Keep the Faith (Bulletproof Series 1.5) Read online

  “Are we done here? I need to go clean up and get back to work,” I say, trying to appease her so she’ll let me go.

  “Definitely a straight-jacket moment. Why don’t you go ahead and get out of here, take the rest of the time off you need until she’s found. It’ll do you some good.”

  Shaking my head, I stand up suddenly. “I can’t. If I don’t have some sense of normalcy in my life right now, I’ll lose it. I’ll go mad.”

  “Sweetheart, you’ve already gone mad. Otherwise I wouldn’t be contemplating calling the big men with the even bigger needle to come sedate you.”

  Laughing at her humor, I wave her off. A padded room doesn’t sound too bad right now. “Nah, that’s not needed. I had my little cry and now I’m fine.”

  “Sarah. You don’t need to put on an act around here. We can all tell you’re hurting which also hurts us. I can definitely see you need to get away from here, so tell you what I’m going to do. You’re going to leave this office, go get your shit, grab some food and take off as long as she is missing. And yes, I’ll pay you. Come back when she is found and not a minute sooner.”

  I gape at her. “But, Phoebe! What about the shop? What about the regulars? What about…?”

  “What about Leo?” She smirks, tapping her slender fingers on the edge of her desk. “Oh, he’ll be here, slaving away as if nothing’s changed. But he understands what you’re going through and fully supports you taking a break from here. Besides, there are other ways of communicating if you so need to see each other. Phone calls, texting, email, social media. You’re a smart woman, Sarah. I know you’ll use your head. I see the way you two have been peeking at each other. I’m not stupid.”

  “Is it that obvious? This was the last thing I needed right now, I hope he realizes that I can’t do the relationship thing right now. I can’t have any distractions.”

  Phoebe stands up and comes around the side of her desk to lean on the front, crossing her legs at the ankles and giving me a saddened look. “Oh, he does. Believe me, he does. All these college girls that come through here and he can’t take his eyes off of you. He’s always had a thing for older women, gets that from his mom.” The look of pride in her face is breathtaking. Age must be as big of a deal in her family as who ate the last Brussel sprout at dinner time.

  “Ha, I’m not that much older. I’m only thirty-four which only makes me nine years older than him,” I say like it’s the worst possible thing in the world.

  “So what? My first husband was ten years younger than me. Age is nothing but a number, honey, and if you let something like that stop you, then life will be kicking your ass before sunset and you don’t want that, trust me.”

  Age has never really bothered me before, so why should I start letting it now? Nodding, I stand up to adjust my wrinkled, icing covered uniform before returning back to work life.

  “Don’t forget what I said. I don’t want to have to fire you to keep you out of here,” Phoebe says seriously with a hint of amusement, but part of me knows she’s hardly ever kidding when it comes to taking shit seriously.

  “Yes I know. That’s why I’m going to go get my purse and head out,” I say with a smile. “Good girl,” she says and out the office I go. Maybe a tiny break is exactly what I need to get everything cleared up in my head, or at least keep whatever sanity I have left until Jayde is found.

  Those same words from before replay in my mind like a hamster wheel that never ends. Keep the faith. Repeat the mantra. Keep. The. Faith.

  Chapter 5

  Sarah

  Zac has been blowing up my phone ever since I left the café a few hours ago. Repeated messages filter through the unique ones; I don’t know what else to do; Maybe I should just give up; This is taking such a fucking toll on me, Sarah; I’m so in love with her I can barely stand it; I’d die if something happened to her.

  And the one heart pounding message that always stands out above all else… I’m going to kill that sorry-ass, no-good mother fucker if it’s the last thing I do. He’s going to die. Just wait until I get my hands around his throat, I’ll watch as I squeeze the last of his sorry-ass life straight from his body.

  That last message convinced me he is slowly losing it, but I can’t really blame him. We’re all going nuts around here. Thankfully, none of us have to go through it alone. Since Phoebe said I didn’t have to return to the café until Jayde is found, I figure I might as well leave all thoughts of work behind. After leaving the café, I make the short walk to the newspaper, leaving my car behind.

