Fate Interrupted: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Moonstone Cove Book 3) Read online

  Val started on the edges of the truck. “They put the vines back here, but they had some kind of…” She motioned to the corners. “There was a frame or something.”

  “A truck rack?” Drew asked.

  “Yes.” Val pointed to him. “That’s what it was. Tarps were strung up along the sides.” She reached down and grabbed a short piece of string. “They had it all tied down, but he was still going too fast. They tied tarps around the frame to shield the vines from the wind, but that idiot was driving too fast.”

  “What happened then?”

  Val bent down and ran her hands along the sides of the truck bed. “He was clutching on here. Sitting in the back of the bed with the vines. The vines were tied down, but he was going to kill the driver for going so fast. Stupid city boy. That’s what he was thinking. Stupid city boy didn’t know how to drive worth a shit.”

  “When did they stop?”

  Val shook her head. “I can hear water. Like a creek or a little stream or something.”

  “What else are you getting, Val?”

  Megan watched the woman get progressively more agitated. Her hands ran along the sides of the truck, feeling for more memories. There were ropes and tie-downs in a small pile. There was a cardboard box full of miscellaneous hardware, and a wrench was sticking out from the corner.

  Val’s hand landed on the wrench, and a flurry of things happened all at once. She doubled over and cried out. Her hand gripped the wrench and Megan moved to catch her, only to have Val swing her head back and try to headbutt Megan.

  “Whoa!” Drew jumped into the back of the pickup. “Val! Chill out! Val!”

  Megan moved to Val’s side and saw the woman’s face was pale as a sheet and her lips were nearly blue. She slapped Val on her cheek and shouted at her. “Wake up!”

  Val took in a violent breath and opened her eyes. “Oh fuck, they shot me!”

  “No one shot you.” Megan gripped her hand. “Val, you’re safe. No one shot you.” Megan pried the wrench from Val’s grip and carefully set it back in the box with the extra hardware. It was only when she was returning it that she noticed the dark black spray of what had to be blood on the side of the box.

  “I need to get out of here,” Val said. “I’m going to throw up.”

  Sully had warned Megan and Katherine about this, so they’d come prepared.

  “Katherine!” Megan shouted at her friend. “Need the puke bag.”

  Katherine grabbed the plastic bag from her purse and handed it to Megan as she and Drew helped Val from the back of the truck bed. Val grabbed the bag, wandered a few feet away from them, and vomited into the bag.

  Megan rubbed her back. “Deep breaths. As deep as you can.”

  “Is Katherine getting some water?”

  Megan looked around and didn’t see Katherine in the warehouse. “I think she went to get some from the truck.” She spotted an old weight lifting bench near the warehouse doors. “Let’s go sit over here.”

  Drew was following at a distance, but Megan could practically see the questions jumping over his head.

  Val must have felt them too. She sat down and looked for Drew. “He was shot in the back. He must have sensed something was wrong though, because he grabbed for that wrench before he was shot. He was holding it when he heard them open the back of the truck.”

  “After that?” Drew asked.

  “Nothing. The truck stopped. They walked around to the back, and he heard the tailgate go down. He grabbed the wrench and… bang.”

  “Okay.” Drew nodded. “That explains the blood. They must have dumped the body somewhere back in the hills. We may never find out where.”

  “It was near a creek,” Megan said. “You know that part.”

  “Do you know how many creeks and seasonal waterways there are in this county?”

  Katherine frowned. “Roughly two hundred and fifty, I think?”

  “Of course you’d know that,” Drew muttered. “I’m just saying it’s not a lot to go on.”

  Val’s eyes shot open. “There was something else.”

  “What is it?” Drew asked. “More about the location?”

  “I’m pretty sure I heard a woman.” She looked up. “The voices before the shot. I’m pretty sure that one was a woman and the other was a man.”

  Chapter 21

  Megan walked through her front door a little after five o’clock and braced herself for a flurry of questions. Strangely, the torrent at the front door never arrived. In fact…

  She peeked out the front door. Trina’s car was gone. That wasn’t unusual; she often worked late. But Adam’s car was gone too. Had he gone out to run an errand? If so, where was Cami?

