Lorenzo
The last transaction on Liv’s bank card was that airline ticket she’d purchased online, but she never got on that plane. Romero had confirmed that already. Now they were scrambling to figure out if she’d taken an earlier flight.
The cops had since come and taken a full report and opened up a missing person’s case. They’d asked to go through her tablet and laptop to see if they could find any evidence that she may’ve taken off of her own free will. Lorenzo had saved the cops a trip and drove over to Liv’s house. He knew as her boyfriend he’d be one of the first they’d want to question. Of course, he had a solid alibi for where he’d been when she’d gone missing that was easily confirmed. Em had told them about Liv losing her phone and how the airline was shipping it to their house, but it had yet to arrive. They told her to call them or have someone bring it into the station when it arrived so they could go through it as well.
AJ had since gotten home too. Lorenzo had now seen a side of him he hadn’t before. Clearly, despite Liv and her brothers protesting the nickname he’d been dubbed, the media had been spot on. Because AJ was instantly in a rage.
“I never liked that motherfucker!” he’d said when they’d filled him in on everything they knew so far and how Jay was likely lying about not knowing where Liv was. “I swear to God, Isaiah, I will fucking kill him if he’s done anything to her.”
As over the top as that sounded, Lorenzo could already tell it’d be a race between all her brothers and Lorenzo to see who got to Jay first. While Isaiah attempted to calm his younger brother, every time Isaiah tried calling Jay and the asshole didn’t answer, even Isaiah had begun to show his Romero temper.
Liv’s phone was delivered about an hour after the cops left. Romero had easily hacked past her security code, but couldn’t find anything that might clue them in about her whereabouts. Lorenzo sat on a kitchen counter in their home, still scrolling through some older texts between Liv and Jay. It felt a little like snooping, but like her siblings, he was officially freaked out now. He’d come across some of the texts he assumed were the obnoxious ones Liv told him about. The ones he’d supposedly sent when he was drunk and didn’t even remember sending.
As he suspected, they were worse than Liv had made them out to be. Lorenzo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand as he read one particularly alarming one.
You belong to me. Remember that. Your brothers can protest all they want, and you could move to the other side of the world, but we belong together, and soon enough I’ll get you to see it my way.
YOU. ARE. MINE!
Olivia hadn’t bothered to respond because the next text was another one from him but dated a day later. As Olivia had told Lorenzo, in it the idiot claimed he’d been drunk with a few LOL’s, saying he didn’t even remember texting it. Yet for someone who’d been so drunk he couldn’t remember writing something like that, there wasn’t a single typo. The guy had even remembered to add the periods between the last three words in the last line to really drive home his insane message.
“Did you guys read any of the old texts from Jay to Olivia?” Lorenzo asked, still scrolling and reading further.
“You’re reading her texts?” Em asked, sounding a little staggered.
Lorenzo looked up from the phone at a wide-eyed Emilia. “Normally, I wouldn’t,” he explained. “But at this point, I’d read her diary if I thought it’d help find her.”
“I didn’t,” Isaiah said, looking at him with concern. “I checked but didn’t see any from him.”
“She’d blocked him in the last month, so they were buried way down at the bottom of her text log.”
He handed Isaiah the phone, and both Nathan and AJ were immediately at either side of their older brother’s shoulders, reading the texts with him.
“Fuck,” Isaiah muttered.
“The guy’s a bigger psycho than we thought,” Nathan added.
“What are we gonna do?” AJ asked, his eyes as frantic as Lorenzo was feeling.
Romero, who was sitting at the kitchen counter on his laptop, was staring at them now too. “What’s it say?”
Isaiah read the text out loud then read some of the other equally incriminating, not to mention terrifying, texts. Emi brought her hands to her mouth and did what he was sure her brothers and Lorenzo suddenly felt like doing. She began to cry. AJ was instantly at her side and held her.
Lorenzo’s heart ached for them. What were the odds that this poor family would have to go through something so tragic yet again? Just the thought of the phrase Liv had used often to ask what the odds were that they’d meet the way they had and fall so hard, had him choked up already.
“Have you guys tried calling Jay using her phone?” Romero asked.
“No,” Lorenzo said, beginning to feel excited but then remembered. “He knows she lost it and most likely knows it’s being delivered here. He’ll know it’s not her calling him. He’s not gonna answer.”
“Listen to this one,” Isaiah said. “These are dated just a few months ago.” Isaiah read it out loud. “Margie is getting really depressed about you not responding to her texts. You know it’s not good for her mental health to be this depressed. You really want that weighing on your conscience, Ollie? Call me. Let’s talk this out, babe. This can be worked out. Everything can. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to Margie.” Isaiah looked up from the phone, his eyes full of dread. “He’s been planning this whole thing for months, working her guilt until he finally got her to take off with him.”
“But part of it was true,” Em said in a hopeful voice. “Margie confirmed that she had been a mess and Liv being there had really gotten her through it.”
“Fuck it,” Isaiah said. “I’m calling him on her phone.”
Isaiah hit something on the screen of Liv’s phone, and they all waited anxiously until he frowned and hung up. “Still not answering.”
“Damn it,” Lorenzo muttered.
