Chapter 19
19
“ W hat do you mean, it’s gone?” Cody struggled to keep his voice steady, so she wouldn’t pick up he was as panicked as she seemed. “Is the app not opening?”
Geena held up her phone and aimed the screen at Cody. “The app is open, but it isn’t showing anything.”
His heart continued to race. This was exactly what he’d been worried about. Why he’d installed the security device in the first place.
Geena shrugged, seeming to calm a bit and brush it off. She put her phone in her back pocket. “Probably just a glitch.”
“Maybe.”
Cody’s brain spun in a hundred different directions, manufacturing plausible scenarios that could account for the technology error.
If it was an error.
“I should go anyway,” she said. “The roads might get bad again.”
The week of heavy rains had caused flash flooding in areas, and the rivers were all reaching flood stage. With the ground already saturated, additional rain wouldn’t have any place to go.
Geena was right about the roads. Driving would be dangerous soon if the darkening sky had anything to say about it. But he was less worried about the rain than what danger might wait for her at home.
Sure, it could be just a glitch.
But it could also be something else. Something that terrified him to let her discover on her own.
“I’ll go with you.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” she said. “And if anything looks off, I’ll call the police.”
Cody didn’t have much confidence the police would show up to a potential birdnapping situation. They’d certainly taken their sweet time getting to the zoo the other night.
“I’ll feel better if I go with you to check it out,” he said, making it sound more like an offer than an insistence. But he knew for certain he was following her to make sure she was safe. “If everything is fine, I’ll leave.”
“It really isn’t nec?—”
“I’m going with you, Bourque.” He was just getting used to the idea of having her in his life long-term. He wasn’t about to let anything happen to her. “End of discussion.”
She narrowed her eyes to glare at him. “You’re awfully bossy all of a sudden.”
“When someone I care about is in danger? Yeah, I get a little bossy.”
With a slight flinch at the “care about” part, Geena nodded. “Fine. You can follow me back.”
Relief washed over him. Whatever was waiting at her house, he didn’t want her facing it alone. And if it was just a glitch, he could call Lauren to talk him through a fix.
Cody stepped back to give her some space and squeezed her hand.
“Lead the way, Bourque.”
G eena walked to the front door of her townhouse, bracing against a powerful gust and jogging through the light but steady rain. After the large heavy drops began at the zoo, the rain had settled into a constant downpour halfway on the road to her place.
Cody followed only a step behind her. She really hadn’t needed him to come with her. That wind was the most likely culprit for the security camera notification. It had glitched before on a windy day with leaves floating past the lens. That was probably the cause again. And maybe some rain had shorted out the video feed.
“See,” she said, waving a hand at the door area. “Everything is fine.”
Neither the camera nor the door appeared tampered with. In fact, the door was still locked, just as she left it.
“I’ll feel better once I get you safe inside and see what happened with that camera,” Cody said. “Even if it’s a glitch, I want to call Lauren to see if she can help with the settings or something, so it doesn’t keep going out like that.”
She’d been initially defensive about him coming with her. She didn’t need protection, she just needed to verify her hunch that everything was fine.
But his insistence on following her was unwavering. She didn’t like being bossed around, but she found comfort in his care for her safety.
Maybe it was good vibes from their date. From that kiss. Whatever it was, she was glad to have him with her, even for just a bit longer.
Geena slid the key into the lock and turned the handle. Cody remained behind her, only inches back this time. But they both stopped dead in their tracks the moment they entered.
“Oh, no.” Geena’s stomach swirled with panic, leaving her with a sickening feeling.
Cody cursed under his breath and stepped around her, striding across the living room in just a few steps.
Gary’s cage door was wide open, and Gary was nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe I didn’t secure it,” she said. “Maybe he’s hiding somewhere in here.”
“You’re the most cautious person I know,” Cody said, inspecting the metal door. “I don’t believe for a second you left this cage open.”
“Maybe not open. But maybe not locked?”
Geena ignored his insistence that she hadn’t been responsible for Gary’s disappearance and began a tour of the townhouse. She scanned the tops of each piece of furniture and peered inside every nook and cranny where the bird could be hiding.
No Gary.
