Chapter 5 Willow
WILLOW
The jangle of my phone alarm pulls me out of a restless sleep. The comforter is tangled around my legs, and I’m sweating through the sheets.
I grab my phone from the bedside table and slide the alarm off. With bleary eyes, I open my email app, but there’s nothing from Tyler.
The bathroom door opens, and Janelle comes through with a towel wrapped around her and a smile that makes her look ten years younger.
“Morning,” she chirps.
It’s not like Janelle to be up before me, but she had good news last night.
Her kids contacted her, and she had a long phone call with her daughter, where she discovered she was right about their father trying to turn them against her.
Her daughter now has a secret phone that their dad doesn’t know about, and that’s how they’ll communicate from now on.
“You had another bad dream last night.” Janelle squints at me. “Everything okay?”
Nothing’s okay. I don’t know where Tyler is, and someone’s trying to scare me with texts. I can’t remember the nightmare. I never do. But I don’t want to worry Janelle when she’s so perky this morning.
I shrug. “Just a bad dream. No big deal.”
She takes my words at face value and pulls her clothes out of her pack.
Janelle hums as she dresses, and I flop back onto the bed, feeling like someone’s pressing a slab of concrete on my body.
Sleep took a long time to come last night. I must’ve checked my email a hundred times, hoping for a message from my brother.
It’s been three days since he last emailed me. I’m being paranoid, I tell myself. He’s got a job, meeting new people; it’s what I wanted. He doesn’t want to check in with his big sister every day.
But three days.
I refresh the email app. But there’s nothing. I check my messaging app, just in case, and push down the uneasy feeling I get when I see one of the texts that came in yesterday from an unknown number.
We know where you are
And then a few hours later when I was back at the hostel, a series of texts came in like a creepy one-sided conversation, each one making the lump in my stomach heavier.
What’d you go and run for?
We won’t hurt you…
…if you pay back what you owe us.
We’re tracking your brother
We found you
We’ll find Tyler
One more run and we’ll consider your debt paid off
They can’t possibly know where I am or have a way to track Tyler.
Although how easy would it be to track down where the corrections department sent a team to work off their community service hours?
I volunteered for this position. I’d rather get it all done in a few weeks than drag it out over the next two years.
Besides, there was nothing keeping me in Charlotte, and it felt like a good time to disappear. The perfect time it seemed.
It’s all just scare tactics.
But my gut tells me otherwise.
Mani, the leader of the Street Kings, won’t give up easily. He thinks I owe him, and maybe the best thing to do is do what they ask. Get him off my back and out of our lives for good. But I’ll need reassurances that he’ll leave Tyler alone.
“You need to get moving if you want to be on time.” Janelle pulls up her orange overalls.
“And miss the chance for Sergeant Major to have a go at me?”
She cuts me a knowing look. “I’d be late, too, if it got me the attention of the boss. He is fine.”
I think about Hudson’s broad shoulders, the determined set of his jaw, the way my skin prickles whenever he’s close, and then try to push it out of mind as I reply, “Can’t say I’ve noticed.”
She guffaws as I drag myself out of bed and head to the shower.
Twenty minutes later, I’m dressed and ready a few minutes before the minivan is due to leave. I grab a piece of toast and follow Janelle out to the parking lot to wait for pickup.
“She made the school soccer team. The coach has her playing defense, but I think she’s better as a striker.” I nod, trying to keep up with the news about Janelle’s daughter.
She practically bounces as she tells me about how she’ll be back for the first game of the season and just let that asshole try to keep her from seeing her kids.
The minivan pulls up just as my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pop the last of the toast in my mouth and pull my phone out.
Touching work you’re doing with veterans.
I like the mountains.
Thin fingers of icy dread close around my heart, and every part of me goes cold.
They know where I am. They really know. It’s too much of a coincidence. A veteran’s center and the mountains.
If they know where I am, they can find Tyler, too.
I’m still staring at my phone when another text comes in.
One last run and you and your brother are free
There’s a shout from the minivan, and I glance up to find Boxy hollering at me from his seat.
“You coming or what?”
“Fuck off, Boxy.” Janelle goes from doting mom to fiery pixie in an instant.
She turns to me, and one look at my face has her taking a few steps toward me. She lowers her voice as she asks, “Everything okay?”
No, I want to scream. It’s all fucked up, and I don’t know how to make it right.
Or maybe I do.
One last run.
I want to tell Janelle, share my problem with her, but what good would it do?
Even her concern for me can’t keep the light out of her eyes this morning.
The last thing I want to do is crush her good mood.
Besides, if I told her about the shit I’m in, she’d insist on helping me fix it, and if it goes wrong, then she really could lose her kids.
I put on the best smile I can muster.
“Yeah, all good. I forgot something. I’ll meet you guys up there.”
She peers at me, unconvinced.
“I really can’t miss a telling off from the sergeant. It’s my favorite part of the day.” I raise my eyebrows at her, and she breaks into a wide grin.
“I knew it.” She slaps me playfully on the arm. “See you up there.”
I keep the smile on as she gets into the minivan, then walk casually back to my room. All the while, my heart is thumping as I think through what I have to do.