  Palmetto Times was a constant display of hustle and bustle. Sort of like you would see on those old movies from the twenties. The flow of people, trying to get the latest top news stories out for the world to enjoy. No wonder Jayde loved this place so much. Off to the side, tacked up on the wall in a beautiful brown oak frame, is a picture of our dad. I smile proudly at the picture, thinking how proud of both of us he would be. There’s so much he wanted to happen with this paper, so many expansions to make on it. Jayde was able to build up on it to the point to where it was making a huge success, with the subscribers pushing into the hundreds for print and thousands more for digital media. She was able to upgrade the office from some run down shack to a glorious office suite just off Warren Street. It’s not glamorous, but it works. Dad would have loved the location. Not too far from the ocean, but just enough to avoid the busy bustling of tourists who are passing through.

  Gwen strolls out of the huge office and walks back to her desk, and Anna follows shortly after. Rushing up to her, I grab her and pull her into a hug.

  “Oh, hello Sarah,” she says laughing. I know she hates public displays of affection but hell, I’m so grateful to her for taking over during this stressful time.

  “Hey, Anna. Sorry for just dropping by unexpectedly, but I just left work and needed to see this place,” I say sadly.

  Anna ignores my saddened expression and checks the time on her phone. “Damn, it’s early afternoon. You left work sort of early.” I nod. “Yeah, well it wasn’t really my doing. Phoebe made me because I wasn’t able to focus clearly, making my work production sub-par. So she sent me home until Jayde is found.”

  Anna smiles sadly but nods. She looks around the floor of the paper, noticing everyone is working their butts off to get whatever needs to get done.

  “What?” I ask curiously. It’s never a good sign when Anna has a far-away look in her eyes.

  “I was just thinking. What if you worked here? I mean, you can definitely tell we need the extra help to make deadlines. Plus, it will keep you busy so you don’t have to think about it too much, like me,” Anna says as a tear falls down her cheek, but she quickly wipes it away before anyone has a chance to notice, but I did.

  “Oh Anna. We’ll find her, I know we will. Hell, I’ve cried enough for all of us lately. But sure, I guess I can try and help out the best that I can. I don’t know anything about newspapers or writing. That was always Jayde’s expertise.”

  Anna smiles widely. “Oh, this is going to be fun. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. If Jayde taught me anything, it was the area of reporting and telling a story.”

  If Jayde were here, I’d kick her curvy ass from here to Timbuktu for even putting me in this position. Could I seriously take up news reporting?

  What the hell did I just sign up for?

  Chapter 6

  Anna

  Teaching Sarah how to co-run a newspaper was like trying to teach a monkey how to ride a bicycle, stressful and frustrating as fuck. Showing her how to edit articles, arrange pictures and choose proper headings doesn’t really seem like the bees knees but hell, everyone has to start out at some point. Besides, it’s only temporary and once we find Jayde, all will be right with the world again. Sarah will go back to the café and I will go back to wherever the hell I work at. Being a certified couch potato may sound like all fun and games but trust me, it isn’t.

  “Okay, so this filter needs to be applied here? But that makes the pict
ure look grainy,” Sarah says, scrunching her nose up in distaste at my suggestion.

  “The picture is supposed to look vintage, that’s why it’s grainy.” Going through some of Jayde’s files, I found this article she wrote about old loves who have been separated a long time ago, and how they finally found each other. They submitted their pictures for printing and I know Jayde would have jumped at the chance to print this article. I’m not much of a writer but I hope to tap into some of Jayde’s beautiful talents enough to concoct something worth putting out there.

  “I got it!” Sarah says excitedly. Glancing over, the picture of the elderly couple is cute, and just enough vintage filter to suffice.

