. I need to hear her voice to know that she’s okay. I have toapologize for being an asshole, I shouldn’t have stormed out this morning. I should have voiced my concerns about who Mia’s father is. After everything I learned today, I really don’t know. She looks so much like me, but it might just be wishful thinking. Either way I don’t care. I just want both of them in my life.
Worry twists in my gut when she doesn’t respond. Siege walks by with Harold and Emily. I tell him, “I can’t get Priscilla to answer. I’m going to head home to make sure she’s okay. We shouldn’t have called the prospects back in.”
“The person who left the box is in the holding cells, we didn’t think she was in danger, so having four prospects guard your place was overkill. Don’t let the things you learned about Ashton get inside your head. You have a good security system. I’m sure she’s fine.”
Rigs jerks his chin at Tex. “We’d best go with you, just to be on the safe side.”
We head out immediately. Even though my gas tank is getting low, I don’t stop. The bad feeling in my gut is just getting exponentially worse the closer I get to my place, and I can’t shake it off.
Sure enough, Priscilla and Mia are missing from my house. We search high and low, without talking about how my security system was set and my door was locked. That can only mean that she left me again. And I’m kicking myself once more for how I acted.
Rigs walks up with a sheet of paper in his hands. “You should probably read this.”
I drop down in a chair and scan over the handwritten letter Priscilla wrote to me. I feel all the old pain rising in my chest because this situation is so similar to the first time she left me. The only difference is that I can be reassured that she actually wrote the note, and she’s not left me again. But what’s in the note is equally puzzling.
She starts by apologizing for leaving a note. Saying I seemed so angry this morning that she was worried I’d not pick up if she called. She tells me that we need to have a talk, that there’s some things that happened in the past she didn’t tell me about. Then my breath catches.
She says that she thinks Mia might be mine, that she honestly didn’t think she was, but Meli told her about my strawberry allergy which Mia has, and she found my dog tags with my blood group. She had thought Mia was someone else’s, someone she had hoped never to see again. She says she didn’t want to tell me until she was sure, but the way I acted this morning made her worried that I’d already guessed and thought she was lying.
I’m cursing myself for being such an asshole, if I’d spoken to her this morning then maybe now, she’d be safe.
What I read next, has me more than worried. She says she switched on the cellphone I brought back from her old house and there were lots of missed calls from her mother.
The mother she’d not spoken to in seven years.
She wrote that her parents were in Las Salinas and needed to talk to her and she’d be back later.
I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. Priscilla’s parents haven’t been in her life for years, me and my clubbrothers know about the scam they pulled off with Malcolm Whitmore, that they’re supposedly dead. I have an awful thought that Priscilla’s parents and the Whitmores are mixed up in this together.
I realize that I haven’t looked at my security feed, so I jump to my feet and go to the laptop I have set up to save the footage. When I search back in the digital footage, I see a vehicle show up and Priscilla and Mia come out to meet them. I can’t see who’s driving but they both get in and the car speeds off.
It hits me that I was rude to her this morning, and she probably thought I didn’t want her anymore. I could kick my own ass for treating her that way. I truly am my own worst enemy.
Rigs’ hand lands on my shoulder. “You’re looking troubled brother, want to tell me what the letter says?”
I summarize the contents of the letter for him and tell him about seeing the vehicle come to pick up my girls, then finish with, “I hate that she thinks I might not want her, that I might not want Mia. You heard what Harold and Emily said earlier, I think Ashton attacked her and she spent all those years thinking Mia was his. That somehow her parents made her marry Conrad so they’d keep quiet about what Ashton did and get their payout.”
“That’s some wild accusations, but you may be onto something. Though wouldn’t the Whitmores get a DNA test on Mia?”
I shrug, “I don’t know. Maybe they did but thought it better to keep quiet. Maybe her parents were blackmailing them? Maybe Conrad found out that Mia wasn’t his brother’s andresented the fact he’d been forced into a marriage to protect his brother? It’s all so fucking messed up. But the main thing I’m worried about is her parents resurfacing, that can’t just be coincidence.”
He frowns at me, “Can you make out the license plate?”
“No, the video footage isn’t clear enough.” I pull out my phone and try to call her again. It goes to voicemail. I leave a message asking her to call me back.