Page 69 of To Bring You Back
“Fine. Give me the keys so I can get my stuff.”
“Be my guest. It’s not locked.” Gannon went inside, the keys closed in his fist. He’d stopped along the private drive, out of sight from both the gate and the main house, to search the car. He’d emptied the packet onto the shoulder and had used his shoe to mix the contents with the gravel and dirt. Now, he flushed the wrapper in the first bathroom he passed.
Tim lay sprawled out on a couch in the great room, head propped on an armrest, headphones on, and phone on his chest, about eight inches from his face.
“You know we have TVs for that.” An entire home theater, in fact.
Tim pushed the headphones off one of his ears. “Hear from Harper?”
“No. She hasn’t turned up?”
“Missed a charity dinner. She had a dress commissioned for it, so they thought there was no way she’d no-show, but my guess is the dress is why she skipped out. Probably too small or something.”
“Did they check her place?”
“She’s not there. Took her must-haves with her, so it’s not like she was kidnapped. If one of you went AWOL, it’d be a lot longer before I started calling your exes looking.”
Touching. “Harper and I never dated. Her people must’ve had a reason to think I’d know something.”
“She was talking about you earlier.”
“What’d she say?”
“Didn’t specify.”
Gannon found Harper among his contacts and hit the call button. Her voicemail picked up.
“People are calling looking for you. Let someone know where you are.” He disconnected as Tim’s focus settled behind him.
Matt had followed from the garage, face flushed. “You’ve got it, don’t you? Probably going to use it yourself. Playing all high and mighty when you’re no different than me.”
“I don’t have anything of yours.”
“Yeah? Prove it.” Matt pushed forward and started patting Gannon’s pockets.
Gannon lifted his hands from his sides to give him an easier time of the search. “Matt here’s going to need a ride when he goes into town from now on.”
Matt pulled Gannon’s socks at the ankles, as if he would’ve hidden the drugs there. Sober, the guy would never stoop like this. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“A driver. Hire a limo for all I care. If it weren’t for me, you’d be in a cell right now.”
“I’m fine to drive.”
Gannon crossed his arms, looking down at Matt’s dingy hair. If the guy could’ve seen what he’d become, would he still have signed on with Awestruck? “Then why’d I find you crawling around, looking for your keys in the street in front of a cop who would’ve arrested you as soon as you got behind the wheel?”
“He wasn’t going to arrest me.” Matt straightened, and his gaze shot toward his room.
Gannon had gotten rid of what was in the car, but Matt likely had more on the premises.
He shouldn’t have intervened with the police officer. Only serious consequences would convince him to reconsider his choices.
As Matt proceeded up to his room, Gannon tossed the keys to Tim. “The police are watching for his car to make an example of him. Unless you want him in jail for our next show, he gets a babysitter whether he wants one or not.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Tim pocketed the keys.
Gannon continued to the studio, but when he set his phone on the desk, it buzzed with a text.
I’m not all right at all.
