It’s not that I don’t trust her, but I don’t know her. “He um.. . he’s a suspect in a case I’m working on.” Oli’s head slowly cranes to me. I glare at him, quickly turning my attention back to her.
“Are you like, an undercover agent?” She beams.
“We’re all secret agents, ma’am.” Andre leans against the counter, tipping his head to her.
“Jackass,” Oli whispers.
“Yeah, well, he’s your jackass,” I say as food finally arrives. I want to get the fuck out of here. My stomach clenches. I don’t know if I can eat it.
“You boys be safe now.” She smiles.
Andre sits next to Oli, groaning at his food. “Thanks, babe. Fuck, you know me.” Andre inhales his sandwich and I pick at mine, thinking about everything I’ve learned. He better be okay. I’m not a violent guy off the ice, but I’m afraid of who I’ll become if Steven hurts him.
“Eat up.” Oli nudges my shoulder.
“I can’t. If you want some, take it. Not so hungry all of a sudden.” My Angel better be okay. He’s probably so fucking scared. I know he thinks I let him down. “I promised him, Oli. I told him no one would hurt him. That Steven wouldn’t take him.”
“Can’t snap necks on an empty stomach.” I don’t laugh athis joke. I’m frozen with fear. It’s really sinking in now. Steven has him and is doing god knows what to him. That sweet boy with a kind heart. That predator. Oli soothes his hand along my spine. “He’s going to be okay. We will get him back.”
Things aren’t making sense. “I don’t understand. If he got fired years ago, what the hell was he doing while he was supposed to be at work?” Felix said he used to work nights, then he got moved to days. Now I’m wondering if that’s when he was let go. He was gone for like eight hours at a time. “Where did he go?” And was he always spying on Felix? Was he off hurting more innocent people? No, not people. Fucking kids.
We finish eating while my head sprints to conclusions.PING. I grab my phone so fast, unlocking it. I open my camera app, bile crawling up my throat. “Fuck!”
“What is it?” I stand, waving down our waitress who looks more annoyed by the second. I throw down a hundred-dollar bill. “Keep the change. We need to go.”
I don’t wait for my friends, hobbling quickly out toward the car. I hear Oli jogging behind me, followed by Andre who now has the sandwich I didn’t eat in his hand. “Really?” Oli hisses.
“What?! I’m hungry!” Andre says between bites as he catches up to me.
Oli grabs my bicep before I reach his car. “Grey! What’s going on?”
“We need to go. Now. To my house.”
“What?”
“Felix and Steven. They’re at my house.”
I don’t thinkI take one breath the entire ride back to my house. It was a long drive, and other than watching himhurt Felix at the front door, I haven’t gotten any eyes on them since. That’s what I get for disabling the camera in the living room. They’re still in the house, though. I wrestled with calling the cops, but I don’t trust them. I don’t know who’s side they’re on. I also don’t want to spook Steven into hurting him if he sees more cops. Besides, it’s me he wants. I’m sure of it. It’s why he took him there.
“We will get him out. He’s going to be okay.” It’s like the seventh time my friend has said that and while I’m grateful for them both, Oli needs to stop saying it. I can’t breathe. Finally, the familiar woods around my house come into view as we drive down the dirt road.
“So uh, not that we aren’t going in there and kicking his ass, but we all figure he’s got a gun, right? We’re bringing hockey butts to a gun fight.”
“Baby, I love you so much, but please shut the fuck up.” We drive up to my gate, and my heart hammers in my fucking throat. Andre’s right. We have muscle between us, but Steven has a gun. Violence isn’t something I enjoy off the ice. While Oli has razor-sharp edges, I know he’s more bark than bite unless backed into a corner. And Andre may as well be made of play dough. “What’s the plan?” Oli asks.
“I don’t know. I just know that I will find the most creative way to remove his intestines from his body.” My eyes focus on the surrounding trees. “Needed a new jump rope anyway.”
“Now you sound like Jessica. Shit! We should have brought her. She’d remove his balls through his ear canal,” Andre says.
A tiny smile plays on my lips, but it dies seeing that fucker’s car in my driveway. “I’m going to paint the walls with his blood.”
“Oh, violent Grey. Nice. You sound like Oli.” Andre looksbetween the seats. “You’d come rescue me if I was kidnapped, right, babe?”
Oli parks and looks back at him between the seats. “If someone had the balls to do that, there’d be no dental records or fingerprints clear enough to identify their body.”
Andre pouts his lip. “You’re so romantic.”
I’ve had enough. I get out of the car and don’t wait, storming up the hill to my house. I hesitate, though, afraid what I’m going to find when I get in there.
