“Are you here to bust my balls or fucking help?” I sneer. “Cause if you want a replay of last night then get the hell out of here. I don’t need that shit from you.”
Cason sighs, then comes into my room and walks over to the bed. He turns and heaves out another big breath before falling back onto the mattress. I look closely at him and realize he looks just as exhausted as I do. His eyes are sunken in and dark. He didn’t sleep any more than I did. I knew he didn’t believe that shit he was spitting about Fallon, but I needed him to figure that out.
“You’re right, man.” He sighs as if it stings that he’s in this position at all. “It’s fucking with my head. I don’t think I could handle it if she chose to leave us for real. Mentally, I need her to be here. She keeps me grounded, Jess.”
He shakes his head out, and I stand back. I get it—the important women in his life always leave. But Fallon isn’t like his mom. She wouldn’t just walk away from us. He knows that, but the idea of her leaving probably stings just as much as his mom never coming back.
“I’m sorry, man. She is family, and I know she wouldn’t leave us by choice,” he says as he sits up to look at me. The deep-rooted pain from his childhood is visible on his face. Even his posture is weak and tired. He allows himself to be vulnerable in front of me, and I only know of one other person that he’s been able to show this side of himself to. And she’s out there somewhere without us.
I’ll find her.
“Yeah, I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have stepped up to you like that. You’re my brother, and I needed you to have my back,” I ruffle my hair and sit next to him on the bed, “I just . . . I need her, and if something bad happened to her . . .”
I choke on the words. I can’t think about it, and I definitely can’t say it. She’s out there somewhere, and she’s fine. She just needs to be found, like that day she wandered off and fell asleep on the bench at the bus stop. At least, that is what I am going to keep telling myself until I find her. I ruffle my hair and rub my hands over my face.
“I know.” Cason says as he places his hand on my shoulder, “And you know I always have your back. I need you to not doubt that, man.”
The doorbell rings, and I look up to Cason. “You expecting someone?”
“Nah, man.” He says with a shake of his head. He looks just as confused as I am. It’s way too early for someone to be gracing our doorstep.
We both head downstairs towards the front door, but Jade beats us to it. We find her standing in the door with a snarl on her face. Jade might not be a Callaway man, but she still has our blood. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of her, because she will bite.
“What do you want?” Jade asks through bared teeth.
“Where’s Cason? I need to talk to him.” A girl’s voice comes from the other side of the door. It’s obvious from her tone she couldn’t care less that Jade was about two seconds from pouncing.
“Narni?” Cason visibly perks up as he reaches for the door to open it wider. The girl that walked away from Cason last night is standing on our front porch. I wouldn’t have expected it from the female version of Cason.
Jade takes half a step back as an astonished, wide-eyed look mixes with the anger and annoyance on her face. “Are you for real?” she asks incredulously. She definitely does not approve of this.
“What?” Cason says to Jade as she rolls her eyes and purposely bumps her shoulder against his as she storms off. Oh, Cason buddy.
“Hey,” Narni says as she swipes at her hair nervously with her hands. “I, uh, need to talk to you.”
Her eyes reach mine, the fear in them distorting the tone in her voice from the casual nonchalance I just heard to something much more hesitant. “Both of you.”
Fuck. This isn’t going to be good.
Cason looks back at me, confused. I shrug my shoulders and walk out onto the front porch to face her.
“Ok. You have our attention,” I say as I stand right in front of her, feet spread, arms crossed and glaring down at her as she watches me apprehensively.
“I just . . . Crank and Goose told me what happened last night at the party.” She shuffles her feet. She’s uncomfortable. Good. She should be. I’m not playing games, and she better not be wasting my time. “About Fallon.”
“Yeah? And? Spit. It. Out,” I growl, stepping in to close the inch of space left between me and this chick.
“Chill, bro,” Cason says in a hiss as he wedges himself between us. He’s protecting her. My eyes dart to his, wondering what the fuck this is all about. Cason protects no one but his family—especially not some hook up.
“You know what? I shouldn’t have come. This wasn’t a good idea.” Narni throws her hands up and starts to back away. Cason reaches out to catch her by the arm, firmly keeping her in place.
“Why are you here, Narni?” he asks. His voice is soft with her, softer than I would have expected given it’s Fallon we’re discussing.
She looks back at Cason, her eyes searching his for something. She’s reading him, I realize. “Jordan didn’t know anything?”
Cason darts a quick look back to me before responding to Narni. “No. Why would Jordan know anything?”
“I thought . . . Maybe not . . .” she shakes her head as she tries to turn away from us again. But Cason still has a firm grip on her. “I thought I saw Jordan and Mira talking to Fallon last night.”
I cut my eyes to Cason again. Dread building in my gut. “You thought or you did?”
“I did. They were definitely talking,” she says as she runs an unsteady hand through her hair again.
“Cason . . .” I say cautiously. He doesn’t need me to finish. He knows what my next move is—because he’d do the same thing.
“On it. Narni . . . Just stay here. Don’t move.”
“Uh yeah, right.”
Cason sprints inside with his phone already to his ear before he even crossed the threshold to the front door. I stare at Narni.“Is that it?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Yeah. What else would there be?”
“Just checking,” I say as I prop myself against the side of the house. “You don’t seem like the type to rat.”
“And you don’t seem like the type to let a rotten egg continue to stink, but yet here we are,” she says as she shrugs her shoulders.
My shoulders tense as I push off the siding and stand straight. I take a step in her direction, wondering what the fuck she’s talking about. “What does—”
Cason comes bundling out of the front door just in time to cut me short. “Let’s go.”
I began bounding down the porch stairs towards the driveway, feeling the adrenalin begin to course through my veins. Somebody better know something. “You too, girl,” I throw over my shoulder as I head towards the car.
“What? I’m not going,” she begins to say.
I spin and cut her off as I backtrack the few steps needed to get up into her face. “Right now, you seem to be the only person who knows anything about where my girl is. Until I can confirm you know nothing else in that pretty little head of yours or tell you otherwise, you will stick close. So you can either get in the car, or I can put you in there. I’m not giving you a choice.”