That immediately sours his mood. “You need to stop doing shit for free. You fucking Santa now?”
“Well… I have when Jackson dresses up as Santa,if you get what I mean.”
“Christ. Why did I answer this phone call?”
“I really don’t know either,” I say. “Back to business. You know the Barlow family, of course.”
“Sadly.”
“You remember a Victoria who worked for them?” I ask.
Sophia’s eyes snap to mine. It’s plain to see that she doesn’t like another person knowing she’s alive, but I know Tucker’s not a talker… even if we butt heads a bit.
“Hmm… let me think here a moment. A proficient contract killer who was shot and killed during some raid many years back.”
“Yeah. Well, shocker, she’s alive and living her best life as a cranky soccer mom.”
“My kid doesn’t even play soccer,” she counters. “He’s so uncoordinated, he couldn’t kick a yoga ball rolled at him.”
“Ohhh, you don’t say?” Tucker says, responding to the fact that she’s alive, not the soccer bit.
“And now her kid is missing.”
“Interesting.”
“We need to find him.”
“Hmm. For free? Because I might do a job for you for free, but I owe some random woman nothing.”
I glance up at Sophia. “How much are you willing to pay for the return of your son?”
She gapes at me. “You’re putting a price on his head?”
“Oh yeah. Like I love Waylon enough that I’d put a couple mill on his head easily. Tavish? Maybe a dollar.”
Tavish throws up two middle fingers. “That’s how much I’d pay to save your ass.”
“Hon, maybe we’ll worry about money later?” Jackson asks. “Or… not at all? After all… her sonismissing.”
“Tucker wants a cut,” I say. “Kid or not, this is his job. And look at Sophia. Doesn’t she look like someone you want to take money from?”
Sophia glowers at me.
“I wanna take money from her,” Tavish agrees.
“I just want to find Cam,” Waylon says. “He’s really nice and super naïve, like this one time I was in chemistry class with him, and I was like ‘just add a dash of this and this and it’d be a bomb’ and he thought it was funny and a big joke and… I’m just saying.”
“We’ll get him back,” I assure him. “Tucker, get me the location on whichever Barlow is in the area. We were told there’s one not far from here.”
“That would be Teo Barlow. Leland, if you head over to scope out the area, just know that man is not one to be fucked with. He has eyes everywhere. That place is like a fortress. It’s about three hours from here and he’s got it locked down quite well.”
“Got it,” I say.
“And if you’re going in, I wouldn’t go in guns blazing. He’s got himself some damn fine bodyguards,” Tucker warns.
“It’s kind of disgusting how concerned about me you are. I… I’m married, Tucker.”
“Oh fuck off,” he snaps and hangs up on me.
