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JOÃO
I sped around Redwood’s gated communities, checking to see if Mom’s car was parked in any of the driveways and fucking driving myself insane. Though it seemed everywhere I went, I couldn’t find any damn trance of her.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Where the fuck is she?
After taking another loop around the most prestigious part of town, I slammed on my brakes at a red light and punched the steering wheel. She worked here. She fucking worked in this shitty town. She couldn’t have gone far.
She had to be close.
Pulling out my phone, I checked it to see if she had left me any missed calls or texts. But she hadn’t messaged me since last night, a couple moments after she left for work. One single text from her that I would fucking cherish forever.
Mom: Sorry for getting angry with you the other night. I love you, João.
Someone slammed on their horn behind me, and I threw my hand out the window and gave him a hard middle finger. The light in front of me was green, yet I couldn’t find myself able to step on the gas.
Driving around like this wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I had to be smart about where she could’ve gone.
Then, suddenly, it hit me. I clicked on her contact. She had shared her location with me.
Again, the man slammed on his horn. Angrily, I parked my fucking car and stormed out of it, pulling my gun from my waistband and ready to shut this fucking man up. Why the fuck couldn’t he go around me?
When he saw the gun in my hand, he threw the car in reverse, hit a hard U-turn, and sped down the road, deciding to go in the other direction, like he fucking should’ve. Stupid rich assholes who thought they owned the fucking world.
After tucking my gun back into my waistband, I stormed to the car and found Mom’s last known location on Main Street, down in the ritzy part of town. Just as I started the car, Landon jogged up to my car and yanked the door open, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Whose fucking ass are we going to beat?” Landon asked, shaking off some snow and staring at the windshield. He glanced over at me and popped some pain pills into his mouth. “Imani called us.”
“Us?” I asked.
Kai pulled up on his bike beside me and looked in through the open window.
I tightened my hand around the steering wheel and nodded toward downtown, where all the fucking rich snobs would be tonight. “Main Street,” I said to Kai and then shoved my foot on the accelerator and speeding right through a stop light.
Fuck the red lights. I would save Mom tonight.
After speeding to Main Street, I parked my car at the end and shoved my keys into my pocket. One side of the road were restaurants that cost over a hundred dollars a plate, the other side the raging ocean. Waves pounded against the fence of rocks as I stormed down the sidewalk, hurrying to glance into every restaurant to see if she was with anyone tonight.
She never came down here unless it was work.
Unless someone paid her to be their arm candy.
Kai ran his bike up and down Main Street twice, disappearing into the parking garages a couple times and racing back toward me. He paused on the other side of the road and shook his head. “Your mother’s car isn’t here.”
“Fuck!” I shouted, pacing in front of the rocks and glaring out into the dark, raging sea, where yachts would be parked in the summer season. Now, it was cold and empty, like my fucking heart. “She was here. Her phone is here somewhere. It has to be. Her location is on.”
All I could think about was what I would tell Ana.
If Mom was dead, how the fuck could I tell her that? She wouldn’t understand that Mom could never come back to see her, to smile at her, to be there, even when times were rough. Ana deserved to have a family. And Mom didn’t fucking deserve death.
“I told her so many times to quit,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “I fucking told her. I knew some shit was going to happen. I … I’m going to fucking kill whoever did this shit to her. Someone had to have taken her. They must’ve.”
“I’ll drive around again,” Kai said, speeding away.
Landon grasped my shoulder and kept me walking next to him on the sidewalk. “We’re going to find her. Come on. Don’t lose it, João. She’s here somewhere.”
