Robbie
looked up from his truck and gave Sarah a shy little wave.
“Bye Robbie,”
Sarah said and returned the wave.
“Don’t forget your leftovers!” Kayla called after
her.
* * *
The ride across town was quick and Sarah barely had the chance to thank Nathan for giving her a place to spend the night before he pulled in front of the salon and parked. The clock on the dash showed she had several minutes before she needed to go inside.
Nathan switched off the i
gnition and turned in his seat. “I like your sweater.” He wanted to reach out and touch the soft looking fabric but he kept his hands to himself.
Sarah blushed. “Thank you. It’s Kayla’s. She let me borrow it.”
“Sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up this morning,” He said and looked down at his hands.
“That’s okay.
I’m sorry for waking you up last night. Thank you for giving me a place to stay.”
He looked back up and into her eyes.
“I hope Kayla took good care of you.”
Sarah smiled. “Yes. She’s very sweet.”
Not only was Nathan the nicest man Sarah had ever met, his sister was an inspiration. “Your sister is really amazing. I don’t know how she juggles everything.”
“She’s always been determined. She just got a little sidetracked along the way, that’s all.”
“You have a beautiful family.”
Nathan winced. “Thank you,” he said tightly before changing the subject.
“Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?” he asked.
“I’m going to get a new motel room during my lunch break.”
“You can stay with Kayla and me for as long as you’d like.”
“Oh, well, I, uh, was just going to look into
getting a room at a different motel.”
“I don’t mean to stick my nose in your business,
Sarah, but it’d make me feel a lot better if you stayed at my place. There’s no guarantee the next motel is going to be any better.”
“I don’t know…
I…”
“Stay with me. And Kayla and Robbie,” he added. “There’s plenty of space and we’d love to have you.
I travel a lot during the season and Kayla’s hardly ever there so you’d basically have the place to yourself.”
She thought about what he was offering and knew it was too good to pass up.
“It would just be until I can get my own apartment.”
He nodded.
“Of course.”
“I was just staying there because it was cheap and they had weekly rates
,” she felt the need to explain.
And hourly ones,
too, but he didn’t tell her that. “I know.”
She glanced at the clock on the dash and wondered how time always flew by when they were together. “I should go in. I don’t want to be late.”
“I have a game this afternoon so I won’t be home until late.”
“Okay,” she said with a smile. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. You could blow off work and come to my game.”
She smiled.
“I’d like to, really, but I have to work.” The thought of watching Nathan play hockey was appealing but Peach was depending on her.
“Maybe some other time
.”
“I’d like that.”
She held up the leftovers from the night before. “I’ll bring your container back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a
bunch of those things.”
“
Like you do shirts,” she joked and got out of the truck.
There were probably a million reasons why Nathan should stay away from Sarah, but
as he watched her walk into the salon he couldn’t think of one of them.
* * *
When Nathan returned home from taking Sarah to work, Kayla was waiting for him with her toe tapped anxiously and a hand on her hip.
He knew that look
all too well.
Nathan tossed his keys on the
table, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the counter.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell Sarah about me
,” she scolded. “The poor girl jumped out of her skin when she saw me this morning. I bet she thinks I’m some wacko or something.”
“You
are
a wacko, Kay.”
Kayla grumbled
and shook her head.
“
Honestly, you were the last thing on my mind when I brought Sarah home last night. Look, I talked her into staying with us for a while so make sure she has everything she needs, all right?”
“Sure.
” Kayla liked Sarah and didn’t mind the thought of having her around. But Nathan wasn’t telling her the whole story. “What exactly happened to make you bring her here?”
“Let’s just say her landlord was a total douche.”
“You didn’t—“
“I did what had to be done
,” he said firmly. “Scum like that who rough women up shouldn’t be allowed to walk the earth.”
“Jeez, Nathan.
Is she okay? She didn’t say anything about it.”
“She was pretty shaken up
last night but I think she’s okay now.”
“She’s fragile, Nathan
,” Kayla said, careful not to betray the promise she made to Sarah. “She’s been treated far worse than even
I
was.”
Nathan grimaced. “Jesus, Kay.”
“Yeah. A relationship probably isn’t the best thing for either one of you right now.”
He shot her a sideways look.
“I’m just warning you.”
“Okay, I get the message. Thanks for the heads up.”
The tone of Nathan’s voice told Kayla he had no intention of taking relationship advice from his sister. “You’re going to need to take it extra slow with her, okay?”
“Who says I’m taking anything?”
he asked defensively.
Kayla elbowed him the way a sister elbowed her stubborn brother. “Come on, little brother. I see how you look at her.”
Nathan ignored her and pushed away from the counter. “Thanks for making her feel at home.”
“Where were you this morning anyway? You bring a girl home and then you take off
the next morning like a banshee.”
“I had to clear my head.”
She gave an understanding nod.
“Will you do
me a favor and give Sarah a ride back here when she gets off work tonight?”
“
Sure. But not for
you
because you’re a pain in the neck. For
Sarah
because I like her.”
“Thanks
, Kay. I appreciate it. Are you coming to the game this afternoon?”