  “Cami?” Megan walked into the kitchen. “Camille?”

  She pulled her phone out of her purse and saw that she had three missed calls. Two from Cami and one from Trina.

  She called Trina first. “Hey! What’s going on? Where are Adam and Cami?”

  “Cami is with me. Adam was supposed to pick her up at the library after practice, but he didn’t show up, so she called you, but you didn’t answer, then she called me. I was leaving work anyway, so I went to pick her up.”

  “Where’s Adam? Have you called him?”

  “Cami called him like three times. Straight to voice mail. I’m pissed at him because I was talking about going out for a drink with some friends when Cami called, but I called him too and also got voice mail.”

  There was a knot in the pit of her stomach. “Did he call you back? Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. We’re on our way home, but we swung by the school and all the cars are gone.”

  Megan took a deep breath. “Okay, he probably had a commitment and he forgot to tell us. Let me try calling and I’ll call you back.”

  “Do you want me to go by any other place? Maybe call his friends?”

  His friends like Ethan Dusi?

  Who had seen her in his father’s bed that morning?

  Megan cleared her throat. “Can I talk to Cami real quick?”

  “Let me give her my earpiece. Just a sec.”

  There was a beeping sound as Trina handed her Bluetooth earpiece over to her sister.

  “Hey, Mom.” Cami’s voice was small.

  “Hey, baby.” Megan took a deep breath. “Were Adam and Ethan Dusi talking at school today?”

  “Um… yeah. Maybe.” Cami’s voice was small. “I don’t know. Adam’s on the other side of the building, you know?”

  “Right.” Cami didn’t sound like she was holding anything back. “You okay?”

  “I think something’s wrong. Adam’s never forgotten to pick me up before, Mom. If he forgets he has to do something, he always texts me.”

  “Yeah.” Megan’s mind was racing. “I’m gonna hang up and call him real quick okay? I’ll call Trina back. Just come home.”

  Megan immediately hung up and called Adam’s phone. Just as Trina said, it went directly to voice mail. Forcing herself to take deep breaths, she opened the Find My Family app on her own phone and looked for Adam’s signal. The kids knew she had their phones tracked; it wasn’t a secret, and they weren’t ever supposed to turn location tracking off. Ever.

  Adam’s phone was registering at Moonstone Cove High at 2:36 that afternoon. A circle spun next to his name.

  No location found.

  Megan called Rodney. He picked up after two rings.

  “Megan, I’m glad you called. Angela was thinking—”

  “Is Adam at your house?” She had no time for Rodney or his girlfriend.

  “Adam?” He covered the phone with his hand and indistinct muttering was all she heard.

  “Rodney, is Adam with you? Yes or no.”

  “No. Stop yelling. He’s not here. He probably just took off with one of his friends and—”

  Megan hung up on Rodney and set her phone down on the counter with shaking hands.

  No.

  No no no no no no.

  Something was wrong. Adam
didn’t forget to pick up his little sister. Not once had it ever happened. He didn’t turn off the location tracking on his phone.

  Across the counter, a vase full of spring daisies cracked and slumped to the side as the water poured across the granite.

  Megan breathed in. She breathed out. She picked her phone up, careful not to crush it between her fingers. She called Adam again and left a message.

  “Adam, it’s Mom. I’m worried, buddy. Call me. Call Cami. Call Trina. We need to know you’re safe.”

  She called Nico next.

  “Hey. How did it go with—”

  “I don’t know where my son is, Nico.”

  He was dead silent. “What can I do?”

  “Ask Ethan if he told Adam about us.”

  “He better not have,” Nico muttered. He was walking and Megan heard Beth in the background.

  “What’s going on, Dad?”

  “Did you see Adam Carpenter at school today?”

  “No. I don’t have any classes with—”

  “Did your brother? Ethan!”

