Leah
"How do you feel about skipping the rest of the day?" Jace asked his eyes awaiting my answer.
So much for a normal day. I shrugged my shoulders. It's not like I was learning much today after all. "Are we going to meet River?"
Jace nodded and slipped his phone back in his pocket. "Better now then later." He held his hand out and without another thought I place mine into his. He intertwined our fingers and tugged me along the path leading to the parking lot. Jace placed a soft kiss on the back of my hand that causes a small explosion of warmth in me. "Let's see what River found."
Once in his car, it didn't take us long to get to River's bar, Viper. I made sure to shoot Kayla a quick text to let her know I was with Jace. I didn't need her reporting me as a missing person. She has done that before. Long story.
I got out of the car as soon as Jace parked and headed inside before he could follow behind. A part of me was always excited to see River. I guess you could say it's because he's a total sweetheart and put himself at risk to help me out that one time. I was eternally grateful, but he was also total eye candy. I blame the hormones.
Entering the bar I let my eyes scan the area trying to spot him and there he was behind the bar speaking to a customer with a dazzling smile on his face. As if he sensed my eyes, River glanced over to where I was standing and grinned happily. I found myself grinning stupidly back at him.
He excused himself and stepped out from behind the bar. We met each other half way and he pulled me into a tight hug. It always seems like River and I have known each other for years when it's only been a month or so. Something about River made it seem like I knew him my entire life. We seemed to have connected way beyond expectations. "Hey beautiful." He greeted warmly. "Glad to see you back here so soon."
"You know I couldn't stay away for too long." I teased and River let out a soft chuckle.
"Good, I was starting to miss your pretty face." He added sweetly with a wink.
"Can you stop flirting already? It's making me sick." I heard Jace said from behind. His tone bitter.
"Don't be mad that I can flirt better than you." River stated and gave him a pat on his shoulder in comfort. Jace just gave him a deadly stare. "You might want to be careful, I could steal Leah away from you."
"Can we just get to the reason we're here?" Jace gritted out. Did River hit a nerve?
"Sure thing." He said with some amusement in his tone. River seems to love ruffling Jace's feathers and Jace always seems to falls into his trap. "Let's talk in my office." He gestured for us to follow.
Once seated in his office, River handed Jace a cream colored file. "This is everything I could dig up on Adler. Even a ghost couldn't hide forever." He leaned against the side of the desk.
I glanced around the office. It was clean, crisp and proper. Not an item out of place. He even had a plant on his desk. Letting my eyes scanned the desk, it landed on a photo of River, Allison and Jace. It looked like it was taken at this very bar. All were smiling happily without a care in the world. No one would ever guess what was hidden behind those smiles.
Jace let his eyes scan the documents in the file and I let my eyes follow. "He goes by Thomas Grimes now. He works for a large advertising company the next city over. Just a simple employee. Clocks in and out, does his job and goes home. He hasn't been in any type of trouble in the past ten years, not even a parking ticket. No social media, flying completely under the radar." River explained.
Jace gave him a look of gratitude. "I owe you, Riv. Big time." He closed the file in his hands.
River placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "You know I have your back, bro." That small moment melted my heart. Even in this turmoil, it was comforting to see that Jace has people by his side. "But I'll take Leah as payment."
My eyes widen and Jace took the file and smacked River in the face. River laughed in response. "Fuck off."
"Fine, fine." He held his hands up in surrender. "Maybe one day, Leah." River sent a flirtatious wink towards me. I glanced over to Jace and I was surprise there wasn't steam coming out of his ears. Did it bother him that much that River flirted with me? Why?
"We're leaving." Jace announced before standing up from his seat. I followed right after.
"Jace." River called out, his tone was serious. I've never heard him like that before. Jace turned back to face River. "Be aware of what you are doing. Think, don't act on your emotions." River's eyes steady, unwavering trying to sear his words into Jace.
Jace nodded slowly taking in his words. "Always." Was all he said before exiting the office. I lingered back slightly waving goodbye to River.
River gave me a soft smile. "Leah, you are the anchor to keep him grounded. Don't let him lose himself."
This time it was my turn to nod, receptive of his words. River is like the older brother I never had. He is everyone's older brother. I ran up and gave him a tight squeeze to which he returned. "I'll try my best." I said softly.
Exiting the bar, I walked over to Jace who was leaned against his car. His eyes reading the documents in his hands. As I approached, he looked up giving me a soft smile. "Well, we have the info now. What's next?" I asked curiously. Surely he had an idea with what to do next.
