Chapter 45 – Grant
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
GRANT
“Hey, Grant. You finally decide to take the plunge?” Leo asks as he leans back in the chair behind the desk and gives me a knowing grin that challenges my manhood, but I’ll fucking let it.
“Nah. It doesn’t feel like hell has frozen over yet, does it?” I laugh as I look around for any sign of her in a place where there is always a trace. “Is Em around?” The phone on the desk between us rings, and I make the go ahead motion with my hand.
Leo just glances at the caller ID and rolls his eyes. “The guy’s an asshole. He can wait. And to answer your question, no she’s not here. She took off for a few days.”
Before I can ask where she went, the voice mail picks up and Emerson’s throaty voice fills the space around us. “Thanks for calling Blue Skies. We’re currently out jumping and can’t get to the phone, so please leave a message, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Head up. Wings Out.”
“Sorry, but the damn volume is broken or I’d turn it down,” Leo says as the recorder beeps.
“You’re not returning my calls, Emerson. I have a few more things to go over regarding the loan docs and need you to meet me for a late dinner tonight. There’s nothing like a little wine to set the stage for success. I expect a call back within the next hour or else your follow-up paperwork might just get lost in the shuffle, if you catch my drift. One hour, Emerson. I don’t like to wait.”
Every part of me seethes at whoever the prick is on the answering machine. I mean, I know he’s the loan guy and it’s clear as fucking day what he wants in exchange for loan approval. It’s just that he’s using his position to try to take advantage of Em, and his boldness makes me think she isn’t the first woman he’s done this to.
“Fucking asshole,” Leo mutters as his face reflects how my temper feels.
“Is this a typical thing?”
“The slimy bullshit? Yeah. It is. The guy’s a grade A prick.”
“Who is it?”
Leo stares at me for a moment, and I can see him gauging whether to tell me. “Emerson has him under control,” he says after a prolonged second, not giving me the answers I fucking want. “If she needs help, I’m sure she’ll let you know.”
I give him my best cop beat-down stare, but it doesn’t faze him. On one hand, I like knowing he has her back, on the other hand, I wish he’d have it a little more so that he’d tell me and I could help her.
“So she has the day off?”
“A few days off.”
“Where’d she go?” I ask, hating that the fucked-up feeling I had in the pit of my stomach when I woke up to an empty house is back.
“She said she needed to get out of dodge for a while. She’s probably jumping somewhere else for a change of scenery. According to Desi, she’s known to do that from time to time when she needs to clear her head. I’m surprised it took this long, actually. With the pressure the Blue Skies owners are putting on her to get loan approval and this asshole holding it for ransom, I bet she just needed some space.”
“Huh.” His explanation does nothing to explain why my calls and texts to her have gone unanswered. “I thought she never left this place.”
“It isn’t often, but it does happen.”
“Thanks. If she calls, can you let her know I was looking for her?”
“Yeah. I will. But don’t expect her to. When she goes off the grid . . . she goes off the grid.”
Fucking great.
I walk out of the office and stand with my hands on my hips as I look across the parking lot to where her car should be but isn’t.
I have my interview to prepare for and cold case files to go through.
I have a life to live.
So, why I am at Miner’s Airfield, wondering where in the hell Emerson is and why she left? I have no idea where she might have gone, but if I were a betting man, I would put money on her leaving having something to do with what happened last night.
Waking in an empty bed sucked.
The worry that followed was even worse.