I blinked at her.
The woman stared back and me, and with a sigh, like she’d done this way too many times, she picked up the phone from her desk. Cradling it between her ear and shoulder, she punched in a number. “Security, you’re needed at reception, please.”
I glared at her.
She held up the form she’d been talking about, and I snatched it from her fingers as I stormed out.
“Have a lovely day,” the woman called sarcastically.
On the outside, I stared up at the second story, wondering if one of those rooms belonged to Tori. No matter what she’d done, I hated the idea of her stuck behind those walls.
“I’ll be back,” I promised her, form clutched in my fingers. Whatever was going on here wasn’t aboveboard. Of that, I was sure. She might have been mad at me, and Will might have accused her of something horrific, but whatever the truth was, she was still my best friend. And until somebody gave me some proof or she confessed herself, I refused to believe it.
Only problem was, a nagging voice in the back of my mind reminded me that Tori had been the last person to see Jayela alive.
20
Heath
“So, looks like it’s a guys’ day, huh? What should we do?” Rowe tossed a ball to Ripley, who missed it and had to chase after it.
He came back holding the ball in one hand and threw it at me. I caught it easily and gave an exaggerated stagger backward. “Whoa. Boy has an arm on him. You a pitcher?”
Ripley was all cheesy grins. Fuckin’ kid was cute as hell. I gently lobbed it back, which he missed again but happily chased after while chattering about how his granny said he could play Little League next year, and how Rowe was gonna come and watch every weekend.
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Maybe that’s what we should do today then? What do you say, Rowe? Get some baseball practice in?”
Ripley cheered. He’d been a happy little dude all morning, excited to be around Rowe, but he seemed to like me, too. The way he’d thrown himself at Mae this morning had cracked my heart open wide.
I’d wanted kids for years. A whole fuckin’ tribe of ’em.
Rowe caught the ball when Ripley threw it to him and tucked it in his pocket. “Come on then. There’s baseball gear in the shed, I’m pretty sure. Let’s go see.”
Ripley ran ahead toward the end of the clearing, and I walked behind with Rowe. Without Ripley’s constant chatter, the smile fell from my face.
“You okay?” Rowe peered over at me.
“Yeah, just something Liam said last night is getting to me. Or maybe it was something he didn’t say. I dunno.”
“What did he say?”
I lifted one shoulder. “I can’t pinpoint something specific. I just think this whole thing with his mom and his grandfather is getting to him. I think he kinda idolized his grandfather, and now…”
“Mae was worried this morning, too—”
“She was?”
“Yeah, but I thought he seemed okay.” Rowe’s gaze focused on Ripley again, but he raised one shoulder in a shrug.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “You didn’t see the way he stared at you when you brought Ripley in. Or when you called us family.”
Rowe’s forehead furrowed. “Too much? I was just feeling it last night, you know? Having everyone here…”
“Yeah, I know. I was feeling it, too.”
Something passed between us, and this time it was something more than a physical thing.
I cleared my throat and looked away. “Did you see him before he left this morning?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither. Something isn’t sitting right. He was too quiet last night. It almost felt like…” I wasn’t even sure I wanted to finish that thought.
“Like what?”
I shrugged, but the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. “Like a goodbye.”
Rowe passed me his phone, worry etching into the lines of his forehead. “Call him.”
I nodded and made the call, but it went to voicemail. On a hunch, I searched the number for Liam’s work and got his receptionist. We talked for a moment while she answered my questions, and I thanked her for her time. I hung up while Rowe rifled through the shed, but he paused when I leaned on the doorway.
“You get a hold of him?”
“His receptionist said he hasn’t been in all week. Not last week, either. They have a big case, and everyone is frantic because he’s not there.”
“That’s not like him.”
“I know.”
Mulling that over, Rowe searched a shelf for a baseball mitt. My gaze flittered around the dim space, bouncing over dirty sports gear, an old car seat that Rowe must have used when Ripley was a baby, lawn mowing equipment, and finally settling on a dirt bike. “That thing run?”
Rowe paused, casting an eye over it. “Yeah, should. Rode it not all that long ago when my car was at the mechanic’s.”
Hope lit up inside me like a firework. “It’s licensed?”
Rowe shook his head. “No.”
“Damn, it’s not?”
He sighed. “No, it is, but I could read the expression on your face. Ride it round here all you want. But you aren’t taking it out on the road.”
I pointed at the helmet hanging over the handlebars. “Full-face helmet. Perfect disguise.”
“The perfect disguise is the one you don’t need at all cos you keep your ass where it belongs. And that’s here, just in case you needed a refresher.”
But the urge to assure myself that Liam was just having an off day wouldn’t let up, and the thought of getting out on a road, with a bike beneath me was so tempting. I craved that sort of freedom. “I’ve basically swapped one jail for another, Rowe. It’s a ten-minute spin around the block to check on Liam and I’ll be back.”
“I can check on Liam.”
“You’ve got a kid here, and Mae took your car.”
“Mae will kill you.”
“I’ll make it up to her.”