Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Mason
“ I f Lucas isn’t willing to come and talk for himself, why even come here at all?” Graham reasoned, folding his arms across his chest. He had met me as soon as I had stepped in the door, having put myself back together—well, the best I could, anyway.
“He doesn’t do functions like this,” I said through gritted teeth. “You know he doesn’t, and you know he doesn’t want to sell. I think there’s plenty of people who would appreciate the history of the ranch.”
“I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, Sheriff Hewitt,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “These are not the kind of people who have any interest in preserving the land. All they care about is making money.”
“They make nothing in return for the money they donate.”
“Maybe that’s true, but it’s nothing but a tax write-off in their minds. They could give two shits about what happens to the Lowe Ranch. If it were up to most of these people, they’d be partnering with me to make money by buying that ranch. I’m eventually gonna give him an offer he won’t be able to refuse—and deep down, Mr. Lowe knows that.”
I shook my head. “He’s told you no, over and over, Graham. I don’t understand why you won’t just take it for what it is and leave him alone.”
“Winners never quit, Mason.” He shot me a wink that made my stomach nauseous. “All you small town people think that you can just preserve your town—kicking out all the outsiders, but that’s not how it works in the real world. I intend to pop that bubble… And then show you the oasis that Millfield could be if you’d just let me do what I do best.”
“You’re so one-minded that you don’t see it already is what we want it to be. If we wanted it to be anything other than what it was, then we would’ve made it that by now. We’re more than happy to take in outsiders—look at Emma Fisher’s business. It’s thriving.”
“And it would thrive even more with a higher population and other stores.”
“It would just introduce more competition in the long run,” I argued. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t some fancy ass businessman, but I did understand how expansion worked—and I didn’t want that in Millfield. No one did.
“Yeah, sure, you just keep those beliefs of yours, and I’ll keep working on my own goals. By the way, where did Emma head off to? Because I’m pretty sure I saw her leave right out the front door.”
“What?” I whipped my head around to the door, wondering how in the hell she missed me standing right here. But then again, maybe she didn’t miss me standing right here. I knew she had to be upset with me—and even though I was angry at her for hiding it, I still shouldn’t have walked away from her in the middle of this shitshow.
“Yeah, I think she said something to my wife about leaving as soon as she walked in the door. I think she’s done with this town.” Graham shrugged, like what he was saying wasn’t shocking information. I didn’t trust it or him, though.
As if she heard herself mentioned, Brittany appeared from the kitchen, heading right for us. “Have you seen Emma?” she interrupted, looking concerned. “I was in the kitchen with her, and you know those stupid doors are always locked from the inside, so I went around to let her out, and when I made it around, she was gone. I haven’t seen her anywhere since.”
Something started to nag at the back of my mind, and I shook my head. “I don’t think she would’ve left. She didn’t drive here.”
“She probably had Lily pick her up,” Brittany continued to seem somewhat upset by it.
“I’d let her go, presentations start in thirty minutes, and you’re up first,” Graham said, his tone nonchalant. “She probably just got mad at you and decided to take a hike or something. You don’t want to miss out on the proposal, do you? It might mean you don’t get the funding to save the ranch… Not that I was expecting anyone to care.”
I hesitated, that nagging feeling shifting to an alarm. “I need to go look for her. Excuse me.” I ducked away from them, ignoring the strange looks they were giving me as I started to search the room, desperate to find her. It wouldn’t be crazy for her to have been upset enough to leave… But would she really have done that?
Digging into my suit jacket pocket, I pulled out my cell phone, and dialed her number. It rang twice, and then went straight to voicemail. Did that mean that she had denied my call? Or that it didn’t go through? I checked the service on my phone. It was spotty at best, but I rarely had issues with it not going through.
Emma, where did you go?
Once I had swept the main area, where all of the guests were lingering—and staring at me—I made my way to the door. Graham said he thought she might have gone outside—and maybe she just needed air.
I kept my eye on my watch, counting down the time I had until the presentation started. Even if she had left, I would still give the presentation. I had to, with or without her. I needed to do everything I could to help Lucas… But if I couldn’t confirm that she had left, there was no way in hell I would be doing anything other than continuing to search for her.
The sun was beating down on my black jacket as I started weaving through the vehicles, my eyes peeled for her. Since I was no longer under close watch of the attendees, I called for her, shouting above the quiet of the rural property.
Please don’t have left.
By the time I made it to the Bronco, I had ripped my jacket off, down to just the white dress shirt underneath. I was fighting the urge to panic for some reason—and that was not like me. I never panicked. I was the sheriff for heaven’s sake. I kept my shit together in the most strenuous of times…
But something about this was grinding on my nerves.
“Emma!” I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. I shook my head when there was no reply, and once again, I dialed her number.
And once again, two rings and then voicemail .
“You’ve reached Emma Fisher, leave a message and I’ll call you back!”
I hung up the phone and took a deep breath. There was a chance she was just pissed about me leaving her to go in on her own. There was a chance that maybe Lily picked her up—who else could she have called for a ride?
My thumb hit the call button beside Lily’s name, and I put it to my ear, praying to God that she would pick up. I knew she was spending the evening with Jess and Dara—and sometimes I had a hard time getting a hold of her.