  “Alright, let’s get it over to printing.” Luckily, I’m not the only one who has decided to step in. Andy, my gay best friend, has decided to help out as much as possible. He also believes that at any given moment I could have a mental break down, so thank god he’s here in case that happens. Andy has taken over the printing department and is in charge of making sure everything looks to be in tip top shape before sending it out to the world. I’ve also put him in charge of the fashion style section of the paper. Lord knows he’s worked in a department store long enough, he claims he’s an expert. I just laugh it off and go with it. Plus, he’s such a stickler for cleanliness so if something is out of whack, he is on top of it trying to straighten it out.

  “Anna, honey, what is going on over here? It looks like a tornado went through the place and tore it all to shreds,” Andy says while reacting to the mess that used to be the printing area. Walking over, I take one look around and shake my head. Damn it Jayde, can’t you stay organized for two minutes while we try to figure out how to find you?

  I let out a sigh. “Fine, we’ll print it out this evening and push for the paper to be out by tomorrow, no later than early afternoon. We can’t lose any of Jayde’s regular customers. She’d have my head on a silver platter.”

  This whole place is a constant painful reminder of my best friend. How vibrant she made the office feel, how everyone loved her. She had to get that from her father because everyone loved him just the same. They were both the same in many ways.

  “Anna, I think I got the hang of this editing business. I just edited a photo she took for her ‘Soulmates of the Seashore’ article. At least it said to add that filter in her…notes.”

  Sarah hesitated on the word “notes” and taking that opportunity to rush over, I pick up the folder containing all of her notes for that particular article.

  “Apply low light filter, keep classic beach feel to the picture. Brighten the sunshine in the background.” All in her hand-writing. Her perfect, beautiful, chicken scratch handwriting. Memories of her talking about this article come flooding back and as if a dam opened up, I dropped the folder onto the desk and ran off towards Brooke’s office. Slamming the door behind me, I lean against it trying to catch my breath. It feels like the walls are closing in on me one by fucking one. My heart is slamming out of my chest and I can’t breathe. Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. This can’t be happening. Stumbling over to the couch, the anxiety attack seizes my whole body, as I struggle to get my erratic breathing under control. Damn it, I have to pull it together. Seeing her hand-writing right there on those notes made everything collapse all at once.

  The room starts to spin out of control. Nothing is centered anymore and the last thing I see is the door being pushed open and I hear people shouting my name before my world goes dark.

  Chapter 7

  Sarah

  Gwen, Andy and I rush into Brooke’s office at the sudden sound of Anna collapsing. I knew the stress of this place and Jayde being missing was getting to her but I had no idea how bad it actually was. Or maybe I was too busy being in my own little world of missing her to even pay any attention to those around me.

  God-damn-it.

  Andy rushes over to Anna and scoops her up then sits her down onto the couch. Gwen rushes off to get some cold cloths to place on her forehead to try and help her come to.

  “Anna! Come on, wake up sweetheart,” Andy coaxes with a slight worrisome tone to his voice. No response yet as Andy tries to shake her awake as gently but as urgently as he can.

  “Damn it, I knew I should have looked out for her better. This is all my fault,” Andy shouts to no particular person. We’ve all been beating ourselves up lately and it’s nobody’s fault any of this has happened. It’s that fuck face Finn’s fault. He is so lucky Zac is going to get ahold of him because if I do, he’s going to be begging for mercy.

  “Andy, it is not your damn fault. We’ve all been stressing out over Jayde and where the fuck she could be at this time. If anybody has to claim blame, it would be me. I should have used my big sister instincts and saw that conniving, manipulative sneak for who he truly was. Zac is doing everything he can, and he’s pulled in the best of the best to try and help out. The best we can do is help out by keeping things somewhat normal around here. Jayde would want that.”

  Andy seems to comprehend my statement rather fast. A soft groan comes from the couch and we all turn to see Anna’s eyes blink open slightly.

  “Thank god,” I say with a relieved sigh, turning my face to the heavens to give a silent prayer. Anna turns her head to look over at us with confusion. “What happened?” she asks.

  “You had an anxiety attack, rushed in here and collapsed,” Gwen speaks up from the door who had been quiet all this time. “I just called my brother who is a paramedic to come help. He should be here pretty quickly.”

