Page 143 of Filthy Liar

“If we find Zav and have to tell him you weren’t eating, he’d freak out,” Reid said as he stood and grabbed her bowl, sliding it closer to us. “We need to tell him we were fine while he was gone.”

“But we aren’t.”

“No, but you’ll only make him feel like shit if you don’t look after yourself. We can’t do much until we find another lead, so eat the soup and forget the toast if you want. We’re going to bring him home, baby. We’re going to need our strength to go get him.”

That seemed to work, and I kept a hold of her as she went back to eating her soup from her spot on my lap.

We ended up trying to come up with a plan over the next few hours, and I was glad when Raven fell asleep on my lap on the couch as I ran my fingers through her hair.

“Good news,” Beckett said quietly, not wanting to startle Raven awake. “Cruz found another bread crumb. The cars were abandoned in Acacia Creek.”

“How is that good news?” Reid asked with confusion, and Ander looked thoughtful as he answered.

“Narrows down the area to search again. That’s what? Two hours away?”

“Yep. It means they’ve at least gone that far. I might check in with Mom and see if we can get a group together to head down that way,” Beckett nodded, Raven stirring on my lap.

“What’s going on?” she mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

“Another lead. The cars were dumped in Acacia Creek,” I replied, helping her sit up.

“We can’t find them if they’ve abandoned the cars,” she said in a panic, but Beckett waved off her concern.

“This is good. Something like that should’ve been covered up more, so Antonio has to be leaving us a trail. I’m going to go call Mom, I’ll be back in a second,” she said as she headed outside with Maddox right behind her.

They’d barely been gone a minute before Ander stood so abruptly that his chair fell over, startling all of us.

“Jesus, dude. What the fuck?” Reid growled, but Ander shushed him as he stared down at his phone, his eyes wide.

“Antonio texted me.”

“What?” Raven asked in a hopeful voice, already climbing off my lap to look. He turned the phone, relief filling me. He was definitely on our side.

Unknown: Don’t ask questions. Darwin Hills, abandoned warehouse.

There were a bunch of numbers in the message too, and Ander was already dialing Cruz’s number.

“What do the numbers mean?” Raven asked, voicing my question.

“Coordinates,” Ander said, his voice sharp as Cruz answered. “I’ve got something. We’re coming over right now.”

“I’m coming too,” Raven said quickly, and when Reid went to obviously argue, Beckett walked back in. “Of course you’re coming, that’s your man in trouble. We don’t leave that saving the world bullshit to the men. Mom’s texting Stone and she was told something’s happening. Was that you?”

“Antonio reached out. I couldn’t say it over the phone in case they’re listening in. I’ve got the location, so let’s go,” Ander said as he grabbed his keys, all of us heading out to the cars. I wanted to stay with Raven, but she looked torn between us and Ander as he practically dove into his Supra.

“Go, Rae. You’ll make him drive safer,” I said as she nodded and followed him. I hoped I was right and he didn’t kill the pair of them on the way there.

Reid and I climbed into Beckett’s Mustang as Maddox headed for his Charger, all of us taking off towards Rawson Grove.

“You think this is more bullshit like last time?” Reid asked, and Beckett shook her head as she followed the other two cars along the road, Ander surging ahead.

“I think Antonio’s given us a very small window to do something. I hope so anyway. If Stefano took Zav because of information, there’s no reason to keep him alive. This might be our only chance at bringing him back in one piece. We have to play this smart.”

That was what worried me.

What if they caught onto us and we were too late?

Was one of my best friends already fucking dead?

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