Chapter 23
Amir
It was getting late and Remi wasn’t back yet. It was hard not to worry, even though he sent me a text every thirty minutes. I hadn’t been prone to anxiety until I became a parent, but now my mind would come up with the dumbest things, like: What if he had sold Mal on the black market?
A couple of the guys shot looks at each other, and I wondered if I’d missed something. Jeffrey was face-first in his phone, and there was a grimace on his lips.
“Darya,” Shawn called.
I watched warily as he made his way over to me. Given his already pissy mood, I didn’t want to push him.
“What’s up?” I asked.
His frown only deepened. Turning his phone around, he showed me an article.
“Oh, great. What’d I supposedly do now?”
I shut my mouth when I read the title: Too Soon for Fatherhood? Red Sox Scandal Deepens With Loss of Child at Car Show.
Snatching the phone, I scrolled. There were pictures, which made my blood turn cold.
In one, Remi was simply staring down at his phone.
It was captioned: Remi Keane ignores his boyfriend’s daughter in a crowd of people.
Another showed Mal running with her hands over her ears.
There was a video, which was allegedly sent in by an anonymous source, that depicted Remi calling for her while he shoved his way through the crowd.
He climbed onto a truck frantically, then the video ended.
“How recent is this?” I asked as I checked when he’d last texted me. Twenty-five minutes ago.
Fuck, was she still lost? How long had it taken Clara to get this article up? There wasn’t much in the body of it except that updates could be expected ‘as the situation unfolds’.
“Just now,” Shawn answered.
“I need to go.”
It wasn’t until I got to the locker room that I remembered Remi had my keys. I called him for the second time, but he didn’t pick up. As I was about to do it again, Avery’s face appeared on the screen.
“Damnit.” I brought it to my ear and continued toward the parking lot. “Hey.”
“Amir, where is she?” Her voice was a higher pitch than normal, matching the frantic beat in my head.
“I’m figuring that out. I just saw the article a couple minutes ago.”
“Why isn’t she with you? How could you let him take her to a car show, of all things?”
“I didn’t let him. He took her to get food.”
“You said we could trust him.”
“I said I trust him, and you agreed. Let’s not start placing blame right now.”
“He wasn’t paying attention to her,” she snapped.
“And you never check your phone when you’re with her, right?” Taking a deep breath, I shoved open the door to go outside. “We don’t know what happened. Clara’s going to twist it in the worst way.”
“I don’t need you to blindly defend him right now. I need you to find our daughter.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.”
She said something, but I didn’t hear her because I saw the car pull into the lot. I started running and reached the parking spot just as he turned into it.
“They’re here.”
“I’m getting on a plane tonight,” Avery said.
“Why?”
“To bring Mal home.”
“Avery, just wait a goddamn minute.”
Mal got out of the car, and I was stunned into silence by the smile on her face.
That, and the paint on it. It made her look like a character from Cars, complete with headlights over her eyebrows.
There were earmuffs on her head that looked like tires.
It was ridiculous, and I was so overcome by relief that I laughed.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She hugged me around the waist and nodded. Remi also had a smile on his face, but it was difficult for me to enjoy it when I had a million questions.
“Everyone’s fine,” I told Avery.
“I’m coming to get her. Don’t let her leave your sight.”
“Don’t be rash. Let me figure out what happened first. I’ll give you a call back.”
“No, put me on the phone with her.”
“I can deal with this myself, Avery. Have some faith in me.”
“Right now, I don’t have any to give.”
“I’ll call you back,” I repeated firmly. Before she could argue, I ended the call and turned to Remi. “What the hell happened?”
“Swear,” Mal sing-songed in a voice entirely unlike her. Actually, it sounded a lot like Remi.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“There’s an article saying you fu—” I glanced at Mal and lowered my voice. “Saying you lost her.”
His mouth dropped open, then he muttered a curse that she didn’t catch. “Is that witch tailing us? Gods, we can’t have a moment of peace. It’s like having a social worker again.”
A few of the guys came out of the building, and I pursed my lips. Nodding toward the car, I waited for Mal to get in before I settled into the driver’s seat. Remi was silent as he sat beside me, his hands folded in his lap. The way his knuckles turned white was a contrast to the relaxed position.
Nobody said a word during the drive. Mal tipped her head back and forth rhythmically as she drew in her notebook, but I knew that she’d listen to everything if we had an argument right here. She’d probably caught on to it all outside, but she didn’t show it.
When we reached the parking garage, I took her hand and held onto it the entire way to the eleventh floor.
She tried to tug away from me, but I didn’t let her go, so she let out a growl and bounced on her toes in the elevator.
Once we were safely inside, I let her pull away, and she took off toward her room.
The door slammed, and I clenched my teeth.
That was my fault. My panic was too high, bleeding into everything I touched right now. From the way Remi leaned his elbows on the counter and covered his mouth, I figured he was going through it too.
“Give me a minute,” I muttered.
Without knocking, I opened Mal’s door. She was lying on her stomach with her face buried in the pillow. Her feet rose and fell as she tapped her toes on the mattress.
“Hey, we need to talk.”
She shook her head, but I sat anyway.
“I know you don’t want to, but it’s important.”
“I’m sorry.”
I considered how to answer. “You’re not in trouble.”
Her head shook again. “Sorry to him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I got him in trouble.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I ran.”
“Yeah, you did. Why’d you run, Mal? What happened?”
“Loud.” Turning onto her back, she stared up at the ceiling. A tear slid free from her eye and rolled down her temple, but when I reached for her, she jerked away. “A boy made fun of me.”
I ground my teeth together but took a breath to steady myself. “Tell me.”
“I did this.” She put her hands on her ears. “He got right here.” Her hand hovered a foot away from her face. “He roared like the car. I didn’t like it.”
“Was . . .” I dreaded asking the question, but I had no choice. “Was Remi not paying attention?”
“He was!” she shouted.
I held my hand up, then lowered it slowly to tell her to simmer down a bit.
“Raven,” she mumbled.
Unsure what to make of that, I decided to move past it. “You scared us, Mal. I need to know what happened.”
“Wasn’t his fault.”
“Okay, that’s good.”
In fractured sentences, she explained what had happened. When she recounted what he’d said to her, I couldn’t help but think of the despondent look on his face after he touched her at the field while she was overwhelmed. When I’d left him in the kitchen a minute ago, he was much the same.
“My fault,” she finished. “Not Remi’s.”
“It’s not your fault. You can’t help that you got scared.”
She huffed. “Tyr let the giant wolf bite his hand off to help his friends. I only have to breathe so people don’t worry about me.”
An unexpected laugh escaped me. “Is Remi telling you stories?”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “I like it.” Looking at her phone, she wrinkled her nose. “Uh oh.”
“Mom?” She nodded. “You should answer it.”
“Can I sleep instead?”
“She was scared. Talk to her first, then you can sleep.”
“Okay.”
She brought the phone to her ear, and I slowly reached out to brush her hair out of her face.
She was okay. That was what mattered right now.