Page 134 of Contentious

Julian honestly couldn’t imagine life without his grandfather smack in the middle of everything, minding everyone’s business and passing out wisdom, whether they wanted it or not. He’d say, Who cares if you want it? You need it.

Sometimes he wondered what would’ve become of them all without Spencer’s steady hand on their shoulders during the roughest years of their lives. He’d suffered over Carson’s years of addiction, had worked tirelessly to see him through rehab and had even attended countless NA meetings with Carson when he was first out of the final rehab, or the one that’d worked, as they referred to it.

He pulled up to the house he still thought of as Isla’s place, even though she and the kids had spent every night at his house for the past week, and noticed that Carson’s SUV wasn’t there, but Cresley’s was. Where in the hell had he gone? He wasn’t supposed to be driving yet.

Julian got out and went to ring the doorbell, hoping he wasn’t waking his brother. When there was no answer, he knocked on the door and then looked into the window by the side of the door and immediately noticed two cell phones sitting on the table inside the door.

What the fuck?

He called Isla.

“Hey, babe,” she said. “Are you on the way home?”

“Hey, what’s the code to your place again?”

“Seven, six, two, two. Why?”

“I’ll call you back in a few.” With a growing feeling of concern, he let himself into the house and looked down at the phones on the table, recognizing one of them as Carson’s because of the blue case. The other one had a floral pattern on the case. “Carson? Cresley?”

He walked farther into the house and noted a backpack on the floor in the living room and Iron Man paused on the TV. Carson’s laptop sat on the chaise, next to a blanket. A glass of ice water on the side table was beaded with condensation.

A trickle of unease went down his back.

He reached for his phone as it rang with a call from Anthony, who worked for Carson. “Where’s my brother?” Julian asked.

“That’s what I was calling to ask you. He told us Beckett had been arrested and that we could take off, but he’s not answering his phone, and I can’t find anything online about Beckett being arrested.”

“His phone is in the house, along with Cresley’s, Carson’s SUV is gone, and there’s no sign of them or Ty.”

“We brought Ty home an hour ago.”

“His backpack is here, but he’s not. None of them are.”

“He’d never leave his phone, Julian. No way.”

“I’m calling the cops.” Julian ended that call, ignored one from his grandfather and called 911. “I need to report three people missing from a house in Laurel Canyon. They may be with a man who’s wanted for stabbing one of them.”

“Your name, sir?”

“Julian Remington. One of the missing people is my brother Carson, who was released from Cedars today, a week after he was stabbed by Marlon Beckett. He’s with Cresley Dane and her son, Ty,”

“The address of the home?”

He went through the motions of answering the required questions, providing the names of the missing people and drawing a line to Marlon Beckett. “Their cell phones were left on a table inside the door. My brother would never leave without his phone, so my assumption is they were taken against their will.”

How he managed to keep the growing hysteria out of his voice was anyone’s guess.

“I’ve alerted officers in the area. They’re on the way. Would you like me to stay on the phone while you wait for the officers to arrive?”

“That’s okay. Thank you for the help.”

He no sooner ended that call than his grandfather called again. “He’s not here,” Julian told him when he answered. “I’m trying to figure out where he went.”

“His location is at that house, Julian.”

Julian so did not want to have to tell Spencer that Carson was missing. “His phone is here, but he’s not. Neither is Cresley or Ty. I called the police.”

“Oh my God. Do you think Beckett has them?”