When Snow Falls (Whiskey Creek #2)(88)
Author: Brenda Novak

Cheyenne hated to think of everyone’s reaction when news of that came out, but she saw no alternative. She’d confess her role in covering it up, too. Keeping that secret, living in the shadow of it, would be too difficult for both of them.

“How will we find her once we reach Phoenix?” Dylan asked.

They were at the computer, where they’d confirmed that the area code Presley had called from was, indeed, Arizona. They’d arranged for Eve to watch Lucky, and Grady to take Aaron to a rehab facility in Sacramento, so they could leave first thing in the morning.

“She’s returned to Sunnyslope, where we used to live. Look at this.” She pointed to the computer screen. “I found the location of the payphone she called me from by putting the number in a search engine.”

“What kind of neighborhood is it?”

She zoomed in on Google Earth.

“I see,” he said with a frown.

“Not so pretty.”

His chair squeaked as he shifted his weight. “Do you mind if I tell Aaron she’s okay?”

Cheyenne frowned at him. “Does he care?”

“He doesn’t want to. He’s not emotionally prepared for a committed relationship. But he’s been worried. I think this news will help him go into rehab tomorrow.”

She wondered if she should tell Dylan about her sister’s possible condition. But, again, she couldn’t bring herself to share that information. She had no idea what Presley might do if she was pregnant—or what she might already have done. Cheyenne certainly didn’t want to make Presley’s return any harder. “Of course.”

She listened, petting her dog, who’d nudged her leg to be picked up, as Dylan called Aaron on speakerphone.

“Why hasn’t she contacted me?” Aaron asked.

Cheyenne wanted to say it was because he’d given her no reason to. That he’d provided nothing for her to hang on to. But she bit her tongue. Aaron had his own issues.

“You sent her away,” Dylan said.

“I didn’t want to deal with her right then. That didn’t mean I never wanted to see her again!”

Dylan’s gaze locked with Cheyenne’s. “We don’t know what was going on in her mind, Aaron.”

She’d needed him, and he hadn’t been there for her. Presley had been let down so many times it was hardly surprising that she had no self-esteem.

“Maybe I should put off rehab,” he said. “Go to Arizona with you.”

“No,” Dylan started, but Aaron cut him off.

“I won’t be able to concentrate if I’m wondering about her all the time.”

Cheyenne broke into the conversation. “You’ll be a lot more help to her if you get clean, Aaron. Maybe we’ll be fortunate and Presley will follow your lead. She’s going to need friends who don’t use. Maybe you can be that friend.”

“You think I’m capable of it?” he asked.

He was talking to her. That surprised Cheyenne. “I think you could be as wonderful as your big brother. But right now, you’re letting everything that’s happened to you stand in the way.”

“Just because you and Dylan have been able to pull your lives together doesn’t mean the rest of us can.”

“Yes, it does,” she said. “If you want it badly enough. I hope that’s the case. I hope you’ll get clean regardless of what happens to Presley.”

“Don’t talk like she’s a lost cause,” he said. “She’s not.”

“I pray you’re right.” Cheyenne set her dog down so she could start packing. Finding Presley would be a long shot. Just because she’d called from Sunnyslope didn’t mean she’d stay in those nine square miles. But Cheyenne had to take the chance.

* * *

The calendar on the clinic’s opposite wall had X’s through December 28. Where had the days gone? Presley felt as if she’d entered a time warp since leaving home. Even her stint with the semi driver who’d driven her to Phoenix seemed more like a dream. Only the bruises on her body and the busted lip Dick had given her felt real. She’d seen what he’d done to her face when she’d asked to use the restroom, since the house where she’d been staying didn’t have a mirror. With a black eye and a swollen mouth, she looked like she’d been in a fight….

“It’ll be okay.” Dick was sitting beside her wearing the new clothes he’d gotten for Christmas, presumably from his wife. When he wasn’t aroused he acted quite normal. Except he’d forced her to wear a dog collar in the car.

On second thought, he wasn’t normal. She was just too scared to care about anything other than what was about to happen.

“Presley?” he said.

She blinked, then focused on him. “What?”

“Did you hear me?”

She nodded. She hadn’t realized he’d expected an answer to that comment. She wished he wasn’t even there. Once they arrived, she’d told him he could drop her off, that she’d call him when it was over. He’d let her remove the collar at that point. But he’d insisted on coming in. He said she needed someone to support her.

She would’ve liked that someone to be Cheyenne. If she had to go through an abortion, she wanted her sister at her side. It was her first time in this situation. But she had no right to ask for anything from Chey. Not after what she’d done. Not after the lies she’d told.

We aren’t even sisters….

“You’re spacing out again.”

Her eyes cut to her companion. “What did you say?”

“I asked if you were scared.”

When? She hadn’t heard that. “A little,” she admitted.

“A little…what?”

Confused, she stared at him until he whispered in her ear. “Master.”

“Oh, right.” She’d forgotten that part. He wanted the playacting to continue. But with only two other women and one man in the waiting room, it was so quiet she hated to speak. The receptionist glanced up whenever they broke the silence. She preferred to go unnoticed, but the marks on her face made that impossible. Presley had witnessed the woman’s shocked reaction when she signed in. She’d mumbled a line about being in a car accident but she wasn’t sure the receptionist bought it.

“I don’t think she believed me about the accident,” she said, keeping her voice too low for anyone else to hear.

“Doesn’t matter,” he responded. “It is what you say it is.”