Chapter 34
Every day this week has been the same.
Wake up, take a shower, waste away on the couch. I can’t do anything as there’s constantly an undercover car sitting on my house. They’re just waiting for a reason to jump on me. And really, the one place I want to go, I can’t.
And since I rolled up on them after leaving Drew’s apartment, when they all thought I was still inside the entire time, they haven’t even left to do a shift change.
I told Drew I’d give her space, but there’s nothing I want to do less.
I’m completely zoned out as my phone vibrates on the coffee table. Glancing out the window, I can no longer see the sunlight and wonder how long I’ve been wasting away on the couch.
Glancing at my phone, I’m shocked as I see the photo of Drew as it rings.
“Hello?” it comes out, trying to maintain my excitement because there could only be one reason she’d be calling me, right?
But no one says anything in response.
“Hello? Drew?” I repeat, with each second deflating more, as I assume she accidentally called me.
Sighing, admitting that there’s no way she meant to call, and decide to hang up.
As I move the phone from my face, I finally hear her.
“Who are you?” It’s muffled, but it’s still her.
“What?” I respond.
“Why are you here?”
I realize she isn’t talking to me. Even if her voice doesn’t shake, I can still hear the fear lining it. I say nothing else; I just listen, trying to take everything in at once. That’s why she called me. She needs me to hear her; she needs my help.
I hear her speak again, only this time it’s too muffled for me to hear.
Shit!
She screams, and I can hear footsteps pounding on the ground as I can only assume she’s being chased by someone.
Pushing myself up off the couch, I rush back to my room, grab my shoes.
“No!” she shouts. “Please don’t.” The fear now breaking through her exterior, her voice shakes.
Rushing to the front door, I stop myself, peering out the small window next to it, remembering the unmarked car sitting outside my house.
It’s still there.
“Why are you here?” she pleads with them.
I can hear the bass in the man’s voice, but I can’t make out what he’s saying or even if it’s a familiar voice.
If I go out the back, I can push the bike through the neighbor’s yard without being spotted.
There’s a crash through the phone as she’s huffing, slamming a door, something else slamming down to the ground
I imagine that she’s barricading herself in her room.
“Eli,” she whispers as I struggle with the weight of the bike, pushing it as fast as I can.
“Yeah, Sketch. I’m here.” Pushing it onto the neighbor’s driveway.
“Please hel —” her voice jumps, cutting herself off, as I can only imagine whoever is there slams their body against the door.
“I’m on my way.” Kicking over the bike.
“You won’t make it.” She whimpers into the receiver.
“Do you recognize him?” Turning the key, the bike revs to life.
“Their faces are covered. It feels like I’ve seen them somewhere before, but I can’t figure out where.”
“No,” I gasp as I peel the bike out onto the street.
“No!” she screams. There’s crashing and grunting before a hollow thud. I can hear two voices speaking to each other, but I can’t make out what’s being said.
* * *
Moving past the gym, I continue back. I can see from where I am that their bikes aren’t here. They must be at the studio.
Rounding the corner, I come to a stop, pulling my bike up behind theirs as I dismount and take my helmet off.
Turning around, he doesn’t need to say anything. The barrel aimed at me as one-by-one they step out the door and stop. Slowly, I hold my hands up.
“Zeke, come on…” I trail off, knowing that there’s not a lot I can say to stop his anger, which he’s apparently directed entirely at me.
But Zeke doesn’t answer me.
“Give us one reason why he shouldn’t pull the trigger.” I know it’s Z’s voice as the door closes behind the group and he walks through them.
“Is she here?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He laughs this time, turning and looking at Zeke. “You fucking believe this, him coming here and acting like his fate isn’t —”
“Shut the fuck up!” I shout, cutting him off. Except for the three of us, everyone’s mouths drop.
I can hear Zeke racking the slide.
“Don’t toy with that shit; shoot me if you want to, just tell me if she’s here! Please fucking tell me that she’s here.” I shout again, my voice shaking as I plead with them.
Zeke drops his gun, just enough for me to notice, as he takes in the concern on my face.
“I can’t find her.” Comes out in a pained whisper as I say it.
“What?” the twins both exclaim as they continue to look at me.
