Chapter 4
Eric
" S o, let me get this straight, you're ALL her boyfriends?" The cop on the other end asked. The smirk in his voice was loud and mocking.
If I could have lunged through the screen, I would have torn his head off. This wasn't a laughing matter. Damn it, why did we all have to admit to being her boyfriends? I knew I was her boyfriend; they hadn't gotten that far yet.
Shit, I was being an ass here. I knew they loved her, but Matt and Ethan had left her alone. I had left her in their protection, and they had left her alone. I was still not over that, but more than anything, I hated that I was so far away.
"Let me tell you what I think..." The cop started, and I squeezed my phone tighter. I don't give a damn what you think! My woman's out there right now. Get up off your flat ass and go find her.
"I think you think I'm stupid. See, let me tell you what I'm picturing here."
Matt and Ethan groaned. Ryan, on video call with us from the airport, swore. I was tempted to hang this phone up and go looking for her myself, but this was the damn police; they were supposed to help us with this shit. This was their job. Yet, this cop was sitting here telling us what he thought.
"I see four men, one woman, a possible hostage situation and she ran away," the cop continued.
"What the fuck?!" Matt jumped up from his seat. My heart went crazy.
We were all feeling the same way, but I didn't want any of them to get arrested. There wasn't much any of us could do behind bars. And a cop as shallow as this one was sure to have an ego. A cop with a bruised ego could find silly reasons to lock someone up, just to prove their authority. We didn't have time for that. We also wouldn't like the focus to be shifted away from Lily. I was thankful when Matt walked out the door.
My stomach turned in on itself and my chest tightened. Dark images flashed into the forefront of my mind that I fought off, because if I didn't, I'd be sick. I had to remain hopeful that she was safe. Fuck, damn it. If she was safe, there would be no need for concern. We needed to remain in the police's good graces. We needed their help.
"Officer, this is ridiculous. Please. Just send someone out there..." Ethan started, choked up.
"Oh no, no. I wasn't finished. The way I see it is, the girl's probably safer away from you," the cop finished.
Okay, now it was my turn to lose my shit. What was he gonna do? Send someone all the way to Florida to arrest me?
"And that's it? That's all you're going to do?! You..." Lazy, ignorant, judgmental, inadequate thumb of a man. "You're just going to wrap up this case based on what you THINK? You're not going to do an investigation? There has to be another cop we can talk to. Someone with sense. Ethan, please, find another cop with common sense, please. We're wasting precious time here. We don't know what could be happening to Lily with every second he wastes THINKING when he could be out there DOING something!" I hissed.
"Watch your tone, young man," the cop came into view, his wrinkly face all folded up in a frown.
"Or what? Do your..." I yelled.
"Eric, stop." Ethan pulled the phone away from the cop and excused himself. "The cop already wants to arrest us for running red lights to get to Lily. We have to be smart about this, no matter how much I'd take pleasure wringing his wiry neck."
He was right. I had thought the same thing myself just moments ago.
"So what are you gonna do?" Ryan grunted, his forehead pulled together in worry lines, his eyes frantic and the veins near his temple throbbing. "What else can we do? Do we have to rely on that waste of space?"
"We have to try our damndest to be civil. Matt!" He yelled outside the officer's door. "Get over here!"
"I had to get out there man," Matt said, breathing heavily when he returned. "If I didn't, I might have jabbed him in the skull with the pens on his desk or something, but they'd probably break against his thick skull." He snarled.
"Do you think we could pay him to look deeper, and also use that to prevent him from arresting us for the whole speeding thing? Or do you think he's too pissed to take a bribe?" Ethan asked.
"Fuck it. Whatever. SOMETHING has to be done," Ryan groaned.
None of us had ever committed a crime before. At least, I hadn't and I didn't think they had either before now. But here we were. In one night, Ethan and Matt had violated traffic laws and we were considering paying off a cop. When it came to Lily, there was nothing we wouldn't do to keep her safe.
