“What is it, man? Why have you been blowing up my phone all morning?”

Garrett was not in the mood for a crazy morning. He was rarely in the mood for any kind of crazy, but this morning was particularly bad. He hadn’t slept, not even thirty minutes. He’d left Finnley’s apartment fuming and ready to murder somebody, which as it turned out wasn’t a mental place he could easily come back from. He’d lain in bed for hours, just staring up at the ceiling until his phone started to ring. He didn’t want to look at it, didn’t want it to be there at all, and the first couple of calls he got were from exactly who he expected it to be. He didn’t know what Finnley thought was going to happen with those calls. Maybe she thought he would break and pick up the phone. Maybe she thought she could say the right thing and make it all better. All he knew was that he wasn’t ready to talk to her. He wasn’t sure that he would ever be ready to talk to her again, but five hours after a middle of the night fight? A definite no-go.

By the time Travis had called at nine, Garrett knew he should already be out of bed and on his way to the office. He hadn’t been, of course, because he was still trying to recover from his previous evening, and he didn’t feel like taking a verbal lashing from Travis any more than he felt like talking to Finnley. So he had turned his phone off, gotten ready at his leisure, and gone into to work when he damned well pleased. He’d felt pretty okay about it, too, right up until Travis had burst into his office, red faced and sputtering.

“Where the hell have you been, Garrett?! I’ve called you close to a dozen times?”

“I’m sorry, Travis, you must be mistaken about who you’re talking to. You don’t get to talk to me like that.”

“Well then fire me if you have to, but first listen to me!”

“Alright,” Garrett said slowly, so shocked by the out of character reaction from Travis that he was willing to listen for a while. “What do you need to tell me?”

“It’s about Finnley.”

“I don’t want to talk about her.”

“I don’t care! I know there’s something going on between the two of you—”

“That’s none of your business.”

“And it’s not what I’m talking about! I don’t care what is or isn’t happening with you two. I’m trying to tell you that I think something is wrong.”

“Why, Travis? And make it quick, will you? I’m not in the mood for a whole drawn out drama.”

“Well, for starters there was a letter on my desk when I got here this morning.”

“And?”

“And it was supposedly from Finnley, offering her resignation tendered immediately. No two weeks, no explanation. All she said was that she wasn’t coming back and she didn’t want to see anyone from Cubed again.”

“Maybe she meant it, Travis. Ever consider that?”

“I did, actually, but something about the handwriting didn’t look right. I found some notes she wrote for me a while back, and I realized it didn’t look right because it isn’t. It’s not her handwriting, not even close. I don’t know who wrote the letter, but it sure as hell wasn’t her.”

“What are you trying to say? You think somebody resigned for her? That’s crazy.”

“Maybe it is, but yes, that’s what I’m saying. I’ve known Finnley for years. Not only would she not just quit without saying anything in person, but she would never tell me not to contact her again. She was more than just an employee, Garrett. She was a friend. We were family here before you and your father came in and fucked it all up.”

He was breathing hard now, his eyes flinty and dangerous. In the short amount of time he’d been at Cubed, Garrett had never seen Travis be anything but a pushover. Seeing him this new way was what caused the first feeling of fear inside of him. He sat up straighter in his seat, cleared his throat, and wished he could start the whole conversation over again without sounding like such a flippant asshole.

“Okay, I believe you.”

“Good. Fantastic. Now what are we going to do about it?”

“I need you to hold down the fort here, for starters. If my dad comes in, I want you to tell him that I had an emergency come up.”

“Can you be a little bit more specific? I’ve tried to be p.c. about this whole transition but now that we’re being honest, your dad is kind of a prick. He scares the shit out of me.”

“And he should. You don’t have to tell him anything. He won’t expect you to. He knows me. I’m just his irresponsible jackass son. I don’t ever leave the information I’m supposed to. This won’t surprise him, and that’s assuming he comes in.”

“And what are you going to do? If I’m going to stay here and twiddle my thumbs, you better have a pretty fantastic plan.”

“I don’t know if it’s fantastic, but it’s a plan. I’ve got somebody I need to go and see.”

Garrett was sure he would get pulled over on the way to Clara and Weston’s place. It was a good thing that he didn’t because he didn’t think he would have stopped, not even for a cop. All he could think about were those phone calls. She’d called him three times, one right after the other, and he’d lounged right beside his phone and refused to man up and take her calls. He’d been so sure that she was trying to patch things up with him that he’d never considered that it could be something more sinister. If something happened to her while he was screening his calls, he would never forgive himself. He should have known better. He should have remembered who his father was and all of the terrible things Clara had told him about the man. With a father as stone cold as his, it was unforgivable to let down your guard with anyone. This was the fear screaming inside of his head while he buzzed for entry to Clara’s place, pressing the button over and over again until he was finally allowed entry. He was so jacked up on fear and adrenaline that he hardly flinched when the elevator doors opened and he was confronted with Weston’s pistol.

“Woah, man, it’s me. It’s Garrett. You remember me?”

“I remember you. What the hell are you doing showing up here like this?”

“I need to talk to you. I need to talk to you and Clara both.”

“Weston!”

Clara walked into the room as if the mention of her name alone could summon her. When she saw Weston with his gun, she shrieked and hurried up behind him, pulling on his arm to no avail.

“What are you doing, Weston? That’s a friend! You can’t point your gun at a friend!”

“I can when he’s got ties to the mob and shows up at our front door unannounced.”

“No, you can’t. Seriously, babe, put the gun down. This is the kind of thing crazy people do. Besides, can’t you see that something is wrong?”

“Am I supposed to care?”

“Yes, actually, you are. He’s dating my friend, remember?”

“Actually, we got into a fight last night,” Garrett said through a clenched jaw, not wanting to go into it, but too guilty not to exercise full disclosure. “I don’t really know where we stand right now.”

