Chapter 16
FORREST
"What do you mean you lost her?" I snapped into the phone.
"I mean she was annoyed with me. Got up and left. She walked around a corner. I followed her, but when I got there she was gone." Leif sounded calmer than I felt.
"Why was she annoyed with you?"
"I was asking questions about the night her husband was murdered," he said. "She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know."
I rubbed a hand over the back of my head and resisted the urge to throw my phone out the window.
"You're supposed to be keeping an eye on her, not questioning her," I said. Why would he do that? I thought we had an understanding. We'd watch her, and when the time came, I'd uncover the truth.
"I was hoping she'd open up," he argued. "We seemed to be getting along."
"Yeah, and now she's gone. Have you tried calling her?"
"Yeah, I tried. There's no answer," he said.
"It's probably nothing," I reasoned. There had to be a perfectly logical explanation for what happened. One that didn't involve violence. "She took a ride-share or a taxi when she was out of your sight."
"I don't think so," Leif said. "There wasn't enough time."
That wasn't what I wanted to hear. From the sound of his voice, it wasn't what he wanted to say either.
"There must have been," I insisted. "She didn't vanish into thin air. You think something happened to her?" Of course he did. He wouldn't have called me otherwise.
"I wasn't that far behind her." His breath crackled the phone. "One minute she was there and the next minute she wasn't. There's definitely something weird about this."
"Yeah. I'll call you back." I ended the call and pressed Sable's contact.
It rang a few times before going through to voicemail. I thought about leaving a message but didn't know what to say. That was a first for me, I was never lost for words.
Irritated, I ended that call as well and called Leif back.
Before he could speak, I said, "Where are you?"
I took down the address and hung up without saying goodbye. Called myself a car and pushed my way out the glass doors at the front of the courthouse.
The drive was only a few blocks, but it felt like hours. The longer it took, the more my anger simmered, threatening to boil over.
If anything happened to Sable, I was going to destroy people, starting with Leif. I was working on getting her to trust me. To open up to me. Had he ruined all of that? If he had, he’d ruined any chance he had with her too.
What the fuck was he thinking? Was he thinking at all?
He wasn't as hot-headed as Woody, but he had his impetuous moments. I was the calm in the eye of the storm. Both of them told me I thought too much, I should be more spontaneous. That was like telling someone to smile more often. Fuck that. Someone had to have a cool head.
Rationally, what might have happened? I asked myself.
It was possible she walked faster than Leif thought she did. She could have been a couple of blocks away before he started after her. She might be anywhere in the city by now. My instincts told me otherwise. Whatever happened, it happened not far from Leif.
Hell, for all I knew, she was walking the neighborhood to get some air.
Wherever she was, I didn't see her before the car pulled up in front of where Leif leaned against a building, tapping his foot on the sidewalk.
"I just tried calling her again. She didn't answer," he said.
I nodded and did the same thing. Once again, the call went to voicemail.
"She has to be somewhere," I reasoned.
Leif smirked.
"Fuck off, you know what I mean. Somewhere close by."
His smile faded. "Yeah, I… I don't know. What do we do?"
That was a very good fucking question.
"Is there any chance," I started slowly, "she took off running from your dumb ass?"
"Of course not," he scoffed. "Have you seen me? I can't help wondering what if…" He made a face, not wanting to finish the sentence.
"Yeah." I knew what he was referring to. Or specifically, who.
If Woody touched a hair on her head, I was going to lose my shit. I knew why he thought what he did, but if she cut Wolfgang’s throat herself, I didn't give a shit. Woody's father or not, he got what he deserved.
I rubbed my chin. I could give Woody the names of the people I suspected killed his father, but that would create different problems, especially if I was wrong.
I was tempted to tell him I'd done it, but he knew me better than that. If I had, I would have come out and told him. Or better yet, invited him to come along and help. Him and Leif.
Letting out a frustrated breath, I called Woody. Another call that went to voicemail.
"If you have Sable, I'm going to fuck you up," I said before ending the call.
"That's telling him," Leif said.
I gave him a glaring side-eye.
He raised his hands. "Just saying is all."
We both knew Woody wasn't that easily intimidated.
Not even by me. Considering I could have him arrested and incarcerated for the rest of his life, he should know better.
He probably thought he could incriminate me, but unfortunately men with money and power tended to get away with things, myself included.
