Chapter 12 Leo
LEO
When I pull up to my house and see Arrow’s truck, the first thing I do is take a huge breath. I’m ready to fight for Lia, whatever it takes, but I’m not about to pull another man out of her bed.
But it doesn’t look like I’m going to have to. As soon as I punch the clicker to open my garage door, Josh is climbing out of his truck.
“Hey,” he says. He looks as pissed as I feel. “Where’s Lia?”
“Lia?” I’m not following. “Out with you. Date not end so great? She ditch your ass?” I want to chuckle but hold it back.
Serves the fucker right.
Arrow shakes his head. “Something’s wrong.
We went to Checkers, just like we planned.
Lia went into the bathroom and didn’t come out.
After like twenty minutes, I had a bartender check on her, but she was gone.
” He steps a little too close to me and demands answers.
“What the fuck are you two up to? Do you think this is a game?”
“Up to?” I’m genuinely stunned. But my shock comes out hard and fast as anger.
I grab Arrow by the front of the shirt and shove him hard against the side of his truck.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand, shaking him.
“We’re not up to anything. You took my goddamn roommate to a bar on a date! ”
Arrow tenses his biceps, but he doesn’t make a move to shove me away. “Didn’t Lia tell you the plan? This wasn’t a date, you asshole.”
My stomach sinks.
She’d wanted to talk to me all day.
I ignored her.
“I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about,” I admit, the fear clawing its way up my back. I release Arrow and scrub my face with my hands. “Back the fuck up. What happened?”
Arrow now looks genuinely worried. “We’ve got to go inside. We need to see if Lia’s home.”
I rush past him and into the open garage. I shove open the interior door, calling her name. “Lia! Lia!” I storm into the living room. The lights are off, the way I left them.
Josh follows behind me. “Lia!” he shouts.
I give him a shit look. I can hear Lia’s dogs barking upstairs, going crazy. They are still in her bedroom.
“I’m going to check her room.” I point at him. “You stay down here.”
I flick on every light as I head through the house toward the stairs.
I don’t trust Arrow, and I sure as fuck don’t want him upstairs. I don’t know what he wants or what he’s doing, but if Lia’s up in her room, the last thing I want is for them to have some kind of sweet reunion in front of me.
I storm up the stairs and knock on Lia’s door. The dogs are panting and clawing at it, but I don’t hear any sign that Lia’s inside.
I push the door open, and the lights are off, but the noise-canceling sound machine and night-light she leaves on for the dogs when she leaves them home alone are still running.
The dogs spill out past me and race down the stairs. I follow behind them and grab Arrow again when I find him in the living room, pacing.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demand. “Where is she?”
“We need to find her,” he says, his voice quiet. “We need to call the police.”
“The cops? What the fuck? Why?” I shove him away from me. “Tell me what the fuck happened tonight!”
Arrow picks up his phone and checks it. “I’ll tell you everything,” he says. “But has she called or texted you? Have you heard from her at all in the last hour?”
I reach into the front pocket of my vest and pull out my phone. I haven’t even checked it since I silenced it at Morris’s house.
“Holy fuck,” I say as I scan the screen. There are three calls from the same unknown number and one text from Lia. “She texted,” I say, relief flooding my gut.
“What’d she say?” Arrow asks. He comes close to look over my shoulder, but I move away from him so I can read the text.
As the words register, I feel sick. An icy feeling spreads through my veins, and I want to punch someone, anyone. But the first person I see is Arrow.
I drop my phone and throw a punch at his chin, but he ducks enough that I only graze his jaw.
“Stop, you stupid motherfucker. Stop!” Josh holds his chin with his hand but keeps the other hand in front of him, pushing me away from him. “What did she say in the text? What does it say?”
“It’s not from her,” I grit out and hand him my phone as I sink onto the couch.
Lia: If you want your girl back, give us Tim.
Arrow reads the text aloud and lets a string of curses fly. “Text them back,” he says.
“What? Fuck no.” I grab my phone away from him. “Tell me what the fuck you got Lia into!”
I’ve had enough. I leap toward Arrow, ready to smash his shitty face in, but he blocks me and shoves me back against the couch.
“You want to waste time beating my ass while somebody’s got Lia, or do you want to sit the fuck down and listen!” he roars.
“I really want to beat your face in,” I seethe. “And I will. You mark my fucking words. If any harm comes to Lia, I’ll beat you within an inch of your worthless life.”
