At first, I didn't have any idea whatsoever as to where Cindy worked. But, then I remembered the tag on the nightgown that Cindy had gotten me the previous night, and I instantly knew where she worked. James and I had passed it on the way to the coffee shop anyway. So, I jumped on my bike, gunned the engine and zipped down the street. I could only hope that I wasn't too late. Hopefully Mom hadn't ran into another male…or Logan…or, ugh…Dad. Don't think like that, I told myself, and I tried to be optimistic until I got to Cindy's work.
Besides, I kept telling myself, there's hundreds of males in Seattle, why would Mom go to Logan or Dad? I knew that Logan may have been able to hold off Mom if he didn't want to do "the dirty deed", but Dad? It would've been a lost cause. Despite all of his military training and strength-both physically and mentally-, even he wasn't a match for a female in heat.
The building Cindy worked at was fairly large and as I waited by the sidewalk, trying to get a hold of myself, women came out, toting fancy little shopping bags with their heels clicking down the sidewalks. A couple of them gave me a dirty look as if to say, "What are you doing here? Miss Punk Girl on her bike? Like you would ever be sophisticated enough to shop here". I just smiled as sweetly as possible and pushed right past them. They were not my concern-Mom was.
I found Cindy waiting at a large silver desk, drumming her long nails so hard against the counter I feared they were going to break right off. She didn't see me until I leaned on the counter and smiled up at her. "Hey, what's up?" I asked with a wry grin.
"Oh, thank god you got here, boo."
"Lucky timing."
"Here's the scoop," she told me, coming out from behind the desk and walking past me. I followed, knowing that she had something to show me. We past many people-mostly women-who were picking out dresses all while chattering about how their thighs were too big or they didn't have enough "chest support" to fill out a certain dress. I simply rolled my eyes and tried to block them out. "I put my homegirl in the back room," Cindy continued, pushing past a couple of snoody women, all while trying to maintain the perfect salesgirl smile. "Y'know, Original Cindy thought she'd be aiight back there, no problems-k?"
"Mm-hmm," I mumbled, nodding my head.
"Well, she broke 'de door right off its hinges, and Original Cindy ain't got no idea where she went."
We stopped in front of what had to be the back room. The door was clearly blown right off its hinges, but someone had been nice enough to set in back where it belonged. I picked the door right up and moved it out of the doorway so that I could enter. Inside of the room, papers were scattered around like there was some kind of storm. On the walls, there appeared to be claw marks, but I couldn't be sure if that was Mom or just some kinky coworkers.
Stepping out of the room, I ran into a man because I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I was rubbing my temples, trying to stop the onset of a massive headache.
"Whoa!" he cried, holding up his hands.
"Sorry," I mumbled and began to walk back over to where Original Cindy waited with her arms crossed impatiently.
"Hey, you look familiar. Do I know you?" the man asked me.
I turned back around, not really wanting to bother with him at that moment. There were far more important things I had to be doing than messing with some creep. Things that included saving my mom.
But, as I turned to look at him, I realized that he did look vaguely familiar. Like someone had told me about him, but I had never seen him in real life. Everything from his greasy hair to his large eagle nose struck me as something I had seen before.
That's when Cindy came up behind me and said to the man, "Look, Sketchy, not now. We gots a problem, and you ain't part of it. So git out before Original Cindy has to put you in the world of hurt."