He kept to himself what they were all probably thinking. Jay’s not answering a call from her phone likely meant he knew for a fact that it wasn’t her calling. As obsessed as the guy sounded with her, if it were true he had no idea where she was at and that she’d been missing for over a day now, he’d likely be worried and anxious to hear from her too.
Isaiah set the phone down, looking as defeated as everyone else in the room. He said he needed to get some air. None of them had eaten in hours, so he said he’d make a burger run. Nathan went with him, and AJ, who explained he’d left mid game when he got the word from Isaiah about Liv, jumped in the shower.
Lorenzo had been standing in the kitchen while Romero did some more searching on his laptop. Liv’s phone suddenly rang, making Romero and Emi glance up at Lorenzo, who was standing right by where the phone was still charging. Since it arrived, her phone had rung several times. But they were all calls from clients inquiring about their missed appointments and one from her dentist. Em had even answered a few and explained that Liv had to go out of town suddenly. It still burned Lorenzo that both Romero and Isaiah had agreed it was best not to tell any of her clients she was missing. A miniscule possibility still existed that Liv might be with Jay willingly.
This time the number calling wasn’t labeled as all her clients’ calls had been. Lorenzo picked it up. He didn’t recognize the area code either, but it wasn’t a Dallas area code like Jay’s and Margie’s.
“It doesn’t say who it is, but it’s not a Dallas area code,” he informed them.
Em hurried to read the number, and her eyes went wide. “No, that is a Dallas area code. There are several in Dallas. That’s another one.”
Romero nearly jumped out of his seat. “Enzo, hit speaker, but, Emi, you say hello. Try and sound like Liv.”
Lorenzo did as he was told, feeling his heart speed up.
“Hello,” Em said.
No one said anything immediately, and Lorenzo could hardly stand it. He motioned for Em to say hello again. She did and they waited.
“Ollie?” the male voice asked apprehensively.
Her eyes went even wider, and she nodded to let them know it was Jay. Lorenzo was immediately reminded of that call where he’d heard this asshole and Margie’s mom call Liv Ollie, and just as instantly, his insides were ablaze.
Without another thought, he took the phone off speaker and brought it to his ear.
“Jay, don’t hang up,” he said urgently. “This is Lorenzo, Liv’s boyfriend. I just wanna talk to you.”
Romero and Em stared at him anxiously as he waited, and Jay said nothing on the other end for a few torturously long silent moments.
“Boyfriend, huh?” he finally spoke again, but he didn’t sound as apprehensive anymore. “Interesting. She’s home now.”
The last comment was more of a statement than a question. Lorenzo hesitated to respond. Was this his way of implying she was still with him. Home now?
He’s always played mind games.
As much as he wanted to explode on the asshole, threaten to hunt him down and beat him senseless if he didn’t tell him where Liv was, Lorenzo summoned every ounce of self-control he could. Lorenzo could play mind games too.
“Yes, boyfriend,” Lorenzo said, keeping his cool. “I’m who she belongs with now, Jay.”
Romero rushed away when his own phone rang. Em’s anxious eyes bounced from Romero to Lorenzo.
“Is that right?” Jay said, letting out a mocking chuckle. “That’s not what she tells me.”
Tells? Was he saying she was still with him? “You think she belongs with you?”
“I do,” Jay said too quickly.
“Listen to me, asshole,” Lorenzo said, gripping the phone and struggling to keep his composure. “I’m only gonna ask you this one time—”
“Whoa, whoa, Enzo!” Romero called out loudly, waving at him, and then sat down on the stool in front of his laptop. “I got United Airlines on the phone. Livi got on a plane that night. Her plane landed in San Diego yesterday morning without incident. She’s not in Dallas anymore, man. And Jay’s not with her because we know his ass got arrested in Dallas early the next morning.”
The terrifying reality ripped through Lorenzo with unforgiving force. Liv wasn’t with her delusional ex. Even the possibility that she might’ve actually still been with Jay willingly, while heart crushing, it was still better than not having any idea where she could be. An icy chill spread down his spine from the sudden realization that she just might be in a hospital somewhere in a coma or worse . . . No. He shook his head. He wouldn’t even think it.
Knowing that arguing with Jay now was a waste of time, he hung up on him and rushed to Romero, who finished getting all the information from the airline. Lorenzo would deal with Jay later.
Romero typed something into his laptop then turned to Emi. “Think Emi,” he said. “Is there anyone else here in San Diego she might be with? Any reason why she wouldn’t have come straight home?”
“No!” Emi said, bringing her hands to her forehead, then turned to Lorenzo. “Lorenzo was the only one I’d held out hope yesterday that she might’ve been with, but even then I kept thinking she would’ve called me to tell me she was okay. She’s the biggest stickler about that of the five of us. She even gets on Isaiah’s case if he ever doesn’t at least text to say goodnight from the station.”
The only other person Liv had ever mentioned hanging out with was Rosie, but Lorenzo had since called her on the slight chance that Liv might’ve been in contact with her for any reason. She hadn’t. After clicking on a few more things on his laptop, Romero grabbed his phone again.
“Who you calling now?” Lorenzo asked anxiously.
