Crazy Beautiful Love (23 page)

“What the fuck?
Where did he go?”

“I don’t know.”
Vincent looked at me with wild eyes. “But he was crazy. He told me that now was
the time to make everything right. He said if you weren’t going to do it, he
would.”

“Do what?” I felt
a chill run through my bones. “What is he going to do?”

“I don’t know.”
Vincent grabbed my shoulders. “But he told me to tell you to trust him. He said
that no matter what happens, remember that he is your brother and he loves
you.”

“What the fuck
does that mean?” I broke away from Vincent and paced up and down. “We need to
find him.” I grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him towards me. “If you know
where he is Vincent, you better tell me. By God, you better tell me.”

“I don’t know.”
Vincent pushed me away from him. “I know you’re anxious, but threatening me is
not going to help anything.”

“Give me his
phone. I’m calling Joey.” I took the phone from Vincent and dialed Joey’s
number. He answered on the second ring and started talking.

“Dude, you need to
chill, okay? I’m only fucking with Maddie ’cause her dad wants me to, I told
you that. I told you before, she is not my type. I like them skinny and blonde.
She’s got big tits, but her ass is too big for me as well.” He laughed and I
gripped the phone tightly, not saying anything. I wanted to see if he would say
anything of importance and I didn’t want him to know that I wanted to knock his
front teeth out. “Jared, you can be such a baby sometimes, stop being a pussy.
Do you want her or something? Does Logan even know you’ve been talking to her?
I bet she wants to suck on your cock. Her dad would be pissed if she caught her
with another
Martelli
. I wouldn’t do it, bro, he’ll
fuck you up. Trust me. Let Logan fight that battle. Ha, ha, ha. Jared?”

“This is Logan.”
My voice was tight and I wished I was with him so I could thump him so hard
that I had him crying. I knew he was a piece of shit.

“Oh,” Joey paused.
“Where’s Jared?”

“That’s what I
want to know.”

“I was joking
about Maddie.” Joey laughed uncomfortably. “Jared’s not fucking her or
anything. He hates her guts.”

“I see.”

“He just told me
tonight,” Joey continued quickly. “In fact, he encouraged me to go on another
date with her.”

“You were out with
her before tonight,” I growled.

“You mean the
other night, when you guys stole the car?” Joey laughed. “That was her dad’s
idea.” He laughed. “But tonight was all Jared’s idea. I guess he wants to make
sure you’re out of the picture.”

“He wouldn’t have
done that.” My voice is deceptively soft, but all I wanted to do was cuss.

“He hates her.”
Joey was matter-of-fact. “He should be careful who he tells that to. I know her
dad well, and he will fuck him up if he hears that.”

“When is the
exchange going to happen?” I changed the subject, not wanting to discuss my
brother and Maddie anymore.

“I was just about
to call you guys. Bring the car to the pier tomorrow morning at seven a.m.
We’ll be waiting with the money.”

“You’ll be there?”

“Yeah.” Joey’s
voice was low. “I
gotta
get my cut as well.”

“The buyer will be
there?”

“I guess so.”

“Joey, who is the
buyer?”

“I don’t know
everything.” He sounded nonchalant. “And who cares? It’s a million bucks. For nothing.
Just be there.”

“It’s not for
nothing, and this better not be some stupid setup.”

“Look,” Joey
sighed. “I honestly don’t know who set it up. My dad told me about it, ’cause
he knows I’m friends with Jared. And he told me to approach you.”

“So you have no
idea who the buyer is?” My heart started pounding. “That is not how you made it
seem.”

“It’s fine.” Joey
sounded unsure of himself. “Look, I
gotta
go. Be at
the pier at seven.”

“Wait a minute, I
want to—” I stopped talking as I realized he had already hung up the phone.
“Something’s going on.” I frowned at Vincent. “I don’t know what, but I have a
bad feeling.” I shook my head in worry. “I fucking knew we couldn’t trust
Joey.”

“It’ll be okay,
Logan.” Vincent’s eyes blazed. “It has to be.”

“We have to take
the Bugatti to the pier at seven a.m.” I sighed. “With or without Jared.”

“And we’ll get the
money?”

