Chapter 22
Rhodes
In Seattle, groceries were delivered by a service, and even the cooking was handled by one.
Most of the week, I hardly made it home for dinner because I was either at work or out of the country.
Weekends were times for Opal and me to hang out and do father-daughter things, and we loved exploring or cooking together.
But being here made me realize that I had been a hands-off father for years, and I wasn’t proud of that.
This was my reset, but that didn’t mean I was going to flounder around.
Resources were meant to be used, and I wasn’t going to be stupid.
Even if I wanted to spend time with Opal, that didn’t mean I couldn’t tilt things in my favor a little.
A bi-weekly house cleaning would give me valuable time during the day to work, and I’d figure out some of the other things that would keep us both happy. I wasn’t trying to be a martyr.
The grocery list on my phone had over twenty items on it, which was nineteen more than I'd ever had to think about before. Now there were things like baby carrots and ranch dressing on there. I’d already texted Delphina for a few lunchbox options to help with some quick meals.
Kipp said she was amazing with her catering business, and he’d been putting together a menu of ready-made meals for some of his cabin residents.
If Delphina wasn’t careful, she’d have a full meal prep business before she knew it. Maybe I’d invest.
Now I was standing in the produce aisle of the grocery store. This was the kind of place where hand-written signs hung over the bins, and there was a guy at the register who had strong opinions about where you could buy local honey. (He wasn’t shy about sharing them either.)
Opal decided she wanted tacos for dinner, like the ones we had at our favorite taqueria, and guacamole.
Hell, that was an idea I could get behind.
Now I had to figure out how to pick an avocado, so I watched three videos on the topic, but none of them agreed on a single method.
Now, I was the creep squeezing… fruit? It had a seed, so… fruit.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket with an incoming call.
I checked it automatically: Briggs sent things at all hours, East sent updates about the fence work, and Opal's school could theoretically notify me if anything happened. For half a second, the name on the screen didn’t even register because my brain was still in avocado territory, checking for ripeness.
Nobody wanted one that was rock hard. Firm, but not too firm, was what the video said.
“Wade? Someone tried to grab me.” Her breaths were coming in pants, and mine nearly stopped altogether as I recognized Sage’s voice.
“Where are you? I’m on my way.” I was already moving, my brain locking into the crisis, as I was running out of the store, the avocados forgotten and my basket left behind.
“Creekside. The gas station. Rhodes?” She paused for a hot second, obviously confused. “Did I call you?”
“I’m glad you did. Are you safe now?” Everything in me locked onto her answer, and what I’d do next if she wasn’t.
She paused, then gathered herself. “I locked myself in my van. In the back.”
“Good,” I murmured as I started the engine, switched her to speaker, and looked up the gas station. Six minutes away. Fuck. “We’re going to figure this out, okay? Stay there for me. I’m on my way right now. Just a few minutes.”
“Ok..ay.” Each breath she took seemed further apart than the last. Was she having a panic attack? Frantically, I tried to think of something to calm her down.
“Tell me about your plants. Wade says you have a collection at home. What are their names?”
“My plants?”
“Yeah. Your plants. You told Opal and me all about how important that was. You didn’t lie, did you? Chantrelle will be so disappointed.”
“Well, there’s Vera …” She started a litany that I was ashamed that I was only half listening to, but it seemed to be helping her calm down while I messaged Wade and drove at the same time.
She sounded completely different from the happy-go-lucky version I knew, like someone holding themselves with deliberate effort, and it hit me hard in the chest like a physical blow.
I took a turnoff harder than I needed to, but tactical driving was a skill I’d been trained in, and it was proving useful right now.
My truck’s suspension absorbed the corner, spitting gravel as it went.
“Keep me on the line. Talk to me, Tiny.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I was just trying it out. You give me nicknames.”
“Ugh. I call you descriptors. I’m not actually tiny. You are actually tall. Gigantic. You’re impossible.”
The chuckle was instant. She was wrong because she was small. “When it comes to me, you’re small. So … it’s a descriptor.”
