14. Zane
ZANE
S omething just didn’t feel right. My gut was telling me something was wrong. A knot had formed in my belly and my palms felt sticky and sweaty against the steering wheel.
My instincts were usually spot on. No matter what I did, unease had crept into my body and entered into my bones.
Emmy had simply stopped replying to my text messages and by the time I’d reached the midway point, I’d finally gotten Cory on the line.
“What are you talking about?” She’d asked as I’d moved her up to a management position recently, she was going to be taking on the night shift and training with the other manager.
“I talked to Ricky, he said there was some terrible flooding happening,” I took my eyes off the road for just a moment to look at the car console in disbelief. “I was calling you to get you to go look over the damage.”
Cory’s name flashed, as if a connection was loose.
“There’s no flooding, I came in early. Ricky’s here though, I can grab him and ask what it was about?”
Trying to keep worry out of my voice, I shook it off as the rain intensified. “No, no need Cory. Must’ve been a prank call.”
“You sure?”
“I am,” I replied. “I’ll get up with you later. Let me know how things go tonight.”
In an instant, I slammed on brakes on the deserted road and whipped the car in the opposite direction.
“Siri, call Butch and Bo,” I hollered out.
The phone rang and rang and rang as I gripped the wheel determined to get to Emmy.
Butch answered first and then Bo came on the line. “Shouldn’t you be knee deep in some pussy right about now?”
“You’d think so,” I mumbled. “How soon can the two of you get here?”
These men were my brothers. They were Sinners and would come whenever I called.
“Where?”
Sending the twins the coordinates, I knew they’d still be an hour and half behind no matter what. I just prayed that I was making all of this up in my head. I tried to call Emmy over twenty times. Back-to-back until finally it just started going straight to voicemail.
“Hi, this is Emerald Landry, attorney at law. Leave me a detailed message at the beep…”
Her voice was haunting me as I tried to push my anxiety down.
You just found her, I thought.
You just told her you loved her…
I’d never been in love before, not really. Emmy Landry had me ready to make a fool out of myself just to walk in her shadow, just to hold her hand.
Tears bit at my eyes as panic continued to set in.
“I’m coming baby, I’m coming…”
I continued to speed along the desolate road, encountering few people who were out in this storm. I had another forty-five minutes before I’d be back at the bed and breakfast.