Suspicious Minds (Fate #3) (28 page)

“Did Margie say if Liv actually got on a plane last night?”

Again Emi’s eyes bounced nervously around the room. “She didn’t
actually see her get on, but she does know Liv was headed to the airport when
she left her house last night.”

“So Margie didn’t take her to the airport? Who took her?”

Just like yesterday when he’d heard the sound of that fucking motorcycle
taking off, every muscle in his body went completely tense because he already
knew the answer to that.

“Margie is on some heavy medications,” Emi started to explain. “She’s
not supposed to be driv—”

“Did
he
take her?”

“I think—”

“No, you
know
,” he said, trying desperately to not snap at
Em.

It wasn’t her fault, but this was
bullshit
. Liv drops
everything to fly out there on a whim for Margie, and Margie’s parents don’t
offer to drive her to the airport? He was certain they’d offered, but Liv, of
course, chose to have
him
take her. She didn’t want her brothers to know
she’d left Margie’s until she was sure when she’d be home, and now no one could
get a hold of her? Where the fuck had she spent the night?

“Margie said Livi left when everyone was asleep. She left a note,
so she doesn’t know how she got to the airport.”

Oh, Lorenzo knew and it was beyond infuriating. “Has anyone tried
to get a hold of Jay?”

“Yes,” Em said, her lowered voice completely lacking that no-nonsense
attitude she’d walked in his place with earlier. “Both Margie and I have been
calling him all day.”

“And?”

“He’s not answering either.”

“There you have it then!” he said, feeling the utter jealousy and
fury inundate him once again. “I guess neither of them wanna be interrupted.”

His phone smashing against the wall made Emi flinch, and her
hands flew to her ears in reaction. It didn’t, however, do a
goddamned
thing to help alleviate his rage as he’d hoped.

Twenty

“Did you sleep with him?” Lorenzo demanded, gripping
the phone tightly. The very thought made him nauseous, but he had to know. “Did
you?”

“No,” she whispered softly.

“You spent the night with him, but you didn’t sleep with him?
Bullshit!”

“You discarded me like I meant nothing to you!”

As if his heart didn’t already feel ripped in two, this was the
final stab. “So you fucked him? Is that how you’re getting over it! Is that
what you meant, Olivia, when you said you’d do whatever it takes?”

The silence was as deafening as it was suffocating. While he was
pissed at himself for pushing for the truth, he needed this. It was the only
way he’d get over her. He wanted to hate her now. Hate her as he’d hated Linda
so instantly, but it was different this time. This time it hurt too damn much,
and he knew he wouldn’t get over her so easily. If ever.

“Say it,” he said through his teeth. “Say you fucked him. Tell
the truth. You were never over him to begin with. Being with me was your way of
trying to get over him, but you weren’t, were you? Say it, Olivia. I wanna hear
you admit it!” She was silent again, and it drove him insane. “Say it, damn it!”

“Okay, it’s true!” she cried as he felt the life sucked out of
him. “Are you happy now? I’m weak and I’ve never gotten over him. So yes! I
fucked him last night all night. Is that what you wanna hear?”

Jolted awake, Lorenzo sat up in a cold sweat, clutching his chest
with his hand as he struggled to catch his breath. He looked around the room,
breathing hard and feeling his heart continue to pound against his chest as he
realized it was just another nightmare.

After yet another near sleepless night last night and a long
morning at the cell phone store replacing his phone, he called Vince to tell
him he wouldn’t be in today for work. There was no way he’d be even slightly
productive until he got some sleep.

He’d gone straight home, and after taking some sleep aids, he’d
finally been able to get some sleep, only to have back-to-back similar
nightmares. Deciding sleep was overrated and so not worth the near heart
attacks, Lorenzo was done with his nap and got out of bed. The clock on his
nightstand said it was nearly one in the afternoon, so he’d gotten at least a
few hours in. That was more than he’d gotten in the past two nights combined.

Just as he was about to get in the shower, he heard his phone
ringing again. It’d been ringing when he awoke too, but he hadn’t bothered to
check it. He was still in no mood to talk to anyone, but then he remembered how
worried Em had been last night.

Even after he’d made his opinion of where he thought Olivia might
be brusquely clear, Em disagreed. She’d insisted, even if Liv was with Jay and
didn’t want her brothers to know about it, she still would’ve called Em.

“She wouldn’t go this long without checking in,” she’d said
adamantly. “It’s a big thing in our family. None of us ever go this long
without checking in.”

Lorenzo had been so worked up still that he had nothing more to
offer than to tell her he’d be in touch if he heard anything. But he wouldn’t
be making any calls to try and track Liv and her fucking boyfriend down. Still
he was curious, but as terrified as he was of getting confirmation, he did want
the closure. He
needed
to hate her.

