“Hello?”
“Alex, buddy, hey!”
I clenched the receiver tight, my hand hurting with the effort. Heath’s voice on the other end immediately made my blood boil.
“You son of a bitch!” I hissed.
“Hey man, is that any way to greet a friend?” Heath laughed. “Oh, right, yeah, your dad. Listen, sorry about that, but let’s be real. The old man had it coming.”
“When I get my hands on you,” I threatened, “I’ll make sure I break your bones one by one, slowly.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, so you’re still pissed, that’s understandable,” Heath said. “But listen, that’s not why I was calling, although the whole threat to my life thing is kinda amusing.”
“What do you want, Heath?”
“I have a message for you, from Garth,” Heath said. “He says to meet him in Little Harlow in an hour, house twenty-three. Just tell the security at the gate who you are, he’ll leave word that you’re coming.”
“And why would I want to do that?”
“Because if you don’t, you won’t see Jenni ever again.”
My heart jumped into my throat, and a cold rushed through me. “What?”
“Oh, didn’t I mention? Dam
n, sorry, should’ve led with that. Yeah, well, we have your girl, and if you want to see her again, you’ll do what Garth tells you to do.”
“What have you done with her, you bastard!”
“Nothing, man, calm down,” Heath said. “Well, no, that’s a lie. I slapped her around a bit. But hey, she hit me first.” Heath laughed, and my blood boiled. “Sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?”
“I’m going to kill you!”
“See, there you go with the threats again,” Heath chuckled. “Really amusing, buddy, gotta hand it to you. Real comedian. Anyway, one hour, house twenty-three. Got that?”
I slammed the phone down, making Kelly jump.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, eyes wide as she watched the rage dance across my face.
“Wait here,” I said.
I raced down the hallway to my father’s room and opened his closet, reaching into the back of the top shelf where I knew he kept his rifle. I grabbed it and a box of ammunition, and quickly began loading it. Kelly stood shaking in the doorway.
“Dad?”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” I said. “I’m just going to go have a chat with the man who bat your grandfather.”
“Dad, you’re not a cop here,” she said. “Can’t you get in trouble with that?”
“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to use it,” I lied. “It’s just to scare them a little.”
“Them? You said you were going to meet one person. Who’s them?”
“He may have a few friends with him.”
Kelly came up to me and put a hand on my arm. “You’re scaring me.”
I reached down and hugged her, kissing the top of her head. “I’m going to be okay, I promise. No death wish here.”