Page 5 of DFF: Delicate Freakin' Flower

I walked back to the truck and climbed in, the AC hissing to life as I sat behind the wheel and watched her house through the windshield.

“All right, you little menace, what the hell have you done?”

I hadn’t been sitting there long—just me, my truck, and the low hum of heat coming through the windshield—when my phone lit up again with Matty's name on the screen.

I answered before it even finished the first ring. “Tell me you’ve got something.”

“Oh, I’ve got something.”His voice was low and serious now. “You’re gonna want to buckle up for this one.”

I already didn’t like where this was going. To be fair, I hadn't exactly been enjoying it since I'd learned Gabby was off grid, but now? Fuck no. “Hit me.”

“So, your girl Gabby?”he said. “That’s not her full name. Her legal’sGabriella Voss, but she changed it a couple of years ago.”

“What the hell's going on?”I sighed, rubbing my forehead. None of this made sense. People changed their names for different reasons, but why would Gabby have done it?

“There’s asearch out on her. Real quiet, nothing public, but I’ve got ears, Webb. Someone’s been poking around all across the state using private security channels. It's definitely some high-end, hush-hush type shit, not your average jilted ex or missing person case. This is someone withpull.”

“And who’s doing the looking?”

Matty exhaled. “It's a guy namedColin Maddox.”

The name rang a bell, mainly because it was plastered across half the billboards between here and Tampa.

“Maddox, as in the developer?”I asked. “Maddox & Shoreline Construction?”

“That’s the one. He's a prominent real estate mogul involved in a wide range of ventures, including contractors, resorts, and commercial properties—you name it. If you Google him, it’s all charity events and ribbon-cuttings. But off the record?” Matty paused. “He’s a mean sumbitch.”

I tapped the steering wheel, jaw tight. “Define mean.”

“Money laundering, bribery, a lot of code violations that have been swept under the rug. There were also a couple of inspectors whoconveniently vanished right before testifying against him. Nothing's even been proven, of course, because it's obvious the man’s got the system on a leash. The police, the courts, and the media either work for him or choose to look the other way.”

“And now he’s looking for Gabby.”

“Yeah,”Matty confirmed quietly. “That’s the part that makes my skin crawl.”

I ended the call with a hard “thanks”andthen pulled up Maddox’s name on my phone out of pure instinct. Sure enough, the guy looked like a damn saint. All of the search results showed speeches at city hall, gold-plated shovels breaking ground, and him smiling like he gave a damn about every hard hat behind him.

The real stuff would be buried deep behind walls of money and legal teams. Jesus, Gabby had gone toe-to-toe withthis? I had a thousand questions, and not a single one had a good answer.

I thumbed to my contacts and hit Sasha’s name.

“Hey,”she answered on the second ring, breathless. “Did you find her?”

“Not yet. I’m outside her place, but it’s empty.”

“Damn it,” she whispered.

“But listen, I need your help. I need to know if there’s anywhere she’d go. Think of familiar places, somewhere she’d feel safe that's off the grid.”

There was a pause, then the sound of her pacing. “Okay. Uh, let me think. Maybe my dads’ lake house? No, Gabby hates the mildew smell there. Um, maybe that roadside motel she used for that wedding weekend in Daytona? She raved about the cinnamon rolls.”

“Give me all of it,”I said. “I’ll check everything. But first, what’s she driving?”

“Oh, come on, Webb, I suck at cars," she groaned, but then a sigh followed it. "I think it's an old beat-up Corolla that's champagne colored.”

“Do you know the plate number?”

“I don't even know my own plate number.” She hesitated. “Webb… is she gonna be okay?”

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