The gas station came into view as she spoke.
“I’m not sure what happened.” There was an audible change in her breathing.
“I was just making a delivery for the Handlers. It’s their fiftieth, and they’re really sweet, but I had to stop for gas because this van is old and a gas hog.
Then I had to pee because Lila brought me chai.
So I went to use the bathroom,” she stopped.
“When I came out, someone tried to grab I was so scared. Wade had said …”
Just hearing her tell me she was scared, and the thought that someone had put their hands on her, felt like acid in my veins. Clenching the steering wheel, I tried to focus. I was almost there and could assess the situation myself. Then I’d see that she was okay.
Creekside Gas Station didn’t try to break the mold, with its squat building and two pumps.
Sage had parked off to the side near the bathrooms in the back, where a commotion wouldn’t necessarily be seen.
I pulled in quickly enough that my tires gripped the gravel and spat it out when I turned, so my truck blocked the van’s back doors, close enough that nobody was getting through without a barrier first.
“I’m here, okay. I’m going to knock on the back of the van.” I was already scanning the parking lot, but everything looked completely normal.
She was pale, all her red hair springing from its braid, and both hands wrapped around her phone like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth right now.
She looked up at me and slumped, closing her eyes for a moment. “Hey.”
“Fancy seeing you here.” Getting into the van, I closed the door behind me so we wouldn’t be exposed. I still wasn’t sure what was going on, and no way was I going to let us get ambushed while I was sitting in the middle of nowhere. “Are you hurt?”
“Not really. Just scared.”
She was still hunched over her knees, a posture that made me wonder whether she was telling the truth. It felt like I had swallowed broken glass just thinking about the possibilities, but I forced the thoughts down. Assess. That’s what I needed to do right now.
Getting down on my knees in front of her, I said, “I’m going to check. Is that all right?” I waited for her nod of agreement before tilting her face up with my palms to look for any signs of harm, relying on the skills drilled into me by years of fieldwork.
Her color was off, but her eyes tracked, and her pupils were equal. She allowed me to turn her arms over, revealing marks where she’d been grabbed. The pale, soft underside of her skin was red, though there was no bruise yet—just a flush indicating one might develop.
"That's going to bruise," I said, trying to keep my breathing even, even though my heart seemed to be pounding out of my chest, stroking the edges of the marks.
"I know." Her voice was steadier now. "It's not bad. It could be worse.”
She looked at me again, those light hazel eyes of hers seeing something that made her breathe out softly.
We were packed tightly in the van now, and she scooted a little closer to me.
She was right. Things could be so much worse.
When I was in the military, I thought I’d seen the worst things a human could do to someone, but it seemed it was just the tip of the iceberg.
Now that I was in the private sector, it seemed that the depravities that I was exposed to were even worse.
"It's bad enough,” I grunted.
“Thank you for coming. I meant to call Wade. I should have probably called 911 or something, but I was panicking, I guess.” She picked at the edge of her fingernail where she had some dirt.
I already knew that the call had been meant for her brother, but it stung a little now. It was absolutely stupid, but I wanted to be her first call. Even looking at her now, I could see the shock. Who the fuck expects to be attacked coming out of the gas station? Especially here?
“Wade should be here any second.” She leaned forward into me, balancing her cheek on my shoulder.
“We’re going to figure this out. Whoever laid hands on you is going to be found and punished.
” That was a vow from me to her. She might not understand it yet, but I was not the kind of man who let these sorts of things go unanswered.
Tires screeched outside, letting me know the cavalry had arrived. I still angled myself to block the door with my body, kept my hand on my piece, and reached over to clamp Sage tightly to me.
“Rhodes!” Wade called from outside, his voice unmistakably tinged with panic for his sister. A thump sounded on the metal panel of the van.
“Clear,” I called back, letting him know Sage was safe and the area was secure.
Wade wrenched the door open, taking everything in with a practiced look. Behind him, another patrol car pulled in, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I could see East’s truck barreling into the parking lot.
