My dad sighed.“Good. Is Oak with you?”
“I’m right here, Dad. I’m fine, promise.” I managed not to roll my eyes, but only because I was used to this.
My dad was overprotective of me. I understood why. After I’d been stolen away from him as a baby and he’d spent my whole life searching for me, grieving and unhappy and scared, I got it.
But… he was still my dad, and it was still kind of annoying at times.
“Good. I’m glad to hear your voice.”
He was such a sap.
Tan’s voice came over the phone.“Did you guys get him? Did you find anything out?”
Roman and I told the two of them everything we’d learned from Barney Porter, and Roman added, “Oak and I are going to stake out the drop-off area tomorrow night. Barney said he knew others were getting paid to bring in people, so there’s a chance we’ll find the van. It might take a few nights, but we’ll keep you posted.”
Tan said,“So you’re not coming home yet?”
“Not yet,” Roman answered. “We have to follow up on this lead.”
Tan sighed.“I know. I just miss you guys. You’ve been gone over two months this time.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but this is the farthest we’ve gotten in the ring. Hopefully something will come of it.”
“My fingers and toes are crossed.”
“Ours too.” Roman let out a yawn. “Sorry, been a long day.”
My dad said,“Why don’t you two get some sleep. I’ll send someone to collect Mr. Porter tomorrow so you don’t have to worry about him while you’re staking out the site.”
“That’d be perfect,” I said. The last thing we needed was to have the criminal tag along wherever we went. “Make sure they know to pull into the garage. We don’t want anyone seeing Porter walk out to the car in handcuffs.”
“Will do. Call me with updates, and, Oak?”
“Yeah?”
“Make sure you answer the family texts.”
I rolled my eyes this time, unable to stop myself. “I always reply!”
“Yeah, hours later.”I could hear the teasing in his voice.
“I’m on a mission, Dad.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. Answer your damn texts.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Whatever. See you guys soon. Love you.”
Dad and Tan both said together,“Love you too.”
Roman added, “Love you guys. Talk soon.” But he hung up before they could return the sentiment.
“You know Tan’s gonna text you a million I love you gifs and texts now, right? Like, you did that to yourself. You should know better.”
He chuckled and rubbed his hand over his face. “I wasn’t thinking straight.” His phone beeped, and he looked down at it. “And it begins.”
I laughed, but it turned into a yawn. “I’m exhausted.”
“You should go to bed. I’ll take first watch.”
