Page 16 of The Hate We Breathe
Nolan is quiet for a moment, but if I were to guess, I’d say he’s contemplating the pros and cons of my suggestion. “There’s no telling how long the investigation will take,” he admits. “If this doesn’t get resolved by the time we graduate and we’re set to leave Silverwood, I think we should make that happen.”
The bubble of amusement that rises in my chest at the thought of my father being arrested for murder makes me practically giddy. That kind of plan will need time. The crumbs need to be laid. Lex is going to have more on his plate soon.
“Are you okay with just letting him go to jail?” Nolan asks.
I shrug before I remember he’s not in the car with me and then answer verbally. “As long as he’s away from my mama, then I don’t really give a shit. Do I want the fucker to die horribly and painfully? Yeah, but who’s to say we can’t make that happen while he’s incarcerated?”
“Good point.” There’s some shuffling on the other side of the line following Nolan’s response. “We’ll talk about it with Lex and then put that on the back burner. I want to see if the cops actually do any actual detective work and figure out who the real murderer is or if they’re going to try and pin it all on Juliet.”
My grin fades at that. “Do you think we should try to figure out who it is before they do?” I ask. “Juliet’s mom is still missing. It could’ve been her.”
“If Lex hasn’t been able to find her, then I honestly think she’s probably dead,” Nolan says. “He can find anyone—plus we roped in Viks’ own hacker. They didn’t find shit on Denise Donovan. It’s as if she just vanished.”
Even though I suspect Juliet’s relationship with her mother is as complicated as the one she has with her father, I wonder how she’ll take it if we do find out that the woman is dead. I grimace at the thought and sigh.
“Okay, we’ll take a breather on that,” I say. “For now, we should probably just focus on getting Juliet back to a routine—school and… Do you think she’d go back to The Dionysus Loungenow?”
“Maybe.” Nolan sounds like he is considering. “It’s not like Ma-Ri wanted to fire her. She’s proud, but I think she liked that job. Plus, Madison is there. She’s friends with the girl and she needs that kind of normalcy.”
“You should talk to her about it,” I say. “Convince her.”
“And Ma-Ri?” he asks. “Your father threatened her. I know we handled the man responsible for that, but it was still under Darrio’s orders. Ma-Ri might not feel safe letting her back.”
“Ma-Ri’s a good woman. If we handle Darrio, she’ll hire her back. Juliet is a good employee.”
“We’ll work on it,” Nolan replies. “We should also see if we can figure out who has it out for Juliet while we’re doing all of this.”
“Has it out for Juliet?” I repeat with a frown, glancing down at the phone before I turn onto my family’s street. “What do you mean?”
“You and I both know that this much shit happening to one person can’t be a coincidence. We thought it was Morpheus—the embezzlement, the kidnapping, her mother’s disappearance. Now he’s dead.”
“His death could be wholly unrelated to her,” I suggest. “He threatened her and blackmailed her. He fuckinghurther.” My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel as I utter the words. “A good person doesn’t do any of that—he was probably involved in other shit. He was probably shady as fuck.”
“I know,” Nolan says. “But we can’t rely on that possibility.”
The Firebird’s headlights turn over the back of my father’s pickup truck as I park in the driveway. There’s an inflection in his voice that tells me there’s more he’s not saying. “What are you thinking?”
“It would make more sense if there was one person behind all of this.” I shut off the car, but don’t get out as he keeps talking. “I found it odd that the kidnappers were originally just ordered to take her, then later got a call, ordering them to kill her. That doesn’t match up with what Morpheus seemed to want from her.”
“You think someone else got in the middle and ordered her to be killed,” I guess. “Who?”
“That’s the question we all want answered.” Nolan’s voice is cold. “We may not know who they are, but we do know one thing—they won’t get to her again.”
Over our dead bodies,I silently agree.We’ll burn this whole damn town to the ground if it keeps her safe.
The porch light comes on and the curtains by the front window sway. It’s a warning. My dad knows I’m home and if Mama is peeking out then that means he’s in a shit mood.
“We’ll have to talk about this more later,” I say, removing my keys and slipping them into my pocket. “I’m home—gotta go in.”
“All right, I’ll see you at school tomorrow—it’ll be Juliet’s first day back. She’s riding in with Lex.”
“Roger that, see you then.” I click off the call and get out of the car.
I’m not even halfway up the sidewalk before the front door swings open and a figure fills the entryway. My father isn’t a big man, not by height, but he is a thick man. What he lacks for in vertical inches, he makes up for in bone density. He fills the opening to the house in a way that is both threatening and disapproving. I slow to a stop just before the concrete stairs and tip my head back.
“Where the hell you been, boy?” he demands.
The muscles of my back tighten all over, bunching beneath the fabric of my t-shirt and hoodie. “With the guys,” I answer. “Problem?”
