“I can get some whipped cream now and come back,” I offered eagerly and she laughed.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Logan.”

“I love you.” I kissed her and she nodded.

“I know.” She hurried away from me and I watched as she walked through the front door with my heart in my hand. I wanted to shout out and stop her. I wanted to hear her tell me she loved me as well. I needed to hear it again. I walked back to the car slowly and happy. I hadn’t lost her. I couldn’t quite believe how lighthearted I felt. I hadn’t lost her.

I got in and started the car but for some reason, I didn’t want to leave. A part of me felt that something wasn’t quite right. There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I still didn’t really understand why she had dated Joey so quickly after we had fallen out or why had Jared called her. I didn’t believe he was calling her looking for me. How would he even have her number? I chewed on my lower lip and frowned. My stomach started churning, and an odd feeling of foreboding filled me. Something wasn’t quite right. I knew that with every fiber of my being. Maddie wasn’t telling me something. She hadn’t even really asked me any questions about our dads. Something was off, and I was scared that I wasn’t going to like the truth.

***

I tried calling Jared as I drove home, but he didn’t answer the phone. As I pulled into the driveway, I saw Vincent waiting for me and my heart started pounding.

“Where’s Jared?” I jumped out of the car, and ran up to Vincent.

“He left.” Vincent looked at me with a scared expression.

“What do you mean he left?” I shouted at him.

“I don’t know.” Vincent spoke hurriedly. “He was pissed when you left to go meet Maddie. He said you were going to f**k up everything. He called Joey to find out about the sale and when it was going to go down. I don’t know what happened, but he got really angry and hung up.”

“Why was he angry?” I questioned, my brain going a hundred miles a minute.

“I don’t know.” His tone was tense. “Then he tried calling you, and you didn’t answer.”

“I was busy.”

“With Maddie?”

“Yes, with Maddie.”

Vincent looked away and mumbled something, and I pushed his shoulder. “If you have something to say, tell me to my face.”

“Why don’t you just leave her alone?”

“I love her,” I bit out harshly.

“She’s bad news.”

“I thought you liked her.” My voice announced the betrayal I felt at his words, I had always known Jared hated Maddie, but I thought Vincent liked her.

“I do like her, but she’s the mayor’s daughter, Logan.” He sighed. “This isn’t the time to be focusing on her. We need all our wits about us.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I tried calling Jared’s number again, and I heard the phone ringing in Vincent’s pocket.

“Why do you have his phone?” I shouted at him.

“He left it with me.” Vincent looked scared. “He said there was something he needed to take care of. He told me that we were to do the exchange together without him. We just needed to wait for the call.”

“What the fuck? Where did he go?”

“I don’t know.” Vincent looked at me with wild eyes. “But he was crazy. He told me that now was the time to make everything right. He said if you weren’t going to do it, he would.”

“Do what?” I felt a chill run through my bones. “What is he going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Vincent grabbed my shoulders. “But he told me to tell you to trust him. He said that no matter what happens, remember that he is your brother and he loves you.”

“What the f**k does that mean?” I broke away from Vincent and paced up and down. “We need to find him.” I grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him towards me. “If you know where he is Vincent, you better tell me. By God, you better tell me.”

“I don’t know.” Vincent pushed me away from him. “I know you’re anxious, but threatening me is not going to help anything.”

“Give me his phone. I’m calling Joey.” I took the phone from Vincent and dialed Joey’s number. He answered on the second ring and started talking.

“Dude, you need to chill, okay? I’m only f**king with Maddie ’cause her dad wants me to, I told you that. I told you before, she is not my type. I like them skinny and blonde. She’s got big tits, but her ass is too big for me as well.” He laughed and I gripped the phone tightly, not saying anything. I wanted to see if he would say anything of importance and I didn’t want him to know that I wanted to knock his front teeth out. “Jared, you can be such a baby sometimes, stop being a pussy. Do you want her or something? Does Logan even know you’ve been talking to her? I bet she wants to suck on your cock. Her dad would be pissed if she caught her with another Martelli. I wouldn’t do it, bro, he’ll f**k you up. Trust me. Let Logan fight that battle. Ha, ha, ha. Jared?”

“This is Logan.” My voice was tight and I wished I was with him so I could thump him so hard that I had him crying. I knew he was a piece of shit.

“Oh,” Joey paused. “Where’s Jared?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

“I was joking about Maddie.” Joey laughed uncomfortably. “Jared’s not f**king her or anything. He hates her guts.”

“I see.”

“He just told me tonight,” Joey continued quickly. “In fact, he encouraged me to go on another date with her.”

“You were out with her before tonight,” I growled.

“You mean the other night, when you guys stole the car?” Joey laughed. “That was her dad’s idea.” He laughed. “But tonight was all Jared’s idea. I guess he wants to make sure you’re out of the picture.”

“He wouldn’t have done that.” My voice is deceptively soft, but all I wanted to do was cuss.

“He hates her.” Joey was matter-of-fact. “He should be careful who he tells that to. I know her dad well, and he will f**k him up if he hears that.”

“When is the exchange going to happen?” I changed the subject, not wanting to discuss my brother and Maddie anymore.

“I was just about to call you guys. Bring the car to the pier tomorrow morning at seven a.m. We’ll be waiting with the money.”

“You’ll be there?”

“Yeah.” Joey’s voice was low. “I gotta get my cut as well.”

“The buyer will be there?”

“I guess so.”

“Joey, who is the buyer?”

“I don’t know everything.” He sounded nonchalant. “And who cares? It’s a million bucks. For nothing. Just be there.”