  Megan’s heart was racing. She saw headlights pulling into the driveway and ran to the door. It was Trina’s red Toyota. She stayed at the door, watching her girls drive into the garage as Nico was yelling at his son on the other line.

  “I didn’t think it was a big deal!” Ethan was saying. “We have speech together, and Adam joked about you asking his mom out. He thinks you’re cool, Dad. He wasn’t mad when I told him or anything. He smiled and shit. We all think you and Megan are cool.”

  “What did I tell you this morning? You and I are gonna have a conversation later, but right now Megan doesn’t know where Adam is. Did he say anything to you? Did he say he was going to a friend’s house? To a girl’s house?” Nico turned his attention back to the phone. “Megan, I’m so sorry. I’m going to talk to Ethan. I can’t believe—”

  “He’s a kid, Nico.” Megan was numb. “He didn’t think it was a big deal. Can you call all the kids on the basketball team you can think of—?”

  “I’ve got Coach Dillon’s home number; I’m calling him right now. He’ll call the boys on the team. Was Adam seeing anyone? A girl? A guy—?”

  “Not that he told me, but Beth is in his class and she might know.”

  Cami and Trina came barreling into the house.

  “Mom, did you find him?” Cami ran to her and hugged her around the waist. Trina, quickly taking the measure of her mother’s expression, got her phone out and started making calls.

  “We don’t know where he is yet, but we’re going to find him, baby.” She kissed the top of Cami’s head. “Mama’s gonna find him. Nico, I have to go. Can you give Coach Dillon my number?”

  “We’re not talking about that right now.” Trina must have been talking to her father. “Have you given him any money?” She paused. “I just know what you offered me. If you gave him half that amount, he could be halfway across the country and heading back to Atlanta right now, Daddy.” Trina’s accent was getting stronger and stronger, a sure sign her temper was fraying.

  A family picture fell off the wall near Megan.

  “Shit.” She had to calm down before her house started falling apart. What was she supposed to do now? Should she call the police? Would Adam be in trouble if she called the police? She pressed the number for Drew’s mobile phone.

  “Megan?”

  Another picture fell off the wall. Megan let Cami go and walked to her backyard. “Drew, I don’t know where my son is.”

  The detective took a deep breath. “You called him?”

  “Nothing. Straight to voice mail.”

  “You called his friends?”

  “As many as we know of. His basketball coach is calling all the boys on the team. That’s mostly who he hangs out with.”

  “And his father?”

  Megan’s laugh was bitter. “His father knows nothing.”

  “Does he have a car? Money?”

  “Yes, he’s got a car and his bank account and an ATM card. His dad gives him money, and he’s got some money from his job last summer.” Her heart was racing as she walked to one of the cypress trees along the back fence. She held up her hand and shook the tree with everything in her, loosing her fear and anger on the shaking tree so she didn’t destroy something less flexible.

  Drew said, “You know I’m going to tell you that the odds are very good that he’s upset about something, he’s going to drive up the coast for a while or hide out at a friend’s house, and then he’s going to come home.”

  Megan shook the tree again and felt the ground beneath her feet move. “And I know you probably see a lot of kids who would just take off, but Adam is not like that, Drew. He’s not like that, and he didn’t pick his little sister up from the library and he has never done that before. He’s never once forgotten or not texted her that he’d be late or she needed to find another ride home or any of that. That’s not who he is, and I think his phone is off and I just know that we’ve been investigating this and what if someone thought Adam knew something about it? What if someone—?”

  “Hold on now. Deep breaths, Megan. Do you have any reason to think that he’s been harmed or taken against his will? I know he’s your baby, but he’s also a tall and strong young man. It would be difficult for someone to get him to do anything against his will. Are you hearing me?”

  “We know people who manipulate minds, Drew!” The tears she’d been holding back poured down her face in a torrent. “Don’t… don’t tell me that he’s big and strong. So were Katherine’s students who had their brains violated. You know what I can do with my mind—what can other people do? Do they know he’s my baby? These people are killers!”

  “Mom?” Trina was standing on the edge of the lawn, waving her arms. “Mom, it’s Katherine. He’s there. He’s at their house, Mom. He’s okay.”

