Page 77 of Breaking Conviction
Wes started dialing the phone before he even got to the stairwell. He took it two at a time and had to call again to make sure the shitty service wasn’t the reason why the call dropped. The dial tone mocked him on the other line until it cued the voice mail.
“Hey, lov-Naomi, I, uh, I know I said I’d give you time. And I am, I swear. I just wanted to double-check something really quick. Call me when you get this. Please.” He emphasized the last word for good measure, hoping he didn’t sound so worried that he scared her, but concerned enough for her to know he was serious.
What was going on? She’d gotten a call from Thea’s day care. Was everything okay with Thea?
Fuck, I should’ve asked on the voice mail.
Once he shouldered open the door to the second floor, he practically ran toward Naomi’s room, halting about ten feet away.
“Please be here…” He was so close and desperately wanted to just chalk his intuition up to paranoia. All he had to do to find out was walk up to her door and knock. No big deal. But that awful feeling twisting his gut made him hesitate. The quietwhirrof the air conditioning and gentle hum of the refrigerator put the silence everywhere else in stark relief.
He finally closed the gap between his hope that she’d still be there and the reality that he could’ve just scared her off for good. Leaning into the metal door, he prayed to hear something, anything, behind it. After several minutes of absolutely nothing but the AC, the refrigerator, and his pounding heart, he rapped his knuckles against the metal door, only to have it open slightly.
“Naomi?” He pushed the door open and saw…
Nothing.
Naomi and Thea hadn’t had much, but there wasn’t a trace of them in the room. None of Thea’s toys. No clothes on the floor. He walked in a daze toward the bathroom, but again, nothing. Not even a toothbrush. After a half-turn around in the room, scanning for any indicator of where she’d gone, he thumbed through his phone and found her name again.
“Come on… pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pickup,” Wes growled over the mocking dial tone.
“Dude, calm down.”
Wes whipped around, finding Phoenix resting his shoulder against the doorjamb and felt an anger that had been brewing for over a year finally bubble up.
“Snake, you gotta chill the fuck out, man. Ain’t no way you’ll get her back with that crazy look in your eye right now. You’re on the verge of psychopathic stalker mode.”
“Shut the fuck up, Phoenix.” Wes couldn’t help the feeling that maybe he was already there. Nor could he help the overwhelming feeling that all this was partly Phoenix’s fault. “Why did you take her down to the fucking interrogation room? Youknewwhat would happen.”
“Hey, man, I’m not the one who fuckin’ lost it on a mission yesterday. If you’d just kept your cool, she wouldn’t have had that reaction today.”
“The voice mail box you are trying to reach is full. Goodbye.”
Frustrated with Phoenix, with Ascot, but mostly with himself, Wes grumbled curses back at the robotic woman’s voice before shoving his phone back into his pocket. He swiped his face, pushing up his glasses with the movement before groaning out a loud curse.
“Talk to me, dude. What the hell’s wrong—”
Wes whirled around on Phoenix and pushed him in the chest. “She’sgone, Phoenix! Gone! Because ofyou! You brought her down on purpose! Why?”
Phoenix’s mock concern on his face melted, leaving a grim fury in its place. “Fuck you, Snake. You don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about.”
All of Wes’s frustration surfaced until he asked the question he’d been wondering ever since the interrogation had started. “Why weren’t you down there with us already, anyway? Was it because you were hungover? Or what? What’d you do? Wait for just the right time to go ahead and turn Naomi against me? Why do you hate me so much, Phoenix? Huh?”
Wes pushed him again, but Phoenix only took a step back. Why he was taking it, he didn’t know. The lack of reaction was too much for Wes and his vision darkened. Red filtered in around the edges and he panted like he’d just been in a fight.
Phoenix just maintained his silence, both calming Wes down and enraging him more.
“What is it? You’re always shit-talking me in meetings, never following my direction on a mission, insisting on blamingmefor the disaster that was our last mission in MF7. What the fuck is wrong with you? We used to be friends, man… and now… Fuck, now you might as well be my enemy.”
“You’re not my enemy.” But Phoenix’s words came out flat, as if he didn’t truly believe it himself.
“Then why did you bring her down there? You could’ve texted me to come up or warn me, why would you—”
“Maybe she needs to see what we do! Have you ever thought of that? Maybe she needs to see what we’re capable of. It’s better she knows now who she’s gettin’ in bed with than find out later!”
“Where is this coming from? We’re trying to help shut down the trafficking ring. We’re the good guys in this situation. Yeah, we might have to get our hands dirty, but at least we’re not kidnapping and killing innocent people. What the fuck are you talking about?”
Phoenix scrubbed his head hard before slamming his hat back onto his scalp. “Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their story. But since Yemen, hasn’t it ever occurred to you that maybe we’re the villains? Think about it, man. All those women we were supposed to save? Gone. Dead or God knows what else. What would’ve happened if we’d just left them alone? Would it have been better for them?”
