“Wait,” Kennedy said as Tim was lowering himself into the car. “I can drive myself.”
“You shouldn’t drive in this condition,” Tim explained as he hit the door locks.
Before she had a chance to argue, he was pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road through town. “What hospital is he at?”
Tim didn’t answer immediately and when he turned on one of the back roads, leading away from town, rather than toward it, Kennedy knew that something was wrong.
Very, very wrong.
“HEY, MAN. WHAT’S up?” Sawyer asked after he punched the Talk button on the phone when Braydon’s number popped up.
“Where the fuck are you?” Braydon asked, his tone eerily calm.
“I just walked in my front door. Why?” Sawyer asked as he stopped inside the door.
“You haven’t been to Moonshiners?” Braydon asked.
“Not today, no. Why? What the fuck is going on, Braydon?”
“I . . . uh . . . Hell.”
Sawyer stood stone still in the middle of his living room waiting for Braydon to explain what the hell was going on.
“I take it you weren’t in jail, either?” Braydon asked, his voice even lower, more lethal than before.
“Jail? What the hell, man?”
“Shit. We need to . . . Holy fuck. I’ll be there in five.”
With that the phone disconnected and Sawyer simply stared at it. He felt as though he’d been knocked in the head and he had woken up to realize he didn’t have a clue where he was or what he was doing.
Five minutes felt more like five hours and Sawyer found himself in his front yard when Braydon’s big-ass truck pulled up. Jessie was in the passenger seat and as soon as Braydon came to a stop, she was out the door and running toward him.
“Tim came to the office,” she explained, a little out of breath. “He told Kennedy that her father was in the hospital and that you were in jail. I don’t know where they are.”
Sawyer could hardly breathe, his head spinning as he tried desperately to make sense of what she had just told him.
“You’re not in jail,” Jessie stated.
“Obviously,” Sawyer retorted. “What about Jeff? Is he okay?”
“I called Moonshiners. Mack sounds fine. There weren’t any issues at the bar.”
“Where’s Kennedy?” Sawyer asked, grabbing Jessie by the shoulders to settle her down.
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m telling you. She left with Tim when he told her he’d take her to the hospital. We thought you were in jail, so I was going to try to figure that out. I’m supposed to call her.”
“Did you?”
“She’s not answering,” Jessie said, nodding her head furiously.
As though it might make a difference, Sawyer grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Kennedy’s number. After four rings, it went to her voice mail, which meant her phone was on and not dead. A positive sign. Rather than leave a message, Sawyer hung up and dialed another number.
“Sheriff Endsley,” came the gruff voice on the other end of the line.
“We might have a problem. This is Sawyer.”
“What kind of problem?”
“It’s about Kennedy.” The silence on the other end of the line was deafening until Sawyer continued. “She was at the office when Tim showed up. He told her that you were in the hospital and I was in jail. He convinced her to go with him so he could take her to you.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jeff growled.
“Is there a way to see where his car is?” Sawyer asked, then looked at Braydon. “You call Gage. Have them figure out if they can trace her cell phone.”
Braydon nodded at the same time Jeff said, “I’ll see what I can do. Where are you?”
“At home. But I’m gettin’ in my car to see if I can find her.”
“Keep your phone on,” Jeff instructed.
“Yes, sir.”
Sawyer disconnected the call and looked at Jessie, nodding toward where Braydon had walked off. “When he gets off the phone, tell him to call me.”
“Okay,” she said, her eyes wide.
Sawyer jumped in his car, not sure where the hell he was going to go, but he damn sure wasn’t going to sit there and just wait for Kennedy to show up.
chapter TWENTY-ONE
“Where are we goin’, Tim?” Kennedy asked. Her initial fear once she realized that Tim wasn’t taking her to the hospital had morphed into anger and she was doing everything in her power not to reach over and punch him in the face.
It wasn’t easy.
“To talk,” he said gruffly.