Page 50 of What's Left of Me

He nodded. “I think my brother’s right.”

“And with that I leave you with a go-fuck-yourself.” Nick sauntered out with two middle fingers raised.

I chuckled. “I’m willing to have this talk again, Noel. Though maybe we make sure we’re positive, and who knows, while you’re doing that, maybe the cops and FBI will have caught him by then and it’ll all be moot.”

“You have more faith in our system than I ever will, but yeah, that could happen. But Phoenix, if it comes down to your safety or your moral compass, I’m going to make sure you’re safe for as long as I can. Even if it means you’ll hate me.”

I wrapped my arms around him, my face pressing against his chest. “I could never hate you, Noel.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, you know.”

I laughed. “I’m sure you will.” I lifted my face to see him. “Thank you for caring about me so much.”

“Phoenix, caring about you is the easiest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

“Thank you all the same.”

“My pleasure.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Noel

The followingmorning brought nothing but bad news after bad news. It was proof that the investigation had no true leader and the authorities’ grip on it was slipping drastically.

We were sitting at the dining room table, having breakfast, when the first wave of horror came through. We’d all had our notifications on for breaking news since no one had been forthcoming in sharing anything with this investigation.

When all of our phones vibrated, we collectively looked.

“Fuck,” Shep growled.

“What is it?” Phoenix had a phone we’d given him, but he rarely had it on him so he didn’t know what we were reading.

“Another kidnapping,” Hazel answered and showed him. “‘Jason Highland, age twenty-three, was seen on CCTV cameras outside Herman’s Grocers on Porter Avenue last night at seven, being forcefully pushed into a black van,’” she read aloud.

I scrolled the article to see a close-up picture of him. The family had offered one of his theater pictures, and fuck if hedidn’t look similar to Phoenix. He was trying to replace him, knowing he couldn’t.

My gaze met Hazel’s—hell, I glanced at everyone at the table, and there was no way they didn’t see it too.

Phoenix wasn’t dumb and once his face fell, I knew he’d seen it also.

“Do we know who’s running this case now, or is Rose still on it? Because this is fucking insane.” Angel slammed his phone on the table. “Is everyone sitting around with their thumbs up their asses, waiting for this guy to walk into a police station and say, ‘Hey, fuckers, here I am’? Because that’s what it feels like.”

“Rose is still on the case, but a new agent is in charge,” Nick answered. He’d been trying to watch the comings and goings of the FBI and other agencies on this.

“Maybe we need to contact the agent in charge. They may be more receptive to our help.” JJ shrugged. “Worth a try.”

My phone vibrated again and when I looked at it, it showed a vehicle coming down our street, a black SUV.

“We have a visitor.” I stood and moved over to the door.

“Who’s that?” Nick was also watching his phone.

The SUV stopped, they talked to the police at the end of our driveaway, and then they were waved in. No one had notified us that we had visitors, which was disturbing since we’d specified that no surprise guests were allowed.

“Something tells me we’re about to meet the new agent in charge,” Gabe mumbled as he started clearing the breakfast dishes.

I had a feeling he was right. By the time the SUV made it to the top of our driveway, we’d gotten the dishes into the kitchen and were getting settled in the living room. All of us except Matt were here, definitely enough to show a united front on whatever shit show we were about to hear.

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