“Did you sleep with him?” Lorenzo demanded, gripping the phone tightly. The very thought made him nauseous, but he had to know. “Did you?”
“No,” she whispered softly.
“You spent the night with him, but you didn’t sleep with him? Bullshit!”
“You discarded me like I meant nothing to you!”
As if his heart didn’t already feel ripped in two, this was the final stab. “So you fucked him? Is that how you’re getting over it! Is that what you meant, Olivia, when you said you’d do whatever it takes?”
The silence was as deafening as it was suffocating. While he was pissed at himself for pushing for the truth, he needed this. It was the only way he’d get over her. He wanted to hate her now. Hate her as he’d hated Linda so instantly, but it was different this time. This time it hurt too damn much, and he knew he wouldn’t get over her so easily. If ever.
“Say it,” he said through his teeth. “Say you fucked him. Tell the truth. You were never over him to begin with. Being with me was your way of trying to get over him, but you weren’t, were you? Say it, Olivia. I wanna hear you admit it!” She was silent again, and it drove him insane. “Say it, damn it!”
“Okay, it’s true!” she cried as he felt the life sucked out of him. “Are you happy now? I’m weak and I’ve never gotten over him. So yes! I fucked him last night all night. Is that what you wanna hear?”
Jolted awake, Lorenzo sat up in a cold sweat, clutching his chest with his hand as he struggled to catch his breath. He looked around the room, breathing hard and feeling his heart continue to pound against his chest as he realized it was just another nightmare.
After yet another near sleepless night last night and a long morning at the cell phone store replacing his phone, he called Vince to tell him he wouldn’t be in today for work. There was no way he’d be even slightly productive until he got some sleep.
He’d gone straight home, and after taking some sleep aids, he’d finally been able to get some sleep, only to have back-to-back similar nightmares. Deciding sleep was overrated and so not worth the near heart attacks, Lorenzo was done with his nap and got out of bed. The clock on his nightstand said it was nearly one in the afternoon, so he’d gotten at least a few hours in. That was more than he’d gotten in the past two nights combined.
Just as he was about to get in the shower, he heard his phone ringing again. It’d been ringing when he awoke too, but he hadn’t bothered to check it. He was still in no mood to talk to anyone, but then he remembered how worried Em had been last night.
Even after he’d made his opinion of where he thought Olivia might be brusquely clear, Em disagreed. She’d insisted, even if Liv was with Jay and didn’t want her brothers to know about it, she still would’ve called Em.
“She wouldn’t go this long without checking in,” she’d said adamantly. “It’s a big thing in our family. None of us ever go this long without checking in.”
Lorenzo had been so worked up still that he had nothing more to offer than to tell her he’d be in touch if he heard anything. But he wouldn’t be making any calls to try and track Liv and her fucking boyfriend down. Still he was curious, but as terrified as he was of getting confirmation, he did want the closure. He needed to hate her.
Em’s name on the screen of his phone got his heart going again. He hadn’t asked her to, but she’d promised to call and update him as soon as she heard anything. This could be it. Even if she did try to cover for Liv just like last night, he’d know.
“Hey, Em,” he said, expecting the worst, but the male voice surprised him.
“This isn’t Em. It’s Isaiah. Listen. Did Livi say anything else to you about Jay when you spoke with her the other day or in that long text Em said she sent you?”
Lorenzo frowned, but Isaiah’s anxious tone alarmed him. “Not much,” he said, trying to think back. “But he showed up here the night before she left. She said she didn’t know how he knew where she’d be, but he showed up at one of her stops.”
“He did?” Isaiah asked and that surprised Lorenzo.
“Yeah, she didn’t tell Em that?”
Isaiah explained what he knew, which were the basics. He obviously still didn’t know about Liv’s relationship with the guy. He said he’d spoken to Margie and she explained about being off her meds and Liv and Jay showing up to help calm her and bring her home, but apparently she hadn’t told him anything about Liv and Jay either.
“She thinks Jay’s in jail,” Isaiah said.
“What?” Lorenzo asked, completely alarmed now. “For what? And what do you mean she thinks? What about Liv?”
“She doesn’t know for sure, but she’s been doing everything she can to track Jay down, and everyone she’s talked to hasn’t heard from him either. The last guy she talked to said he thought maybe Jay got pinched. She’s calling the local jails and police stations to find out, but we still haven’t heard from Liv.”
Just like that, the helplessness he’d been feeling for the last two days was for a completely different reason now. What if he tried to stop her from leaving town and got violent?
“Isaiah, Liv didn’t want you guys to know, but she has a past with this guy.”
“What do you mean?” Isaiah asked, sounding confused. “I know they were friends growing up and for a long time even when they were older.”
“No,” Lorenzo reiterated, speaking faster. “Like a romantic relationship with the guy. When she first told me about him, she referred to him as her ex. Later, she said they were never an official couple but she did sleep with him. She said they’d been off and on for years until a few months before you guys moved out here. She’d recently blocked him completely from being able to contact her. But when he showed up here the other night, she said he told her he’s still in love with her and that he knew she was still in love with him too.”
“No shit,” Isaiah said. “Emi, what do you know about Livi and Jay?”
Whatever Em said Lorenzo couldn’t make out, but it was short, so obviously not a whole lot. “Isaiah,” Lorenzo said, beginning to feel a little freaked about this. “She also said more than once that the guy was manipulative and could be very persuasive.”
“Get that,” Isaiah ordered someone suddenly. “It’s Margie calling me back on my phone,” he explained. “Nathan’s getting it.”
“Margie knows all about Liv’s relationship with Jay. In fact, she probably knows more than anyone. Liv said she told her everything.”
“Ask her about Liv and Jay,” Isaiah said to Nathan. “Tell her not to cover for her either. I don’t give a shit what Liv did with him; I just wanna find my sister.”
Lorenzo waited, his emotions all over the place. He wasn’t even sure if he was still mad at her. Margie would’ve mentioned if by chance it seemed Liv had gone to the airport with Jay unwillingly. It still infuriated Lorenzo that she’d get back on that bike with him, even knowing how pissed that had made him in the first place. Then again her text did border on scathing. She likely didn’t care if she pissed him off anymore since his not responding to her text had her thinking he didn’t give a shit about her.
“He was in jail?’ Isaiah asked Nathan then asked the exact thing Lorenzo’s head was screaming. “For what?”
The silence while Lorenzo waited seemed to go on forever; then Isaiah came back on the line. “All the Internet says is he was booked for possession the day after Liv was supposed to have left Dallas. Figures, the fucking loser, but he’s out on bail now,” Isaiah said, sounding as disgusted as Lorenzo felt. “Listen. I gotta go. We got a lot of phone calls to make. If she was still with him when he got arrested, then she might be in jail too, which would explain why she’s not answering her phone, but they would’ve let her call someone by now. She may have made some bad choices by getting involved with this guy in the first place, but one thing I know about my sister is she would not let this much time go by without letting someone know she was okay.”
“Even if she thought—”
“No,” Isaiah said with conviction. “She would never worry us like this for any reason. So I need to find out if she ever got on the plane to begin with. If she did get on that plane, then she’s been missing for over a day. Call me if you hear anything.”
Lorenzo was beginning to freak out too. “I’m calling Romero,” he informed Isaiah. “I need you to text me everything you know about this guy Jay. Tell Margie to tell you everything, no matter how insignificant. But first text me his full name. We’ll start there.”
The moment he got the text from Isaiah with Jay’s full name he called Romero. A part of him felt almost frantic, but another part wasn’t sure what to think yet. No part of him felt any relief. He had no idea what he was in store for. Either possibility was a vile one. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea that she might be missing, but the other possibility wasn’t much better. If she was in jail because she’d gotten arrested with Jay, it meant she’d spent the night with him. The thought had him punching the sofa as he waited on Romero, who was doing a quick search on Jay.
“I’m still waiting, man,” Romero said. “It’s called quick search, but this software digs way deep, so it can take a few minutes. Not to mention Jay Tanner’s probably a pretty common name. Is that all you got on him?”
“Well, that and that he lives in Dallas. I’ll have more when they text it to me, but, yeah, for now that’s it.”
“So what’s the deal with this guy? He’s her ex, but you think she might still be with him?” Romero asked. “What’s up with that? Did you two break up or something?”
Lorenzo sat back on the sofa. He hated to have to explain this, so he decided to just give him a condensed version of the truth. Romero was quiet for most of it until he got to the part about not being as sure as Isaiah about one thing.
“He says he’s certain that she’d call and check in no matter what. But I don’t know. She told me she never once told them about her relationship with this guy because she knew they’d be pissed. If she’s in any trouble now because of this asshole, maybe she’s waiting until she gets home to explain herself. Emi already admitted that Liv didn’t want them to know she’d even flown out there with the guy until she got back and could explain the whole thing.”
“Nah, I’m with Isaiah on this one,” Romero said almost immediately. “Not after everything they went through with their mom.”
“About that,” Lorenzo said, once again irritated with himself that he still hadn’t asked her more about her mom’s death. “What did happen to her mom? I still haven’t asked her.”
“What? You still don’t know?” Romero’s words were incredulous. “Their mom was murdered, dude. It was all over their local news because she was missing for weeks before they found her body in an alley. It was months before they caught the guy who did it. She had several jobs. One of them was bartending at this dive. Some nutcase that hung out there a lot was obsessed with her. They were devastated, but the worst part, and why I’m sure Liv wouldn’t just take off and willingly not check in, is they went through some major shit those first weeks, praying their mom would be found and hoping it wasn’t their worst nightmare. Manny and Max flew out there and stayed with them until she was found. And it turned out to be what they feared most. But then . . .” Romero paused for a second. “Did she not tell you about her dad too?”
“She said he had a heart attack,” Lorenzo said, relieved he at least knew that one.
“Yeah, but did she tell you he was missing for a few days also before they found him?”
“No,” Lorenzo said, feeling the guilty knot in his stomach grow even bigger.
“He’d told his girlfriend he was going away for business for a few days, and when she hadn’t heard from him in over a day, she called Manny and Max and then Isaiah to see if maybe they’d heard from him, and the nightmare started all over for them. I’m the one who tracked him down at a truck stop up north.”
Romero stopped suddenly, and Lorenzo could hear him typing away. “God damn it! I could’ve sworn I entered his age and city. I got a shit ton of stuff. Hold on. Let me put that in and run it again.”
I’m crying my eyes out right now.
The words from Liv’s text assaulted him. As if she hadn’t done enough crying in her lifetime . . . If he was totally wrong about this and she did feel for him what she said she did—what Lorenzo felt so profoundly for her—he’d now added to her list of lows. Fuck!
“Alright, it’s running again,” Romero said. “It shouldn’t take so long this time now that I narrowed it down.”
Romero filled him in on the rest of the story about Liv’s dad. They’d called the cops and told them about the truck stop, and sure enough, he was found in his car in the parking lot, having died of an apparent heart attack. Foul play was ruled out, and Romero told Lorenzo something he asked him to keep to himself. “Manny and Max got along with their cousin well enough,” he said. “But they always thought it was a real dick move of him to walk out on his family for another woman. So even to this day they say it was karma. Whoa,” he said suddenly then stopped talking.
“What?” Lorenzo asked anxiously.
“This is Livi’s ex? No wonder she didn’t want her brothers to know about it. He’s a real piece of work. His rap sheet’s long as shit.”
“You sure that’s the same guy?”
Maybe it was wishful thinking, but suddenly Lorenzo hoped the guy wasn’t so bad. “What else besides possession?” he asked.
“Ninety-nine percent positive it’s him,” Romero said. “A lot of these just say J. Tanner, but it’s all the same address and social. And possession’s the least of this guy’s worries. Either this guy is paying someone off, or he has a hell of a lawyer because if he’s been convicted of any of these, there’s no way they would’ve gotten out so soon. He’d be doing some hard time. Drug trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft. Holy shit! Rape and attempted kidnapping.”
“What?” Lorenzo was instantly on his feet, pacing. His heart pounded furiously as it had so much in the past few days. Only this time it wasn’t from jealousy or rage; it was from utter terror. “How’s this guy not in jail?”
“This is just the preliminary list of everything he’s ever been arrested with for. Just ’cause he’s got a long ass rap sheet, doesn’t mean the charges stuck. I’d have to go through each one to see if he was actually charged, did time, or what, but this is some scary shit. Why the hell would Livi associate with someone like this?”
Lorenzo’s other line was beeping. “That’s Em or Isaiah on the other line. I gotta get this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Romero said then quickly added. “But maybe hold off on telling them about the rape and kidnapping charges until I can verify what that’s all about. I’m not making excuses for him or anything, but I’d hate to freak them out if it turns out to be nothing. You know innocent until proven guilty and all that shit. Like you said, this guy’s not locked up for a reason, so something’s gotta give.”
“Got it,” Lorenzo said, switching over. “Isaiah?”
“No, it’s Em,” she said. “He’s calling Romero right now, but I just wanted to let you know we still haven’t confirmed whether or not she got on the plane, but Margie finally got a hold of Jay.”
“What did he say?”
“He’s claiming he didn’t even know she’d left much less is missing.”
“He’s lying,” Lorenzo said immediately.
“Yeah, that’s what Nathan and Isaiah said. And he won’t answer when any of us calls. Nathan’s ready to jump on a plane and go hunt him down to beat it out of him.”
“I’ll go with him,” Lorenzo said.
“No!” she snapped. “Nathan already has assault charges we’re trying to get off his record.”
“I don’t,” Lorenzo said, already rushing to his bedroom. “Nathan won’t have to do any assaulting. I’ll take care of this guy.”
“No one’s going anywhere,” Em said almost frantically. “Everybody just needs to calm down a little so we can all think straight. AJ’s already on a plane on his way home. Liv might already be here in California. If we get confirmation of that from the airline, then we’ll need everyone here to help us search for her. She could’ve been in an accident or something. The problem is since all she said was that she’d probably be on standby we have no idea what airline she took. I’ve already tried calling some of the local hospitals. I haven’t found her, but I’m gonna keep trying. There’s just so many.”
“I can’t just sit around, Em.” Lorenzo said, grabbing his keys.
“Well, you can’t leave either. What if she did get on a plane?”
“Do me a favor,” he said as he started out the door. “Text me Jay’s and Margie’s numbers. We’ve gotta be missing something. And Em,” he said then stopped.
“What?”
“Not to scare you or anything, but I think it’s time you guys got the cops involved.”