She had to resign herself to the fact that Gary was nowhere in this building. And since the door had been locked, he couldn’t have gotten outside.
Geena stood in the center of the room, a couple of feet from where Cody was examining the front door. Checking for signs of forced entry, she assumed.
“I’m so, so sorry.”
Her voice cracked as guilt flooded her, filling every cell in her body with red-hot shame that burned beneath her skin. She fought to hold back tears, but they filled her eyes anyway, threatening to spill over any second.
Cody shifted his attention from the door to Geena standing behind him. He assessed her with the same concentrated stare he’d given the door a moment earlier.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I was supposed to keep him safe.” She choked on that last word and wiped at her face since she’d lost the battle of trying to contain those tears. “It’s the reason you brought him here.”
Cody shook his head and grabbed both of her hands. “Gary was my responsibility. Not yours. You did take care of him.”
“While he was here, he was my responsibility.”
She knew she took on plenty of responsibilities that weren’t hers to own. She’d been working on not taking accountability for the failure of her marriage, since that weight fell clearly on Ricky. Still, she’d had to learn to forgive herself when her brain couldn’t shift the blame on him.
But this?
This was definitely in her realm of responsibility. No matter what Cody said.
He tucked her bangs behind her ear, speaking in a soothing tone. “I’m just glad you weren’t here when he was taken. I don’t know how I’d be able to handle it if I’d put you in danger, too.”
“They weren’t after me,” she said. “They only wanted Gary. Which is probably why they broke in while I wasn’t home.”
Cody flinched at that, and his gaze dulled as his thoughts wandered off somewhere. It was concerning to see the normally unflappable man frozen by whatever was going through his mind right then.
She squeezed the hand that was still holding hers. “What is it?”
Cody returned from wherever his mind went. “Nothing, sorry. Just… processing.”
“If I’d been home?—”
Cody raised his hand and held his palm up to stop her.
“What we’re not going to do is play the blame game,” he said with authority. “We’re going to call the police and tell them what happened. Maybe they can get fingerprints or something.”
Fingerprints.
Right.
Geena suddenly regretted touching so many things in her effort to find Gary’s hypothetical hiding spot.
She reached for her phone on the coffee table to call for help, while Cody checked a notification. His expression grew tight as he concentrated on whatever he found.
“Something else wrong?”
Cody put his phone in his pocket. “No. Just a thing I need to take care of later, but it’s not important.”
Geena could tell he was hiding something. Maybe multiple somethings.
But she couldn’t make him share it. Not right now, especially.
So she did the one thing she could to help and called the police.
C ody watched helplessly as Geena wished the officer a good evening and shut the door behind him. When she turned to face Cody, he could see the red rimming her eyes, exhaustion from fighting off tears, and an anxiety flush that crept halfway up her neck.
He’d never seen her like this. Even when she was flustered, like that night when he’d shown up with Gary, Geena had been mostly in control of her emotions and the situation.
But not tonight.
He stepped closer to her and rubbed his hands along the sides of her arms. “You okay?”
Geena nodded, although he could clearly see that she was not in fact okay. She was so far from okay that he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her in this state.
He’d told her multiple times that this wasn’t her fault. If it was anyone’s fault that Gary was missing, it was his. He was the one responsible for the bird.
But Geena had wrapped herself in that responsibility and guilt like a blanket she couldn’t take off.
“You want to sit?” Cody asked. “Or do you want to go somewhere?”
He didn’t want her staring at that empty cage all night, but in all fairness, he’d probably do the same.
Geena shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. It feels like I should be doing something .”
“There isn’t anything to do,” he said. “Not tonight, at least.”
Tomorrow was another matter. He was already running through a mental list of things he could do tomorrow. People he could talk to. Leads he could track down.
But tonight, his only concern was Geena.
“I feel so helpless.” She looked at Gary’s cage, then at the doorknob that still had fingerprint dust on it. “I’ll never forgive myself if someone does something awful to him.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. This wasn’t your fault,” Cody repeated. “And I don’t think anyone will hurt Gary. Whoever stole him probably did so because he’s valuable.”
It was just a matter of tracking down who that bird was most valuable to.
His previous owner was the obvious answer. Although Cody couldn’t think of any reason other than sentimental value in that case.
