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“Who’s that?” Ollie asks on the line, and my dad switches the phone tospeakerso I can hear clearer.
“My kid.”
“Sean—”
“I trust him.”
“Is he alone?”
My dad nods to me. “You alone?”
“Yeah,” I lie, knowing Oscar and Farrow will be close by wherever I go. They’re my tail.
“You don’t want to be a part of this, Sean,” Ollie cautions. “This isn’t gonna be good for either of you.”
“He’s right,” my dad tells me. “They’ll set you up and take you down with them. The damage is already done—”
“No,” I cut in. “They have Luna.”
“The daughter of the rich prick who hates you?” He frowns. “So?” Then he sees my torn expression. He takes an agonizing beat before speaking to his cousin. “Tell me where they are, Ollie.”
He sighs. “This is a mistake.”
“Where are they?”
“The place where you and I first got high.”
No address I can plug in or text to the team. A place I know nothing about.
“Thanks,” my dad says.
“Bye, Sean.” It sounds like a solemn, forever goodbye.
After they hang up, I tell him, “You don’t have to come with me. Just give me the address.”
He shakes his head. “I just got you back. If you go in there alone, I don’t know what they’d do to you. They don’t all like you. So you want to see her; you need me.”
Can I trust him? Before this, I’d saybarelyandnot at all.Now, I’d say,I do.Unrelentingly and almost undoubtedly, I do. Don’t know why exactly. It’s more feeling than logic, but feelings can betray you.
I wonder if it’s because he’s my only shot at finding her. I have to trust him. There is no other path. No other way to Luna.
There’s no time to argue. “Alright. Take me to her.”
He leads the way, and as soon as we exit the bathroom, my head snaps to the TV screen. A breaking news story has replaced hockey.
“…again, we have limited information,” the news anchor says over helicopter footage of the smashed rental car and dead-end road. “But it’s confirmed that Lily Calloway has been hospitalized after an assault in Center City. It’s unclear whether this was a mugging or a targeted attack. We also don’t know which of her children were present with Lily at the time of the assault…but okay, we have more breaking news to report. We’ve just receivedgraphicphotos of the scene with Lily Calloway. Please remember, these aregraphicand should be viewed with caution.”
Don’t air them.
“Don’t air them,” I mutter out loud. “Why are they gonna fuckin’ air them?”
My dad watches me twist away from the TV as soon as the first brutal image hits the screen. He tells me, “There’s how they got paid.”
The money.They took photos of Lily and sold them to their journalist connection. Did the journalist also know they were the ones who beat her up? Were they okay with that?
“Why would they take Luna?” I ask him.
His gaze darkens. “I dunno. Honestly, I don’t.”