  Anna nods. She must not be feeling well otherwise she would have refused medical help. “Thank you, Gwen. I know this has been just as hard on you as it has been us. You’re a great friend.” Wow, that caught me by surprise. Anna did have a good point though. Gwen has suffered just like the rest of us. Co-workers or in their case, employer and employee, can grow to be rather close to each other.

  “Maybe there is something we’re just not seeing. Like, maybe there is somebody out there who can track Finn better than even Zac can, and we just can’t see it,” Anna says, as Andy applies another cold compress to her forehead. She seems to be back under control and her anxiety attack has seemed to disappear, as if it never happened.

  “What do you mean?” Andy asks, confused. My thoughts are wondering the same thing.

  Anna sits up on the couch, much to my disapproval and drops the cold compress beside her.

  “I mean, Zac is just a private investigator. His connections can only get him so far. I’m talking about taking it to some-place bigger, some-place where most civilians are not even allowed to cross the threshold.”

  “Area 51? We’re going to hunt aliens? Fuck yeah!” Andy says excitedly which earns a glare from me, while trying to hear what Anna is up to in that head of hers.

  “No, dumbass. I’m talking about taking it to a higher power.” Now it was my time to speak up.

  “I think you might have hit your head a little too hard when you fell, honey. Maybe you should lie back down for a bit, get a little bit more rest.”

  Anna just looks at me with a stern look on her face and I know that look. That’s her signature “shut the fuck up and listen to me or I’ll burn your house to the ground” look and it’s one you better damn right take heart to.

  “So what exactly do you mean? A higher power? Are you talking about, what, the military?” I ask confused. When Anna smiles, it all begins to piece together exactly what she was referring to.

  “You’re talking about bringing in the military? I really think you should lie back down and get some more rest. You’ve definitely hit your head harder than we all thought.”

  Anna shakes her head and goes to explain when a knock comes on the door, breaking us from our intense conversation.

  “Oh, that must be Ronan.” Gwen speaks up and goes to open the door. A tall, mocha colored skin man steps through the door and it takes all of my power to not jump into his arms. This man was beyond gorgeous. Broad shouldered, short b
uzz cut, chiseled jaw, muscles any girl would like to lick from top to bottom and whoa, get your hormones back under control. Looking over at Anna, she must have been thinking the same thing because she can’t take her eyes away from him.

  “So who is the patient?” Ronan asks Gwen and his voice, so deep and sexy with a hint of roughness is like chocolate cascading down a porcelain fountain. It’s like heaven.

  “Ummm…I am,” Anna says with a stammer to her voice. I have to laugh because Anna rarely gets this affected by a guy. Andy is standing off to the side and his jaw is practically on the floor.

  “I seem to have a problem too, Mr. Paramedic guy,” he laughs softly while rubbing his jaw and the sound of his five o’clock shadow being scraped against his hand sends shivers down my spine.

  “And what seems to be the problem, little man?” He says with a bite to his voice, almost like he was asserting authority. God damn it all. Andy keeps his head down low and steps back slowly avoiding eye contact. “Errm, never-mind. I’ll fix it later.”

  Poor Andy. I almost feel bad for him. It’s a good thing he’s so committed to his boyfriend of two years and would never cheat on him. I’m pretty sure Anna would kill him if he messed up their bowling nights with a spur of the moment sexy fling.

  Ronan laughs and walks over to the couch where Anna is sitting up at full attention, just watching his movements as he leans down and pulls out some of his medical tools from his bag.

  “Now what seems to be the problem here?” Ronan asks, keeping the tone of his voice passive when he speaks. Anna just gawks at him with her mouth hanging open, making a smile form on my face. She is so taken back by this guy, it’s unreal.

  “I…umm…I had an anxiety attack, then I collapsed onto the floor, sir,” she says barely above a whisper. I almost didn’t hear her but I guess she was so nervous around the hot luscious man, she didn’t think to raise her voice.