Chapter 32
VAL
“Any word yet?” asked Frankie as she wiped a pint glass and stacked it behind the bar.
I shook my head, scrolling through the business news headlines for the tenth time in as many minutes.
“Not yet.” But there was a photo of me and Anton cozied up by the fire accompanied by a silly headline.
As long as the gossip columns weren’t talking about my relationship with Nolan, I didn’t care what they cooked up about me and Anton.
Well. All right. That wasn’t strictly true.
This week, Diego had texted saying that some reporters had shown up to his apartment looking for me, but he’d chased them off.
Anton had warned me the paparazzi could be ruthless, and I feared this was only the beginning.
I’d already deleted all social media presence to avoid the trolls, but some had taken to harassing Frankie and Hugh.
Mr. Huxby had to up security on property too, to keep the flocking camera crews at bay.
But this is what I wanted. Sort of. I knew the price of going public with Anton, and it was serving as an excellent distraction for the media—possibly too excellent. But Cressida assured me the tabloids would move on if I could hang on for another month or two.
“Maybe Nolan decided not to go through with selling Hale’s Peak,” Frankie noted.
I sipped my coffee and it burbled in my stomach like hot acid at the reminder of his lies.
“He probably needs board approval for something like that. Who knows how long that will take, or if he can even get it?” I was still holding out hope that somehow, our beloved Hale’s Peak wouldn’t get demolished.
Frankie cocked a skeptical eyebrow and continued prepping for the late morning brunchers. It was early April and Nolan’s board meeting was soon, but I hadn’t heard from him since I’d told him to go back to San Francisco. Not that I wanted to hear from him.
Okay. Fine. I wanted to hear from him.
And I felt so stupid about it. Because even after all the deception, I still had feelings for him.
I had thought being away from Nolan would get easier, but the memories were stamped onto my soul, pumping through my veins with every beat of my heart.
Even though our bond was tattered and thinning with each silent day, the moments we’d shared weren’t something I could easily forget.
I didn’t want to forget. And I thought it might be the same for him too.
I wanted to text him and ask about the sale, or about anything, just to see his name flash across my screen again.
In the beginning, he’d tried calling and texting, but I hadn’t responded.
And now I felt like it was too late to reach out.
He’d almost said the freaking L-word to me, and I’d told him to get lost. What if his feelings had changed?
What if he just wanted to forget the whole thing?
That was a rejection I couldn’t face, so I held my silence.
Moving on was probably for the best, anyway.
My phone pinged with messages from Cressida, Daphne, and Cora, and Frankie laughed as she read the group chat from her own phone.
At least I still have my girl gang. We all had plans to meet up for the Hale’s Peak end of season celebration in a few weeks—as long as it was still happening.
A lot was still up in the air, but Cressida and Daphne hadn’t said anything to the contrary, and they’d be the first to know.
Turning her screen toward me, Frankie showed me the latest message. “Cress says Nolan’s been wallowing this entire month. Daphne confirms. Brooding in his office, brooding at home, brooding with a drink in his hand. Maybe you should go easy on him, because you’re wallowing too.”
“Am not,” I said, ripping up the garbage from my empty sugar packet.
“Yeah, that’s convincing.”
“What’s convincing?” asked Austin as he slid into the seat beside me, then Frankie plopped a coffee in front of him. Hugh took that moment to extract himself from a chatty customer and hustle his way over.
I heaved a sigh. “This feels like an intervention.”
“We’re worried about you, Val,” Hugh said. “I know breakups are hard, but maybe you two don’t have to break up. It doesn’t seem like you want to.”
Hugh and Austin had both been brought into the cone of silence and clued in to my drama. After Nolan had broken my trust, I needed my friends now more than ever.
“Is there really no hope to salvage it?” Austin asked.
I shook my head. “Nolan misled me about a lot of things. How can I trust him again after that?”
A pensive look passed across Austin’s face. “I’m not trying to defend the guy, but maybe he deserves the opportunity to explain. You don’t have to give him a second chance but hearing him out might give you some closure.”
“Or, let him try and win you back. I love to see a man do some good old-fashioned groveling,” Frankie said. “And I have a feeling Nolan would be pretty good at it.”
Despite feeling like my heart was made of cement, I snorted. “He’d be excellent at it.” I tapped a finger on the bar, considering. Maybe they were right. Maybe I did need closure, or something. It was worth at least one conversation, and then I could put this winter behind me forever.
