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“Ronald knows to go with you,” Mom said. She held my face. “Your dad’s right. You can help us all so much more by taking care of you, and that isn’t just therapy.” She cupped my cheek. “You know you used to talk to us.”
It felt like so long ago, those days. My parents and I never had the deep conversations, but we did used to talk.
It used to be easy.
I didn’t know why it seemed so complicated now, but I knew that definitely had something to do with me.
My mom ended up leaving me with those words, and after throwing some water on my face, Ronald took me over to the Mallicks.
We had to fight through the paps and media to get close.
The Mallicks had gates, but Wolf and his family weren’t in a secure neighborhood like mine. Being the mayor, Brielle always wanted herself available to her constituents. The mayor’s house wasn’t open by any means, but it was like the White House in the sense it had gates but could easily be seen from the street.
I ducked my head again, avoiding flashes and questions. This had become old hat for me, and oddly enough, Wolf’s house was as quiet as mine today when I finally got inside. Normally, they had people lining the walls and the reason was obvious there. Many people wanted to help them.
People were mourning for them.
I wasn’t mourning, refused, and if I knew anything about the girl we were all looking for, she was keeping her head low. She was thinking because she was a fucking thinker just like me. She thought too much sometimes.
Also like me.
We had way too much in common, Noa Sloane and me, and I thought about that as I sought out Ramses. I found him in his office, alone and on calls. He was always on calls. These ceased immediately when he saw me, and he waved me inside.
“Hey, kid,” he said, getting up, and the way he charged over to me, one would think he hadn’t seen me in days, weeks. Like this wasn’t something we did every day.
Like he didn’t ask me the same question every day.
There was a reason Ramses asked to see me specifically, and if we didn’t see each other, my god dad always called me or texted. This had become our routine, something I’d come to dread because every time I was forced to give him the same answer to his question. Every day I had to break his fucking heart, and that killed me.
But it always destroyed him.
I had to see his face change, and if we weren’t in front of each other, I heard the disappointment in his voice over the phone. Ramses wore his stress well. The guy was a rock and was always trying to make people feel good.
Even when he was drowning within.
He never let me see that side of him. At least, not before this. He was so good at hiding his pain, but in these quiet moments with just the two of us, I got let in a little. I saw the grieving father.
I saw his fight against the current.
Like the rest of us, my god dad hadn’t appeared to be sleeping much. Dark rings underlined his hope filled eyes, and when I asked about Brielle, he told me something that, unfortunately, had become as familiar to me as our conversations.
“She’s back at the office,” he said. “Plan to join her tonight.”
Brielle didn’t leave the office. At least not these days. Pretty much all the chaos surrounding the search for Sloane had moved there, all the families and city officials operating out of there. It gave the Mallicks back their home so that was good.
Not that they were here much outside of Wolf and us guys.
Of course, we all had security too, people to keep an eye around, and the kids out of things. Really, Bow was the only one getting to do what she wanted to do and was making way more progress than we were. She’d been running local searches, and the parents were letting her.
Probably because she listened to them.
She was out scouring the town with local search parties while us boys were under lock and key.
“So, anything today, um…” Ramses started, and I was surprised the conversation hadn’t led with this. It often did even before we said hi. His head lowered. “Have you heard anything?”
Again, the same question every day. Had I heard anything, heard from her.
“No, sir,” I said, and I think the only reason I had been given back my phone was because I did know Sloane. They all knew she didn’t have a phone right now, nor her brother. Grandpa had told them, and that was one of the few things they’d told me. Her phone had gotten destroyed, and Bru had given his to Grandpa’s team after the media had been harassing them.