Her face scrunched up in a pained expression.
“I would but I’m taking a short shift at work this morning and then I’m meeting with a real estate agent to look at houses.”
Nathan
frowned. “You can stay here as long as you want, Kay.”
“I know, but it’s time Robbie and
I had our own place.”
“It’s only been a few weeks.”
“I know. But things are getting a little too crowded around here with your ego and everything,” she joked.
Nathan didn’t even crack a smile. He went to the doorway before turning back around.
“It really sucks what some people have to go through.”
Kayla sighed.
“It makes us who we are, Nathan. It gives us the strength to get through tough times and the motivation to make things better for ourselves.”
H
is shoulders sagged and he looked down at his feet. “She’s the sweetest woman I’ve ever meet and I bet she’s endured nothing but shit her whole life.”
“And I bet she’s stronger for it.”
His head jerked up. His eyes were like storm clouds. “So, it’s okay to go through that because it makes you a stronger person for it?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. We all have our burdens
, Nathan.”
Yes, they did. But h
is were becoming awfully heavy.
Chapter Fifteen
The Truth and a Cigarette
The next morning, Dwight woke up and had a moment of clarity. For the past couple of years, Sarah had been working for a cleaning service with a bunch of other women. And women talked. One of them was bound to know where in Las Vegas she had scampered off to.
It was a long shot but it was his only lead.
For the life of him, Dwight couldn’t remember the name of the cleaning service. There were no paystubs because they’d been paying her under the table and he’d never given enough of a shit before to bother remembering it.
In the living room, Troy was asleep on the sofa.
Surprise, surprise.
Dwight nudged him with his knee. “Troy, get up.”
Troy groaned and turned his back to him.
Dwight smacked the back of Troy’s head. “When I tell you to do something, you do it.”
Troy sat up and rubbed the back of his head. He swiped his hand over his mouth to catch the drool. “I’m up. Whatta ya want?”
“What’s the name of that cleaning place?”
“
What
cleaning place?”
“The one Sarah works at.”
“The hell if I know. She’s not back yet?”
Dwight snorted. “She
ain’t comin’ back neither. Look what she left behind.” Dwight tossed the receipt on Troy’s mountain of a stomach and went off in search of the phone book.
In the Los Angeles Yellow Pages there were over 2400 listings for cleaning services.
Dwight blew out a frustrated breath. This was going to be like finding a grain of salt in a bag of dope.
“Wait a damn minute,” Dwight mumbled to himself and went back into the bedroom. He dug through the clothes on the floor he’d dumped out of the dresser and finally found what he was looking for. Sarah’s work shirt with the Star City Janitorial logo printed on the front. Ha! She hadn’t taken
everything
with her after all. It was no wonder why she’d left the shirt behind; it was torn and bloody. No matter, the name of the business was all he needed.
Someone at Star City Janitorial
just might know where she went. After all, she’d worked there for damn near three years. There had to be
someone
she confided in about her plans. In fact, she probably whined to everybody about her Big Bad Uncle every chance she got.
The man who answered the phone sounded like he needed a stiff drink. “Big or small, no matter the job, Star City has all
of your cleaning needs covered. This is Eric. How may I help you?” he recited.
“How
ya doin’ Eric?” Dwight asked.
“Fine.
How may I help you?” Eric asked again.
“Yeah, I’m trying to find out about one of your employees. Sarah Hammond.”
“We’re not supposed to give out that kind of information, sir.”
“D
o you know Sarah?”
“I probably shouldn’t answer that.”
“Look man, it’s not like I’m asking you for her Social Security Number. Do you know her?”
“No,
but I’ve only worked here for a few months.”
“Is there anyone else there who might know her?”
“I doubt it. The turnover rate here is pretty high.”
“Okay, well, I’ve been trying to reach her and I think she might’ve left town. Actually, I have good news for her. A relative of hers passed away and left Sarah a very large inheritance. You can see why I’d like to find her.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Eric answered unenthusiastically.
“Could you maybe leave a message for her or let me speak to her.”
“She ain’t here.”
“Come on,
Eric, help me out here.”
“Well,
okay. That name doesn’t ring a bell. I guess I could look in her file for you. Hang on.”
Dwight sat on hold for what felt like an eternity and finally Eric came back on the line.
“Sarah Hammond is no longer employed by Star City.”
“For how long?”
“Since…let me see…two years ago.”
“She didn’t happen to leave a forwarding address, did she?”
“No. Sorry.”
Dwight swallowed down the rage, thanked Eric and hung up. That scheming little tramp!
If she hadn’t been working there, than where in the hell was she getting the money she handed over to him every two weeks as her “paycheck”? The more he found out about Sarah’s secret double life, the angrier he became.
Dwight looked to the ceiling and let out a roar so ferocious, the neighbor’s dog started to howl.
Later that morning,
Dwight went all over town asking everyone he knew if they knew anything about Sarah’s whereabouts. He did everything except hang Lost Girl posters on every stop sign and telephone pole in the city. Unfortunately, because he’d kept her under such tight wraps, most people didn’t even know who she was or what she looked like.