Em’s name on the screen of his phone got his heart going again.
He hadn’t asked her to, but she’d promised to call and update him as soon as
she heard anything. This could be it. Even if she did try to cover for Liv just
like last night, he’d know.

“Hey, Em,” he said, expecting the worst, but the male voice surprised
him.

“This isn’t Em. It’s Isaiah. Listen. Did Livi say
anything
else to you about Jay when you spoke with her the other day or in that long
text Em said she sent you?”

Lorenzo frowned, but Isaiah’s anxious tone alarmed him. “Not
much,” he said, trying to think back. “But he showed up here the night before
she left. She said she didn’t know how he knew where she’d be, but he showed up
at one of her stops.”

“He did?” Isaiah asked and that surprised Lorenzo.

“Yeah, she didn’t tell Em that?”

Isaiah explained what he knew, which were the basics. He
obviously still didn’t know about Liv’s relationship with the guy. He said he’d
spoken to Margie and she explained about being off her meds and Liv and Jay
showing up to help calm her and bring her home, but apparently she hadn’t told
him anything about Liv and Jay either.

“She thinks Jay’s in jail,” Isaiah said.

“What?” Lorenzo asked, completely alarmed now. “For what? And what
do you mean she thinks? What about Liv?”

“She doesn’t know for sure, but she’s been doing everything she
can to track Jay down, and everyone she’s talked to hasn’t heard from him
either. The last guy she talked to said he thought maybe Jay got pinched. She’s
calling the local jails and police stations to find out, but we still haven’t
heard from Liv.”

Just like that, the helplessness he’d been feeling for the last
two days was for a completely different reason now. What if he tried to stop
her from leaving town and got violent?

“Isaiah, Liv didn’t want you guys to know, but she has a past with
this guy.”

“What do you mean?” Isaiah asked, sounding confused. “I know they
were friends growing up and for a long time even when they were older.”

“No,” Lorenzo reiterated, speaking faster. “Like a romantic relationship
with the guy. When she first told me about him, she referred to him as her ex.
Later, she said they were never an official couple but she did sleep with him.
She said they’d been off and on for
years
until a few months before you
guys moved out here. She’d recently blocked him completely from being able to
contact her. But when he showed up here the other night, she said he told her
he’s still in love with her and that he knew she was still in love with him
too.”

“No shit,” Isaiah said. “Emi, what do you know about Livi and
Jay?”

Whatever Em said Lorenzo couldn’t make out, but it was short, so
obviously not a whole lot. “Isaiah,” Lorenzo said, beginning to feel a little
freaked about this. “She also said more than once that the guy was manipulative
and could be very persuasive.”

“Get that,” Isaiah ordered someone suddenly. “It’s Margie calling
me back on my phone,” he explained. “Nathan’s getting it.”

“Margie knows all about Liv’s relationship with Jay. In fact, she
probably knows more than anyone. Liv said she told her everything.”

“Ask her about Liv and Jay,” Isaiah said to Nathan. “Tell her not
to cover for her either. I don’t give a shit what Liv did with him; I just
wanna find my sister.”

Lorenzo waited, his emotions all over the place. He wasn’t even
sure if he was still mad at her. Margie would’ve mentioned if by chance it
seemed Liv had gone to the airport with Jay unwillingly. It still infuriated
Lorenzo that she’d get back on that bike with him, even knowing how pissed that
had made him in the first place. Then again her text did border on scathing.
She likely didn’t care if she pissed him off anymore since his not responding
to her text had her thinking he didn’t
give a shit
about her.

“He
was
in jail?’ Isaiah asked Nathan then asked the exact
thing Lorenzo’s head was screaming. “For what?”

The silence while Lorenzo waited seemed to go on forever; then
Isaiah came back on the line. “All the Internet says is he was booked for
possession the day after Liv was supposed to have left Dallas. Figures, the
fucking loser, but he’s out on bail now,” Isaiah said, sounding as disgusted as
Lorenzo felt. “Listen. I gotta go. We got a lot of phone calls to make. If she
was still with him when he got arrested, then she might be in jail too, which
would explain why she’s not answering her phone, but they would’ve let her call
someone by now. She may have made some bad choices by getting involved with
this guy in the first place, but one thing I know about my sister is she
would
not
let this much time go by without letting someone know she was okay.”

“Even if she thought—”

“No,” Isaiah said with conviction. “She would
never
worry
us like this for any reason. So I need to find out if she ever got on the plane
to begin with. If she
did
get on that plane, then she’s been missing for
over a day. Call me if you hear anything.”

Lorenzo was beginning to freak out too. “I’m calling Romero,” he
informed Isaiah. “I need you to text me everything you know about this guy Jay.
Tell Margie to tell you
everything,
no matter how insignificant. But
first text me his full name. We’ll start there.”

