James had an incredible Mercedes AMG S-Class. He knew and understood cars.
“I did! I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was sporty and fast. Stopped on a dime in rain.” I scrolled through all the pictures of my BMW and remembered how happy I was when I got it. “It was my sixteenth birthday present.”
“Very nice. Three series?” he asked. I nodded and pulled up a pic of the back end of the car that showed it was an M340i. “Ah, not just any three series. You had an M. Lots of power in there.”
I showed him the pictures of under the hood when it was all nice and clean when I got it.
“It had unbelievable power. Almost 400 horses tucked into it.” I laughed and looked up at him and joked, “Obviously what every sixteen-year-old needs.”
I realized that I had a very spoiled life, and like most kids my age, I hadn’t realized how fortunate that I was. I had never gone without, and I lived in ridiculous excess. But I also paid my dues after Eli sold me.
We looked through more pictures, and I was ready to put the phone down, but he stopped me.
“Brandon, may I?” James held his hand out to receive the phone. I nodded and set the phone in his hands. I could feel my pulse begin to pick up. I feared what he was scrolling and looking for, but I had a feeling that I knew what was coming. When he was finished scrolling, he gripped the phone in his hand and held it out for me to see.
Staring back at me was a photo of me and two older guys from a photoshoot for a jeans store back in high school. Whew.
“Who are these men?”
“One was the director for the photoshoot, and the other was his assistant.”
He pulled the phone back to face him and scrolled again.
“What about this one? Who is this man?”
“That’s another director for another company I modeled jeans for. That photoshoot was actually for a magazine.”
“Nice! You were in a magazine?”
“Yeah, but it was a weird ad. It was a lineup of guys in low slung jeans. We were all shirtless, and the ad had just our necks down. No faces.” As he scrolled, he found the ad I had taken a picture of, and he turned the phone around for me to look at. “Yep, that’s the ad. The third from the left is me.”
“Mhmm, I can see that. You look very young here. Do you remember how old you were?”
“Sixteen. That company in particular had a strict contract about models being at least sixteen. They had nice clothes. I liked them.”
James asked me about a few more photos with seemingly older men in the pictures with me. So far they had all been modeling ones. But I knew what was coming. Finally, he turned the cell phone around, and therehewas. Eli.
“Who is this man?”
I just stared. My brain had stopped working. I couldn’t even function to attempt to cover it up or pass him off as someone in the modeling industry. My body grew really cold, and my stomach ached as I stared at him. He had a trusting face. I had fallen for it. I focused on Eli’s hand that was wrapped around me, gripping my upper arm.
“Brandon, who is this?”
I quickly thought of what would happen if I told James. Would I be in trouble for lying to the FBI? Had I really lied? I had omitted information, but I hadn’t lied. Could I go to jail for that? Fuck, I couldn’t be locked up!
“Brandon, relax, pup. I’m only asking who this man is.”
“He’s … no one.” I tried to sound convincing, but I didn’t even believe myself.
“He’s someone, pup. You know how I know?” I shook my head. “Your body tensed up, and I can see it all over your face. He’s someone.”
I couldn’t process my thoughts as quickly as I needed to for this conversation. Was there harm talking about Eli? Maybe I could tell James who he was, and he’d leave it at that.
“Brandon,” James prompted before he glanced down at the picture. “You’re happy in the photo. Is he from the modeling industry too?”
I swallowed hard and shook my head.
“He’s a friend of my family,” I mumbled, but quickly retracted and corrected my statement. “I meant that he was a friend of the family.”
