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There’s a pause. “No. Why?” His voice gets deeper, sensing something is wrong.
I tell him the quick version about Kali being here and Ari going missing. And then I shudder internally, knowing what’s coming next. “We also found out who buried Kali alive.”
“Who?” he barks.
Ted’s a big guy. And I have a feeling his bite is bigger than his bark. I take a deep breath and blow it out. “Remember Kali talking about Pearl? It was her and her ex-husband.” I hear Amy’s gasp in the background. “And that’s not it.”
“What aren’t you telling us?”
“Pearl is my mom.”
“It was your mom?” he roars into the phone. The guilt is already eating me alive, so his words can’t make it worse. I hear Amy in the background asking something, but he hushes her. “And now she’s missing?”
“Everyone is out looking for her. I promise we’ll find her.”
“You better,” he warns.
“Leave that poor boy alone,” Amy says in the background.
“Keep us updated,” he says, and then hangs up without letting me reply.
The distant hum of traffic surrounds me as I sit in my car trying to figure out who else it might be. I can’t imagine she’d leave with anyone knowing how much danger she’s in. A chill runs down my spine, afraid she didn’t leave on her own. Martinez’s text pulls me back to reality, demanding I get to the station, stat—they found who she left with.
CHAPTER 43
Kali
“Kali, wake up.”
I take a minute between the time I hear my name to open my eyes. My hands are bound behind me, and I’m sitting in a chair. In front of me, at the far end of a lengthy table, sits Chip. A gun rests right in front of him, a silent, implicit threat. His eyes are red and swollen as if this were causing him pain.
“It was you,” I hiss, the accusation escaping my lips.
He bows his head and nods.
“Why?” I scream, tugging against my restraint. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Tears shimmer in his eyes. No! He doesn’t get to cry. “Please calm down, Kali. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
I seize up, a deer-caught-in-the-headlights response. How much more condescending can he be? How on earth am I supposed to calm down? With a level voice, I respond, “Besides the fact that you’ve already hurt me, I’m tied to a chair after being drugged! Again!” Okay, so my voice didn’t stay level. I’m screaming by the end. “Why would I believe you?”
My attention flickers to the gun and back to him. He catches the shift in my focus and sighs. Panic surges through me when he stands up, taking the gun with him. I jerk to the left, away from him, as if the inches of space between us will somehow stop a bullet. He places the gun in front of me and returns to his seat. I pinch my brows together. I’m not complaining. It’s not within his arm’s reach anymore. But it’s not of any use to me either.
“Where’s Ari?” My voice trembles as I demand an answer.
“The other girl and your friend, that was Carl.”
None of this makes sense.
“You want to know why, so I’m going to tell you. Then I’ll let you go.”
Let me go? I can almost taste the skepticism hitting the back of my throat. There is no way he’s going to spill his guts and then allow me to walk out of here like I just left a friend’s house.
I keep quiet, my heartbeat echoing in my ears.
He licks his lips, and a heavy sigh escapes him before he begins. “Beth was my high school sweetheart. Or Pearl, as you call her.” My eyes fly open wide. What the actual hell? They’ve known each other this entire time? “I always knew I couldn’t keep her. She was this wildfire, and I was the chubby kid in school who played oboe. Man, I loved her. I could feel it in my bones. But as I expected, she broke up with me when we graduated but kept me at arm’s length, just enough to leave me with hope. Until she met Paxton’s dad. He was able to tame her wildfire.”
It’s hard to accept he’s talking about Pearl. I replay the countless times we have all been in the same room, and I never sensed any history between them. “After Paxton’s dad died, she reached out to me. I had lost weight, became a cop, and was confident in myself. It was going to be our time. There was hope again.”
