Chapter 19

Mac

Her sense of humor…

IPUSH THE END button on my phone for the sixth time, becoming more and more pissed each time I get Tessa's voice mail. I've been trying to call her for the past several hours. I've called her cell phone, her house phone, and her work number. I've left her three different voice mails and left multiple text messages telling her she needs to call me. I've heard nothing from her.

I grip my phone tightly and hear the plastic creak a little. I loosen my grip. What I want to do it is throw it across the room and shatter it against the wall. I drop the phone on the coffee table before I follow through with the urge.

She knows better than to keep me hanging like this. It was always a mutual agreement that if one calls the other we would call them back as soon as possible, just in case it involved T. What pisses me off even more is that her job said she didn't show up today for work. Tessa may be unpredictable most of the time, but one thing she's always been religious about is working.

Something doesn't feel right. The more I think on it, the more I worry that Tessa did in fact have something to do with the shit that's been going on with Mia. I've already ruled out Shady. The day after I found Mia's tire was slashed, I paid a visit to Dax. He said that Shady had been at his house for several hours and they were together the entire time. If I didn't know Dax so well I would think he was covering for his friend, but I do know him and trust his word.

The sound of my phone vibrating on the coffee table has me snatching it up and looking at the screen, thinking it's Tessa calling me back. It's not. Instead it's T. It's not who I want it to be, but I always enjoy hearing from my boy.

"Hey, T, what's up, kid?" I get up off the couch and walk into the kitchen to grab a bottled water.

"Have you heard from Mom?" he asks. The tone of his voice has me straightening from the fridge.

"No, I haven't. I've been trying to call her for the past several hours. Why, what's going on?"

"I don't know. I'm at my Taekwondo class, and I guess she forgot to pick me up," he mumbles into the phone.

I look at the clock on the microwave. Shit! His class ended over an hour ago. She should have been there by now.

"Have you tried calling her?" I ask him, while I walk over and grab my keys. I'm walking out the door to my truck when he answers.

"Yeah, but she's not answering. I left a message, but she hasn't called back yet." I can tell he's starting to worry.

"Alright, T, listen to me. Is there someone still at the gym?"

"Yeah, but the last class ends soon."

"I want you to go back inside and wait. I'm on my way there now to pick you up, okay?" I confirm this by revving the engine of my truck and peeling out of the driveway.

"Okay, Dad. Do you think something happened to Mom?" he asks with a tremor in his voice. He tries so hard to act tough, but at the end of the day he's still a ten-year-old boy.

"No, T. I don't know what's going on, but we'll figure it out. Go inside and wait for me. I'll be there soon."

We hang up after he promises to stay inside. I don't worry about his instructor closing the gym and leaving T by himself outside. I don't know the guy well, but from the start of T's lessons, he said he always waits for the last student to be picked up.

The closer I get to T, the more pissed I become. What the fuck does Tessa think she's doing, just leaving T like that? When I took T home the other day, I sat down with Tessa and asked her what was going on that caused her to be gone from the house so much. Of course, she avoided answering and became defensive. I, in return, told her that shit needed to change. That I wasn't going to put up with her neglecting T like she was. I told her that if shit didn't change, I was taking her to court to get full custody of him. She became tearful and promised it wouldn't happen again. I regret now not questioning her further on her recent unknown actions. What the fuck does she have going on that's so important she forgets to pick up our son? Doesn't matter now anyway, because I'm done. She obviously doesn't want the responsibility anymore. That's absolutely fine with me. I should have taken T away sooner. The only reason I didn't was because she was a fairly decent mother, and I know kids need their mothers. Her decency at being a mother has gone down the drain lately. I'm looking forward to having T with me on a more permanent basis.

I pull up to the curb of the gym twenty minutes later and see T sitting inside on one of the many chairs. Before I can get out, he spots me and gets up to come outside. I wave to the instructor to let him know I'm picking T up. T climbs inside the truck but doesn't say anything. Before I put the truck back into gear, I look over at him. His expression shows both anger and worry.

