“This is one hell of a shock,” he said. Dressed in khakis with a button-up shirt that matched his eyes and a knitted, sleeveless pullover he didn’t look like the kind of guy who makes himself at home on the sidewalk, but he did.
A sure sign that the guy was not thinking clearly. Neil was the person I knew who had his shit together the best. Like big time, next level having his shit together. And even he was looking disheveled and just a little wild.
Freckles dusting his nose and cheeks, he had that boy-next-door look that instantly made me like him when I met him. He also happened to have a great sense of humor, and according to Jeremiah, could be a lot of fun when he let his hair down. I hadn’t had the pleasure of experiencing it for myself yet.
Neil kicked a piece of gravel and shook his head. “Who would take Jer? I mean I love the guy, but he’s twenty-six and a pain in the ass if he has to do something against his will. If it’s for ransom, wouldn’t it have been easier to take a kid? I just don’t get it.”
“I don’t think it’s for ransom,” I said. He lifted his eyes to mine, squinting as he raised his brows questioningly. “I think it was Jannie.”
His eyes flew wide open. “Secretary Jannie?”
“Ex-secretary,” I corrected him. I didn’t know why, but it felt important to do it.
Neil flashed me a small smile, then stared off in the distance for a minute before he started nodding his head. “I believe you when you say Jannie’s behind this. It makes sense. She really has gone off the rails, hasn’t she?”
“She has.” Jeremiah told him some of what Jannie had gotten up to with the two of us, but not everything. I quickly filled in the blanks, answering his questions as they came up.
So invested in my conversation with Neil, I didn’t notice Jance walk up until it was too late. His shiny shoes entered my field of vision where I was staring at the concrete while talking to Neil. His voice was a snarled demand when he spoke again.
“Tell me you don’t believe this.”
Neil looked up at Jance, frowning. “Don’t believe what?”
“That Jeremiah’s ex-secretary is responsible for this. It’s preposterous,” he said, small bits of spit leaving his mouth in his anger.
Officer Harrison came up behind him. “It’s only one of the theories we’re—”
“It’s a waste of your time,” Jance said, his voice as sharp as a whip cracking. “There’s no way a woman has kidnapped my fully grown son.”
“She might’ve had help, sir,” Officer Harrison tried again, but Jance cut him off.
He sought out my gaze, keeping me rooted in place by the venom in his. “This is your opinion, isn’t it? You’re the reason they’re going to chase their tails going after a girl.”
“With all due respect, sir,” I started, not mentioning that the respect due to him was little if any. “Jannie is crazy. She’s threatened us before. You know about the photographs and how she followed us.”
“Taking pictures doesn’t equate to kidnapping him,” he said, narrowing his eyes on mine. “She’s a woman, she—”
I couldn’t keep it in any longer. The way he was looking at me had my blood boiling, and on top of how stressed I already was about Jeremiah, my fuse wasn’t going to last much longer. “She’s a woman who’s obsessed with him.”
Jance scoffed. “Obsessed with Jeremiah? I don’t think so, sweetheart. You should stick to your day job. You’re no detective. In fact, perhaps you shouldn’t stick to your day job either. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near your apartment in the first place.”
My eyebrows jumped to my hair. Was he saying it was my fault Jeremiah was missing? I was about to object when he carried on. “In all likelihood, Jeremiah was driving drunk, and he’s just being a Class-A idiot as usual. He’ll come around in a few days after he’s slept it off.”
I was so stunned that even with as much extra weight as I was carrying around, you would’ve been able to knock me off my feet using nothing more than a feather. “Excuse me?”
Jance turned his terrifying gaze on me again, but this time I didn’t fear it. I welcomed it. I felt the fuse inside me being lit, felt the spark reach the end.
“Your son is missing, and you’re trying to blame him for it? Or me?” The fuse ran out, and I practically felt my top get blown off by the intensity of the emotions being set free. “You’re a cruel person and a terrible father. He could be in real trouble. He probably is in very real danger, and you don’t even care. What if he doesn’t crawl out of a hole in a few days? If he hasn’t gone on a bender? Because I can promise you that’s not what this is. He’s been working his ass off for you for years. All he wants is your approval, and you’re incapable of giving it. Instead, this is the way you treat him. It’s despicable.”
Jance didn’t even flinch as I hurled my pent-up emotions at him. His eyes were cold as ice and his face contorted into something awful. “Jeremiah is too immature to receive my approval. If and when he grows the fuck up, he might get it. Not that it’s any of your business.”
I gritted my teeth, wondering how a man as callous as this could’ve had a son as warm and fun-loving and compassionate as Jeremiah. “He’s not immature. He’s just not Jack. There’s a very big difference between those things.”
Jance opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing came out. Too livid to speak, he marched off. Officer Harrison hurried after him, a duty I didn’t envy him for.
Having let out the fire and rage burning a hole in my soul, I felt empty suddenly. Left with nothing but fear and devastation. Jeremiah was missing, and his own father didn’t seem to be concerned about the fact he was gone or the damage to his car.
My shoulders sagged, and tears pricked the backs of my eyes. Didn’t Jance understand? Jeremiah could be hurt, wherever he was. With a car as damaged as his, there was no telling what kinds of injuries he might’ve sustained in the accident. And then there were the hours he’d already been alone with Jannie and whoever she might have helping her.
The possibilities of what she could be doing to him were endless. And his own fucking father thought he was sleeping off a bad hangover. He deserved so much better than that. He needed the people who cared about him to be out looking for him. It wasn’t that hard to understand, was it?