Chapter 16 #3
“She told the day nurse yesterday that she has to keep her phone off.” The woman—Marianne, according to the plastic name tag—shrugged. “I just wanted you to know about the DNR in case your father hasn’t mentioned it.”
“Thank you.” Clay couldn’t identify the strange mix of feelings in his gut right now. Worry for his father. Worry for Mia. And the deep sense something was wrong in that girl’s life. Why in the hell was she keeping her phone off when her father was in critical health?
He would contact Gabriella. Right after he made peace with his father.
As the nurse left the room, Clay strode back to his father’s bedside. Carefully he picked up his dad’s hand, the skin weathered and yellowed before its time. Clay didn’t worry about what Mia might overhear. He needed to make peace now. Before it was too late.
Leaning over the face that had haunted too many of his childhood dreams, he took a deep breath and let it all go. All the fear. All the resentment. All the burning anger that hid the hurt.
Pete hadn’t been capable of being a father to him.
“I forgive you, Dad,” he told the limp form. “You and I, we’re okay.”
He watched his father’s face for any sign of recognition. Any hint that he’d heard. Clay could feel Mia’s curious gaze on him from across the bed, but he kept his focus on Pete’s sunken face.
And felt a soft squeeze of his hand.
His father’s fingers flexed around his. The subtle pressure wasn’t much of a response, but it told Clay all he needed to know. His father heard.
The weight of a lifetime seemed to slide from Clay’s shoulders.
Gabriella had urged him to do this, and this moment was because of her.
He felt at peace for the first time in a long time.
Fully at peace. Except now that he’d accepted his father’s shortcomings and forgiven him for all the ways their relationship had burned holes inside him, Clay knew Pete had no more reason to cling to life.
Next time he came to with enough energy to speak, he’d be asking to sign the Do Not Resuscitate order. He would give up on life and Mia would be left alone.
Straightening at the bedside, he watched his youngest sibling and knew something was wrong. Something besides her father dying.
“Mia? Can I use your phone to call Gabriella?” He studied her face, but out of his peripheral vision, he could see Davis straighten in his chair.
Interesting. Whatever Mia was hiding, Clay would guess her boyfriend knew about it.
“My battery is dead.” Mia’s answer came out in a rush even as Davis handed her the phone he’d been holding. Flustered, she took it, but slid it into her hoodie pocket.
Clay needed Gabriella here, damn it. She understood the girl better than him. She could interpret the byplay more accurately than he could. At the very least, she could help make Mia understand that Pete didn’t have much time left. Their lives were all going to change soon.
Lowering his voice, he shuttled her a few steps from the bed to be sure they didn’t risk upsetting their father. “I thought you were keeping it turned off on purpose.” He tried the direct approach.
She sucked in a breath. Stayed silent.
Davis leaned forward. “Tell him,” he urged Mia quietly.
Out of his depth, Clay needed a different kind of strength from Gabriella. Patience. Perspective.
“Tell me what?” He kept his gaze on Mia, trying not to push too hard but needing answers.
Her dark eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “I was going to tell Pete.” She took a deep breath and shoved her hair off her face. “He has changed my phone number in the past to keep a stalker dude away from me. And I need the number changed again because this guy found me.”
Confirming all the fears Gabriella had been having this week. The air rushed out of Clay’s lungs. Damn it.
Why hadn’t he listened? Pushed for answers sooner? “Found you?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit Gabriella’s number because he couldn’t wait anymore. He needed her now. “How do you know?”
“He texted me to say ‘I found you.’” She shrugged like the answer should have been obvious to him. Her fingers twisted the zipper tab on her hoodie, spinning it round and round. “Before, when that’s happened, Pete has gotten me a new number.”
How the hell many times had it happened? Tension knotted his shoulders and pulled taut while he listened with one ear to his phone dialing Gabriella’s number.
“What makes you think he only discovered your phone number? How do you know this guy didn’t find out where you’re living, too?” His pulse pounded hard behind his eyes, the thump, thumping about three times as fast as the flashing heartbeat on Pete’s monitor.
Hell. What if this guy was on his way to Heartache right now to find Mia? Gabriella was all alone in that house.
His call to her rang. And rang.
The tension in his shoulders twisted. Sank. Drained down into his gut in a pool of dread.
“He’s never traced me before. Just found the number.” Mia chewed on her lip. “If you keep your phone turned off, it doesn’t show your location or anything.”
Clay closed his eyes for a second. Just long enough to try and scavenge some more patience.
“As a private investigator, I know about a million ways to find people who don’t want to be found—some of whom are experts at going into hiding.” Why the hell hadn’t she confided in him sooner? The answer blasted through his head with the volume of a foghorn.
Maybe because he hadn’t given her enough reason to trust him.
The dread in his gut roiled. “I don’t want to frighten you, but you have to understand you can’t tackle this alone. I guarantee that a teenage girl would be an easy mark for someone with a little motivation and half a brain.”
His call to Gabby kicked over to her voice mail when she didn’t pick up. Very, very unlike her.
Fear squeezed him in an icy grip.
“I didn’t know.” Mia shook her head, tears letting loose to stream down her face.
Another punch to the gut.
He rounded the bed to hug her, wishing he knew what to do. His father could die any minute. His sister needed him. But Gabriella might be all alone in a house with some kind of stalker intent on finding Mia.
“I’m going to call my friend, the sheriff, to meet me at the house to make sure Gabby’s safe.
” He withdrew his phone, already dialing Sam.
“I’ll ask him if Heather can sit with you, or maybe she can call her sister—Erin, the woman who owns the vintage store.
You know them, right? Feel safe with them? ”
He had seen Mia with Erin at the reunion.
She nodded, her face pale and frightened. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“I’ve made bigger mistakes, believe me.” He regretted all the time he’d wasted blaming his father for Eddy’s death instead of finding out about Mia and getting to know her.
He’d learned too damn well from this day with his father that time was short.
He couldn’t let anything hold him back when it came to the people he cared about, like Mia.
Gabriella.
Clay placed a hand on Mia’s shoulder. “But going forward, we need to start trusting each other more. Okay?”
Soon they would be making some hard decisions about her future and he needed her to be honest with him about what she wanted.
His sister nodded tearfully while Sam picked up the call.
Clay dropped a kiss on Mia’s head and turned his attention to finding Gabriella.
He pressed his Bluetooth more securely to his ear. “Sam, it’s Clay.” He didn’t think twice about bothering Sam during the reunion. This was too important. Gabriella was too important. “I need someone out at the Chance house to find Gabby. Fast.”