Suspicious Minds (Fate #3) (29 page)

“
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.”

Twenty-one

Olivia

This had to be a dream. Olivia tried desperately to
focus on the light above her. It would start to come into focus and then blur
again. The memory of when she was twelve and she was in the recovery room after
her tonsillitis surgery was the only thing she could compare this to. But she
had no memory of having been admitted to the hospital. She had no recollection
of anything, not what day it was, where she was, or even having gone to bed. Still
she was certain this was a dream.

She tried moving her hand, but she couldn’t. At first, she
thought she just didn’t have the strength to, but after trying again, she felt
the burning pain on her wrist, and she let out a gasp. The acute pain shot
through her and jolted something in her brain. A memory. It wasn’t clear, but
it was painful like in her wrist, only her heart ached and she began to cry.

Had she gone insane? She had no idea what she was crying about. All
she knew was her heart felt utterly broken. Yet she couldn’t bring her hands to
her face to wipe the tears. The tears only made it that much more impossible to
focus her eyes on anything.

A door or something opened, and she heard rushed footsteps coming
closer. “Ah, just in time,” a voice said and she felt her head bobble in an
effort to see who was there, but she had no control of it. “You’re just waking.
Sorry I was gone for a bit longer than I planned. I got a bit tied up, but I’m
back now.”

Olivia tried in vain to make out the voice, but it was so
completely warped like when you listen to a recording in slow motion. She
couldn’t even make out if it was male or female.

“Shh,” the voice said as she felt fabric of some kind wipe around
her eyes. “No more crying, darling. You’re dehydrated enough.”

Trying to speak proved just as difficult, and fear began to
overpower the pain she’d felt earlier. This was too real to be a dream. Where
the hell was she? What was wrong with her? She tried moving her legs and felt
the same pain in her ankles as she had in her wrist, and it became clear to her
suddenly. She was tied up. The pain was the same in her other ankle and wrist.

Gasping and pulling even harder on every limb, she tried to
scream then felt a pinch in between her toes and a beautiful warm numbness
began to run through her feet and then up her legs.

“I didn’t wanna have to do that, but you insist on hurting
yourself,” she heard the same warped voice say. “You just need to stay calm and
then we can talk. I promise you, you’ll be happy here. This is where you
belong, darling.”

The voice kept speaking, but Olivia could no longer make out the
words, and then suddenly the beautiful numbness reached her neck and face, and
the light she’d been trying to focus on got brighter and brighter until it was
so bright all she could see was bright white everywhere. Her arms and legs were
suddenly loose, and she floated away.

Twenty-two

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.”