Page 52 of Ozzie

“Fine. But as soon as we get her home, you’re going back for tests. Got it?”

He sighs. “Once Piper is safe and John is dealt with, I’ll do what I need to do.”

Well, that doesn’t sound like an agreement, but it will have to do for now.

“It must be serious, though, if you got admitted Friday and they kept you all weekend.”

He shakes his head. “No, not serious. But try getting released from a hospital on the weekend. It was impossible.”

I turn my focus back to Piper since I realize I have no idea where I’m driving us to. “Do you think they are still in New York?”

“I’m going to find out.” He dials a number, then turns to the window as I drive up the road with no plan.

“Hey, it’s Durango. Have you heard from Piper?”

A woman’s voice comes through the phone. “No, but she’s on her way home! John called last night and said they are heading back. She said yes to his proposal. Isn’t thatexciting? If you can get home, I’m sure she’d love you at the wedding.”

“Wedding? What are you talking about?”

“Saturday. John and Piper are getting married here outside Helena.”

While I understand the words she’s saying, none of it makes sense. Piper would not marry John. There’s no way.

“Have you seen Piper?”

“No,” the woman says. “They are still driving here.”

Durango looks at me, and I nod.

“I’ll see if I can get the time off. I’ll be in touch.” He ends the call, and I’ve already started driving to the airport.

By the time we park, Durango has found a flight for us, but it’s too soon and the app won’t let him purchase tickets online. He leads me to the ticket desk, and we purchase the tickets. Then we race through security and run down the terminal to the gate. We make it with plenty of time because, for some reason, the person who sold us the tickets failed to mention the flight is delayed by an hour. We should still make our connection in Minneapolis if we run. But we can’t have any more delays.

“If John is driving and left here thirty-six hours ago…” Durango starts.

I pull up the maps to check how long the drive would take. “Thirty hours. But he would stop and rest, right?”

Durango sighs. “You would think so. Unless he’s on something.”

A new layer of worry snakes across me. “He does drugs?”

Durango shrugs. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell from mybrief interaction with him. But he did have that needle with a tranquilizer he had to have gotten from someone.”

“It was probably meant for Piper,” I say.

Piper has already proven she’ll fight back against John, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he intended to have her sleep on the drive back. Although, if he used some on Durango, he might not have had enough for the entire drive with Piper. I can only hope she will wake up and fight him off somewhere along the way. Assuming he doesn’t give her too much. Fuck! Please be all right.

“Do you know where he lives? Or do you think he’ll take her someplace else?” I ask.

He takes his phone from his pocket and starts typing. “No, but my aunt should.” His phone buzzes a minute later. “Fuck!”

Several people turn their heads toward him. But he doesn’t notice as he’s busy typing something else. I lean over and catch that he’s now sending a message to Trip. Trip is our tech guy, who we rely on when we need to locate someone or something. Or if we want any sort of financial or criminal records. If it’s on a computer somewhere, Trip can likely access it.

“My aunt won’t give me the address because she says they will want privacy on their honeymoon. She thinks I plan to crash the place after the wedding. Hopefully, Trip can help us.”

I frown. “Why would you crash someone’s place during their honeymoon?” Not that Piper and John are going to have a honeymoon because that would be over my dead body.

Durango glances at me. “Piper’s parents don’t think like a lot of other people. It’s a miracle my cousin turned out as normal as she did.”

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