20. Nick
20
NICK
" W hat a fucking— Wait. Ran?" I turn in a full circle, like he might be hiding or some shit, but he doesn't jump out and yell 'surprise, motherfucker.' His desk is clear, the office is dark, and it's obvious he's gone, which is suspicious as fuck. He's always here unless he has to be out of town, but we're always in the know. He never leaves without telling us where he's going and when he'll be back.
"Where's Ransom?" Maverick asks, stopping in Ransom's doorway.
"I have no fucking idea."
We exchange a glance, both realizing how off this feels. Ransom's always here, always working. It's like walking into your kitchen and finding the fridge gone.
"After-work drinks?" Maverick suggests half-heartedly. But without Ransom?
"Feels wrong, man. Where the hell is he? His calendar says he's supposed to be here, right?"
"Yeah, there's nothing on there."
Mav's brow is furrowed in confusion, and I'm sure my face is a mask of 'what the fuck.' Because seriously, what the fuck?
We wander out, heading straight for Cara's desk. She's typing away, focused on her screen. We stand there, staring at her, and she does her best to ignore us. Mav and I trade glances because that's not like her, either.
"Hey, Cara," I say loudly, leaning on her desk. "You seen Ransom?"
She doesn't look up. "Nope."
Maverick raises an eyebrow at me. Something's off.
"Come on, Cara," I press. "You always know where he is."
She sighs, finally meeting our eyes. "I don't know, okay? He left suddenly. Didn't say where he was going. He just wanted me to cancel his day. I haven't heard from him otherwise."
"He didn't tell you anything? Like… nothing? That's not like him."
She just shrugs like it's no big deal, but I see the worry in her eyes. Okay, code yellow. Shit's not right.
I grab Maverick's arm, pulling him away. "Thanks, Cara."
Once we're out of earshot, I lower my voice. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Maverick scowls. "Badger Falls?"
"BING-fucking-GO. He told us to back off, and the next day, he's gone? It's gotta be Blair and whatever the fuck is going on in his head."
"Shit." Maverick runs a hand through his hair. "Should we go after him?"
I chew my lip, considering. "Normally, I'd say he's fine. But this shit isn't like him at all. The whole situation's been hinky."
"Hinky?" he asks with a smirk.
"Shut up. Mia and I watched Scooby Doo." One of the best Thursday nights of my life. My first and second favorite girls, ’cause let's face it, Bree gets top billing, always.
He grunts and tugs at his tie. "He's not going to like it if we go there and get in the middle of his business."
"Go where?"
We both jump, spinning around to find Jonas standing there holding a banana, no peel. Who the fuck does that? Nature gives you a built-in wrapper, and you don't use it?
It's just wrong.
"Jesus, Jonas," Maverick clutches his chest. "Wear a bell or something."
Jonas frowns. "That would be impractical. Where are you considering going?"
I exchange a look with Maverick. We'd promised Ransom we'd keep the Blair situation quiet.
"Nowhere," I say, trying to sound casual. "Just, uh, thinking about grabbing a drink."
Jonas's eyes narrow. "You're lying. You're avoiding eye contact, and your voice is higher."
Damn his observational skills. And why do I have such a hard time lying to him? I can talk to anyone, bullshit anyone. Except my family and especially Jonas.
Maverick sighs. "Look, Jonas, it's complicated. Ransom asked us to keep it quiet."
"We don't keep secrets."
"Um. Well. Sometimes we do. You lied to Becca, remember?" Mav reminds him.
He rears back, deeply offended. "I am not a liar."
"You disabled her car every day for months and never told her. What do you call that if not a lie?"
"Practical." He takes a giant bite of banana and looks between us, unblinking. It's creepy.
"Fuck!" Maverick yells, caving to the unrelenting stare. "Fine. Stop it. Ransom has this situation he's been dealing with for about a year. And I think everything's coming to a head."
Jonas scowls at us. "Explain. Be specific."
Groaning, I grab Maverick's arm in one hand and the neck of Jonas's t-shirt in the other, and haul them both toward my office. Something cold and wet presses on my hand, and I release Jonas with a very manly squeak.
"Ew. Did you just rub your banana on me?"
"No. I licked you."
"What is wrong with you?"
He gives me a dead-eyed stare. "The list is long and varied. We don't have that kind of time. Now explain."
I slap a laughing Mav on the back of his head, then drop onto the couch in my office. "Close the door. We don't need an audience for this conversation."
Mav pushes the door shut, then leans his ass on my desk. Jonas crosses his arms and takes another bite of his banana.
"Mav, you want to start at the beginning?"
He grips the edge of my desk and sighs. "About a year ago, Ran came to me and asked me to put an offer together for this garage about two hours away. The numbers didn't really make sense, and the town's pretty far out from a major urban center. Something about it was off, but I didn't ask too many questions, and then I forgot about it. He was offering good money, so I figured it would be a simple transaction. Nobody in their right mind would turn down that kind of offer. It had to be at least double what the place was actually worth."
He winces and scratches the stubble on his chin. "A few weeks later, I got the paperwork back. With a frowny face shot in it."
Jonas barks out a surprised laugh, then takes another bite. "Continue," he says, chewing.
"Things continued mostly like that for nearly six months. I got paperwork back that was chopped into little pieces or delivered inside a bag of dog shit. There was even a glitter bomb. Looked homemade."