Anyone else would be looking for a payday.
It had to be someone who knew Gary was being kept here. And someone who also knew that Geena wouldn’t be home that afternoon.
Someone could have been following them, but they would have had no way of knowing how long Geena would be gone. That they had enough time to override the security system and get Gary out of there. He imagined the bird must have put up a fuss, judging from the larger-than-normal amount of feathers in the cage and just outside of it.
“Thanks,” Geena said. “I don’t believe you, but thank you for being so kind.”
“It’s the truth, not kindness,” Cody said. “Kindness is me taking care of you tonight. What can I do for you? How about you come and stay at my place? I don’t like the idea of you hanging out here alone.”
“They already got what they wanted,” Geena said.
“Maybe.” He was pretty sure she was right on that, but that wasn’t quite what he meant. “I don’t want to leave you here to stare at that empty cage all night.”
“Why not? I don’t deserve to sleep.”
He could see that she meant it. Regardless how far off the mark she was on that statement, right or wrong didn’t matter. It only mattered what she believed.
He didn’t think he could make her believe any differently. But maybe he could distract her.
“Come on.” He held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. “We’re getting out of here.”
“I can’t just leave.”
“Why not?”
“Because my stuff is here, and I have to work tomorrow,” she said. “Besides, I don’t think we’re at the sleeping-over stage of whatever this is.”
“Give me some credit, Bourque.” He grinned to let her know he was mildly teasing.
“Didn’t you show up here with a one-night-stand, Brasseaux?”
She was fighting a smile, but there was genuine doubt behind her statement.
And she wasn’t wrong.
“That was completely different,” he said. “I don’t know for sure what this is, but it isn’t what that was.”
Geena narrowed her eyes at him. “One thing I’ve learned is that people don’t change.”
Her ex. Of course. She had obviously learned to believe people when they showed her who they were.
“I used to think that, too.” Cody took a deep breath and remembered the conversation with his mom. He wasn’t about to tell Geena she was ribs, but he needed to tell her something. “Then I met you. And hung out with you. And I, uh, kind of fell for you.”
This time, she did smile. “I don’t think that, uh, falling for someone changes who a person is.”
“I don’t know that I’ve changed,” he said. “I think you’ve brought out parts of me I tried to deny.”
There was a long pause while she assessed him. He could see her running that new data through her mind.
“Okay, let’s say that’s true,” she said. “Why would you hide your ability to have a caring and committed relationship?”
Cody took another deep breath and told her the truth. “Because I didn’t want to be my dad.”
That erased the smile from Geena’s face. “You’ve never mentioned your dad before.”
She was right. He didn’t like to talk about him with anyone. But he was always there with Cody, affecting his every decision.
“He bailed on my mom. Right after I got my first job out of state. But he was never really there for either of us, even when he still lived in that house. His leaving nearly destroyed her. She’s good now, but I swore I’d never hurt anyone like that.”
Geena blinked at him, processing each word. “I think the fact that you’re worried about becoming him is the best reason that you won’t.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But that’s where I was. Why I only wanted casual stuff. Why I never wanted to have anything serious. Not just because I was restless and liked to job and location hop.”
“That’s weirdly honorable,” she said. “But I’m guessing you were hurting yourself by trying not to hurt anyone else.”
“I didn’t realize I was hurting myself. I only knew I didn’t want to hurt anyone else.” He cleared his throat and said the next true thing. “And then I met you.”
She eyed him curiously. “What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t want to run from this,” he said. “My mom made me realize that maybe you’re worth sticking around for. I still don’t want to hurt you like my dad hurt her, but I can’t imagine that I ever could. Not now. Not the way I feel about you.”
He remembered the email waiting on his phone, and doubt clouded his brain the way it had been clouding his thoughts for the last couple of weeks.
But he shook that thought away and stayed in the moment with Geena. He refused to let his fear win out.
He held his hand out again, and this time she took it.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you some clothes and whatever you need. You can have my bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”
Geena stared at him for a few moments, contemplating the offer. She glanced at the empty cage, then returned her attention to him. When she spoke, her voice was small, but the words gave Cody a comforting warmth.
“All right, Brasseaux. Let’s go.”