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“I think they’re just about to start, but you ruined the moment with your demon voice.”
Despite the blackness in my heart and the weight of fear and worry in my mind, I can’t help but chuckle at the Renzetti brothers, the assholes.
Me and Gio take our seats on the couch as Drake gets back to being serious.
“I knew you guys weren’t going to watch that objectively, your eyes on Lexi only the whole time, but I did, and I saw some interesting details.”
He rewinds the recording as Nico agrees with him, then hits play. I don’t want to see it again, but Drake is right, I only had eyes for Lexi, my mind replaying the moment rather than seeing the whole picture before me.
“First is the plate of the truck which you can see is either removed from the front bumper or covered with something. The second thing I noticed is that he wasn’t driving.”
This time, I force my eyes to watch Alan’s truck rather than Lexi, and Drake is right, Alan jumps out of the passenger side of the car.
“Fuck me!” Gio growls angrily, “Has my mother still been with him all these years?”
I lean in closer to the screen, pausing it on the clearest part, and spot the driver. The camera is up high to catch speeding motorists, so the angle gives us a strange view inside the cab of the SUV, but I can see the torso and thighs of the driver with the light coming from a nearby streetlamp, but the person doesn’t look feminine to me.
“Can you screenshot this part and clear up the pixelation?” I ask as I squint at the screen.
Gio nods and clicks away, starting an image software and uploading the screenshot to it. I sit closer and hold my breath as he messes with details on the program, bringing clarity to the image by counteracting the red glow of the stop light, and suddenly it’s clear enough to make out the very masculine body of the driver.
“Who the fuck is that?” Drake asks no one in particular.
“No clue, but it sure as shit isn’t a woman.” I reply, looking over to Gio who can’t hide the relief on his face.
I can’t even begin to imagine the betrayal he must feel every time he thinks of his mother’s name on the booking of the room Alan has.
“Have you gotten the room number for the Marionette?” I ask Gio. I hate to even bring it up, but motherly betrayals aside, Maxine and Lexi need us, and we don’t have room for feelings right now.
“No, but I’ll get the information now.” Gio breathes out and rubs his eyes. I know he needs sleep, and I can almost guarantee he’ll be crashing soon. I look over to Drake and see the same thoughts in his eyes.
“You need to sleep, G.” Drake says, “You won’t be any good to anyone if you’re delusional.”
I can see that he’s going to argue, and fuck me if I don’t really blame him, but Drake is right. I put my hand on Gio’s shoulder, his bloodshot eyes turning to me with a cocked brow.
“I’m going to the flower shop; I need to do something there, and I’ll be walking the street to see if I find anyone who might have been there when Lexi was taken. While I’m doing that, you get the room number for the hotel then sleep for a couple of hours.”
He shakes off my hand, his eyes turning angry, “How can I fucking sleep when Lexi and Maxine are probably fucking dying, Luce? How can you even suggest that?”
My mind begins to buzz like static on an old TV with his words, and when he steps into my space with a glint in his eye like he’s itching for a fight, I try to remind myself that the fool hasn’t slept in a couple of days. Sleep deprivation does some crazy things to a person’s mind.
I put my hand on his chest, pushing him back in warning. I may be broken right now, heavy pain meds running through my system, but I’ll be damned if I let Gio’s clouded emotions dictate his actions. Yes, Lexi means something more to me, more than I ever expected she would, but I’m doing everything I can to think with a clear mind. Hell, my sister is out there in the same position as Lexi, and I’m still forcing myself to think wisely.
“Because we need to be thinking straight, G. Thinking as clear as we can because if we screw this up, it’ll be the girls who suffer for it.”
He pushes against my hand, anger clouding his judgment as he speaks through gritted teeth, “You must not have cared about Lexi as much as I thought.”
I feel myself go back to that kid I used to be, the one who took the abusive words his father said to him, the kid who was never strong enough to fight back...but I’m not that kid anymore. For the first time ever, I hit my best friend and knock him against the wall. It kills me, breaks a piece inside of me I never realized existed until this moment, but Gio is not himself, and I refuse to let anyone, especially someone I respect, make me feel like that helpless kid I once was.
I hold my friend against the wall, my forearm across his chest as I growl into his face, “Funny how you thought keeping the truth frommewas the right plan.Hilariousthat you hoarded the truth and covered it up with pretty lies because you thought I’d be the one who would act first and question later.”
I shove off of him and ignore the look of regret in his eye as he steps closer to me, an apology on his lips.
“Seems like you should have kept the truth from yourself, G.” I push past him, my shoulder knocking into his as I yank my jacket off the sofa and pull open his front door.
“Un-fucking-believable.” I hear Drake say, “Where are you going, Luce?’
“To the scene of the accident, then to Maxine’s usual stomping grounds.” I pull out of butterfly knife as I turn around in the threshold of the door. “Let the hacker hack while I get some actual fucking answers.”
Gio is already sitting down, his fingers once again flying across his laptop as though nothing happened, and I’m not entirely sure if that’s more irritating to me or if I just don’t have the fucking patience to be around him right now.
I bring the tip of my knife to brow and salute Drake with it before pulling the door shut behind me. Fuck this day, and fuck Gio’s bullshit hypocrisy. I get he’s losing his mind right now, the weight of fear crumbling his control, but I will not sit back and let anyone take their aggression out on me, especially not my best friend.
I’ll let him cool off for now. I’ll focus on my self-appointed task and let Gio do his thing. Hopefully by the end of the day, he’ll have calmed down, and we’ll be one step closer to finding Lexi and Maxine.
