Page 92 of Bite the Bullet

Against every instinct in my body, I allowed Pete to call the police. Not that I could have stopped him. With so many other kids involved, there was no way the police weren’t going to get involved. Now, they were grilling everyone, including me. I told them what I could, but it wasn’t any help. I didn’t know where Rico would take my son. I had to assume it was him. I couldn’t think of anyone else that would go after him.

Pete walked over, his hands on hips with a pained look on his face. “Well, we’ve talked with everyone. It wasn’t Rico.”

“What? That can’t be right,” I insisted. “Who else would take my son?”

“I don’t know, but we passed his picture around. Everyone’s pretty damn certain it wasn’t him.”

“Then it was someone that works for him,” I shouted.

“Hey, you need to calm down,” he said, his voice patronizing.

I knew exactly what would happen if I didn’t find my son, and Iwasn’t going to listen to all this bullshit about how he was a cop and knew what I was feeling.

“When your son goes missing, you can calm down and keep your shit together,” I snapped.

“Skylar, I’m on your side and I’m doing everything I can to help.” His eyes flicked around the room. “But if you don’t keep your shit together, my boss is going to make you go to the police station. So, calm the fuck down.”

I closed my eyes, feeling like an idiot. Christ, I was losing it. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, trying to soothe me. “Remember the incident in the locker room? It has to be him or someone he works for.”

My eyes flashed up to meet his. “The man who attacked me. Rico had until midnight to deliver something. This is payback?”

“It fits,” Pete nodded. “It’s gotta be him. We have the gang task force trying to identify him back at the station. With any luck, we’ll get a hit.”

I chewed on my nail, unable to stop the nerves rolling through my body. I just kept thinking of all the worst-case scenarios, how even if I found Parker, he might not be alive. That was something I couldn’t deal with, and if I kept letting my mind wander in that direction, I would come apart.

“Okay, what can I do to help?”

“You need to call Rico.”

That was the absolute last thing I wanted to do, but I knew he was right. “What if he doesn’t answer? What do we do then?”

“One thing at a time,” he said, walking me over to a table. He connected something to my phone and handed it to me. “What’s that?”

“Tracking. We need a lock on Rico’s location, so keep him talking.”

I nodded and found his number in my phone. I hadn’t dialed in all the years I’d known who Rico was. Now, I was calling to beg him to save the son he never wanted. As I waited for him to pick up, I kept eye contact with Pete. He was my rock, the only thing that was saving me from losing my mind.

“Yeah?”

“Rico,” I said, breathing harshly. “It’s Skylar.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Yeah?”

“Rico, I need your help.”

“You need my help?” he said laughingly. “How about you explain why you had all that money saved up at your house? What were you planning to do with that?”

As much as I wanted to turn the tables and yell at him for stealing from me, I had bigger things to worry about right now. “Rico, a man came to see me yesterday at work. I didn’t see who he was, but he said I had to tell him he had until midnight.”

The line was silent.

“Rico?”

“What about it?”

“Was that you?”

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