“I guess.” I bit
my lip nervously. I had a bad feeling that we were never going to see the
million dollars. “Listen to me, Vincent. You need to drive the Mustang to the
pier. And if anything shady goes down, you deny everything. You don’t know
anything about the Bugatti. If the cops show up, it was all me.”

“No.” Vincent
shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

“Vincent, listen
to me. You need to take care of dad and Jared if anything happens to me. Okay?”

“Okay.” We stood
there silently for a few moments and then walked back into the house. We
stopped by the living room door and we watched as my father slept on the couch,
snoring his head off. I wanted to go and talk to him. I wanted to go to him for
advice. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay. I wanted him
to be better. I took once last look and turned away to go up the stairs.

“You coming?” I
looked over at Vincent, who was still standing at the door.

“No.” He shook his
head. “I’ll go up in a bit.”

“I love you, bro.”
I gave him a quick smile and walked up the stairs, worry making every step
heavier. Just an hour ago, I was the happiest I had ever been in my life and now
I was the most stressed. I tried to remember Maddie’s smile as I lay down on
the bed, but all I could think about was the missed call on her phone from
Jared. And what Joey had just told me. I closed my eyes and tried to stop
analyzing everything. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. I would talk to
Maddie after all this was taken care of. I’m sure there had to be a reasonable
explanation. I drifted off to sleep, but all I could think of was how much
Jared hated Maddie. I really hoped he wasn’t out there doing anything stupid.

***

Vincent and I
arrived at the pier at six-thirty a.m., and we walked to the shore and stared
at the waves in companionable silence as we waited. We didn’t bring up Jared’s
name, but I knew that both of us were worried about where he was. I tried to
ignore the worries in my mind. The drive to the pier had been smooth and there
had been no cop cars around. So far everything was going smoothly. Jared’s
phone rang, and I looked at Vincent as I answered it.

“Hello.”

“Hey, it’s Joey.”

“Where are you?”

“I just got to the
pier, where are you?”

“Down by the
jetty.”

“Come to the
parking lot. That’s where he is going to meet us.”

“Who is he?”

“The guy who set
it all up.”

“Who is it?”

“Just come to the
parking lot.” And with that he hung up on me again. I put the phone in my
pocket and looked at Vincent with a brief smile.

“This is it, bro.
Joey’s here and said the guy who set it up will be in the parking lot.”

“So we’re doing
the deal in the parking lot?” Vincent frowned, and I knew he felt as I did,
that something seemed off.

“Yeah,” I
shrugged. “Remember what I said last night.”

“I don’t like
this, Logan.”

“There’s nothing
we can do right now.” I took a deep breath. “Hold on a second.” I pulled out my
phone and called Maddie quickly. I sighed when it went to voicemail, but
decided to leave a quick message. “Maddie, I just wanted to tell you I love
you. I’m doing a deal right now, and it doesn’t seem right. I just wanted to
let you know that I love you. If anything goes wrong, please know I did this
because I wanted to be a man you could be proud of. I love you.” I hung up
quickly and Vincent and I walked to the parking lot in silence.

“Over here,” Joey
called out to us as we walked into the almost empty lot.

“So where is he?”
I stared at Joey with cold eyes. I took in his appearance and it took
everything in me not to deck him. He looked so cocky and carefree, and there
was something in the glint of his eyes that made me shiver. Something seemed
off and I wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was because he didn’t seem to have
any nerves. But it was more than that. It was almost as if he knew something
that gave him great pleasure. Like he had a surprise. A big surprise that he
couldn’t wait to share. But it didn’t feel like a good surprise. All of a sudden
I felt very apprehensive. “Where the fuck is he?” I growled at Joey with
intense eyes, warning him that I wasn’t here out of fun and I could blow up at
any moment.

“He’s coming.”
Joey looked at me with a slightly scared look.

“This better not
be a setup.”

“Look, dude, I’m
just here for my money.” Joey shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Where is Jared?”
I got up in his face. “If you did anything to him, I’ll fuck you up.”

“I don’t know what
you’re talking about.” Joey looked at me with an apprehensive look. “Believe me
when I say I didn’t set this up. I just approached him because everyone knows
you are the guys to steal a car.”

