“It sure seems like someone needs to talk to you, buddy,” Jack teases Nathaniel as his phone light blinks yet again.

“It’s fine. Let me turn it off so it doesn’t keep distracting us. I know you guys want to get home to your people.” The tension around Nathaniel’s mouth is in direct contrast to his cheerful tone. After pulling his phone out of his side pocket to silence it, the light flashes again while he’s glancing at it causing his brows to furrow and a frown to replace his normally serene expression. “I think maybe I better get this.” Then he gets up and walks into the hallway.

My brother and I look at each other and shrug. It’s not often that we meet here in the corporate building, but it’s the end of the summer, and my and Nathaniel’s projects had wrapped up in the last couple of days. There were some minor things to complete, but we aren’t due to start the revitalization project until next week. Jack and I start to chat about Sunday dinner at my parents’ house when Nathaniel rushes back in. Alarm bells ring in my head by the concern I see in his eyes as he focuses on me. “That was Chuck. He’s worried about Julian. They were at the food store and saw Phillips’s girlfriend, Tasha. Apparently, she was strung out and trying to get Julian to come hang out with her. They got rid of her after several minutes, but while they were shopping, Julian went to the bathroom and never came back.”

Vaguely, in the back of my mind, I question why Chuck called Nathaniel instead of me, but that’s not the bigger issue right now. “Chuck searched the whole store?”

“He looked everywhere. Then called Julian’s NA sponsor, and she hasn’t heard from him, either. And Julian couldn’t have left on his own because Chuck drove, you know how Julian hates to drive.”

“We do, but why do you?” Jack asks. Nathaniel waves him off and he’s right, that’s not important right now. Where could Julian be?

“Chuck is on the way here. He should be here any minute, actually. I didn’t even look at his first several texts, so I didn’t realize it was an emergency. I’m so sorry, Vaughn.”

Now I wave him off. “We were in a planning meeting. If I had looked down and saw a message from Julian, I probably would’ve stopped looking after one or two.” Nathaniel’s face is pale, and so is my brother’s. If they already look this worried, I can only imagine the fear and confusion they can read on mine.

It really is merely moments later, but only about two minutes before I call Chuck myself, that he bursts through the door. “I know he’s not doing drugs. There is no way. Even if he was struggling, she’s not the person he’d go hang out with. We have to do something. There has to be something really wrong.” Chuck’s face is wet with tears and Nathaniel immediately walks over to place an arm around his shoulders while handing him a Kleenex.

“Of course, he’s not using,” my brother says. Relief flows through me knowing that I won’t have to convince my brother that I’m with Chuck; there’s no way Julian would go with that girl for drugs. Julian had been horrified by the way Phillip treated her, but equally shocked that he was seeing someone who shot up. He said that Phillip had always considered himself above that sort of thing; a drug dealer with a moral compass he’d always claimed to Julian.

“We have to go to Phillip’s house.” Rushing out of the room, I don’t even wait to see if they’re following me, but run down the hallway toward the parking garage.

From behind me, Jack yells, “I’ll drive.” Quickly exiting the building we all pile into Jack’s truck. “Where am I going?”

“I can get us there,” Nathaniel says. Chuck looks startled, but his fear for his best friend keeps him from questioning it, something I know Nathaniel is thankful for. As my brother speeds through traffic, swerving from lane to lane and narrowly missing us being in several accidents, none of us protest. We’re all concerned about my Jules.

Pulling up in front of an ordinary house in the center of a middle-class residential area, it astounds me that this is where the kingpin of this side of town lives. His lawn is neatly mowed, and there’s even flowers planted up the walkway and around the mailbox. “I’ll do the talking,” I say after we’ve gotten out of the car and are walking briskly toward the front door. Pounding on it, I don’t stop until a bedraggled Phillip answers.

“What? Jesus. You trying to wake the dead?” he asks groggily.

Based on his appearance, it looks like we did. “Where’s Julian?”

“What? How would I know? You sent your bodyguard over here to warn me to stay away, remember?” he asks, glaring over my shoulder at Nathaniel.

Chuck pushes in between me and Jack to yell in Phillip’s face. “You’re a liar! I know you did something to him. We were in the food store shopping when we ran into your girlfriend. She was trying to get Julian to leave with her to go party. You had to have put her up to it.”

As much as I hate to admit it, Phillip doesn’t look like he has a clue what Chuck is talking about. “Oh, the best friend. It’s good to see some things never change. You’re still an annoying little pest.” Nathaniel growls from behind me causing Phillip to glance up and pale. “I promise you. I have no idea where Julian is. I haven’t personally seen him since that day at the construction site.”

“Who do you have following him for you then?” Jack asks.

“No one. I said I’d leave him alone and stay away, and I’ve stuck to that. None of my people are tracking him, I’m a businessman. I have more important things to do than track some little tweaker.”