“It’s not for nothing, and this better not be some stupid setup.”

“Look,” Joey sighed. “I honestly don’t know who set it up. My dad told me about it, ’cause he knows I’m friends with Jared. And he told me to approach you.”

“So you have no idea who the buyer is?” My heart started pounding. “That is not how you made it seem.”

“It’s fine.” Joey sounded unsure of himself. “Look, I gotta go. Be at the pier at seven.”

“Wait a minute, I want to—” I stopped talking as I realized he had already hung up the phone. “Something’s going on.” I frowned at Vincent. “I don’t know what, but I have a bad feeling.” I shook my head in worry. “I f**king knew we couldn’t trust Joey.”

“It’ll be okay, Logan.” Vincent’s eyes blazed. “It has to be.”

“We have to take the Bugatti to the pier at seven a.m.” I sighed. “With or without Jared.”

“And we’ll get the money?”

“I guess.” I bit my lip nervously. I had a bad feeling that we were never going to see the million dollars. “Listen to me, Vincent. You need to drive the Mustang to the pier. And if anything shady goes down, you deny everything. You don’t know anything about the Bugatti. If the cops show up, it was all me.”

“No.” Vincent shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

“Vincent, listen to me. You need to take care of dad and Jared if anything happens to me. Okay?”

“Okay.” We stood there silently for a few moments and then walked back into the house. We stopped by the living room door and we watched as my father slept on the couch, snoring his head off. I wanted to go and talk to him. I wanted to go to him for advice. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay. I wanted him to be better. I took once last look and turned away to go up the stairs.

“You coming?” I looked over at Vincent, who was still standing at the door.

“No.” He shook his head. “I’ll go up in a bit.”

“I love you, bro.” I gave him a quick smile and walked up the stairs, worry making every step heavier. Just an hour ago, I was the happiest I had ever been in my life and now I was the most stressed. I tried to remember Maddie’s smile as I lay down on the bed, but all I could think about was the missed call on her phone from Jared. And what Joey had just told me. I closed my eyes and tried to stop analyzing everything. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. I would talk to Maddie after all this was taken care of. I’m sure there had to be a reasonable explanation. I drifted off to sleep, but all I could think of was how much Jared hated Maddie. I really hoped he wasn’t out there doing anything stupid.

***

Vincent and I arrived at the pier at six-thirty a.m., and we walked to the shore and stared at the waves in companionable silence as we waited. We didn’t bring up Jared’s name, but I knew that both of us were worried about where he was. I tried to ignore the worries in my mind. The drive to the pier had been smooth and there had been no cop cars around. So far everything was going smoothly. Jared’s phone rang, and I looked at Vincent as I answered it.

“Hello.”

“Hey, it’s Joey.”

“Where are you?”

“I just got to the pier, where are you?”

“Down by the jetty.”

“Come to the parking lot. That’s where he is going to meet us.”

“Who is he?”

“The guy who set it all up.”

“Who is it?”

“Just come to the parking lot.” And with that he hung up on me again. I put the phone in my pocket and looked at Vincent with a brief smile.

“This is it, bro. Joey’s here and said the guy who set it up will be in the parking lot.”

“So we’re doing the deal in the parking lot?” Vincent frowned, and I knew he felt as I did, that something seemed off.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Remember what I said last night.”

“I don’t like this, Logan.”

“There’s nothing we can do right now.” I took a deep breath. “Hold on a second.” I pulled out my phone and called Maddie quickly. I sighed when it went to voicemail, but decided to leave a quick message. “Maddie, I just wanted to tell you I love you. I’m doing a deal right now, and it doesn’t seem right. I just wanted to let you know that I love you. If anything goes wrong, please know I did this because I wanted to be a man you could be proud of. I love you.” I hung up quickly and Vincent and I walked to the parking lot in silence.

“Over here,” Joey called out to us as we walked into the almost empty lot.

“So where is he?” I stared at Joey with cold eyes. I took in his appearance and it took everything in me not to deck him. He looked so cocky and carefree, and there was something in the glint of his eyes that made me shiver. Something seemed off and I wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was because he didn’t seem to have any nerves. But it was more than that. It was almost as if he knew something that gave him great pleasure. Like he had a surprise. A big surprise that he couldn’t wait to share. But it didn’t feel like a good surprise. All of a sudden I felt very apprehensive. “Where the f**k is he?” I growled at Joey with intense eyes, warning him that I wasn’t here out of fun and I could blow up at any moment.

“He’s coming.” Joey looked at me with a slightly scared look.

“This better not be a setup.”

“Look, dude, I’m just here for my money.” Joey shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Where is Jared?” I got up in his face. “If you did anything to him, I’ll f**k you up.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Joey looked at me with an apprehensive look. “Believe me when I say I didn’t set this up. I just approached him because everyone knows you are the guys to steal a car.”

“So where is he?” I muttered.

“I’m right here, Logan.” I heard the familiar voice behind me, and I froze. I turned around slowly, and there standing behind Vincent, was Marty. He looked at me with a short smile, his eyes looking beady in his fat face, and I wanted to punch him. I should have known that something was up.

“You. Fuck it,” I cursed as I realized that Marty was behind it.

“Nice to see you as well.” He grinned at me evilly. “It’s been a while.”

“What do you want?”

“I thought I warned you that if you steal cars in River Valley, they go to me or you don’t steal. I even had my man tell you when he bought the Toyota to not f**k with me. I thought you understood what the deal was.”