“That doesn’t matter, Garrett. Come in, have some coffee. You look exhausted.”

“I am. I haven’t slept at all.”

“Did something happen after you left the bar last night?”

“It did. I lied to you. I was always planning on seeing my dad when I left you, and when I found him, he told me about Finnley’s little visit to my mom.”

“Let me guess, you didn’t take it well.”

“Not so much. I went to her apartment, confronted her. She tried to tell me she was sorry, but I wouldn’t listen. I was too freaking stubborn. The last thing I said to her was that I wasn’t sure where things stood between us.”

“The last thing? You’re scaring me a little. You’re talking like you’re never going to see her again. Did something happen to her?”

“I don’t know. When I came into work today Travis was waiting for me. He said he got a letter supposedly from Finnley saying that she quit.”

“Why supposedly?”

“Because it’s not in her handwriting. That, and she said she doesn’t want to be contacted by anyone. You tell me, does that sound like potential trouble?”

“Oh my God,” Clara whispered, her face going ghost white. “I should never have given it to her.”

“Given what to her? What am I missing?”

“I’m so sorry, Garrett. If you want to be angry, be angry at me. She came here this morning, really early, upset and basically manic. She wanted the address of your grandparents’ house. I don’t know why I gave it to her. I shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just give it to me, please.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go after her.”

“No way,” Weston interjected, his gun finally put back into the holster that still lived at his hip, “you’re not doing any such thing.”

“Like hell I’m not. It’s my fault she’s in this mess.”

“No arguments there, brother. But you already said it yourself. You haven’t slept at all, and you’re clearly cracked out on coffee. There’s no way I’m letting you go off looking for her like this.”

“How do you intend to stop me? Because I’m going to tell you right now, you’ll have to shoot me to get me to stand down.”

“I don’t care about stopping you. You can come with me if you want to, just don’t get in my way. Can you agree to that?”

“Absolutely.”

“Are you sure about that? Because we’re about to head to your grandparents’ house. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you didn’t even know they were alive until recently, right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with your emotions. When we get into this, you’re going to want to get in the middle of things. You’re going to want to get in the way, even if you don’t think you are. Is that something you think you can resist? Because if you can’t, tell me now. It’s better for you to stay here than for you to try to play hero and fuck everything up.”

“I said I’m good, okay? I just want to go. While we’re standing around so you can grill me, Finnley could be in trouble. I just want to make sure she’s safe.”

“And so do I. Let’s go.”

The ride to Garrett’s grandparents’ house was made in complete silence. If ever there had been a thing that he’d had to white knuckle, this was it. It felt almost impossible to pretend that he wasn’t aching to meet his grandparents. Even seeing the neighborhood where his father had actually grown up was a total trip. Everything his father had ever told him had been a lie, and that included the area in which he had grown up. Seeing this, he understood why Finnley had felt the need to go and see his mom. She had wanted the truth. She had wanted to protect him, and she had wanted to see the man behind the mask. If something were to happen to her, he would never forgive himself because it should have been him. It was his responsibility to do this digging and go to those really uncomfortable places, and instead, he’d sat back and let her do it so that he could fault her for it once it was done.

“Alright,” Weston said briskly, stopping the car so quickly Garrett almost hit the dash, “we’re here.”

“We…are we? Which one is it?”

“The little white one, just across the street.”

“No shit. That’s it, huh? That’s where they’ve been, all this time.”

“It is. And now that we’re here, I’m going to need you to stay in the car.”

“Bullshit! No way, man! I told you, I’m doing this. I’m going to find her.”

“I know that. That’s what I want, too. It’s what I’m trying to help you do.”

“By telling me to wait in the car like some out of control kid?”

“Listen to me. Listen closely. These people may or may not know of your existence. If they don’t, bringing you in there is only going to blow their worlds up. It will be the only thing they can think about. If they do know you’re alive, they’ve been waiting to meet you for your whole life. Again, major distraction. Any way you play it, you going into that house is going to make it harder to figure out what they might know about Finnley.”

“I got it.”

“This is the last place we know she was for sure. I need to get whatever I can out of them, and I need to get it as fast as possible.”

“I said I got it, okay? Go. I’ll meet them some other time.”

Weston nodded and got out of the car, crossing the street at a run. From where they were parked, Garrett couldn’t see the front door of the house, which had almost certainly been done on purpose. Still, he had the house in his view, and Garrett’s heart ached to look at it. It was physically painful to look at the tiny, falling down house that contained family he hadn’t even known he had. It was the kind of house good people had worked hard to maintain. He could see that, but he could also see that there was only so much that could be done. The neighborhood might have been halfway decent at one time, but at this point, it was the straight-up slum. His father was a billionaire, he was too, and yet their flesh and blood was living in a neighborhood like this. It was one more thing to regret, and although his focus was already shifting back to Weston and how quickly he was returning, he made a note to rectify the matter. He couldn’t bring back all of the wasted years, but he could do something about the future.

“That was fast.”

“I told you, time is important here.”

“What did you learn? Was she...I mean was she still in there or something? Is everything okay?”

“No, man, she wasn’t in there. And if you want my honest opinion, no, I don’t think everything’s okay. I think your dad took her.”

“Took her? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Your grandmother, Moira is her name, she told me she was worried about Finnley the moment she walked out of their house. As far as she’s concerned, your father will do just about anything to keep his situation just the way he likes it. She told me that if Finnley’s missing, she messed with his business one too many times.”

“Christ. What do we do? They could be anywhere! How the hell are we going to find her?”

“Let Clara take care of that,” Weston smiled, already in the process of pulling out his phone. “That’s one of the benefits of living with a computer-hacking genius. Tracking cell signals is like child’s play to her.”