Stepping back into the office, Ethan put on his best apologetic tone, turning to stare Matt down, nudging him to do the same.
"We're all sorry about earlier," Ethan started.
"Yeah, I know our relationship with Lily might be too complex for your understanding..." Matt added.
"What he means is, our type of relationship isn't typical, well at least not publicly..." Ethan continued as I rolled my eyes. Less talking, more doing something, please. But I bit my tongue because what else was I going to do all the way over here without any clue as to where Lily might be. I had an idea who took her, but I doubted he'd be stupid enough to take her back to his woman's house.
"But we all love Lily, okay? And she loves us. We share a romantic relationship with each other. A um..." Ethan searched for the word.
"Polyamorous. You've heard of that one, haven't you?" Ryan bit out, impatience lacing his tone. He swore away from the speaker, but I still caught it.
We were all teetering on the edge here, convincing this braindead cop of the legitimacy of our relationship. I knew that if Lily and I opened our relationship up, it would come with problems, but this? I couldn't have dreamed of this.
"Yes, so please. We're sorry for speeding and running the lights. Aren't we, Matt?" Ethan kicked him behind the desk. I knew because the thump wasn't subtle and Matt winced.
Matt scowled at him and back at the cop before clearing his throat. "Yeah, sure."
"As you can see, it was an emergency. Who knows what could've happened to Lily's mother if we hadn't arrived? Who knows what could be happening to Lily now?" He choked. My heart beat against my chest like a gorilla beating his pecs in warning. "So, if there's any way we can..."
"Ethan..." I cleared my throat, noticing the cop's quietness and softening expression. I shook my head at Ethan when he looked at the phone.
Narrowly, we avoided adding bribery to the already growing list of crimes as the cop unfolded his hands and leaned forward. "I tell you what. I'll make a note of it."
My brain started knocking, like a time bomb ticking, letting me know my head was about to explode. Make a note of it? Like it was something trivial, a shopping list or some shit? My breath was strangled within me. I wanted to break something, scream, shake the earth until she fell into my arms again.
"It hasn't been twenty-four hours yet, so technically, I can't call it in. Does she have a history with sleepwalking?" The cop asked. Seriously, where the hell did the force find this guy?
"No. She doesn't have a problem with sleepwalking." Ethan bit out. Matt stared at the cop incredulously.
I put the phone down, unable to look at his unhelpful face any longer, weakening at the thought of Lily being somewhere, hurt and suffering, needing help while we were engaging with this idiot. The chaos deep in my chest and beneath my skin forced me away from the phone on my bed and toward the window for some fresh air.
"So, she wouldn't have wandered out?" He asked.
Ryan swore.
"No," Matt said low and deep, his jaw set sharp.
"Okay. Well, I'll follow up with you in twenty-four hours. If she isn't back by then, we'll start our investigations." The cop resolved.
"Twenty-four hours?!" Matt gasped.
"She might be dead in twenty-four hours!" Ryan shouted.
My knees buckled. My lungs swelled. I held onto the window sill.
"There isn't any way you can speed this up? This is unlike Lily. We know her. She wouldn't have just wandered off and left her mother alone in the house. There's nothing we can do to help you speed this up?" Ethan pleaded.
"What are you proposing?" The cop asked.
Ethan had the good sense not to bring up bribing the cop again. We didn't have time to risk it backfiring.
"Just keep your eyes out for her and call if she returns." The cop grumbled, dismissing us.
What? He couldn't dismiss us yet. There must be some way we could convince him to hurry this case up. Finding my legs again, I hurried toward my phone just as Ethan was thanking the officer.
"Wait, no! Don't leave yet. Tell him that her father's the one who kidnapped her!" I yelled, but Ethan cut the call off before I could finish. "Damn it!" I threw the phone against the wall, falling to my knees in regret as I watched it break apart, since if I'd damaged the phone, I didn't know how they were going to contact me. My body was shaken by a knock on the door and I jumped to my feet.