  Megan choked on a sob and fell to the ground.

  She turned the corner of the wraparound porch and saw Adam sitting on the edge of the steps leading down to the sand. Archie was lying next to him, his head under Adam’s hand.

  Megan stood still and watched him for a moment.

  He was as tall as his father and the spitting image of Rodney at that age. He had the lanky frame of a half-grown pony, lots of legs and arms that didn’t always land in the right place. He was young and old, man and child. The little boy who ran to her when his knee was bleeding and the young man who offered her a hug when she was having a bad day.

  She sat next to him on the step and stared at the waves. “Hey.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  Megan turned and saw the tears in his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on. You haven’t been yourself for weeks.”

  “I’m not upset about you and Mr. Dusi. I don’t want you to think that. I think he’s cool.” Adam’s voice caught. “That’s why— Mom, I think I did something really stupid.”

  “We all make mistakes, buddy. Tell me what’s going on, and we’ll try to make it right.”

  “It was weeks ago. Remember when I went over for Dusi family dinner and you stayed home ’cause you’d worked at the winery all day that Saturday?”

  “Vaguely.” Megan frowned. “Did something happen?”

  “Not… I mean, I didn’t realize it was a big deal until later, you know?”

  “Start at the beginning.”

  “I saw Henry and Mr. Dusi talking in the corner, and they looked like they were kind of arguing, you know? And I was being a nosy shit, so I followed them. I figured I might hear something or… I don’t know. I was just being stupid. I’d never seen them arguing before. I was surprised.”

  Adam had a minor hero complex when it came to Henry. It didn’t shock Megan to know he’d been curious about Henry and Nico possibly fighting. “Okay, so you followed them.”

  “And they went back to the greenhouse,” Adam said. “The one that got broken into.”

  Megan took a deep breath. “So you heard them talking about the Poulsard vines.”r />
  “Just how unique they were. I didn’t really understand a lot of it. Henry was saying how a successful launch or something could be worth millions and Nico was— He wasn’t disagreeing, but I could tell he was being a little more cautious. But I could tell they were a big deal. The grapevines, you know?”

  “Okay.” Megan nodded. “So you knew about the Poulsard vines. I know you didn’t steal them, so—”

  “I told Dad.” Adam looked sick to his stomach. “He was always joking around about me spending so much time at the Dusis’ and how he should hire me for industrial espionage. Stuff like that.”

  Oh Rodney, you piece of shit. Her ex-husband was in agricultural equipment sales and had long coveted the Dusi Family Farm account, not that he’d ever get it with how Nico and Toni’s family felt about Megan.

  “Okay,” Megan said carefully. “I’m listening.”

  “So he was giving me shit when I was hanging out at his place the next day and… I told him about the vines.” Adam shrugged. “I thought it would just be funny. How I actually found out a secret. I didn’t think anything would happen, but then the vines were stolen. And…” He grabbed his hair in both fists. “Now I don’t know what to think.” He looked at Megan. “Is Dad involved in this? Did I get him involved by telling him? I know he’s a jerk and everything, but he’s my dad. And what if the police think I had something to do with—?”

  “Oh honey.” Megan grabbed Adam and held him close. “It’s Detective Bisset who’s investigating. He knows you. And I know you didn’t mean anything by it. I don’t know if your father had anything to do with this, but we’re going to find out, okay?” She rubbed his hair and felt his broad shoulders relax in her embrace. “This is not your fault. You had no way of knowing, okay?”

  Adam pulled away and wiped his eyes. “When Ethan told me that you and his dad were, like, really going out… I just kind of panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to tell you before, but then I thought you were going to be so, so mad. And Nico would think I’m a rat and—”

  “Buddy, no one is going to think that.” She took his hand. “And whatever may happen with me and Mr. Dusi, I want you to know something first: I am your mother. That is my first job now. Before work or friends or definitely a boyfriend, I am yours and Cami’s and Trina’s mama.” She looked him dead in the eye. “And that comes first. Always.”