Stepping up to where he’s leaning in his doorway, I warn, “You better be telling us the truth. Our next stop is going to be the police station.”

“Well, I don’t know what good they’ll do you if he only went missing today. But I can assure you, I have nothing to do with it. Now, please leave my property.”

“The hell we will!” Chuck screams, tears freely flowing down his face again. “I know you know something! Tell us!”

As Nathaniel moves up to wrap his arms around Chuck’s body to drag him back, Bernie saunters up behind Phillip at the front door. Placing his chin on Phillip’s shoulder, he demands, “What the fuck is the problem?”

Ever the voice of reason, my brother answers, “We’re looking for Julian.”

Bernie barks out a harsh, cruel laugh. “Oh, did you lose your little boyfriend?” he mocks me.

Nathaniel speaks up from his place behind me. “Cut the shit, Bernie. They ran into this one’s girlfriend at the store, and then he disappeared. If you know anything, you better tell me now. If anything happens to that kid…”

“I don’t know why you keep saying my girlfriend. I don’t even have a girlfriend,” Phillip whines. How did Julian date this guy? He’s spineless.

“I can assure you, he doesn’t.” Bernie curls one hand up around Phillip’s chest and tucks his head even closer into his neck.

“Yes, you do. Tasha told us how you started seeing her the night Julian disappeared after court, when you found out he’d gone straight to rehab,” Chuck answers.

“Oh, her.” Phillip waves a dismissive hand in the air. “She’s delusional. I’ve told her repeatedly that there’s a difference between sex and dating. The fact she’d even think I’d date someone with as little self-control over their drug use as her and that low-class is laughable.”

All kinds of thoughts of the danger Julian could be in are rushing through my mind. I begin to turn to ask Jack and Nathaniel what they suggest we do next, when I notice Bernie making the strangest face as he slowly pulls away from Phillip. With eyes flashing like daggers, he asks him, “What do you mean there’s a difference between sex and dating? Were you having sex with her?”

Phillip laughs. “Of course not.” Just as relief washes over Bernie’s face, Phillip continues, “I let her get me off when she needs some meth, but I don’t really give her that much. You know how distasteful I find shooting up, so I don’t really want to be a part of that.”

Suddenly, Phillip is shoved into the doorframe and one of Bernie’s big paws is wrapped around his neck, practically cutting off his airwaves. “When I asked you why Tasha told me you two were in love a few months ago, you told me you had no idea why.”

Phillip’s eyes are wide with fear, but his arrogance has his mouth twisted in contempt. “I don’t know why she thinks that,” he grinds out. “And what’s it matter to you?”

“That was months ago, Phillip. It’s been over a year since Julian left. How long?” When Phillip doesn’t answer, he demands, “How long?” while shaking Phillip’s body by the neck like he’s a ragdoll.

“Since the beginning. Just like she said, and you were there, remember? The first time I was ever with her was at your house the night I came to check on you after the car crash. Then the night Julian up and left, we let her hang out with us again. She’s been around since then, I suppose.”

“But… we’ve been together since then.” Bernie drops his hand from around Phillip’s neck; his face the embodiment of heartbroken. Jack, Nathaniel, Chuck, and I all exchange mildly fascinated, one-hundred percent horrified looks at the scene we’re witnessing. Feeling sorry for someone I hold in as much contempt as I do Bernie didn’t seem possible until being privy to Phillip’s ugliness and obvious disregard for anyone else’s feelings.

Phillip sneers, “Bernie, we’re best friends. We’re not together-together, like dating together. We satisfy an itch for each other. We understand our life-style and share sex partners without dealing with unnecessary drama. What’s your problem?”

Bernie shakes his head. “You don’t think I’m good enough for you, do you?”

“Well, I barely tell my family we’re friends. Can you imagine me even telling them we’re best friends? They don’t approve of your lack of standards when dealing.” Phillip is rubbing his neck as he talks and looking for all the world like he has no idea why him and Bernie are even having this conversation. If I wasn’t being choked by fear for Julian, I’d maybe kick Phillip’s ass on behalf of Bernie and Tasha.

“But, I only—you know what? Never mind.” Jack tilts his head toward the car, so the four of us begin moving off the porch. Chuck doesn’t even protest. Bernie stable isn’t exactly reassuring, so pissed off or sick with despair… I don’t want any of us to be anywhere near here if he has some kind of psychotic break. Our small movements draw Bernie’s attention. “I’ll give you guys the location of the house Tasha stays at sometimes. It’s an old abandoned place on eighth. If she found a way to get Julian there, he’s in trouble. She’s not right in the head. And I don’t mean just from the drugs, she’s never been right in the head. And if what she was babbling about to me regarding Julian is true, she really thinks the only reason her and Phillip aren’t living together and married is because of Julian.”

In the distant part of mind, I hear Phillip respond to that. I can’t care, though. All I can think about is getting to Julian on time.