Trained By Daddy by Ava Sinclair
Chapter Twelve
Gabe
Every callI’ve made to Lila in the last half hour has gone to voice mail. I’m worried. I catch Melanie behind the counter just as she’s about to leave.
“Have you seen Lila?” I ask.
“Why? Hot date?” Her friend Kelly is standing by the counter thumbing through a magazine.
“Not that it’s anyone’s business but yeah, Lila and I have plans after the workout.”
Kelly smirks. Melanie turns her attention back to shutting down the computer.
“You sure you haven’t seen her?” I ask again.
“No,” Melanie says. “She’d be hard to miss.” The last bit is muttered under her breath for Kelly’s benefit. But I catch the insult, and I’m pissed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask over Kelly’s snort of laughter.
“Come on, Gabe,” Melanie says. “I’m just kidding.”
I fix her with an expression that lets her know I find no humor in the situation. “Do you like working here, Melanie?” I ask.
She looks up, suddenly nervous. “Yeah, why?”
“Because I may be making some staffing changes next week,” I say. I have a sudden suspicion that Lila’s absence may have something to do with these two women, although I can’t prove it. “You two get on out of here. I’ll finish shutting down.’
Melanie looks like she may cry as she picks up her purse. Kelly doesn’t even look at me as the two of them leave. I stare them down until they’re out the door. The protectiveness I already feel for Lila is overwhelming. I feel like a Daddy who just heard two playmates making fun of her at the park. They both deserve spankings, but I wouldn’t consider spanking either of them. There’s only one woman I want to spank, and she’s late.
I pick up the phone again. Once more it goes straight to voicemail. I call my friend Derek, a volunteer firefighter who keeps a scanner in his office. I ask if he’s heard anything about traffic accidents on the scan. He says he hasn’t.
I thank him and then click off the call, pacing the workout room. I’m relieved that there’s not been an accident but concerned about why Lila isn’t here. When I offered her the free trial, I never had her fill out any paperwork. I have her phone number but never got her address since I wasn’t billing her. I’m kicking myself for that now. I think back through our conversations. She’s never told me where she lives, but once did mention that the neighborhood was called Wingate. I go to my office and pull up Google on my computer. I enter “Wingate” and the name of our town. There are two results. One is for a gated community - Wingate Hall - that’s home to wealthy executives. I’m pretty sure that’s not it. There’s another Wingate subdivision, this one a mile from the university. I pull up images of homes for sale in that neighborhood. They’re small, neat bungalows. This looks like just the kind of place Lila would live. The problem is that there are about sixty houses in Wingate and they all look to have garages, which will make it difficult to drive through and find her car. More likely, it means I’ll have to go house to house, but I’m a determined man. When another hour passes and I can’t reach her, I decide to find her myself, even if it means knocking on every door in her neighborhood.
If she’s ducked out on me, cold feet is no excuse. Daddy isn’t going to just let his little girl walk away without a damn good reason.
