Priest (A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Love Story) (67 page)

When we got to the church I jumped out and
went straight to the place where the meeting had been the night before. The
door was locked.

“Jessie, the office is over here.” I
followed Paul over to another door and he knocked on it. Mike, the guy who had
led the group the night before answered the door. I thought I’d been shocked
all I could be lately. But when Mike pulled open the door and saw Paul his face
lit up and he said, “Hey Paul! How are you?”

“Hi Mike. I’m okay. Jessie here is looking
for her mom.”

Once again…What the hell? I didn’t have
time to worry about it right now though so I tucked it away for later. “My mom
came to the NA meeting last night. She’s about forty, looks a lot like me. Her
name is Lynn…” Mike was still looking at me with a neutral expression. “Listen,
I’m not trying to make you break any kind of confidentiality. I’m just really
worried about her. I dropped her off last night and she never made it home.”

“I remember Lynn,” he said. “She was here,
for the entire meeting. She even participated a little. She left when it was
over though, Jessie. I haven’t seen her since.”

“Shit! Damn! I’m sorry. I forgot this was
a church.”

“It’s okay. Do you have any other ideas
where to look for her? Did you call her friends?” I felt tears stinging the
corners of my eyes. She doesn’t have any friends, at least none that I knew. If
I could find them, I doubt they would be in the condition to tell me anything.

“I’ll call around,” I told him. “Thank
you.” I heard my voice crack and I got out of there. I didn’t want to cry in
front of a stranger. I didn’t want to cry in front of Paul for that matter.

“Maybe she went to stay with a friend?”
Paul said as we walked out to the car.

“You don’t understand. If that’s the case,
she’s still not in a good place. I made her feel bad about herself yesterday
and then I abandoned her here. I should have stayed and taken her home. What if
something happened to her? What if she’s not in a safe place? It’s going to be
my fault.” Paul didn’t say anything else as we got back into the car. I took
out my phone and started looking up and calling homeless shelters. There were
only three in the city that were staffed during the day. They all told me that
they didn’t take names on the people that stayed there, but when I described
her they said her description didn’t sound familiar.

I started calling all the crappy motels
close by next. Paul just sat there watching me. His eyes looked sad and
concerned.

He waited for me to exhaust myself with
phone calls that led nowhere before starting the car and saying, “I’m going to
drop you at home.”

I just looked at him. That was fine. He
couldn’t be bothered to stick by me when it was my family in trouble then that
was just fine.

When we got to my apartment he said, “I
want you to stay here where you’re safe. Make some more phone calls. Maybe
she’ll come home while you’re here. I know some places in the city where the
druggies hang out. I’m going to check them out and I’ll be back.”

The only part of that sentence I actually
heard was “druggie.” Did he actually just call my mother a “druggie?” What the
fuck? I didn’t say a word. I just got out of the car and slammed the door. This
was too much for me right now. I needed to find my mother.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

I unlocked the door, slammed into my
apartment and threw my purse and keys across the room as I did. How dare Paul
call my mother a druggie? He didn’t know her. Hell…he barely knew me. We barely
knew each other. I had told him just a little bit about Mom the night he had
dinner here, but I never used that word… “Druggie.” To me it would have been
comparable to him calling her a bitch. It’s a derogatory term and not one I
want to be banded about when someone’s talking about my mother. You just don’t
go around calling people’s mothers names. Why doesn’t he know that? Besides, he
heard me say she went to an NA meeting, so obviously he was trying. Was he one
of those kinds of guys who couldn’t give a person a break? No second chances
for anyone unless they were in his family and then the second chances ran amok.
How dare he come from where he does and judge my mother! He was so obviously
not perfect…so obviously not raised in a perfect home to begin with. Damn him!

I walked over to pick up my keys and
caught sight of the wall out of the corner of my eye. I sat down on the couch
and looked at it. It was a forest. The leaves were both light and dark green
like shadows were being cast across them and the little stream that ran through
them looked real enough to take a drink out of. The rocks were tan and gray and
the water formed bubbles around them. The path through the trees looked like it
led into a place where there was light. The sky wasn’t visible because the
umbrella of trees blocked it out. It looked peaceful and I’d be willing to bet
that my mother had painted it because it was a place she wanted to be…at peace
for a change. I know she doesn’t want to live like this…she just doesn’t know
how to live any other way. When we find her I’m going to make sure she knows I
will be here to help her, always. She doesn’t have to live like this. I can
help her get better.

I couldn’t sit still. I got up and paced
and then I decided to make some more phone calls. I looked up the number for
the guy “Tyler” that she’d been living with before she came to live with me and
I called him.

When he answered I said, “Hi Tyler. This
is Jessie, I’m Lynn’s daughter.”

For a second, I thought he’d hung up.
Finally, he said, “Yeah, um…Lynn’s not here…”

“I know. She was here, staying with me…I
think she’s using again and she’s gone off missing and I’m worried. Would you
have any idea where I might look for her?”

“Not really. The bar I used to play music
at was one of her favorite places. It’s called “Sequoia Club.” You might want
to call there and see if anyone has seen her.”

“Okay, I’ll try that. Hey Tyler…”

“Yeah?”

“Was she using drugs, when she was with
you?”

“No. She went to that rehab over in
Whittier. She was clean after that as far as I knew…at least six months,” he
said.

That was what she had told me. She had
been clean for over half a year. This was just a slip-up, not even enough to be
classified as a relapse. We could get her back on the right track again.

“Thank you, Tyler.”

“Sure.” He hung up. Whatever my mother had
done to him, she’d burnt her bridge. It was obvious in his voice. I couldn’t
hold that against him though, I’m her daughter and look at the things she’d
done to me. Rationally I know I should walk away. Emotionally, I can’t.