I opened my mouth to say as much, but the shrill ring of my phone interrupted me.
“Hey, Diego,” I said. “Paparazzi again?”
“Val.” A sharp note of panic edged his voice, and my throat tightened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Juanito—he’s gone.”
The following evening, I pounded on the door to Diego’s apartment in Sun Valley.
“Ya voy,” came Diego’s voice from within. When he opened the door, I squeezed him into a massive hug. “I’m so glad you’re here, mana.”
We convened in the living room on the sectional crowding the small space. His new apartment was on the top floor of a new-ish two-story building on the outskirts of town across the street from a park. It was supposed to be a nice neighborhood. A safe neighborhood. But how wrong we’d been.
A freaking grand piano of anxiety had been sitting on my chest since I’d gotten Diego’s call, and I hadn’t slept all night. “Did the police find him?” I asked.
Diego rubbed his face with a grim look. He hadn’t shaved in a few days and his hands rasped across rough stubble. “No. With no information to go on, I don’t know how they’re supposed to find him.”
I paced to the window, racking my brain for a solution. Then I saw the bushes outside move, followed by the flash of a camera.
Without another thought, I sprinted downstairs and outside, Diego shouting after me. When I reached the bush, I yanked out the paparazzo hiding in it.
“Hey, watch it!” shouted the thin, greasy man. “That’s assault!”
“How long have you been watching this apartment?” I asked.
The man narrowed his beady eyes, and I resisted the urge to shake him senseless.
“I’m not mad and I won’t report you for trespassing. Do you have any pictures from yesterday of the park across the street?”
Sensing my desperation, a smarmy smile slid across his face. “I might.”
With an aggravated sound, I said. “I’ll give you whatever exclusive interview bullshit you want if you show me the pictures. Right now.” I was already grabbing for his camera, determined to see those photos.
“Okay, okay, easy with the equipment. She’s expensive.”
After clicking through the photos on the tiny digital screen at rapid-fire pace, I finally found what I was looking for.
We had a lead, but it wasn’t good news.
Shoving the camera back at the man, I said, “Thanks! But seriously, get lost. Stop stalking my brothers.”
“Hey, what about my interview?” the man protested.
“Call Hale’s Peak and ask for me!” I shouted over my shoulder, already halfway up the stairs.
Bursting into Diego’s apartment, I said, “Hal and Antonella have him. The paparazzo outside nabbed a picture of Hal in his piece-of-crap car driving away with Juanito.”
As I said the words and saw the devastation on Diego’s face, the truth of the situation washed over me.
Recollections of the car accident came rushing back, pummeling me with their intensity.
Antonella, screaming at me, berating me for standing up to her.
Antonella, ripping the steering wheel out of my hands.
Antonella in prison, telling me she wished I was dead.
Antonella, Antonella, Antonella.
I tuned in to what Diego was saying partway through. “—was across the street playing in the park with his friends. I can see it from here and there were other parents watching, so I thought it would be safe. I should have known better, especially with how Hal’s been lurking around.”
I put a reassuring arm around him. Because what else could I do?
My anxiety launched into overdrive and I was moments from spinning out, but I had to keep my head on straight if we had any hope of finding Juanito.
So I plucked out a few questions from the list sprinting through my head and began to formulate a plan.
Lists, I could do. Plans, I could make.
We’re going to find you, Juanito. Te prometo.
“Where would they take him?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but in Antonella’s latest message, she talked about taking over her ‘motherly duties’ again.” With a frustrated growl, Diego ran his hands through his hair. “I should have known it wasn’t just empty ramblings of her drug-soaked mind.”
“She can’t do that without going to court though.”
“You think Antonella gives a fuck about the law? She’s delusional.
Probably strung-out. We can give the police a description of Hal’s car, but they’ve probably ditched it for another one by now.
How the fuck are we supposed to get Juanito back, Val?
He doesn’t have his meds. He’ll die without them.
” Tears shone in Diego’s eyes as he clutched my hand like it was the only thing keeping him from drowning in the torrent.
Oh my god. Juanito’s meds.
As if Antonella’s deranged abduction wasn’t bad enough, now the clock on Juanito’s life was ticking. In the whirlwind of events, I hadn’t even considered they wouldn’t have his medication. We had no leads, no idea where they would take him.
In my desperation, my thoughts turned to the only person who might have the capability and influence to help. My insides twisted at the prospect of what I was about to do, but it was Juanito. I would do anything for my little brother. Anything for my family.
I picked up my phone and dialed.