welcome.”
“So how do I get in touch with my sister?” she asked.
“Well, last I heard they were at my wife’s place. They’re probably running around getting paperwork submitted. Let’s give them a call, shall we?”
Trenton put the phone on speakerphone while the phone rang and rang. Hannah tensed up.
“My sister is always in touch with me,” she said.
Trenton touched her arm and addressed her patiently.
“I think she and Bull hit it off the way you and John have.”
“Understood, but if she saw all my calls and texts to her, she’d return the call no matter what,” countered Hannah.
“Let me ask the other guys if they’ve heard from them. In the meantime, I will have the property manager who watches my wife’s house to run over and take a look. Don’t worry, honey. They’re divorced by now. I’m sure of it, and if worse comes to worse, they’re in a casino hotel wearing each other out.”
But she did worry. Hannah was fine for about an hour or so, driving around on the highway, enjoying the car before she headed to work. But still no word from Melinda. Hannah’s sister officially kicked John out of her head. She was sick with worry. Her boss told her to have faith. She put one foot in front of the other and got through her shift.
John texted her while she was on the clock. She was so beside herself with thinking the worst that she didn’t feel like talking to him. How quickly things changed. After the third text, she finally replied “slammed” to excuse why she was not answering.
After work, Hannah went for a drive to clear her head. She drove to Lake Sakakawea and parked. If she went home and ignored John, he would just come over. She just needed to be alone and think things out.
Chapter 13
Hannah sat on the shore of the lake and cried. All the tears that she had never cried before, after her mother and father died, after Cranston took utter control over her sister’s and her life, and now that her sister was not answering back, she cried even harder.
She cried so hard she felt like throwing up. The force of pain came up through her, and she just let it pass. It made her flicker in and out of consciousness. It wiped her out.
After what she thought was a few minutes, Hannah gave up her drama and decided to go home. She reached for her phone, but it was dead. She went to start the car, and the battery was also dead.
Shit! It was freezing outside. She was all alone. Surely, she hadn’t been out there that long. She prayed. It was the only thing she thought of doing. She felt a strange peace like, as much as this was a good thing to get all worked up about, she knew it was going to be okay. It was like someone placed a hand on her and assured her everything was going to be okay.
As she let go of the situation completely, she heard a vehicle in the distance. Maybe she had not been paying attention previously, but she was pretty sure it was the first one she had heard since she got there.
She knew that sound. It was not a car; it was a Harley. It was John. It was a miracle.
“I ran out of juice,” she said shyly as she got out of the car.
“You did,” he said sternly.
He removed a jumper battery from the trunk and hooked it up to Hannah’s battery. His brows gathered together as he regarded her sternly.
“I needed time to think,” she said.
“Did you read my texts?” he asked.
“My phone died,” she said.
“No doubt. It’s one in the morning,” he said.
“Wow. Time sure flies,” she stammered. “How did you find me?”
“Trenton has a tracking device on the car in case it gets stolen,” he said. “He called to let me know Melinda finally connected with him. I told him I didn’t know where you were. So we found you.”
“How’s my sister?” she asked.
“She’s fine,” he said. “Like we thought, she and Bull are into each other. She got her divorce, and they celebrated.”
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped closer to him.
He bore
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes