Worth Any Risk

Ch. 18 Aftermath

*Cole

The message blooms bright blue in the fading afternoon light.

Jordan: please come fast

I set my beer down on Javier's patio table, adrenaline spiking in my system already. "Hey, man. I gotta go. There's something up."

"No problem," Javier says. He lifts his son off his lap, and gives him a playful swat to send him indoors. I'm walking fast to my car, and he hurries to catch up. "Is there a problem?"

"I don't know. I hope not. I'll call you later and we'll find a moment to get those parts I told you about."

There are a few things I can easily replace on the old Corvette, and I was looking forward to seeing Javier a few more times before leaving for good. Worry for Jordan fills me now, though, and I wave curtly.

Seconds later, I'm speeding along the winding road around the town to her house on the outskirts, in the forest.

I'm glad I left the camper at her house and took my smaller, faster car or these turns would be deadly. The Corvette is barely stopped and I jump out. She's on the porch, face ashen and hand on her stomach. Something is very wrong.

I run up to kneel in front of her. She's staring off as if dead. Dry, blackened streaks mark her cheeks from crying. Worse—a red scuff darkens her upper cheek, near her eye. I want to kiss her or burn something to the ground. Probably both.

"Jordan, baby?" I stroke her hair and cup her cheek. "Hey, I'm here. What happened?"

"He doesn't know where Trey is." Her voice is brittle and thin as the winter's wind.

"Who doesn't know? What happened?" I sit next to her and wrap my arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. Her skin is clammy and cold and she's stiff and unbending in my arms. My pulse picks up and adrenaline is spiking my muscles. I'm ready to fight, but I don't know who the enemy is.

"Brandon was here when I got home," she says.

I'll kill him. I keep calm for the time-being, though. She skittish and hurting and I don't want to make it worse by pounding my fist in the porch. "What did he do?"

"He told a bunch of lies, as usual. But I think..." Her voice fades for a moment. "I think I have unraveled a few of the lies from the truth. He's always been smart like that you know? It took me a long time to figure it out when we were younger, but he's a good liar, like Trey, because he always puts some truth in there."

I need concrete answers, while she's dancing around the facts. "Tell me what he said and what he did to you, baby."

It's as if she doesn't hear me, though. She keeps talking on the same line of reasoning. "I think there is some truth about his plans for this weekend. Did he invite you to the lake?"

"Yeah, and I pretended to be interested. I intend to talk to him alone well before this weekend."

"He said you were eager to go and you had prostitutes lined up to meet you there."

"That," I said, hands folding into clenched fists, "is a lie. He brought up—"

"I know it is. That's not you at all. That's pure Brandon. But you, see? A nugget of truth inside the lie. He also said he pretended to be on Trey's side when Trey kidnapped Emma, so he could get information. Then he said, he wished he had information about him, just so he would have the pleasure of not telling me."

"Why would he..." I paused. She was holding herself stiff and very still, hands on her stomach since I arrived. What was going on? Did he hurt her?