“My contact at the airport.”
“For what?”
Lifting his hand up at Lorenzo, Romero talked into his phone. “McIntyre,” he said even as he began typing again on his laptop. “This is Romero. I need a favor, man. How fast do you think you can pull airport security footage for yesterday morning? This is personal. I have a family member missing.”
Isaiah and Nathan came home, and Em filled them in on both the call from Jay and the confirmation Romero had gotten that Liv actually boarded and was on the plane that arrived in San Diego yesterday morning.
As expected, they were full of questions, but the only answers Lorenzo and Liv had for them was that Jay hadn’t shed any light on anything new except to confirm he was as delusional as his insane texts made him sound.
The moment Romero was off the phone they all began bombarding him with questions, so he put his hands up to shut them all up.
“This guy is usually fast, but he’s off today,” he began explaining. “Since she’s family, he’s going in anyway just to forward me the footage so I can scour through it. It’s a long shot, but I figure we can see if she got in a cab or in a car with someone else. It’s a start. I just ran her bank info again, and there haven’t been any transactions since she purchased the ticket the day before yesterday. Do you know if she carries a lot of cash with her?” They all shook their heads, but none knew for sure. “She hasn’t pulled any large sums of money out of her account any time recently,” Romero continued with a frown. “If she’s using any other kind of credit card in her name, it’d come up. So either she’s with someone, or the only other possibility I can think of is Jay gave her cash or one of them pre-paid credit cards, but why? Why would she be trying to hide?”
“She wouldn’t be,” Isaiah said immediately.
“I know you don’t want to think she might be,” Romero said grimly. “I’m just asking you to think outside the box. Lorenzo did break up with her while she was in Dallas. I hate to say it, but maybe there’s someone else you guys don’t know about, someone she went out with in the past maybe, who she called, and maybe he offered a shoulder to cry on.”
AJ had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs, so Lorenzo had all three brothers’ surprised eyes on him. “You broke up with Livi?” Nathan asked. “Why?”
“That’s not important right now,” Romero said, and Lorenzo couldn’t be more grateful.
That’s the last thing he wanted to be discussing right now. He’d been glad when the cops questioned him outside and out of the hearing range of her brothers so they hadn’t had to hear him answer truthfully when they’d asked him if he and Liv had, had any problems or arguments lately.
“People do things they normally wouldn’t when they’re depressed or distraught.” Romero continued then turned to Emi. “How did she sound when you talked to her last?”
Emi looked at Lorenzo sadly then turned back to Romero. “She was hysterical. For the better part of the conversation, I had a hard time understanding her. She was crying so much.”
“Then why the fuck are you here?” AJ suddenly exploded, storming toward Lorenzo.
“Hey, relax,” Romero said, stepping in front of AJ, who looked ready to charge Lorenzo.
“No! Bullshit!” AJ snapped, trying to get past Romero. “First, he makes my sister cry then—”
“She’d just spent an entire day with her ex,” Lorenzo tried to explain. “Someone she’d just told me the night before had showed up at one of her stops and argued with her because he was insisting she was still in love with him. I was upset and reacted, but—”
“Did you accuse my sister of something, asshole?” AJ said, nearly getting past Romero. “If it turns out that—”
“Wait! Shut up,” Lorenzo said when the phone on the counter rang. “Is that Liv’s phone?”
All eyes were on the phone. Isaiah nodded, already hurrying toward it. “It’s Jay,” he said, and as soon as he was close enough, he started to pick up the phone.
“No,” Romero said. “Let Em answer. You guys are all too worked up. We need to stay calm. This guy might have answers,” he turned to Emi. “Answer and play nice. Ask him if by chance he gave Livi cash or one of his credit cards.”
Both Nathan and AJ turned and glowered at Lorenzo coldly. Yes, Liv was hurt and possibly even mad, but he didn’t think she’d put her family through all this to get back at Lorenzo. The thought of another guy consoling her was an infuriating one though. He listened as Emi questioned Jay about the money situation. He apparently had questions, too, because Emi explained about Liv definitely getting on the plane.
Lorenzo’s mind raced to think if Liv had ever once mentioned dating or hanging with anyone else since she’d moved here. Then it came to him.
“The flowers!” he said and they all turned to him. “Ask him about the flowers someone sent Liv the day of the game. Were those from him?”
Emi’s eyes widened as if it just dawned on her too that they never did find out for sure who they were from. “Did you send Livi flowers a few weeks ago?” she asked anxiously, and her eyes went even wider. “Are you sure? Please be honest, Jay. This is important.” She looked up at Lorenzo. “He didn’t.”
“Bingo!” Romero said. “Either Livi has a secret admirer or”—he turned to Lorenzo with rueful frown—“a Sancho.”
Asshole.
Before Lorenzo could even react to that, AJ shoved Romero. “Don’t you start making accusations too. Livi’s not like that. She wouldn’t have a man on the side.”
“Alright, alright,” Romero said, getting back to his laptop and sitting down in front of it. “But we gotta consider all possibilities. Any inkling who else might’ve sent them?”
Lorenzo had far more than an inkling, and he could kick himself for not thinking of it sooner.