I looked up the number for that bar he
told me about and I called it. A woman named Wanda answered. I told her who I
was and said, “I’m looking for my mother Lynn. She used to come in with Tyler
Grant…a red-haired lady, green eyes…”

“I know Lynn. She ain’t been here in about
a week though, honey.”

“Okay, thanks. Wouldn’t you have any idea
where else I might look?”

“I really don’t, sweetie. But I have your
number on caller ID here. If I see her or hear anything I’ll call you. Is she
okay?”

“I’m sure she is,” I lied. In my head I
was thinking of all kinds of horrifying scenarios. “Thank you,” I said. I
called a couple more motels. They all claimed to not see her. But they were
cheap, creepy motels and the type of clientele that frequented it liked to keep
a low profile. I was even more frustrated when I hung up. I didn’t want to, but
I finally decided I was going to bite the big bullet and call Justin. If
someone was selling her drugs, I was pretty sure it was him. I’d rather pull
out my own molars with a pair of rusty pliers than talk to him, but I had to
find her. I was pacing the floor as I made my phone calls and as I was about to
punch in Justin’s number I walked past the window. There was a police car out
in front. Shit! I put the phone down and trying not to stand right in the
window where he could see me I took another look. There was a man in it…a big
man. It was Mitch, I was sure of it. Fuck! What does he want from me now?

While I was pondering that, Mitch was
apparently getting out of the car and coming up to my door. I heard him
knocking. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. I was too pissed at the
world. Mom for disappearing and making me worry…Paul for…a lot of things…and
Mitch for just basically being an asshole.

I pulled the door open and said, “What?”
Then, without giving him a chance to answer I said, “I don’t have time for your
shit today. I don’t know when the hell you ever have time for real police work.
You’re always so busy stalking people you big freak! Leave me alone. I have my
own problems.”

Mitch just stood there and looked at me
while I ranted and when I finally took a breath he said, “Can I come in?”

“No! Jeez! You’re a lunatic! Go away!”

“Jessie, it’s about your mother. Do you
want me to discuss it out here where just anyone can hear?”

Oh shit! Son of a bitch! I stepped back
from the door and let him in. I didn’t really have a choice, as was becoming
the norm lately. Once he was in I closed the door and said, “What do you know
about my mother?” Mitch was looking at the artwork on my walls with an amused
expression on his face. I really wasn’t in the mood. “Hey! What do you know
about my mother?” I repeated it, this time annunciating each syllable.

“She’s down at the station,” he said,
still in that calm voice with that dead-eyed expression. What Marie ever saw in
him was completely beyond me. “Nice art on the walls by the way.”

“She’s where? Why is she at the station?
The police station?”

Mitch chuckled and said, “No, I just came
by to let you know she was at the gas station.”

“Cut the crap Mitch! What have you done to
my mother?”

“I didn’t do anything to her. Your mother
was picked up for buying drugs from an undercover cop. I’m here as a concerned
friend….”

“Friend? Are you freaking kidding me? We
are so far from friends that we may as well be on separate continents. You are
not now and will never be my friend. Get that straight.” I grabbed my purse and
keys and now wearing an amused expression as if my tirade was funny he said,
“Are you leaving?”

“I’m going to get my mother. Excuse me.”
He was standing between me and the door. I was an idiot for ever letting him
back in here.

“You can’t just “go get her,” Jessie.
That’s not how this works.” I was afraid I already knew how this was going to
work, but again, I had to ask.

Dropping my purse and slumping down in a
chair because my legs were shaking so badly they would hardly hold me up, I
said, “Tell me, Mitch. How does this work?”

He sat down on my couch and seemed to be
making himself comfortable as he said, “I can bring mom home…without a single
blemish on her pristine record….”

“Like you did for Marie way back when?
Then you can have her arrested for a “failure to appear” and use all of this to
blackmail us again someday?”

“You are misinformed. I did what I could to
help Marie way back then because I knew she came from a bad place. I didn’t
mean to fall in love with her, but I did. I didn’t mean to make a baby, but I
did. I would have never used any of that against her if she had given me any
other choice. She stole my son, Jessie. Tell me you don’t think I have a right
to be just a little bit pissed off.”

“But why fuck with me, and my mother? This
is between you and Marie and Paul. Why do you want to keep dragging me into
it?”

“Because as long as I’ve known that little
shit Paul he has hated me. He’s done everything he can to keep me first from
Marie and now from Victor. He thinks he’s such a tough guy and I know that he’s
just arrogant enough to have confided in the girl he’s tapping.”

“You’re disgusting,” I said.

“Oh forgive me…the girl he’s “making love”
to,” he said with another lewd laugh. “Whatever. The point is that I know that
you know where he and his sister are keeping my boy. All I need from you is an
address and as soon as I find out you’re not lying to me, your mother walks
out, Scott free.”

“I don’t know how you look at yourself in
the mirror,” I said. What the hell was I supposed to do? This was my entire
fault. I promised myself after Justin that I wasn’t going to do this
again…falls for with a guy who is battling one demon after the other. This is
just what I deserve for not running away the second that he told me about his
sister, or at the very least, the second Mitch showed up. I couldn’t trade my
own mother’s safety for Marie and Victors. Damn it! What the hell was I going
to do?

PULSE
#4

CHAPTER
ONE

I was looking up into the eyes of a
monster. I honestly thought he stood too close on purpose...that way I had to
tip my head back to look at him. Mitch was a wild card. I don’t think he even
knew what he was going to do next. He wanted me to trade my mother’s safety for
Paul’s whereabouts. In a shaky voice I finally said, “Look, I can’t make that
kind of decision in a split second. You’re going to have to give me more time.
It doesn’t matter which one of your choices I pick, someone gets hurt.”