If he tried, I could bury him without raising a sweat.
It wouldn't come to that.
I hoped.
"Looks like we're going for a drive." I gestured toward the car before walking around the other side and climbing in.
I gave the driver a different address and sat back to cross my legs and jiggle my foot.
Leif didn't ask where we were going. He knew as well as I did.
The house was a bit over an hour out of the city. A long drive with nothing else to do but think.
Leif scrolled on his phone, but I got the impression he wasn't seeing any of it, except some cat video he watched a couple of times, chuckling to himself. And a blooper reel involving his brother, crashing into the boards in several different games.
"I don't know how he doesn't have more broken bones," he said half to himself.
I grunted and looked out the window, watching the world go by in a blur. Cursing myself for not putting a tracking device on her phone. That was an oversight I'd remedy as soon as I could.
"She could have gone back to her place," Leif said.
"She didn't," I replied.
"How can you be sure?" he asked. "You said yourself you didn't think she'd gone far."
Without looking over at him, I shrugged. "I was wrong."
"Well, shit," he drew the words out. "The great Judge Cross was wrong. What if you're wrong now?"
"Then we go back to the city and keep looking for her," I said.
I didn't care what it took. I'd find her. I might tie her down and make her understand she was mine, but I'd find her.
"You've got it bad, don't you?" Leif asked.
Now I looked over at him. "So do you."
"I might," he said. He tried to play it cool, but I knew him better than that. I saw straight through it. When I rolled my eyes at him, he said, "She's not like anyone else I've ever met."
"Yet you couldn't help pissing her off," I said darkly.
"Everyone makes mistakes," he said. "Look on the bright side. When we find her, I can make it up to her."
"If she'll let you," I said. "She might not want anything to do with you."
"That's got you worried, doesn't it?" he asked. "You're scared she won't want anything to do with any of us."
He was right, but I wasn't going to let him know that. We'd virtually presented ourselves as a package deal. Hang out with me and you hang out with my friends. Including Woody. She might walk away and never look back.
Correction, she might try. I wasn't letting her go that easily.
I wasn't letting her go at all.
I tried her phone again. Then Woody's.
Voicemail. Fucking voicemail. I stabbed the screen with my finger, ending one call after the other.
"Some people don't answer phone calls," Leif pointed out.
"Yeah." I shot off a quick text to asking if she was okay. Then another to Woody to tell him to call me immediately.
I watched them both for a few minutes, but neither were read.
The uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach grew.
If he was doing anything to her right now, I was going to rip his head off with my bare hands.
That would leave enough skin for Leif to make a boot, maybe a nice pair of shoes.
I could wear Woody around wherever I went.
Step on him on a daily basis. Scuff him up and wear him out until he was good for nothing but being thrown in the trash.
Yeah, I held a grudge. If he hurt her, I'd hold one against him for the rest of my life.
"Shame they don't make pucks out of leather," Leif observed.
"They might make an exception," I said darkly.
Honestly, if anyone was going to be hit around the ice with a stick, there were better candidates than Woody.
Many of them. People like Wolfgang Taylor-Francis, who got pleasure from hurting others.
My only regret was they wouldn't feel any pain.
I'd know who and what they were, though. That would have to be enough.
"I might start a new line of decorative leather pucks," Leif said thoughtfully. "They could have the name of the team etched on them and sit on a shelf, looking pretty."
"You'd make a fortune," I remarked.
Unless people found out what they were really made from.
Did I approve of that side of Leif's personality; the need to recycle predators into footwear and home decor? Not necessarily, but he was going to do it with or without my approval. The fact he'd never do it to anyone innocent worked in his favor.
If he tried, he'd end up a decorative puck on someone's shelf.
"I would, wouldn't I?" he said thoughtfully, a smile on the corners of his lips. "I might end up richer than you."
I didn't care if he did. Money was a tool to help you get through life.
I had more of it than I'd ever need. I used to have a lot more, but I’d spent the last few years carefully donating to deserving people.
Paying for things like school lunches, food for the disadvantaged, shelters for the homeless, medical bills for people who couldn't afford to pay them.
I kept enough to keep me comfortable. That was sufficient. I didn't need to be filthy rich. They didn't call it filthy for nothing.
"We're almost there," I said, nodding out the window.
Would we be in time?