"Where did the bomb go?" Jonas asks, taking a big step forward, looking all sorts of excited.
"That's not important," Mav says shortly. Of course, Jonas wants to examine the bomb. Probably looking for inspiration for his next attack on one of us. Mav's avoiding our gazes, and realization dawns.
"Fucker. You took it and used it, didn't you?"
Mav glares at me but doesn't deny it. "Anyway," he says, turning back to Jonas. "Shit just came to a head, and Nick and I decided we needed to head there in person and figure this shit out. Ransom wasn't talking, and the whole situation was fucked."
Jonas is all in. He sits on the arm of the couch, leaning toward Mav. "What did you find?"
"That the Blair McKenna's who's been fucking with Ransom's head this whole time is a woman. A fucking six-foot-one knockout of a woman."
Jonas's eyes widen, and he glances over at me. "They knew each other?"
"She said Ransom was too big of a coward to come back there. And that whatever deal Ransom and her dad had, it didn't matter, so I'm thinking, yeah."
"Uh oh," Jonas mutters.
"Exactly. I mean, Ransom doesn't talk about his past. At all. We know some bad shit went down, but I had no idea he had a connection to a small town like Badger Falls."
"What did he say?"
"She's his foster sister! He lived there, in that town with Blair and her dad for years."
"Uh oh," Jonas mutters again. "And this all happened when?"
"Last fall."
"So why is he gone now?"
"He had me send her new paperwork last week. He offered five million for that place. It's not worth even a tenth of that."
"And she said no?"
"She sent a very large man in a thong here. He had a boombox, and he danced and sang a song. Blair wanted to get the point across."
Jonas's eyes light with glee. "Do you think there would be security footage?"
Mav's lips quirk. "Colton already pulled it. He stored it in the cloud for now, but you can bet he'll be sharing that with everyone. He's only holding off right now out of respect for Ransom."
"I would like to see that. It sounds… enlightening."
"That's one word for it. Hilarious. That's another word."
Jonas rubs a finger over his lips, staring at the toes of his running shoes. "So that happened yesterday, and now today, Ransom's gone?"
I nod, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah, that's about the size of it. He took off without a word to anyone."
Jonas finishes his banana and studies his fingers, then, staring straight at me, wipes them on my couch. Fucker . "So what's the plan?"
Maverick pushes off my desk. "That's what we're trying to figure out. Do we go after him or let him handle this on his own?"
"He's a grown-ass man," I say, but even I can hear the doubt in my voice.
"A grown-ass man who's acting like a lovesick teenager," Mav counters.
Jonas tilts his head. "Statistically speaking, men make poor decisions when emotionally compromised."
I snort. "Thanks for that scientific analysis, Jonas."
"You're welcome," he says, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his middle finger. Fucker's trying to start a fight.
Mav paces the length of my office. "Look, I get it. We should respect his privacy. But what if he needs us?"
"What if he doesn't and we just piss him off by showing up?" I argue.
"Better pissed off than in trouble," Mav shoots back.
Jonas raises his hand like we're in grade school. "I vote we go. I've never been to Badger Falls. I would like to see a badger."
I roll my eyes. "This isn't a field trip, Jonas."
"Of course not. It's a rescue mission."
"He doesn't need rescuing!" Mav and I say in unison.
Jonas blinks at us. "Then why are we having this conversation?"
Mav groans, flopping down next to me on the couch. "Because we're worried."
"If you're worried, we should do something."
Groaning, I debate pulling out my hair, strand by strand. It would be less painful than this conversation.
We sit in silence for a moment, each lost in our own thoughts.
"What if we give him another day?" I suggest finally. "If he's not back by Saturday, then we go after him."
Mav nods slowly. "That's... actually not a terrible idea."
"Don't sound so surprised," I grumble.
Jonas stands up. "Agreed. But if he is not back, we have to tell everyone else what's going on. Otherwise, they will worry."
Mav and I exchange a horrified look. "Absolutely not," we say at the same time.
"Why not?"
"Ransom asked us not to share," Mav says.
Jonas frowns. "That doesn't matter. You know he would expect you to share. We don't do secrets." I open my mouth to remind him about the car tampering thing, but he glares at me. "Not big ones anyway. And this is a very big one."
I can't help it. "That's what she said."
Mav groans, and Jonas gives me the finger again, making me laugh. "You're right," I admit. "He knew we wouldn't keep it a secret for long. We don't operate that way. But I'd like to give him a bit more time."
"We can get a bus or something," Jonas says, pulling out his phone.
"A bus? Why do we need a bus?"
Jonas looks at me like I'm the dumbest person on the planet. "Because they're far more comfortable. We can't fit everyone in the Minivan." He spins on his heel and exits. Mav and I trade glances.
"Oh fuck," he says, pressing a palm to his forehead. Then we jump up, racing after Jonas. "Everyone? Jonas, who's everyone?"
He just waves a hand at us and doesn't answer.
I stare after him, trying to picture Jonas behind the wheel of a bus. "Shit. Ransom better make it back tomorrow."
Maverick nods. "Or we're fucked. In several not very enjoyable ways."
"Maybe someone should phone him, give him a heads up?"
Mav's eyes widen, then he turns and sprints away. "Not it!" he yells over his shoulder.
My brothers are assholes.
And apparently, I have a phone call to make.