“Anthony and I should come as well.”
Jay shook his head. “I won’t get anything out of him if he sees you two. Don’t worry, I’m not going to fight him; I’ll let Oscar handle the squeezing part once I know a bit more.”
“He’s dangerous, and you’ve already underestimated him,” Anthony said firmly.
“I know he is, and you have every right to be angry with me, but Dima got the shit beat out of him. If he tries anything, I’ll knock him out easily. But I can’t let it come to that, or we might lose the only link we have to where they’re keeping Chris.”
“Do you think...” Ethan exhaled, his green eyes glossy. “Do you think they might have already—?”
“No, I don’t. The brothers will need to be smart about this, or any investigation into Chris’s... death would lead straight to them. Not much to do with money when you’re in prison for the rest of your life. Besides, they wouldn’t have bothered sending that text message from his number if they had a quick death in mind.”
We don’t know that, Anthony thought bitterly.Wedon’t know anything.
“They’re setting the stage,” Ethan said quietly.
“Yes, which means we don’t have much time, but wedohave some. Let me see what I can find out from Dima.”
“I want to call the police,” Ethan said. “We’re playing with fire. We can’t assume we know what those two psychopaths might do and when.”
“E, Oscar won’t let Dima speak with the cops, and we have a text message from Chris telling us he needed to get away. Keep in mind that if Trevor finds out that the cops are after him, he might do something stupid. I don’t want him with his back against the wall—I want him to think he’s getting away with this. Let me work on Dima tomorrow, then I’ll speak with you two about our next steps. Nothing is off the table, and whatever we do, we’ll do it together.”
A bit late for that, Anthony stopped himself from saying.
Ethan’s phone rang. “Shit. It’s Melissa. I... I can’t talk to her.”
Jay took the phone. “Let me.” He answered the call, putting Melissa on speaker. “Hi, it’s Jay. Ethan’s in the bathroom.”
“Jay, have you talked with Chris today?”
Anthony’s stomach twisted at the panic in her voice.
“Today? No, I haven’t. But we all got that message from him.”
“What did your message say?” In the background, Anthony could hear at least one of the twins crying.
Jay scratched his forehead. “Something about needing to get away, to have some peace.”
“I got the same thing! What the hell does that mean? I spoke with him this morning, and he didn’t say anything about needing to get away. He doesn’t even answer his phone!”
Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. “Listen, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s been working like crazy lately, so maybe he needed a few days to clear his head.”
“It’s not like him.” She took a breath. “Is he with another woman? Be honest with me.”
“Another... fuck no! Don’t let your head go there.”
“Then can you please drive over to our house to see if he’s there?”
“I... yeah, I’ll do that. No problem.”
“It’s not like him,” Melissa said again with a tired sigh.
“It’s going to be okay. Let me drive over there and check. Try not to stress out, okay?”
“Fat chance of that. Keep me posted, please. Thank you.”
Jay hung up and smashed his fist on the table, causing his beer bottle to tumble and shatter on the floor. “Fuck this!”
Anthony took a breath, knowing what all this meant.