“She called me; she hasn’t done that in months, not even after we were all at her apartment, but she didn’t say a word…
at first. I could hear her talking to someone, but couldn’t hear the other voice at all.
” The words come out faster than I actually want them to.
“I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
She locked herself in what I assume was her room and told me I wouldn’t get there in time.
Said she feels like she recognizes them, but their faces are covered.
She’s not at her apartment. But it looks like there was a struggle there. ”
“Then why the fuck would she be here?”
“I don’t know, Z. This was a last-ditch effort. Wishful thinking. I can’t find her anywhere else.”
“They broke in?”
“I don’t think so. The door wasn’t broken. No one answered the door, so I used my key...” I trail off, watching both of their faces redden. “There was a struggle. But no windows were broken. And they locked the door when they left.”
“How do you know there was a struggle?” Z asks.
“I dunno, cause I played a cop for a decade.” They glance at one another sideways. “Goddamn it, you’re more than welcome to go over there and waste fucking time, or you could just fucking trust me.”
“Trust, ha!” Z says sarcastically. “As you’ve just lied to my face for a year.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I groan. “Ya know what, do whatever the fuck you want. She’s not here, got it.” Turning around, I move the few feet back over to the bike.
“Where are you going?” Z shouts.
“To find your fucking sister.”
Kicking over and cranking the engine before walking it back.
I can hear them shouting at me, but I don’t give a shit what the reasoning is.
I’m not surprised when Z rolls past me on my left. He looks at me; nods to the right before pulling ahead and veering off the trail.
And there’s no shock when Zeke comes up behind me as the three of us park our bikes.
Yanking my helmet off, slamming it on the seat as I look over at them. “If you want to kill me, do it after I find your fucking sister.”
They both have the same look on their faces when I finish, as if they’re both trying to still their concerns.
“Let’s go inside.” Z tells me.
“What part of your sister is missing do you not understand!?” My throat burns as I glare at them, looking at him.
“Calm down.”
“No, you should be fucking panicking more.” My frustration with this whole thing boiling over the surface.
He sighs, nodding his head. “I am. I’ve just gotten better at controlling it than you.
” He admits. “Everyone else is going out to look for her.” It eases me slightly.
Especially as I hear the engines growing closer.
We stand silently as they pass by, just staring at one another.
“But I don’t fucking trust you. So it’s either we go without you, or we take 10 minutes to figure this shit out. ”
“Fine, but we’re staying here.”
He says nothing at first, just walks past me and pushes the door open. “I have to get the keys, anyway.”
“Keys to what?”
“The van.”
“Why?” realizing I’m just now following behind him as he walks.
“Because it’s a little apparent what’s going on if 15 bikes roll up. Plus, taking bodies out is a lot easier in a van.” The calmness with which he mentions moving dead bodies makes me let out a sad chuckle.
As we step into the office, he reaches into the desk, pulling out a set of keys and sighs, stopping and looking up at me.
“What do ya want to know?” I roll my eyes as I feel Zeke step in beside me.
“How long?”
“10-ish months. Not really a clear timeline.”
“When’d it start?”
“Depends on what you mean by start.” I shrug.
I can feel Zeke step closer to me. “Let me clear it up: when’s the first time you fucked our sister?”
I grimace as I pick at my nails. “I was given her phone to take back to her after she got out of the hospital.”
I watch Z’s face transition from shock to rage. “So you took advantage of her when she was vulnerable.”
It actually makes me laugh. “Have you actually met her?” I ask him. “I’m positive that vulnerable and easily taken advantage of aren’t things that anyone has ever thought about her. I mean, fuck the ones who thought she was naive, knew they’d have to drug her first.” Tilting my head.
“He’s kind of right about that.” Zeke says quietly.
Z glances at his brother with a scowl. “Why’d it end?”
This is the question I don’t want to answer. I know they won’t like it.
“Eli, why is my sister pissed at you?”
“Because I left her in a rental house in Topanga Canyon.” I don’t need to look at them to know the expression with which they’re looking at me. “I had no intention of leaving when we got there or when we went to sleep. Or even when I woke up and was called in early.”
“Then why did you?”
“There are a few reasons, but all of them have to do with them not telling me until I got in that they had your warrant.”
I watch him as his eyes drift to the side.