I forgot where I was for a moment and the knock had me muttering swear words while I forced myself together, my body buzzing with sensitivity as I pulled myself to the door.
Taking a deep shaky breath, I opened the door to my dad's anguished face.
"Hi, dad." I controlled my voice, but I couldn't force a smile right now.
"Who's been kidnapped?" His eyes were bloodshot.
My chest rattled in response. "What? Dad? No one. Why don't you go back to bed?" I rested my hand on his shoulder. It was a gentle gesture, but not a welcome one.
"Do you want to be slapped upside the head, boy?!" He barked at me, and for a second I experienced what it would be like to be under his command in the army. He and mom weren't fans of physical discipline, so for him to threaten hitting me now must mean that he's pissed, or he's on the verge of a flashback. "I'm not a toddler. I'm not a demented old man either. Don't treat me like I'm an idiot, damn it. I know what I heard!"
At the sound of my father's loud voice, my mother slammed and latched her bedroom door down the hallway. Shit! Now, she was triggered and one wrong word might trigger him further to hell knows where. Fuck, I was about to explode. I didn't know how to handle all of this. Both of us looked in the direction of mom's door. My skull was tight and expanding.
Abashed, my father lowered his voice. Running his hand through his short silver hair, he exhaled. "Let me help."
How did I let him know that despite how much I'd love his help right now, there was nothing he could do?
Ethan
Matt left to get his head sorted and I cut the phone call off because the world was closing in on me and I couldn't listen to us go back and forth over the obvious, without finding solutions that would lead us to getting Lily back tonight. I locked myself in the bathroom and broke down like a baby before finding the strength to leave and collect Mrs. Thornbread from the nurse's office where she'd been taken while Matt and I were being interviewed.
"Who are you to this woman?" The nurse asked.
"She's...uh...my girlfriend's mother," I nodded.
"And where's your girlfriend now?" The ignorant woman looked up at me and my eyes filled with more tears.
"Hmmm." I cleared my throat and took a moment to exhale. "She's...um...missing, that's why we're here."
"Hey, man. What's the hold up?" Matt returned. "I've been waiting for you in the car." He reached for Mrs. Thornbread.
"Excuse me, sir." The nurse threw her body in between them. "And who are you?"
"He's uh...my best friend," I said, in order to avoid the judgment of before. "He's the one driving us back."
"Uh huh." She looked between the both of us. "I'm sorry. I can't release her to you unless you're a family member."
"What?" This wasn't a damn hospital. We were the ones who brought her in. "That's ridiculous. She can't stay here with you."
"Hold on one moment," she said, before going on the phone. Moments later, the same stupid cop showed up. Matt and I groaned. She heard it and looked at us with further suspicion. Great! "They're saying they want to take her home."
He nodded and turned to us as if he was going to 'handle it.' He couldn't 'handle' shit. "Is there any other family she can stay with?"
Exhausted, I turned away. I'd had enough of this.
"No. Lily's her only family. She'd want her with us," Matt argued.
"What about a husband?" He asked.
"He's the reason she's in the wheelchair!" Matt yelled and I took a deep breath.
"Sir, please. We've had a long night. We're all she has at the moment." I waved my hand toward him in desperation.
He shrugged. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."
He got that right.
"If you don't know anyone else she can stay with, we'll have to..." He started looking away from us, shaking his head and gesturing. I closed my eyes because the steam was swelling inside me and I couldn't let it show.
"No, it's fine. It's fine. You know what, there's a Women's Shelter Lily volunteers at." Matt's voice grew higher in pitch, his tone short.
However, I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled out my phone, finding the contact number. "You can verify it with them. We'll follow you to the shelter to make sure she gets there as soon as possible. She's catatonic. She needs specific care from people who understand. They've looked after her for Lily before. She's familiar with that place."
To our fucking relief, the cop nodded and didn't offer anymore of his opinions. Thank goodness, because I couldn't stand to be around him or this nurse a second longer.