The moment he got the text from Isaiah with Jay’s full name he
called Romero. A part of him felt almost frantic, but another part wasn’t sure
what to think yet.
No
part of him felt any relief. He had no idea what
he was in store for. Either possibility was a vile one. He wouldn’t even
entertain the idea that she might be missing, but the other possibility wasn’t
much better. If she was in jail because she’d gotten arrested with Jay, it
meant she’d spent the night with him. The thought had him punching the sofa as
he waited on Romero, who was doing a quick search on Jay.

“I’m still waiting, man,” Romero said. “It’s called quick search,
but this software digs way deep, so it can take a few minutes. Not to mention
Jay Tanner’s probably a pretty common name. Is that all you got on him?”

“Well, that and that he lives in Dallas. I’ll have more when they
text it to me, but, yeah, for now that’s it.”

“So what’s the deal with this guy? He’s her ex, but you think she
might still be with him?” Romero asked. “What’s up with that? Did you two break
up or something?”

Lorenzo sat back on the sofa. He hated to have to explain this,
so he decided to just give him a condensed version of the truth. Romero was
quiet for most of it until he got to the part about not being as sure as Isaiah
about one thing.

“He says he’s certain that she’d call and check in no matter
what. But I don’t know. She told me she never once told them about her
relationship with this guy because she knew they’d be pissed. If she’s in any
trouble now because of this asshole, maybe she’s waiting until she gets home to
explain herself. Emi already admitted that Liv didn’t want them to know she’d
even flown out there with the guy until she got back and could explain the
whole thing.”

“Nah, I’m with Isaiah on this one,” Romero said almost
immediately. “Not after everything they went through with their mom.”

“About that,” Lorenzo said, once again irritated with himself
that he still hadn’t asked her more about her mom’s death. “What
did
happen
to her mom? I still haven’t asked her.”

“What? You still don’t know?” Romero’s words were incredulous. “Their
mom was murdered, dude. It was all over their local news because she was
missing for weeks before they found her body in an alley. It was months before
they caught the guy who did it. She had several jobs. One of them was
bartending at this dive. Some nutcase that hung out there a lot was obsessed
with her. They were devastated, but the worst part, and why I’m sure Liv wouldn’t
just take off and willingly not check in, is they went through some major shit
those first weeks, praying their mom would be found and hoping it wasn’t their
worst nightmare. Manny and Max flew out there and stayed with them until she
was found. And it turned out to be what they feared most. But
then . . .
”
Romero paused for a second. “Did she not tell you about her dad too?”

“She said he had a heart attack,” Lorenzo said, relieved he at
least knew that one.

“Yeah, but did she tell you he was missing for a few days also before
they found him?”

“
No
,” Lorenzo said, feeling the guilty knot in his stomach
grow even bigger.

“He’d told his girlfriend he was going away for business for a
few days, and when she hadn’t heard from him in over a day, she called Manny
and Max and then Isaiah to see if maybe they’d heard from him, and the
nightmare started all over for them. I’m the one who tracked him down at a
truck stop up north.”

Romero stopped suddenly, and Lorenzo could hear him typing away. “God
damn it! I could’ve sworn I entered his age and city. I got a shit ton of stuff.
Hold on. Let me put that in and run it again.”

I’m crying my eyes out right now.

The words from Liv’s text assaulted him. As if she hadn’t done
enough crying in her lifetime . . . If he was totally wrong about this and she
did feel for him what she said she did—what Lorenzo felt so profoundly for her—he’d
now added to her list of lows.
Fuck!

“Alright, it’s running again,” Romero said. “It shouldn’t take so
long this time now that I narrowed it down.”

Romero filled him in on the rest of the story about Liv’s dad. They’d
called the cops and told them about the truck stop, and sure enough, he was
found in his car in the parking lot, having died of an apparent heart attack.
Foul play was ruled out, and Romero told Lorenzo something he asked him to keep
to himself. “Manny and Max got along with their cousin well enough,” he said. “But
they always thought it was a real dick move of him to walk out on his family
for another woman. So even to this day they say it was karma. Whoa,” he said
suddenly then stopped talking.

“What?” Lorenzo asked anxiously.

“This is Livi’s ex? No wonder she didn’t want her brothers to
know about it. He’s a real piece of work. His rap sheet’s long as shit.”

“You sure that’s the same guy?”

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but suddenly Lorenzo hoped the guy
wasn’t so bad. “What else besides possession?” he asked.

“Ninety-nine percent positive it’s him,” Romero said. “A lot of
these just say J. Tanner, but it’s all the same address and social. And possession’s
the least of this guy’s worries. Either this guy is paying someone off, or he
has a hell of a lawyer because if he’s been convicted of any of these, there’s
no way they would’ve gotten out so soon. He’d be doing some hard time. Drug
trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft. Holy shit! Rape and
attempted kidnapping.”