“I’d like to see you try, you little shit.” As soon as he says the words, Arrow holds up a hand. “Fuck. Forget it, okay? Let it go. Let’s focus on Lia.”
He paces a few steps away from me, probably trying to get his wits together like I am.
Pixie has come up to my ankles and is whining, rubbing her face against me.
I pick her up because I know I can’t kill Arrow with a tiny trembling dog in my hands.
And right now, I need him alive and conscious to tell me everything he knows.
“Start at the beginning,” I demand.
Josh glares at me. “What did Lia tell you? About her plan, about our talk this morning.”
I scowl at him. “Why don’t you do what I fucking asked and start at the beginning?” I don’t want to admit to him that I didn’t listen to her. That she tried to talk to me, told me she’d done some research and had news. I couldn’t give her five minutes to listen.
Arrow flares his nostrils but starts talking. “Lia called. Asked me to meet her at her store. Confronted me about the house this morning.”
As soon as he says the words, I feel like the biggest piece of shit on this goddamn planet…again.
“She wanted me to know that she did some research, and she knew that I couldn’t just kick you out of here in two weeks, even if Tim didn’t show for his court date.”
Now that’s news I would have wanted to hear. No wonder Lia was all bright and worked up this morning.
God fucking damn me and my stupidity.
“She told me she knew the whole process could take months. The court would give Tim extra time, and that basically the best outcome for all of us would be for us to work together to find Tim.”
I nod.
She would come up with a plan like that.
Everyone working together. She teamed up with my nemesis to help me and put herself in harm’s way doing it.
Meanwhile, I was debating cutting and running.
Hitting the road and abandoning her and everything I have.
I was so close to leaving this whole town, my house, my business, in the rearview.
The entire time, Lia was out on some mission to find my brother with Arrow.
“So, what the fuck happened?” I demand.
“We went to Checkers. Figured that if Tim and his wife really were hanging out there, they’d recognize you, if they hadn’t already.”
Damn. That’s why she went with him tonight. A date that probably wasn’t even a date. Not a real one, at least.
“What happened at the bar?” I ask, my mind spinning.
“We had a couple drinks, danced…” He stops for a second and goes on. “She used the bathroom and took a long time. When she didn’t come out after like twenty minutes…”
“Twenty fucking minutes?” I demand. “Why the hell would you wait twenty minutes before making sure she was okay?”
Arrow hardened his face. “I—we almost kissed. It didn’t happen, she stopped it, and I thought maybe she was mad or confused.
I don’t know. Splashing cold water on her face, calling you…
” He gave me a look. “I think she’s really into you, but there’s no denying we have some wicked chemistry.
I honestly thought she was trying to figure out what she wanted. Me or you.”
That gutted me.
“I let it go longer than I should have, and I’m fucking kicking myself over it now,” he admits.
“The bartender went in, said there was no sign of Lia. At first, I got pissed. I thought maybe you and she were playing me somehow, but that didn’t make sense.
I came back here, figuring you’d come and picked her up and I’d find her safe at home, laughing at me with you. ”
I cringe and swallow a hint of bile that’s creeping up my throat. “She’s not here.” I’m stating the obvious, but my mind is swirling, and I can’t stop the words from coming out. “I didn’t know what she was doing. I didn’t talk to her all day.”
“All day?” he echoes. “Why not?”
“Doesn’t matter now,” I say. “She’s not with you, she’s not here, but she’s with someone.”
I think back over everything Arrow said. He tried to kiss her, but she didn’t want it. She didn’t want him. Maybe, just maybe, that’s because she still wants me.
I grab my phone and show Arrow the missed calls. “You know this number?”
He types the area code into his contacts list, searching for a match, but comes up empty. He shakes his head. “Burner, I’m going to guess.”
They want Tim.
They have Lia.
“Who are they?” I ask. “Who would want to get to Tim?” I look at him with fresh suspicion. “Is this you?” I demand. “Is this some game to flush out my brother?”
“No, Leo. Before you go there—Jesus. No.” Arrow looks at me and throws his hands in the air. “I swear to God, man. I have nothing to do with this. I had no idea this could happen. I would never have brought Lia out tonight if I’d had any idea she might have been in some kind of danger.”
“Think,” I demand. “You know these low-life scumbags. This is what you do!”
Josh clenches his hands into fists. “I know you’re fucking pissed right now, but I think the sooner we stop fighting and start working together, the sooner we’ll find Lia.”