Page 225 of Things We Never Got Over (Knockemout)
I also had three missed calls in the last five minutes from an Unknown number. Something was wrong.
I headed for the kitchen and scrolled through my contacts for Liza’s number.
“Everything okay, Naomi?” Milford asked as I hustled for the parking lot.
“Yeah. I think so. Just have to make a quick call,” I said before pushing through the exterior door into the cold night air.
I was getting ready to hit Call when headlights from a car blinded me. I held up my hand to block the light and stepped back.
“Naomi.”
My arms dropped limply to my side. I knew that voice.
“Tina?”
My twin sister leaned out the driver’s side window. I felt like I was looking in the mirror again. A fun house mirror. Her formerly bleached hair was now a dark brown and cut short in a style similar to mine. Our eyes were the same hazel. The differences were subtle. She was wearing a cheap fake leather jacket. She had multiple earrings in both ears. Her eyeliner was thick and blue.
But she looked as worried as I felt.
“He’s got Waylay! He took her,” she said.
My stomach dropped, and a wave of nausea crested as every muscle in my body tightened. “What? Who took her? Where is she?”
“It’s all my fault,” Tina wailed. “We need to go. You have to help me. I know where he took her.”
“We should call the police,” I said, remembering I had a phone in my hand.
“Call ’em on the way. We gotta move fast,” she said. “Come on.”
Operating on autopilot, I opened the passenger door and climbed in. I was reaching for my seatbelt when something furry clamped over my wrist.
“What are you doing?” I shrieked.
Tina grabbed my other arm, her fingernails digging into my wrist. I tried to pull away but wasn’t quick enough. She snapped the other cuff in place.
“For the smart one, you sure are stupid,” she said, lighting a cigarette.
My evil twin had just handcuffed me to the dashboard with furry sex cuffs.
“Where’s Waylay?”
“Relax.” She blew a stream of smoke in my direction. “The kid’s fine. You will be too if you cooperate.”
“Cooperate how? With who?” I yanked against the cuffs.
She let out a cackle as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Pretty funny, right? Found those in a box of sex toys in my old asshole landlord’s storage unit.”
“Gross!” I was going to need to scrub myself with bleach when this was over.
My phone was face down on the floor. If I could get to it, I could call someone. I yanked on the cuffs again, yelping when they bit into my skin.
“Got your email,” my sister said conversationally. “Figured between you and that kid of mine, we’d find what I’m lookin’ for real quick.”
“Find what?” I nudged my phone with the toe of my boot in an effort to flip it over. The angle wasn’t quite right, and instead of flipping it over, it slid further under the dash.
“Doesn’t surprise me that you don’t know. One thing that doesn’t suck about my kid is she sure knows how to keep her damn mouth shut. My man and I got our hands on some pretty important information that a lot of people would pay a lot of money to get. Kept it on a flash drive. Flash drive went missing.”
“What does this have to do with Waylay?” This time the nudge was just enough to flip the phone over…and unfortunately turn the screen on. The glow was not subtle.
