Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) (27 page)

“I take it that you didn’t know she was married,” Sheriff Williams asked.

“No sir,” I replied, “I didn’t, and I didn’t really handle it well when she told me.”

He asked me a couple more questions, said he’d see what he could do to track her down, but, short of putting out an APB or something, he wasn’t entirely sure he had much to offer. She hadn’t been gone long enough to file a missing persons report and, honestly, I likely didn’t even know enough about her to complete one.

Because, after everything she’d told me, I still didn’t even know her real name.

“You fucked her, didn’t you?”

We stopped by the Copperline to see if Doug had heard from her at all, and he had. She’d called to let him know she wouldn’t be back, that she was sorry for the short notice.

Doug now looked like he wanted to kill me. I didn’t blame him. I kinda wanted to kill me, too.

“In more ways than one,” I gloomily replied.

“Dammit… I didn’t think it would be you, Cody. I told you guys not to fuck her, and now she’s gone.”

“We’re trying to find her.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. I’m not sure how, but that girl’s in trouble and she’s scared.”

“I know, and I actually do know why.”

“I tried to watch out for her. She came in here looking for work, but asked if I could pay her under the table, so I know she was running from something.” He turned to glare at me again. “I told you to stay away from her. As long as she was here, I could have helped keep her safe.”

I slammed my fist down on the bar. “She wasn’t safe here, Doug. The fucker looking for her called this bar. That was him last night on the phone. He called and asked for me because he’d been watching her and knew we’d hooked up.”

“Shit,” Doug muttered. He clenched his jaw and gave me a hard look. “You've gotta find her, Cody.”

“I know.”

I didn’t know where to start or where to look. Ilsa’s phone kept going straight to voicemail. I left message after message, apology after apology, and nothing. I kept hoping Felicity’s dad would turn up with something.

Anything.

I had to find her.

All day I racked my brain trying to think of anywhere she might have gone, but the only thing I knew was that she probably wouldn’t go back to Indianapolis where she was from. That left the rest of the fucking United States, really, and every minute she was gone had me that much more convinced that I’d never see her again.

Justin and I drove all over Ophir and all over Butte, then along the back roads nearby. Brannon and Sophie also cruised around the area, as did Denny and Drew.

Nothing.

We looked everywhere. She was nowhere to be seen.

Hoping Ils would come back, Felicity hung out at the Mofo house with Eoghan for most of the day. She also checked in with her dad from time to time.

Nothing.

I even drove up Pipestone Pass where we’d ridden on my bike, that first time I’d held her and loved her. I desperately hoped with everything in me that she was there, just hiding out. That our little spot on top of the mountain was a place of solace for her.

But there was no sign of her. In the hours she’d been gone, she could truly be anywhere within a couple hundred miles.

Finally, with no place else to look and no way to contact her, I headed back home.

I went straight to my room and collapsed on my bed. The faintest whiff of her scent wafted around me, a reminder that she’d been here. That just when she needed me the most, I’d been a total dick to her and made her run away. I’d been so caught up in the fact that I’d done the unthinkable—I’d slept with a married woman—my mind sort of tuned out that she was scared and suffering.

I lay there for hours trying to sleep, but mostly just wallowing in the fact that she was gone. Missing her. Missing Max. Wishing I could go back in time and undo my petulant, drunken display. When I did finally manage to doze off, thoughts of her filled my dreams. Smiles turning to dread. Laughter turning to fear.

And I slept fitfully, unable to escape the pain of missing her.

My ringing phone woke me up. It was early, barely even light, which meant it was
really
early in the long Montana summer day. I rolled over to my side and glanced at my phone, then jolted awake when I saw Ilsa’s name on the screen.

“Ilsa,” I said into the phone, “Jesus fucking fuck. Where are you?”

“Cody,” she whispered, “I only have a second before Simon comes back.”

For a second everything lurched in my gut.

Fuck.

He had her.

No. God no.