“I haven’t looked for any evidence or anything yet. Sage was my first priority,” I barked out.
There was a moment when he looked at his sister and then at me, gave a nod, and shifted into his professional mode. It was one of the things I appreciated about working with him before — how well he adapted in a crisis.
He took a steadying breath, as if he were calming himself now that he’d see her in person. “Can you tell me what happened?” He tipped his cowboy hat back with one finger.
The way her van was parked was unsafe, and I knew Wade was thinking the same thing I was.
Her van was largely blocked from view way over on this side, so even someone from the main parking lot wouldn’t have seen anything happening.
That was something we’d have to address later.
Situational awareness was important, especially when you weren’t very big.
“Sage? Are you alright? Wade called me …” East had run up panting as she relayed essentially what she’d told me.
“Yeah, East. I’m okay. I was able to get away.” She shifted a little next to me, and her brothers looked at each other for a minute before Wade started in again with the questions, either deflecting or trying to get it over with.
“Height? Build? Anything you noticed about them? Male? Female?” Wade rattled off.
“Definitely male. There was body odor, and they were taller than me.” I snorted. Everyone was taller than her. “He was bigger than me for sure, but not by much. He was pulling me back against him.” My teeth clenched just thinking about it. “Hoodie.”
The information was important, but ‘taller’ covered approximately three-quarters of the adult male population and did little to narrow the field, so I filed it away anyway.
She hadn’t moved from her position leaning against me, and I knew that both East and Wade had noticed it. I tried not to tense up as she described how the person had taken her by surprise and started pulling her forcefully into the back lot.
“I remembered what you always said, Wade.” Her tone turned desperate. “Don’t let them take you somewhere else. So I fought, and I ran.”
"You did exactly right." My voice came out flat and steady, the tone I used on missions when someone needed an anchor, and I held onto that because of the other thing running underneath.
There was that familiar bank of fury that I had to shut down.
Someone was going to die, that was for fucking sure.
"Are you hurt?" Wade’s tone was careful. He had been watching her, and he knew she was okay for the most part, but I could tell he was trying hard to put his professional hat on.
“No. Just some marks on my arms. Scared.” She scooted a little closer, as if she wanted to sink into me, and that made me want to pound my chest like a gorilla.
“I do need to tell you that I’ve gotten a few flowers at the shop lately that are weird.
I was going to call and talk to you about it tonight. ”
“What do you mean?” Wade asked, his eyebrows drawing together.
He wasn’t the only one confused. Didn’t she get flowers delivered all the time? It was a flower and plant shop. I ran a soothing hand along her back. Then I remembered Delphina mentioning that she’d gotten flowers delivered.
“One arrangement left on the counter, and twice I’ve gotten bouquets at the shop.” I stiffened at her words. “Done just like the ones I make. They’ve been creepy. They match my style exactly, which anyone could get from social media. Same wrapping paper. Everything.”
Wade took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose before asking, “Any note? How are they delivered?” East’s fists were clenched at his thighs, and I could tell he wanted to say something (or many somethings).
I wanted to join him and ask her why she didn’t speak up before, but that wasn’t helpful.
Sometimes things didn’t seem significant until something big happened.
“The first was left at the shop. I’m not sure how it got there, and I asked Cedric about it, but he doesn’t know either.
The other two were delivered by different people, not by a company or anything.
Two of them had notes. I have pictures.” She unlocked her phone and showed me a picture of a bunch of flowers and the small note that came with it. Then she flipped to another one.
You notice everything. I notice you.
I’m going to keep you.
She sent the photos to Wade’s phone, her fingers trembling a little.
“That’s all we need. How about I go ahead and see what I can find here? East, can you take her home?” Wade suggested as he stuck his pen in his pocket, but he didn’t fool me. I’d worked with him long enough to see that he was one part freaked out and one part furious.
Everything in me wanted to insist that she stay with me, but her brothers were right here, and the words were stuck in my throat.