"You alright, T?"

He shrugs and answers without looking at me. "I guess so."

"Have things been better with your mom?" I don't want to worry him, but I need to know if things changed once I spoke with her. I'm finding it very strange that not long after I find out from T that his mom is leaving him alone so much she pulls this stunt, especially since she very adamantly told me things would be different. When I talked to T a week ago, he seemed fine. When I asked him about how things were going with his mom, he said she had gotten better. Again, something just doesn't feel right.

Looking out the window, instead of at me, he says, "Yeah, Mom's been great."

There's something he's not telling me, and it's starting to piss me off. I'm not mad at him. I'm mad because there's clearly something going on, and I have no fucking clue what it is. He's hiding something, and I need to find out what it is.

"Look at me, son," I tell him firmly.

He pulls his eyes to me reluctantly. It's plain to see he doesn't want to face me.

"I need you to talk to me, T. If there's something going on that I need to know about, you need to tell me. I can't fix what I don't know."

"There's nothing to tell, Dad. I'm just worried because Mom forgot about me." He's lying. I can see it in the way his eyes flicker away from mine. I'm going to let it go for now, because whatever the problem is, it obviously involves his mother. I don't know why he won't tell me, but I'll get it out of him later.

"Okay, I'll let it go for now, but you and I are going to talk later. We're going to your mom's to get you some clothes. You're going to stay with me while we find out what's going on. Maybe your mom will be at home when we get there."

I put the truck in drive and make the ten-minute drive to Tessa's. Her car isn't in the driveway when we pull up. The garage door is up, and the car isn't in there either. T pulls his house keys out of his gym bag when we walk up to the door. When we walk inside, I look around. Everything looks pretty much the same as it did the last time I was here. I know it's futile, but I still call out Tessa's name. As expected, there's no answer.

I turn to T, who's putting his bag down in the foyer closet. "Go grab your stuff. Get enough clothes for several days."

He mumbles something unintelligible before walking off down the hallway. I follow him and walk into Tessa's room. I already know she's gone. And when I say gone, I mean she plans on being gone for a while. There are clothes thrown all over the bedroom. All her dresser drawers are pulled out, and it looks like she grabbed handfuls of the contents out, leaving a few pieces behind.

I walk to her closet with my hands balled into fists and see many of the hangers empty. There are a couple suitcases lined up underneath the clothes still hanging up, but there's an empty space where another smaller suitcase should be.

I leave the closet, go to the connecting bathroom, and see a mess in there as well. She left in a hurry. I look for her makeup kit, and don't find it. If I know anything about Tessa, it's that she goes absolutely nowhere without her makeup. If she took that, then that means she plans on staying gone for a while.

My belief in her involvement in Mia's tire being slashed and her almost being raped becomes stronger. She must know that the man who attacked Mia has been caught and is worried we'll find out she was linked. She obviously has someone helping her because the guy we pulled off Mia said it was a man who paid him. I've never wanted to hit a woman more than I do right now. Not only because of her possible involvement with Mia but also because of what she's putting T through.

Speaking of T, I wonder if he suspects anything and that's why he's being so evasive. I would think he would come to me with something like this, but there's no telling what his mom has told him to keep him quiet.

I walk back out of Tessa's room and close the door quietly behind me. I don't want to tell him his mother is gone until I find out more answers.

T walks out a few minutes later with his duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. He looks much older than his ten years right now. The expression on his face and the slump to his shoulders solidify my belief that he knows more than he's telling me, and I'm even more determined to find out what's going on. The stress I see on his face is more than any kid his age should have.

"Come on, kid, let's get out of here. We'll stop by Maggie's on the way home for dinner." As I hoped, at the mention of Maggie's and the chance he'll see Nitra, he perks up a bit.

