That man is me.
Which means I will not cow down to their demands to take a wife either. In fact, my visits to the Blue Bird Theatre will increase. The women there are superb, and I’ll be damned if these people dictate my personal life.
“Ernest,” I roar.
He appears only seconds later, his eyes wide as he rushes toward me, then stops right in front of me. “Sir?”
My lips curl into a snarling smile. “Go on down to Bessie Silks and ask for two of her girls and a private room for the evening, until tomorrow morning.”
“Sir,” he says in a warning tone.
Resting my palm against Blue Lightnin’, my six-shooter, I arch a brow and dare him to argue or defy me. He doesn’t. Instead he dips his chin, spins around on his heels, and a few moments later I hear the front door close behind him, then the sound of the horse’s hooves pounding against the hard desert dirt.
My cigarette still dangling, I decide to go inside and grab some coffee and biscuits before I begin my day’s work. I may be angry with the people who wrote to me, the Assembly, but that doesn’t mean that I ever stop working for my country.
I won’t.
Sitting down at my desk, I wait for my food to be delivered and begin to go over the contracts for the new cross country railroad system that I am set to oversee. A system that will unite our country in a way that has never been seen before, an innovation of massive proportions.
A race to a revolution.
More ways for men to fight, sabotage, and cause problems. More headaches for me. Never-ending blazing headaches. This is what the group of nosy dratted people should be worried about, not who shares my bed, or how that happens.
I will never concede. It’s why they put me in this position. If they thought that I would be their stringed puppet, they asked the wrong man to lead them.
BIRDIE
“They’re both missing,” Dru announces.
Inhaling a deep breath, I try not to panic. My sisters are missing. Both of them. They’re not together, at least I’m pretty sure that they aren’t. Liv is thirty-one and lives in New York City. Sybilla is twenty-seven and lives in Seattle. I highly doubt that they somehow managed to get together without any of us knowing.
“Mom and dad haven’t heard from them?” I ask.
“Mom’s pretty worried about Sybilla. She usually checks in at least a couple times a week and shows up once a week. She hasn’t seen her, Birdie. Not at all.”
Fuck.
I think about the fact that my sisters, the two most responsible ones out of the four of us, our older sisters, they’re gone.
Liv is the oldest sister and she’s like our little mother hen, always has been. We’re all pretty close in age, but that never once stopped Liv from acting like we’re her own baby chicks.
Then there’s Sybilla. Sure, she’s been going through drama with her ex, but she’s still that responsible woman who shows up to work every day and stays in contact with Dru and our parents without fail.
“Liv was supposed to check on Sybilla, but now I can’t get ahold of her either. I’m really worried.”
My stomach twists and my hands start to shake as I think about what could have happened to them. How is it possible for both of your sisters to disappear? How? It’s a twenty-hour drive to get to Seattle, but I could catch a flight and be there in just a few hours. I need to go and look for Sybilla myself, I have to make sure they’re okay. I have to try to find them, I won’t be able to sleep without knowing they’re okay.
“I’m going to Seattle,” I answer.
“What about work?”
Pressing my lips together, I think about my job. I’m a photographer. A freelance photographer. I love taking family portraits, and children, but my bread and butter are boudoir and weddings. I love them all, every single one.
It’s my passion and I’m just thankful that I’ve been able to make a living doing my dream job. The great thing about it is that I’m self-employed. It’s also a hindrance in an emergency situation, because there is nobody else to take over for me.
“Let me see…” I pull up my calendar on my iPad and cringe. “Shit. I have a wedding Saturday and four boudoir sessions lined up for Sunday. I can go…” I scroll through my calendar, day by day, and my heart sinks with each day that I scroll past. “In six weeks. I can go in six-fucking-weeks,” I snap.
“I’m swamped too. I can’t leave work.”
I roll my eyes. Yes, Drucilla is so busy. She’s so busy with her super important job as a pharmaceutical sales rep. I mean, it’s not unimportant, but it’s not like she can’t take a few days off either. There is literally nobody else that I can hand my job over to while I run all over the country looking for my missing sister.
“Don’t you have vacation time that you can take?” I snap.
She hums. “Only one problem, I blew all of it when I went partying in Cancun over the summer.”
God, I hate how fucking young she is sometimes. Granted, I’m only four years older, but Jesus, partying in Cancun? She’s not in college anymore. It’s time she grows up and acts like a damn adult.
“You are a child,” I grind out.
I can practically hear her eyes roll in the back of her head. “Whatever,” she mumbles. “That’s not the point. The point is our sisters are missing,” she says, stressing the word missing.
My stomach clenches again from her words. “Do you think they’re together somewhere?” I whisper.
There’s a moment of silence, then she clears her throat. “Maybe? Hopefully?”
I decide to end the call with her and tell her that I’ll do what I can, as fast as I can, and that I’ll call her soon. Then, my next step is searching
