Page 138 of Magic or Madness

Come … Here …

“Ozzy!Hey, we have a new email, come here!” I hear Lex yelling, but I’m not on the beach anymore.

I open my eyes, realizing that I’m in the dealership, and everything in my head was a lie.

It was a dream.

It felt so real, with Masha and Fallon, but I wasn’t there with them,whereverthat place was. I’m still trapped in the confines of my own hell, begging for something to help me find Fallon.

“Come here, Oz,” Lex repeats, and I rub my eyes, bringing myself into reality.

“What is it?”

“New email. He’s proposing a deal, and you aren’t going to like it,” he says, spinning the laptop around to face my side of the desk.

I read it over multiple times, trying to process what he’s demanding.

In exchange for Fallon, he wants a million dollars, and our word that we won’t back out on him again. He’ll also keep Doc’s disappearance a secret, but that sounds like more leverage to me.

“What do you think?” Lex pulls on my arm, begging me to say something, and I throw my hands in the air, at a complete loss.

“Fuck! I don’t know. We need her back, but what, we’re his lackeys now? We live terrified that he’ll pluck one of us out of bed when we talk back? This is fucking insane. We have nothing else to lead us to her?” I run my hands through my hair, desperate for this to be over with.

“Hey, what can we do to help?” Journey interrupts, with Max standing behind him.

He’s a fucking mess, unshaven and in the same clothes he was wearing the night he smashed shit, but he’shere. That’s all that matters.

When I see the daylight beaming through the windows I realize I was out all night. Lex must’ve slipped something in my drink because for the first time in a while, I feel like I actually slept.

I’m not happy about it, but that’s nowhere near the top of my priority list.

“Are you here to help, or to talk shit? Fallon is theonlything that matters right now,” I bark, nodding my head at Max and allowing him one split-second to stay, or run.

“Here to help, Ozzy. I’m so sorry –” he starts, but I cut him off, not interested in apologies.

“Go clean yourself up. We need you,” I tell him, turning my attention back toward the computer.

I scan the message again, and I close my eyes, trying to think of what Fallon would say to this.

The money we can get. It’s in Jacksonville, and someone can make that drive. It’d be here in twelve, maybe thirteen hours. Working for this guy is where I pump the brakes, not sure if it’s the right move. I could lie, agree to the deal, then turn our backs, but then we’d end up in the same predicament we’re in now.

This guy wants us, and I can’t figure outwhy.

The Doc blackmail isn’t enough to hang over our heads, and rather than walking away, he’s upped the stakes, kidnapping Fallon in return for our employment.

It’s all so very strange, and I have to wonder if he’s someone we know, or even was connected to Doc, in a different era. It’s too personal to be random, and if anyone’s been watching us, they’d know Fallon is our weakest point.

“Lex. We’re being watched,” I say ominously, thinking out loud.

“How so?”

“It’s too personal. Someone has to know us to weaken us at the knees this way. Taking Fallon wrecks us all, and whoever he is, knows that. We’re being watched,” I explain, pacing around the small office.

“I have software for that, nobody has hacked our phones or laptops,” he says, tapping away at the keys.

“Then it’s up close surveillance. Have you noticed anyone on the cameras, or in town, maybe?”

“I’ve been monitoring them every day, as I always do, and nothing has come across as alarming. I will comb over some footage again, maybe there’s something I missed,” he offers, and I nod, letting him get on it.

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