“He caught up with me,” she whispered, feeding my sense of foreboding. “He grabbed Max and told me to get in the car. I couldn’t let him take my son, so I came with him… but I’m so scared.”

“Ils—” I started, but she cut me off.

“I don’t know what to do, but you said once you’d help me. Don’t let him take us back, Cody,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Fuck, Ils, where are you,” I asked, jumping out of bed and dragging on a pair of jeans as I spoke to her. “I’ll help you, I won’t let him take you, but I need to know where you are.”

“I don’t know exactly. He’s taking us back to Indianapolis. We’re someplace east of Billings on I-ninety-four, at a rest area.”

“Okay, listen to me,” I said as I pulled on my shoes and grabbed my keys. “I’m leaving right now, headed that way. I’ll drive like a motherfucker, but I’m a couple hours behind. Hopefully he’ll have to stop for the night, even if he’s coked up, so you’re going to have to call me or text me whenever you can to let me know where you are.”

“Okay,” she replied.

“Turn your phone off in between so you can save your battery.”

“Okay,” she repeated.

“You need to get off the phone now, Ils, so he doesn’t catch you with it, but I’ll drive all the fucking way to Indy if I need to, alright? I’ll break down the goddamn door and take you out of his fucking house.”

“Cody, I’m so scared,” she whimpered.

“I know,” I said as I tore out of my room and down the stairs. The house was quiet in the early morning. “But I won’t let him hurt you anymore. You just do what he says to keep yourself and Max safe.”

“Okay.”

“Give me your home address, Ils, in case your phone dies or something happens where you can’t call.” I leaned over the counter and scribbled it on a piece of paper that I shoved in my pocket. “Now hang up and hide your phone before he comes back.”

“Okay.”

“Ils?”

“Yeah?” She sounded terrified.

“I’m coming to get you. It’ll be okay.”

I heard a shaky breath through the phone, and then a wavering “Okay.”

Then dead air.

I scribbled a note to my roommates, leaving Ilsa’s address there too in case something happened to me.

Then I was out the door, in my truck, and on the road.

Eastern Montana was unique in its beauty. Nothing like the mountain peaks near Ophir, but the wide open skies and prairie seemed to go on forever. It made the world seem so big, made the distance between Ilsa and I seem endless. Miles and miles and miles…

She sent me a text in the middle of the afternoon. They’d crossed into North Dakota and had just passed a small town called Medina. I could almost feel the fear and uncertainty in her short text, and my chest tightened with regret and remorse once again for the way I’d reacted and made her run.

She said Max was safe, but getting fussy from being in the car so long. Simon had said something about maybe stopping in one of the small towns along the road. Judging by their location, I’d cut the time down between us considerably. Of course, I was driving ninety to nothing, determined to stop them.

The sun was low in the sky as I crossed into the Dakotas. The landscape was dry and sparse, the road long and straight before me. The longer it took for another text, the more anxious I got. The more I started imagining all kinds of shit going down.

Had he found her phone? Had he hurt her?

My thumbs drummed nervously on the steering wheel as I pressed a little harder on the gas. It felt like forever.

Finally, just after dark, I got another text. Valley City. Simon was in the office of the AmericInn hotel getting a room for the night.

I stopped to get gas and check Google Maps. Valley City was a little over a hundred miles away from me, and I could be there in just over an hour if I pushed it. I sent her a quick reply asking her to let me know what room, and I’d head straight there.

About forty-five minutes later, maybe thirty miles from Valley City, my phone rang again.

“Cody,” Ilsa gasped, frantic and out of breath. I could hear Max fussing quietly in the background.

“Ils, are you okay? What room are you in? I’m close. Maybe twenty minutes…”

“Simon went to get something at the front desk, and he left Max with me. I ran, Cody. I've got Max and we are back in a bunch of trees behind the hotel.”

“Jesus, be careful. Keep Max quiet and watch out for that fucker. I’m close.”