His smile turned into a wide grin. "What do you say to a road trip?"
***
"I can't believe we're doing this." I muttered as I slid into the passenger seat of Jace's car.
"Do what?" He asked inquisitively before pulling out of my driveway.
"Skip school and drive to the next city which is hours away to stalk this guy." I stated sitting back into the leather seats. This was going to be a long ride and I was bent on being comfortable during it. I will be a passenger princess.
"It's not stalking. We're just looking for him." Jace countered as he pulled onto the main highway. Isn't that the same thing?
"So are you just trying to pinpoint him? What are you planning on doing next? Talk to him?" The questions flowed out of my mouth.
Jace pressed down on the gas pedal to accelerate the car forward matching the speed of all the other vehicles on the road. "I don't know." He grumbled. "I want to talk to him, maybe he can tell us something we don't know yet."
I let my eyes study him for a brief moment. His eyes were trained ahead, hand gripped the steering wheel. He shifted slightly in his seat with his jaw clenched tightly. Jace was nervous.
He didn't know what lied ahead and neither did I. We were going into this without any idea of how this was going to end.
Unzipping my backpack, I scoured through it hopeful to find a snack hopeful I could eat away the nerves. I cursed to myself, I forgot to restock again. "Damn it." I said to myself and dropped the backpack down to my feet once more.
"What is it?" Jace asked curiously.
"Nothing." I grumbled. I was mentally beating myself forgetting snacks again. Who forgets to pack food for a road trip??
Jace shrugged his shoulders. "You can put your bag in the backseat. It will give you some room to be comfortable."
I nodded. I grabbed the backpack and reached over to plop it down on the floor. That was until my eye caught onto a bag filled to the brim with snacks. Cookies, chips, drinks, candy, you name it and it was there. Oh heaven!
"Did you bring snacks?" Giddiness filled me because even if those snacks aren't mine, I am still taking them no questions asked.
Jace glanced over to me for a moment, a smile on his lips. "It's a road trip, who forgets snacks?" Don't remind me. "Plus, I keep those just in case we decide to meet again for our club. You did say I was in charge of snacks." He was referring to the time we spent at the abandoned warehouse, the night we formed the dead dad club.
My heart melted at the thought. "You really kept snacks?"
"Of course I did. Especially because of how hangry you can get. I prefer not to deal with that." He added simply keeping his eyes on the road. "If I can ease you off the edge with a bag of chips, I prefer to do that then have my head bitten off my body."
Any other point in time I would smack him for the jab he took, but I was taken back by the thought he put in it. Maybe he could feel the same after all.
"Also playing this role of a fake boyfriend, I intended on killing it." Pop! There goes my bubble of hope.
I shook my head and grabbed a bag of chips from the bag ripping it open. "I'm actually surprise you would let me eat in your car. Usually guys are freaks when it comes to keep their car clean." I popped a chip in my mouth. Salty goodness.
Jace reached over and stole a chip out the bag. "I am, but for you I will make an exception." He said before eating the chip.
I hated when he does that. Jace knew how to make me feel special with his words and actions. And because of that my feelings keep on growing.
I truly don't know how much more of this I can take.
I brushed my feelings to the side. That was not important at this time. Finding Gavin Adler was the mission at hand.
After a three and half hour car ride, we entered the city of our destination. It was busy to say the least, people were out and about, cars and buses filled the streets. Large skyrise buildings and major retail stores lined every street. Completely different from our town. I mean our town wasn't small, but it wasn't as huge as this.
It took another twenty minutes to arrive at the company we were looking for and you guessed it, It was one of those large skyrises. Jace parked the car in an open space and sat back in his seat. "So?" I asked after a moment.
"So?" He repeated.
"So, what now?" I finished the sentence. Surely Jace has a plan. We came all this way, he has to have a plan. If not, he had almost four hours to think of one!
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I don't know."
I gapped at him. Did we just drive for four hours for nothing?? "What do you mean that you don't know?" He smiled sheepishly at me. "Jace." Aggravation in my tone.
"We look for him." He said after catching wind of my annoyance.
"How? Are we just gonna go around the area and ask people? Wouldn't that look weird? Do you even know what he looks like?" I couldn't help the load of questions that escaped me.
