“Where?”
“Georgia. Gotta go.”
The line went dead.
Her palm was clammy and cold as she put away the phone. Kara behind Jace and put on the helmet he handed her.
“Client problems?” he asked, backing out of the driveway.
“Sort of.”
“You got it worked out?”
“I will.”
She had little time to get to Georgia and save Dylan.
Before Marcus and the other bikers found him first.
Jace drove slowly on the motorcycle to her parents’ house as Kara clung to his waist. Snuggled against him, she couldn’t help feeling a little of the old thrill when they’d been this close.
Always touching each other, holding hands in public, Jace never hesitating to show his feelings.
Now, he was distant. Cold. She should be glad for it, but instead, felt stabbing regret.
When they finally reached the pristine gated community of Coastal Woods, she relaxed a little. Her family had moved here after Conner’s death to start over, and if it hadn’t been for her father’s real-estate business, they might have left Florida entirely.
Kara keyed in the code at the development’s gate and the guard nodded as they roared through. Jace turned down tree-lined streets decorated with tasteful plantings, flowers and ornate streetlights until they reached Clover Lane, and the third house on the right.
As he pulled into the driveway of the sprawling, modern house on a deep-water canal, she breathed a sigh of relief. Relief turned into concern as she saw her mother scurry out of the double-glass front doors toward them. Claudia wore a light blue sleeveless dress and high heels. She’d never seen her mother wearing anything casual.
Except after Conner died, and the two weeks where her mother barely made it out of bed...
Kara pulled off the helmet and dismounted, then smoothed her skirt as Jace switched off the engine and put the kickstand down. Claudia had a tendency to clutch her pearls when presented with troubling circumstances.
“Kara. What are you doing on a motorcycle?” Her mother sounded puzzled, but not alarmed.
No pearl-clutching moments here. Kara swallowed hard, feeling all of seventeen years old again. She handed the helmet to Jace, who dismounted and then hung the helmet on the bar on the bike’s back.
The sissy bar, they called it. Funny how she remembered things like that at moments when her mind was foggy. She’d barely gathered her composure to reintroduce Jace when he pulled off his helmet. Claudia’s expression changed.
“Do I know you?” she asked slowly.
“Aye, matey, I’ve sailed the seven seas with you,” he said in a pirate accent.
Kara bit her lip in a smile at the memory. Her mother brightened.
“Jason? Is that you under all that fur?”
He gave a little courtly bow. “One and the same.”
“Oh! Jason. How lovely to see you again. We’ve missed you.”
Jace embraced her mother, who hugged him like a long-lost son.
Gently disentangling himself from her mother’s grip, Jace grinned at her. “Kara, your mouth is open.”
After shutting it, she looked her ex up and down, squinting in the bright sunlight, trying to make sense of things. When they broke up, her parents had been upset, but now she wondered if they were more upset over losing Jace as a future son-in-law than her own pain.
Claudia gave the motorcycle a cursory glance and then studied him with calm assessment, as if Jace was driving a BMW instead of a motorcycle, his hair shaggy.
“Jason, are you on a special assignment?”
Jace was quick to speak up. “Yes, ma’am, my assignment is to deliver your daughter to you, safe and sound. Here she is.”
Kara gave him a puzzled look. “It’s a long story, Mom. I’ll tell you. We just came from visiting Aunt Wanda.”
Her mother’s quick gaze darted between the two of them. “Well, no use standing in the sun. Come inside and have coffee.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you. I was rather hoping to get a quick bite of breakfast, if you don’t mind.”
Claudia actually smiled. “Now, Jason, you know I cannot abide the ma’am title. I’m Claudia. I recall you like Spanish omelets with extra peppers. Coffee, black and strong.”
Jace grinned and nodded. Her mother was the only one who seemed to get away with calling him the more formal Jason.
Still slack-jawed at her mother’s reaction, she followed her into the house like an obedient puppy. Before she could fill in her mother on Dylan’s disappearance, Jace told her a brief version, indicating they needed to find Dylan because he was in deep trouble.
Kara watched him. He didn’t lie, but evaded details, probably out of concern for her mother. Jace always liked her mother and never wanted her to worry.
