Chapter 34 – Josie
Chapter Thirty-Four
JOSIE
“Uno.” Dad lays down a green three on top of my yellow three, changing the game’s color over. His face is unreadable. He always brings his poker face to our Uno games. I rub the two cards in my hands, trying to stare him down, but it’s pointless. His face is giving me nothing.
“Uno,” I say right back, laying a wild card down on top of his green three.
“What’s it going to be, kiddo?”
The best bet would be yellow, but I need red on the board for my last card. Dad cocks his head, giving me a smirk, waiting for me to call out my color.
“Red,” I finally say, Dad’s smirk turning to a smile. “Oh, man.”
“Got you.” He draws a card.
“Ahh!” He did have me. Now I wait to see if he has a card to play.
He gives a shake of his head, and I slam down my red Draw Two.
Dad drops his cards down onto the table, and I jump up and do a victory dance around the kitchen, making him chuckle.
I love these times with my dad. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“All right, after three losses, I’m calling it.” He leans back in his chair. “You’ve gotten too good at this game.”
“Sorry, Dad. I don’t give out pity wins.” He shakes his head at me but is smiling. I drop back down in my chair, slightly out of breath from all the dancing.
“Where did you say your boyfriend went?” That’s the second time he’s asked me that.
“Got things to take care of. Work.”
“Work?” Shit, this is why he asked twice because I did end up giving it to him this second time. I was trying to be evasive when he asked earlier. I should have known he wasn’t going to settle for the answer I gave him.
“Yeah, work. I should probably get a job.”
“You don’t need a job. You go to school, and you’ve sold a few articles.” He actually sounds defensive for me.
You’d have thought I’d won a giant award the first time I sold an article with how my dad went around talking about it to anyone and everyone.
He printed it out and put it in his truck so he has it on hand.
I feel sorry for all the truckers out there who had to read about the lack of access to menstruation products in high schools due to funding cuts.
“Just an idea.” Really, I was trying to distract him from asking me any more questions about Bam. Especially when it came to his job. It doesn’t work.
“What does he do?”
“Works in a laundromat. Doing deliveries or something.” I shrug. Technically Bam does do business out of one.
Dad stares at me, and I start stacking up the cards so I’m busying my hands and not fidgeting under his stare. He’s good at reading people, and he knows me too well.
The cops are easy to lie to. My dad, not so much. It wasn’t a full-on lie, but I’d do the same if I were protecting something about my dad. I’d lie straight to anyone’s face for him and not blink an eye or have a lick of guilt over it. You do that for the people you love.
“You two have gotten serious fast.” I nod, thinking I know where this conversation is going. “I know I’m your father, but I’m also both parents for you. So I have to—”
“Dad, I’m taking my birth control. I’m being safe.
” I feel my face heating, but Dad gives me a soft smile.
He brought up the whole birth control thing when I was sixteen at one of my checkups.
Dad has always been good about those things with me.
He never scooted around it or made it awkward, making it clear it’s all a part of life.
I’m sure it was uncomfortable for him, but that man would do anything to protect me on all levels.
When I got my first period, he already had a whole stock of feminine items under the bathroom sink. I’ll never forget the morning when it happened. I went and told him, and he gave me a thumbs-up and told me, “Good job,” like I’d actually done something.
“All right.” He stands. “I’m going to take a nap.” I stand up to give him a hug. When he’s on the road, he doesn’t get a ton of sleep. On the weekends, he tries to catch up. “Try to stay out of trouble.”
“I’ll stay out of it, but if it finds me, that’s on it. Not me.” Dad chuckles, dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
“Text me that boy’s number. I want to have it on hand.” I want to laugh every time he calls Bam a boy.
“Got it.” I grab my phone and do it now before I forget. I want to text Bam and see what he’s up to, but I know he’ll be back when he can, and I don’t want to bother him and make him think he needs to rush back here. He’s been giving me all of his extra time.
Instead, I take a quick shower and change before pulling out my notebooks to go over them again.
Andy said when you’re not sure of what you’re working on, go back to the start.
I let out a sigh because this is the third time I’ve done that.
I pray this time something I wrote down will give me insight into what the heck really happened to Cole.
I keep circling back to what my dad said about Cole’s father. It is weird how he didn’t report him missing for days, but it’s hard to wrap my mind around his own father being involved.
Plus, you have all the other people missing, too.
Maybe I should go back over and talk to him again.
See if he’s heard anything new and get a better look around his place.
I could pretend to need to use the bathroom and really go peek around in Cole’s room.
I’m sure the cops already did, but a different set of eyes can see different things.
I glance up from my pile of notebooks when I hear a knock at the front door.
I scramble to my feet, not caring if I appear overexcited.
I think Bam and I are past the playing-it-cool phase.
The man has been inside of me and told me he loves me.
He’s now stuck with me. I fling open the door to throw myself at him but freeze when I see Cole’s dad standing there. I can’t hide the surprise on my face.
What kind of voodoo magic is this? I conjured him with my thoughts, but I wanted to go to his home.
“Hey.” Cole’s dad looks disheveled with dark circles under his eyes.
Damn, I bet my dad would look even worse if it was me that was gone or dead.
“How are you doing?” It’s a stupid question, but I think you’re still supposed to ask.
I don’t want to be rude and ask what the heck he’s doing at my house.
“Can we talk?” he asks.
“Sure, what’s up?” I close the door behind me as I step outside.
“Not here.” He glances up and down the street. It’s pretty empty out.
“You want to come in? My dad’s here.” He shakes his head no.
“I don’t want anyone hearing this. What about my truck?” I glance behind him to where his old Ford F-150 is parked.
“I, uh—”
“I think I know who is behind this,” he says, cutting me off.
Again, he looks up and down the street, now making me paranoid too.
“It’s bigger than you know. I’m not sure who I can trust, but I know you care and might be able to find a real answer with the information I have. ” The man looks like he’s about to cry.
“Okay, yeah.”
“Thank you.” I watch relief fill his face, his shoulders dropping. I follow him toward his truck. He opens the passenger door for me.
“Hold on, I need to tell my dad that—”
“No.” He moves to block my path, shoving me into his truck. I try to push back, dropping my notebook. “Sorry,” he says before I feel a needle pierce my neck. “You gave me no choice,” I hear him say before the world goes black.