THREE HOURS LATER, we're at home. T is in the shower while I'm on my laptop at the kitchen table. I'm so pissed that my hands are shaking, and I want to put my hands around Tessa's throat. After pulling a few strings and gaining access to Tessa's bank account, I found that she withdrew two grand the day before Mia was given the Rohypnol. She also took out another five grand yesterday. This is all circumstantial, but I no longer have any doubt that it was Tessa who paid the guy to give Mia the drug and then rape her. I'm not positive, but I think she also must have slashed Mia's tire, or got someone to do it for her. I just don't know what the point was.

I pick up my phone and give Mia a call. She picks up on the third ring.

"Hey, Sheriff."

The sound of her voice calling me Sheriff makes my cock twitch in my jeans. I want to hear her moan again.

"Hey, Pix, can you come over tonight? I have some information." I'd prefer to tell her face-to-face that I think my ex-wife is the person who tried to have her raped. It's not something anyone would want to hear over the phone.

It takes her a minute to respond to my question. I hear noises in the background, and I know she's at Jaxon's. I didn't even think that she could be at work. My only concern was letting her know about what I found out so she would keep her guard up.

"Yeah, but it won't be until late. I don't get off until midnight. Is that okay?"

"That's fine. It won't take long for me to tell you what I need to. I have T here, so call me when you get close and I'll wait for you on the porch."

"Okay." She pauses before she adds, "Is everything alright?"

Not wanting to get into it over the phone, I tell her I'm fine and that we'll talk about it later when she's here. I can tell she doesn't believe me, but doesn't push.

"I'll see you in a few hours, Pix. Be safe and make sure someone walks you to your car when you leave."

I need to give her a little bit of a warning so she knows to watch her back.

"I will, but you're really starting to worry me. Is it something I need to know about right now?"

I can hear the uncertainty in her voice, and I try to lessen it by telling her, "Nothing you need to worry about right now. I just want to be cautious."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few hours."

"Okay, Pix. Bye."

"Bye, Sheriff."

Not having any answers is killing me. I hate not knowing what to expect next. Is Tessa done screwing with Mia? If she's not, what does she have planned next? The cop in me says she's not done. We don't normally get cases like this in Jaded, but I hear word of other cases in nearby big towns all the time. Some end well and some not so well. If Tessa is willing to go as far as paying someone to rape Mia, which is a felony, then I wouldn't put it past her to go even further. I just don't know how far she's willing to go.

T walks out of the bathroom and pulls me from the turmoil going through my head.

"Hey, T, how you doing, bud?"

"I'm fine, Dad. Can you stop asking that?" Irritation laces his voice.

"No, I can't. I'm your dad, and I worry about you. There's something going on with you, and you won't tell me what it is. Until you do, and I know you're okay, you're going to have to get used to me bugging you. Got it? And don't roll your eyes at me. That shit stops now," I tell him, before he can do just that. It's a struggle, but he manages to keep his eyes on mine, instead of rolling them.

"Whatever. I'm going to bed." He turns to leave but turns back when I call his name.

"I love you, son."

"Love you, too," he mutters, before going to his room.

I sigh and rake my fingers through my hair. Tomorrow's agenda is to sit down with T to discuss what's bothering him and to find out if he knows anything more about his mother. I never would have thought my own son could be involved with something so fucked up as this. I feel my blood starting to heat at the thought of Tessa involving him. When I get my hands on her…

I get up from the table and go grab a beer. Loafer follows me cautiously. She senses that I'm not in the best of moods. I'd never hurt my dog, but she's never liked being around when there's tension in the air. I guess that stems from the abuse she endured when she was a pup.

I twist off the cap and take a healthy swig. There's not much more I can do at the moment. I need to talk to Mia first and then T tomorrow. I would talk to him tonight, but I want him to have a good night's rest before I grill him. I'm not looking forward to it, but I know it needs to be done. I just hope my assumption is wrong, and he knows nothing.