Wild Nights(43)

“Can you come pick me up at the Greyhound station?” I pleaded.

Tessa laughed. “Is this a joke?”

“No,” I sighed. “I wish it was.”

“I’ve got clients booked up until eight tonight. It’s my late night,” she said. She seemed annoyed.

“What about Raquel?” I asked.

“You can’t take a cab?” she asked.

“Tessa,” I said. “I have no keys, no purse, no ID, no phone…”

“Oh,” she said. “Well, shit.”

“Exactly,” I said.

“I guess I’ll be down there in a little bit then,” she said before hanging up.

Tessa had a bit of a tough exterior, but on the inside she had a heart of gold. I knew she would help me out. It just took a bit of coaxing.

I took a seat on a bench and did a little bit of people watching as I waited for Tessa to pull up in her black BMW SUV. Sure enough, twenty minutes later, she pulled up into the pickup lane.

I climbed in as fast as I could, all smiles. I couldn’t believe I was finally home and with someone I could trust.

“Thank you so much,” I said. “The last couple days have been nothing but a nightmare.”

“You know you have to tell me everything, right?” She said as she looked over her shoulder then pulled back out onto the main road. “I’m not letting you out of my car until you tell me exactly what the fuck happened. You don’t just disappear like that on us. And a typed note? What the fuck.”

Tessa had already started her lecturing, but I just sat there and took it. I deserved it. I deserved it all. She was right. I fucked up. I was an idiot for getting involved with someone like Blaze.

I explained everything to her, leaving out not one single detail. If anything happened to me, I wanted someone else to have all the facts. She sat in utter silence, or maybe it was sheer disgust, while I rambled on about the sweet things he said and the insane things he did. I’m quite sure she was appalled the entire time, but I kept going and she didn’t stop me.

“I need you to take me to my mom’s house,” I said. “My spare keys are there.”

She took the exit towards my mom’s side of town as I continued rattling off about the Hellfire president and the nice ladies who took care of me the night before. She pulled onto my mom’s street, and to my surprise, my mom’s car was sitting in the driveway.

“Oh,” I said. “I figured she’d still be at work at this hour.”

“You don’t want to talk to your mom?” Tessa asked, confused.

“It’s not that,” I said. “Well, sort of. She’s going to ask why I need my keys, and knowing her she’ll get me to spill everything. I’d rather she not know that anything happened.”

“Um, too late,” Tessa said coyly. “We sort of contacted her after we got your weird note. We had to find out if she’d heard from you lately.”

“What did you tell her?” I asked.

“Just that you left a note about an impromptu vacation and to cancel all your appointments until further notice,” she said. “And we sort of told her you met a guy in Tulsa last weekend. We figured you probably ran off with him.”

“Shit, Tessa,” I said as I huffed and slid back against the black, leather seats. “What do I tell her now?”

“Tell her the truth,” she said.

“I don’t feel like getting a lecture from her,” I said. “Already got one from you.”

“I don’t know what to say then,” Tessa said.

I glanced up at the house to see my mom running out from the front door. She looked like she’d been crying, and she ran towards Tessa’s car.

I climbed out, reluctantly, and walked towards her. She immediately wrapped her arms around me and held me tight.

“Molly,” she said as tears streamed down her face. “I was so worried about you.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said.

She waved to Tessa, as if to thank her for bringing her baby back home, and wrapped her arm around my shoulder as we walked inside the house. My mom’s house smelled like apple pie and cinnamon potpourri, as cliché as it was, and it felt just like home. Coming home had never felt so good before now.

She escorted me to the sitting room, which was never a good sign, and took a seat on the sofa next to me. This was where we always had all of our important talks.

“Molly,” she said as she grabbed my hands and held them in hers. Her green eyes, which were identical to mine, stared deeply at me. “Tell me what happened.”

“What have you heard?” I asked. I had to be careful with her. She was a clever old fox.