Using the word “pissed” to describe his reaction would be like saying that the Pacific Ocean was a body of water. The term didn't give any justice to what was said over the phone. I didn’t even get a chance to say “bye” before he’d hung up, giving me a thirty minute notice on his arrival.
Twenty-nine minutes later, I’d taken the fastest shower of my life, cried over my missing brother, and freaked the hell out all over again. Even though I knew it was coming, the knock on the front door made my hands shake and heart rate speed up. Keeping in mind what the hell had just possibly happened to Sonny, I checked the peephole to make sure it was Dex—it was—along with Trip and another guy I’d never seen before.
“Open up, Ritz,” Dex barked from the other side of the door.
“’Kay,” I mumbled, unlocked the bolt and took a step back to let them inside.
Dex’s eyes were on me as he strode in, his walk full of that same swagger that made me think he either practiced it orhe just got really lucky. That gift kind of seemed unfair but whatever, this wasn’t the time to think that.
“You okay?” Trip asked me, following in after Dex, who also watching me closely but without a crease between his brows.
I shouldhave been tough and said that I was, but realistically, I wasn’t. “Kind of.”
The new guy walked in with a nod and a, “Sup,” which I answered with a weak “Hi.”
“Where’s his stuff at?” Dex asked me as he made his way into the living room like a mother goose leading its babies to water.
“On the coffee table.”
He nodded to himself, bending over the table with his faded but fitting jeans winking at me. “Trip, go check his room. See if anything’s missing. Buck, check out the garage,” he ordered them as he flipped through the slots in Sonny’s wallet.
The two guys didn’t say anything in response but split up, going in opposite directions in the house to do as he’d asked. I just hovered in the corner at a loss as to what I could do without getting in the way of whatever their plan was. ?
“Can I do anything?” I asked hesitantly.
Dex’s eyes drifted up to mine, slowly. He was still pissed, I could tell, but he was trying to rein it in. “No, babe. We got this.”
“You sure? I don’t have very much money, but if that’s what they want, I’ll give you what I have to get him back,” I told him, feeling my chest constrict. This shit was straight out of an action movie, only this time I couldn’t be certain it would have a happy ending because life wasn’t always like that, unfortunately.
Dex looked at me for the longest before shaking his head and lowering his voice. “No, no.Don’t worry about that. It's not your money they want.”
I almost asked what the hell else they would want. I almost also asked who "they" were. But my survival instincts said this wasn’t the right time to ask so I bit back the questions and nodded at him.
“Babe, this place is about to get packed. Got any errands or something you can run before you go to the shop?” he asked me in that same soft tone he’d just used.
I didn’t but obviously he didn’t want me to be at the house when the other guys from the WMC showed up. But if it helped Sonny, then I’d move back to Fort Lauderdale or drive down to Venezuela if that’s what he wanted.
“Yeah, I can go do a few things.” I just didn’t know what.
His head tilted down so that he could look at me through his long, dark eyelashes. “All right. Already talked to Blake and he’s openin' with you instead of me but put my phone number in your cell soyou can get in touch with me if you need to.” He pinned me with this concrete-like look, his tone attempting to be reassuring.“Don’t worry about Sonny. We’ll find him."
I wanted to believe him, but those were pretty much the same words Sonny had told me right before he’d let some assholes do who knows what to him.
~ * ~ *
“Babe.”
Make it stop.
“Babe.”
Oh God. Please. Stop.
I’dbarelyfallen asleepfollowing an hour long staring contest versus the ceiling.The tension in my body after my shitty day had finally seeped out of my bones enough to let me relax. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Sonny. Kidnapped Sonny. Missing Sonny. Possibly injured Sonny. I wouldn’t let myself even think that something else could happen to him, but wasn’t that what people did in movies and in real life? Torture and… do other things?
I buried my face deeper into the pillow.
All day, I’d been worried sick. After Dex had pleasantly kicked me out of the house, I’d gone to the mall. I watched a matinee by myself at the theater to kill time until work while also distracting me just a little from the uneasy goldfish swimming around in my stomach. I couldn’t remember anything clearly, not the movie or the things I’d seen in the stores, or even the customer’s faces I’d helped throughout the day at Pins.
