Page 73 of Broken Discipline
At first, everything was calm:You jinxed it. My period is late. Call me.
Then:It’s twins. How did you know it would be twins?
Finally, I lost it. With sobs choking my throat, I cried:Please, Griffin. Please call me back. I need you.This hurts so much.
This time, the phone rang like a soft lullaby. It played a recorded message:Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and try again.
His phone had been disconnected.
My skin swelled with pain. It wasn’t the first time Griffin’s number had been disconnected, but it was the first time he hadn’t warned me or given me his new number. He kept to his word that he wouldn’t speak to me until he returned. But I had no idea when that would be, or if he would ever come back.
It was like he was already dead.
Tears formed in my eyes. I was alone in the world. But I had to do something. Not for Bunny. Not for Griffin. Not even for myself.
For my kids.
***
a year later
Griffin
I clutched my pistol in one hand, the handle of my knife in the other, as I stared at the doors to The Raw. Someone was fucking with me. I didn’t know if it was Kylie, or Bunny, or some unknown enemy, but Kylie had disappeared into thin air. And the guard I had left in Oakmont with specific orders to protect her like a fucking hawk was missing too. I had been working in this business long enough to know that he was dead.
But where the fuck was Kylie?
I kicked the bar door open, letting it smack against the black wall. Everyone silenced and Bunny grabbed her shotgun from under the counter.
“Where’s Kylie?” I bellowed.
Bunny aimed the gun at my forehead. “Get back, you stupid motherfucker.”
I came forward. “Where is she?”
Customers darted out of the way and Bunny raised her gun, shooting the ceiling with a warning shot, plaster falling down like rain. I used the back of my pistol to knock the shotgun out of Bunny’s grip. I put the barrel of my gun to her neck. A vein throbbed in my forehead, my eyes bloodshot. It had been a long time since I had left Oakmont, but I knew Kylie was alive. I could feel it. And I wasn’t going to let anyone, not even her best friend, keep Kylie from me anymore.
“Tell me where she is, or I will put a bullet in your head.”
“I don’t know,” Bunny trembled, tears running down her cheeks. “She disappeared. She said something about getting married, and then she was gone. Nobody has heard from her since. Not even me.”
I narrowed my eyes at Bunny. Was she lying to save her friend? But the tears poured down her cheeks like a waterfall, a mix of fear, guilt, and sorrow. Her entire tough bartender persona had evaporated, but the tears weren’t because of the gun digging into her neck. They were because she missed her friend.
Kylie was gone.
I stowed my gun in my holster, then stalked out of the bar before I could change my mind. Rage boiled inside of me, and that was never something you wanted when you had a gun in your hand. Murder had to be about work; it could never be about emotion or desire. That was what discipline was all about.
But Kylie’s disappearance changed me. Unnerved me.Killed me.
I climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV. My father wiped his mouth on the back of his hand like he had just had a coughing spell.
“I found her,” he said. My stomach leaped into my throat, my shoulders rigid. He waited until now to tell me?
“Where is she?” I howled.
He broadened his shoulders, unafraid of my threats. Even if he was dying, he was still tall and powerful. He clenched his jaw, disgusted with me.
“You have got to get a hold of yourself, son,” he said. “You’re letting her control you. That’s not like a Griffin. Why do you think we took that name? A griffin is a powerful creature, a lion and an eagle. You don’t fuck with that combination, and yet, you’re letting her get to you.”
