Chapter 12 Leo #2
I don’t want to trust him, but he has a point. If I’d stopped and fucking listened to Lia this morning, maybe I could have stopped this whole thing from happening.
Working together is exactly what we should have been doing all day. But I was too pigheaded, organizing a pity party for one, to listen to anyone else’s good ideas.
I don’t trust Arrow and I’m not about to call him a friend, but I’m willing to call a truce if it means finding Lia faster.
“All right,” I say. “What do we do? Call the cops? Report her missing?”
“Maybe…” Arrow is pacing, thinking.
I set Pixie down on the couch and pace my own route across the carpet.
“They want Tim,” he says, thinking out loud. “So that leaves us two possibilities. The first is that you and I aren’t the only ones Tim’s fucked over. The second is that Tim himself is behind this.”
“What?” That throws me sideways. “How the fuck would he be behind this?”
“I don’t know, Leo.” Arrow seems as stuck as I feel. “Think about it, though. He knows I’m hot on his heels, and if he’s keeping tabs on you and this house, he knows that you know. Maybe this is some harebrained junkie plot to find out whether we actually do know where he is.”
That gives me a glimmer of hope.
I know my brother.
He may be an addict, he may be a deadbeat, but I know in my soul he’d never hurt another person. He wouldn’t harm a hair on Lia’s head.
“Could it be Tim?” I ask. “How do we know?”
“We text them back,” Arrow says. “You tell them, whoever they are, you don’t know where your brother is. You haven’t talked to him. Tell them that if they know, you’d really love to get in touch with him because he’s fucking you in the ass too.”
I punch a message back, but before I hit send, I look at him. “What if this isn’t Tim?” I have to consider it. “If Tim is in some kind of trouble with somebody else, if they hear we don’t have any idea how to find him, what’s gonna happen to Lia?”
Josh nods and holds up his hand. “Right. It could go either way. Could be Tim, or it could be…”
“It could be anyone. And I’m not taking a chance with Lia’s life.” I delete the message, so I don’t accidentally send it. “What the fuck do we do?”
Arrow points at the phone. “Ask them. Ask them what they want from Tim. Let’s play a little ball.”
That seems safe enough. If they think we know where Tim is, they’ll keep the conversation going. Maybe. If it is Tim, he’ll definitely keep talking to find out what exactly we do or don’t know about him.
“Should I call the number or text back?”
“Try calling,” Josh says.
I pull up the list of missed calls and select the unknown number. I hit redial and wait. The phone rings once, twice, and a third time before the call is picked up and disconnected.
“No voice mail,” I report. “Sounded like someone answered but hung up.”
“Did you hear anything?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“Send a text,” he says. “Just ask who they are and what they want. Keep it simple, and don’t give anything away.”
I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to give away in a text, but I follow his lead.
Me: Who is this? What do you want?
We both watch my phone. I unsilence it in case they call back.
The severity of the situation hits me, and my rage morphs into something like terror. I can’t imagine calling the cops to report her missing. That would mean she’s really gone. Really in danger. That I might never see her again.
The fact that Lia may be alone, scared, in danger someplace because of me, because of my chickenshit decisions…I want to scream or punch something, someone.
“What now?” I ask Arrow, desperation making me crazy. “Call the cops? Report Lia missing? Kidnapped? Maybe I should go to the shop. Check there. She could be anywhere, maybe she’s…”
“Leo.” Josh holds up a hand. “There will be plenty of time to start searching. Let’s see if they respond. Okay? There’s still a chance this is Tim trying to find out what we know.”
I’m not holding my breath waiting for that text.
Josh and I watch my phone until finally, a text pops back up.
We’ll trade Tim for Lia. You have twenty-four hours. We’ll contact you with a time and location.
“What do you think?” I ask. “Is it Tim? Is he behind this?”
Arrow shakes his head. “I mean…it could be. There’s no way to know.”
“Let’s play this out,” I say. “If it is Tim, he’s given us twenty-four hours to prove whether or not we know how to reach him.”
Arrow nods. “If we contact him, he may let Lia go and run. If we don’t contact him, best-case is he knows we can’t, and he leaves Lia for us to pick up where he tells us he left her.” He looks at me. “I can’t imagine he wants to add kidnapping and who knows what else to his list of charges.”
I hope to hell that’s true. “And if it’s not Tim?” I ask.
Arrow doesn’t answer.
“We have twenty-four hours to find him,” I say. I grab my phone and prepare to start dialing.
“Who are you calling? Are you calling the cops?” Arrow asks. “We need to be careful, Leo. We need to work as a team on this. Lia’s life could be in danger.”
“I know that,” I say.
That’s why I’m not going to the cops. Not just yet. Like anyone would when they’re in trouble, I go to family first.
But not my family.
I pick up the phone and call the one man who might kill me whether or not we find Lia and get her back safe.
I call Tiny.