“So where is he?”
I muttered.

“I’m right here,
Logan.” I heard the familiar voice behind me, and I froze. I turned around
slowly, and there standing behind Vincent, was Marty. He looked at me with a
short smile, his eyes looking beady in his fat face, and I wanted to punch him.
I should have known that something was up.

“You. Fuck it,” I
cursed as I realized that Marty was behind it.

“Nice to see you
as well.” He grinned at me evilly. “It’s been a while.”

“What do you
want?”

“I thought I
warned you that if you steal cars in River Valley, they go to me or you don’t
steal. I even had my man tell you when he bought the Toyota to not fuck with
me. I thought you understood what the deal was.”

“I didn’t agree to
that.” I squared my shoulders.

“I think you need
to learn a lesson.” He laughed. “You don’t mess with me.”

“Why? You messed
with me and my family!” I shouted at him. “Why should we let you get away with
not paying us properly? Do you think I’m going to steal cars and take a quarter
of the money? This is a free market, Marty, I can do what I fucking want.”

“You’re costing me
money, Logan. I don’t like it when that happens.” He stepped towards me. “And
neither does my boss. You have screwed us over one too many times. Your dad
knew the deal. He stole the car, brought it to me right away, and took whatever
money he got. He was grateful and happy. You’re just a greedy little boy. You’ve
been causing way too much trouble. I tried to give you a warning, but you
fucked up one too many times, and now my boss is ready to take you down.”

“Huh?” I looked at
him puzzled. “What are you talking about? What boss?”

“Logan,” Vincent
hissed at me, but I was too busy staring Marty down to turn towards him.

“You’re a bully,
Marty. Give me my money and fucking leave us alone.” I walked towards him,
ready to take him by the scruff of his collar. I was surprised that he didn’t
have his henchmen there. There was nothing to stop me from beating him up. And
after him, I would beat up Joey. I knew he was a sorry motherfucker. I would
get both of them so black and blue that they wouldn’t pull this shit again with
anyone, then I would steal the money and leave town. “Where the fuck is the
money?” I shouted at Marty. “Give it to me now before we take this down a very
bad road.”

“I’m afraid that’s
not going to be possible, Logan.” Another voice came from the left of me, and I
turned around to see who had spoken. The voice sounded slightly familiar but I
couldn’t place it. As I turned and saw who was there, the blood drained from my
face, and I couldn’t say a word.

“It’s nice to see
you again,” he cackled while staring at me with evil eyes. “Well, I can’t
really lie, it’s not that nice seeing you again.”

“The feeling is
mutual,” I finally spoke up, and took a deep breath as my head started
spinning. What was the mayor doing here? I looked at Vincent and his face
reflected the shock that was on my own. I tried to move, but my body wouldn’t
cooperate. I felt like I was in a bad dream and there was nothing I could do to
escape the impending danger I saw coming.

“You can go now,
Joey.” The mayor smiled at the traitor casually. “Thanks for your help.”

I turned to look
at him and he shrugged. “Traitor,” I hissed at him, wanting to kill him. My
brain was screaming at me,
I told you not
to trust him. I told you not to trust him.

“You brought it on
yourself.” He looked back at me with a hard expression.

“What do you
want?” I turned back to the mayor, unable to stop the hatred spewing from my
eyes. In that moment, I wished I had a gun because I would have shot him
without thinking of the consequences.

“I want you and
your family to leave River Valley. I don’t want you to call my daughter again,
and you must never see her again.” His voice was cold, and I saw his upper lip
twitch slightly. I realized that more than anything, he was mad about me seeing
Maddie. This wasn’t about the cars or selling them to Marty; this was about me
not being good enough for his little girl. As I stared at him, I realized that
we had one thing in common. We both loved Maddie with all of our hearts. The
only problem was that he was an evil bastard as well.

“That’s not going
to happen.” I stared back at him, not moving. “I love Maddie, I will not stop
talking to her or seeing her, unless she tells me not to.”

“Then I will call
the police and tell them to come and collect you and your brother.” The mayor
pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I will have you arrested for grand theft
auto and for assault.”