“I just want to know what happened to him.”
“Yeah, I get that. And I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but the co-worker I spoke to said the last time they saw him, he’d been touched up. He had a black eye. That was the day he quit his job.”
I heard a faint gasp, then silence.
“Lance?”
There was a ruffling sound, like he’d changed which ear he was listening with and then, “Did he tell them who did it?”
“No.”
“What’s your lead?” he asked. “What are you looking into?”
I don’t know why I hesitated, and I don’t know why I lied, but the words were out before I could stop them. “Someone thought they saw him working in a bookstore in town. I’ll go in, see if I can find him or ask some other staff if they know him. It’s a long shot, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“Which bookstore?”
“Barnes & Noble at The Grove,” I lied smoothly. I chose it because it was huge and non-descript, so it wouldn’t be too easy to call my bullshit if he decided to go check it out himself. “That’s all I know.”
“Okay, I have to go.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Do that.”
He disconnected the call. I clicked off my phone and slid it across the table. “Arsehole,” I muttered to myself before going downstairs to see if Emilio or Daniela needed me to do anything and was still grumbling about him half an hour later. “The guy’s a jerk. I’m in half a mind to find this Yanni guy and congratulate him on dumping his arse.”
Emilio didn’t even look up from where he was inking some guy. He just snorted out a laugh. “Tell us what you really think, man.”
Daniela was more concerned. “But you think he is in danger?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. He was last seen with a black eye before he quit work and school. Lance said its Yanni’s father.”
“But?”
“But I don’t know. There was something about Lance I didn’t like from the second I saw him. You know that voice in your head that tells you something’s not right?” I asked.
Daniela nodded furiously. “Yes. Your sixth sense.”
I continued, “Well, at first I put it down to this guy being too rich for his own good, arrogant and self-serving, thinking he could buy people, which I hate even on a good day. But what if it’s more than that? What if he gave Yanni the black eye? What if Yanni left him for good reason?”
Now Emilio sat up and stopped tattooing. “You think so?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I don’t know what to make of it. When I told him Yanni had a black eye, the first thing he asked was if Yanni had said who did it. Not if he was okay, or oh my God, or anything.”
Daniela frowned. “What will you do?”
“I told Lance Yanni was seen working in town.”
Emilio’s eyes narrowed. “You told him where he works?”
“No. I have no clue where Yanni works. I had to tell him something. And I’m going to head in town tonight to stake out the bookstore I said Yanni worked at and see if Lance turns up. You know, to see if he’s a psycho stalker or not.”
Emilio’s smile was slow and wide. “Good thinking.”
“You be careful,” Daniela said.
“I will. I was thinking I could take Andrew and make a bit of a date out of it.” Truthfully, I only just thought of it, but the more I considered it, the more it seemed like a great idea.
Daniela stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “You want to take Andrew on a date to check out a real-life, psycho stalker?”
“Yes, but I’ll buy him a book, and ooh!” I said, flipping through the local gig guide as a new idea struck, “I should see if there’s a jazz bar in town. I promised him I’d take him, and I haven’t yet.”
Emilio, who had gone back to inking his client, said, “You’re buying him books and taking him to jazz bars?”
“Yeah. So?”
He didn’t look up, but I could tell he was smiling. “You wanna be careful, Spencer. That boy might wanna marry you.”
All jokes aside, I texted Andrew. You busy tonight?
He replied about an hour later, in what I assumed was his lunch break. By that time I had cleaned floors, tidied the waiting area, and checked my phone only about two hundred times. Depends. I was going to order salad for dinner, play some vinyl records my sexy boyfriend gave me, and settle in for some single-handed loving. Does that count as busy?
I chuckled as I replied. No, it counts as hot, but not busy. And I’m pretty sure you’d need both hands. Your dick’s pretty big.
LOL Did you want to do something?
I want to take you on a date. To a bookstore and a jazz bar. Is that okay?
Michelle wants to know why I just laughed and hugged my phone. JSYK, I didn’t hug it. She tells lies.
Michelle was a girl he worked with, and over the last few years, they’d become the best of friends. I’d heard him talk of her in passing, but I’d never met her. Actually, I’d never met any of his friends. Tell her I said hi.