And just like I thought might happen… She didn’t answer.
I’ll call Jess.
She was an even slimmer chance when it came to answering the phone, but I tried her anyway—and nearly gasped out in relief when she picked up.
“Hey, Dad, are you already done?” she chimed on the other end.
“No, I’m not,” I said, keeping my voice calm and collected—the opposite of how I was feeling inside. “Did Emma by chance call Lily?”
“Huh? I thought Emma was going with you tonight?” Jess sounded just as confused as I felt about the entire thing. “Are you by yourself?”
“Listen, is Lily there?” I didn’t feel like giving her the rundown that she was becoming a big sister in the moment. I needed to find Emma first.
“Um, yeah, I think so. I don’t know.” Jess was starting to sound worried. “Is everything okay?”
“I think so, but will you just go get her? I need to talk to her.”
“Okay.” I heard her rustling around, and then saying something I couldn’t understand to someone who sounded a lot like Dara. “I think Lily might have gone to pick up pizza, Dad,” she said into the phone.
Or Emma.
I heard a door shut in the background, and the thunder of her trotting down the stairs. I could hear Drew in the background saying something to her when she asked where Lily was.
“She went to pick up pizza,” Jess said to me. “She should be back in like twenty minutes.”
“Let me talk to Drew,” I instructed.
“Uh, okay,” Jess said into the phone before the speaker went muffled.
“Hello?” Drew came over the phone.
“Did Lily actually go to get pizza?” I asked him, my heart pounding in my chest. “Because if she came to pick up Emma, I really need to know. Something is fuckin’ weird here.”
“I called in the order for her about thirty minutes ago…” Drew’s voice trailed off. “You’re at the gala, yeah?”
“Yeah, I am. She went in ahead of me, and then I haven’t been able to find her since. We had a bit of a tiff beforehand, and it’s complicated… But I don’t think she would’ve just left.”
“That’s weird,” Drew commented, his voice dropping off in a low tone. “Hey Jess,” he added. “Why don’t you run up and tell Dara that the pizza will be here soon. I’ll bring your phone back—and don’t worry, I won’t look at it.”
I couldn’t hear her answer, but I took it that it must’ve worked, because then Drew let out a heavy sigh.
“What is it, Drew?” I demanded.
“They’re some shady people, Hewitt,” he grunted, using my last name like he had ever since we had met in grade school. “I don’t know what the fuck is up with them, but I don’t think they walk the straight and narrow. I’m not saying that they did anything, but I’m not saying that they might’ve not created a distraction to keep you from proposing to save the ranch.”
“Yeah, but…” I glanced back to the house, my heart nearly stopping as I saw Brittany and Graham standing just outside, scanning the area. I ducked down, using the Bronco for cover. I didn’t want them to know where the hell I was at the moment—not while I was trying to figure this shit out.
“You can try Lily again, but I think she would’ve told me about going to pick up Emma. The Hudsons live a solid twenty minutes away—and that wouldn’t line up with the time of running to pick up pizza. Not to mention, she really did have pizza to pick up.”
“I’m gonna try her again, but you’re probably right,” I said, hoping like hell my gut was wrong. “Do you think there’s anyone else that could’ve picked her up?”
“Nah, I don’t think so,” he said with a sigh. “Sarah, that young lady who works for her, is closing up the café. I don’t think there’s anyone else around here that she would feel comfortable reaching out to.”
“Right,” I muttered, just as my phone started to beep that I was receiving a call. I pulled it away from my ear, seeing Lily’s name on the screen. “I’ll let you know what I find out,” I said quickly, hanging up on him. I hit the answer and put it to my ear.
“Hey, what’s up?” Lily asked, her voice way too fucking bright to know what happened.
“You’re not by chance showing up to pick up Emma from here—or already have picked her up.”
“What?” She sounded genuinely confused.
“I can’t find Emma. We got into a fight right when we got here… I saw… I found out…” I couldn’t even get the words out, but thankfully I didn’t have to.
“Ah, you know she’s pregnant.”
“Yeah, and it’s all good. I needed some air, so she went in without me… And now she’s gone. I feel like the Hudsons are feeding me a bunch of bullshit—and I was hoping you picked her up.” I hated recalling everything without much detail, but I needed to get a move on… I was certain I was missing the proposal, but at this point…
I wasn’t sure I cared.
“She wouldn’t have just… left.”
“I don’t know,” I exasperated. “I cannot find her.”
“You’re panicking over nothing, just go back in,” Lily was trying to reassure me, but before I could say anything, that beeping started in my ear again, sending a stabbing headache searing through my skull.
Fuck. This is not the time for a migraine.
“I have someone else calling.”
“Wait—”
I hung up, my heart thudding so heavily it rattled my chest as I read the caller ID.
Unknown.
“This is Mason,” I answered, a lump in my throat growing as the distorted voice came over the line.
“There’s no point in continuing to look for her, Sheriff. She’s gone,” the distorted voice growled in my ear.
Fear, worry, but mostly anger exploded in my chest. “Who the hell?—”
Click.