"Actually, I do." Jace reached into his jacket and pulled out a photo. It was taken from afar like one of those private investigator photos. It showed a man in front of the same building we were parked in front of. He was average height, shaved head, dressed in suit but the scar on his cheek was distinctive. The photo was taken on the go, he was clearly on the phone and completely unaware of the person who was following him. "And the answer is yes. We are gonna go around asking."
I had to gap at him once more. He can't be serious. "Seriously?"
He laughed at my reaction. "No, we're just gonna scope the area to see when he leaves for lunch. According to River, he usually takes his lunch around 1pm." I glanced at the time on the dashboard, 12:45pm.
"Well, I need to stretch my legs." I announced and Jace nodded in agreement. After that long car ride, we could both use a walk. Exiting out the car, Jace was by my side as we walked the long path towards the tall building. "Have you and River always been that close?" I asked breaking the silence.
Jace smiled to himself. "No. River hated me the first day that I met him." He said and I tilted my head curiously at him. He continued. "He thought I was just a mouthy teenager in this for all the wrong reasons. It didn't help that I showed him no respect at all. I know there were moments that he wanted to beat my ass. I didn't blame him, I would have beat the shit out of me too."
"What changed?" I inquired as we walked side by side, our shoulders brushing every once in a while.
"One day we were all at one of the usual bars that Dominic goes to, he was meeting a highly influential business man. At this point I was about a few months into this and had just found out about my father debt and accident. I was livid. I wanted to break something, kick someone's ass, but I knew I couldn't risk exposing the information I knew." Jace spoke. "But one of Dominic's guys said something that rubbed me the wrong way and well fists started flying. River saw in passing and intervened. I would like to say I was holding my own, but these guys were older, bigger and stronger than me."
"What happened?" I asked as a cool wind blew by. I wrapped my arms around myself.
"River saved me from myself, quite literally. I was on a self destructive path and he knew it. He had said something to those guys that scared them off, but I was too blinded by my own rage that I never heard what he said. He took me outside and away from it all. He never said anything, he never gave me a lecture or pity. We sat in silence. In that moment after all my anger dissipated, I broke down. All he did was sat by my side with an arm wrapped around my shoulders letting me cry those angry tears." Jace continued on and my heart clenched at the thought of what he has gone through alone.
"You trusted him." I stated and Jace nodded.
"At the time I didn't have anyone in this broken world, River and Allison were my saving grace. I eventually came around and told River about what I found out about my father and since then he has always been by my side. Like a guardian angel." I couldn't help the small smile that found its way to my lips. "Fun fact, River was actually the one that got me into boxing and gave me some lessons. He said it was a way to release all my anger and keep my head straight."
River, the guardian angel. I like it.
"So technically River was the one who won the car." I teased and Jace quirked a brow.
"No, I don't think so." Jace said trying to stop me in my tracks.
"Well, he was the one who got you in it. You said he gave you lessons. His lessons are what helped you win, so technically River was the one to win it." Jace narrowed his eyes and I grinned at him. I can see why River loves ruffling his feathers.
"I guess you'll never drive it now." He said dangling the key in my face. Tease. I tried to reach for the key and he snagged it way. This time it was my turn to give him a glare. He grinned, but it faltered when his eyes went over my shoulders. I turned around to see what he was looking at. More specifically who. "It's him." His voice coming out as a whisper.
And it was. It was the man from the photo. Thomas Grimes AKA Gavin Adler. The ghost of Jeremy Emerson's past. "What now?" I asked. He didn't say anything. Jace walked forward towards the man. "Jace!" I whispered yelled. I didn't know we were actually approaching him!
Jace didn't stop, he made a beeline straight towards the man we assume was Gavin. I had to speed walk through the crowd of people to catch up.
"Thomas Grimes." I heard Jace call out from a few feet away. The man looked up from his phone curious as to who called him.
"Yes?" He eyed Jace curiously with his dark eyes as he stuffed his cell phone into in his suit pocket.
Jace stood tall with his shoulders back. He knew he needed to be confident in his next words. "I would like to speak to you."
"If it is business related, you can set up a meeting with one of the secretaries at the desk." He pointed to the entrance of the large building.
Jace let out a humorless laugh. "No it's far from business, Gavin Adler." Gavin's eyes widen at he mention of his hidden name. He was pale like he saw a ghost. "I'm here to speak to you about my father, Jeremy Emerson."
Tension held thick in the air. I was uncertain who was going to speak next or what was going to be said. But what happened next neither of us expected in our wildest dreams.
Gavin Adler ran.
***
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Lisa S.