Liam followed him out of the car and up to the third floor. Seth could hear him jingling keys in his hand, possibly sorting through them for Gerald’s. It was good luck that Gerald had given him a copy for emergencies.
Ignoring the rapid beating of his heart, he allowed Liam to unlock the door, and then he made the man step away so he could enter first. He nearly swore out loud when the door opened directly into a destroyed living room. The couch had been flipped onto its side, and the stuffing was ripped out of the cushions. White fluff and yellow foam littered the open area like confetti. Broken glass winked in the overhead light from the shattered coffee table. The flat-screen TV was pulled off the wall and lay at an odd angle on the floor.
“Oh, God! Gerald!” Liam cried. He tried to take a step into the apartment, his chest bumping into Seth’s back, but Seth dug his heels in.
“Wait! You’ve got to wait a second, Liam!” Seth said between clenched teeth.
“But if Gerald is in there—”
“I don’t think he is,” Seth spit out. His words stopped Liam’s attempts to force his way into the apartment. “If they’d found Gerald at home, they wouldn’t have threatened you at the shop. They probably trashed his apartment first, looking for him or the money.”
He could feel Liam’s chest slump a little bit, and his breathing slowed. Seth turned around to face Liam, taking in his tortured expression as his eyes flitted from one broken object to the next. Seth touched Liam’s cheek, and Liam jerked away as if waking from a bad dream.
“We need to be quick, in case they’re watching the place and I didn’t see them,” Seth said when Liam finally looked at him. “We don’t touch anything. We’re looking for things that might be missing. Clues as to where Gerald might have gone.”
Liam nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”
Seth tried to give Liam one last reassuring smile, but the man was gazing into the apartment again.
They did need to move fast. They weren’t followed. He just knew it. And he didn’t see anyone in the parking lot that gave off a bad vibe. But the trashed apartment left his skin crawling.
Stepping inside, Seth moved so Liam could enter and then shut the door behind him. Liam moved slowly with his arms folded tightly over his chest as if it was the only way he could keep himself from touching anything.
Seth followed close behind Liam as they crossed through the one-bedroom apartment with the tiny balcony. All the furniture and electronics were destroyed, not that there was a lot. The furniture itself looked to be quite old, judging by the wear on the fabric that wasn’t torn. The dishes pulled out of the cabinets weren’t numerous. A number of takeout menus scattered around the place. Apparently, Gerald wasn’t much of a cook.
They silently checked the bathroom. Everything had been pulled off the counter and thrown onto the floor. The medicine cabinet was hanging open, but things largely looked as if they were still in place.
“Did Gerald take any medication?” Seth inquired.
“No, I don’t think so. He never mentioned it to me if he did. Why?”
Seth stood in the middle of the small bathroom, mentally cataloguing the items he saw. “Just wondering something. There’s no deodorant or toothpaste. I also don’t see a toothbrush.” He motioned for them to continue to the last room.
The bedroom was exactly like the others. The bed was taken apart and the mattress torn open. The dresser drawers were all pulled out and thrown around the room along with the contents. The folding closet doors were pushed open, and all the clothes had been ripped from the hangers. Boxes that had likely been stacked on the overhead shelf were torn down and opened.
“Can you tell if anything is missing?” Seth asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Liam looked at him like he’d lost his mind as he waved his hands at the aftermath of the cyclone that had ripped through the room.
“Do you know what Gerald’s luggage looks like?”
“What?”
“Have you seen his luggage?” Seth repeated slowly and evenly. Liam had to feel overwhelmed by everything, but he was the only one who could help them with Gerald.
“Um. Yeah. He’s got this one roller bag. Big, black, with a hard body. He brags that no airline will ever break it. The thing even has one of those phone-charging ports.”
As if finally catching on to what Seth was saying, Liam twisted around, his eyes darting over the room. “It’s not here. We haven’t seen it.” He continued to look around the room, his voice growing higher in pitch as he spoke. He dug through the clothes piled on the floor. “His favorite shirt is missing. Several shirts I know he wears a lot are missing.”
Seth grunted. It was what he’d started to suspect, but coming to Gerald’s apartment had been about confirming it. “That means he had enough time to pack before he left town. He didn’t just grab his phone and wallet, then jump into a car. He had a plan, packed a bag, and went somewhere.”
“I…I don’t get it,” Liam stammered in a low voice. He opened and closed his fists at his sides in a helpless gesture, as if he were trying to pull answers out of the empty air. “Why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t he come to me?”
“Liam, we need to get out of here.”
“He just left me! He packed a fucking bag and he left me alone to face this mess he made!”
Seth’s heart broke for the man. His face was pale, causing the bruises to stand out even more while unshed tears glistened in his eyes. It didn’t make any sense. How could anyone betray someone as kind and warm as Liam? He didn’t deserve to be treated so poorly.
But hashing out what Gerald did or didn’t do couldn’t be handled while standing in the middle of his destroyed apartment.
Technically, they were standing in the middle of a crime scene, and that just made things fucking complicated.
To add to the fun, there was always a chance Gerald’s place was being watched by the people he owed. Seth’s job was to keep Liam out of danger.
“Liam, we need to go to your place. Now.”
The older man stared at him, eyes glistening, but his lips were pressed into a hard, mutinous line. He wasn’t done raging, and Seth couldn’t fucking blame him.
“We’ll go to your place, have a drink, and brainstorm. It’s too dangerous for us to stay here any longer.”
Liam finally gave the smallest nod and led the way through the carnage to the front door. Seth didn’t breathe easily again until they were in his car and on the expressway, heading across the Ohio River to Liam’s apartment in Northern Kentucky.
The apartment complex wasn’t too different from Gerald’s, except that Liam had managed to find one almost completely surrounded by woods. The rush of the city wasn’t far from his doorstep, with its surplus of shopping and restaurant options, but the swath of trees helped to create a feeling of being away from all that chaos.
As the headlights swept over the dark trees, Seth could see how Liam was drawn to this location. The man seemed like he was born to be out wandering in nature. He wouldn’t be surprised in the least if little birds and deer came right up to him in greeting.
But the thick grouping of trees also offered excellent cover for people trying to hurt Liam. Never gonna happen. No one was touching Liam again.