Page 108 of My Turn

He was silent for a long moment. I got out of the car and headed up to the house.

“I need you to come home,” he said finally.

“I’m just checking on something really quick. Don’t get weird on me.”

“Come on, baby.” His voice had turned husky and seductive. It made me bite my lip, but it could wait a few extra minutes.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be home soon.”

I ended the call and stopped on the porch. With a deep breath, I knocked. There was nothing to indicate that someone was going to open it- no shuffling or talking. I knocked again, then tried to peer in the front window. I could only see through the tiny gap between the drapes. It was dark, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t home.

Looking around, I tried to find something that might have a spare key in it. I didn’t see any fake rocks or anything. After checking under the rug, I sighed. If he wasn’t going to answer my calls or the door, there wasn’t much I could do about it aside from break in. My first thought was that Jayce could do it for me since he was all about being sneaky, but it wasn’t like he’d needed to pick the lock at my place. He had a code.

There was nothing else to do right now, so I headed back to my SUV. I shot Jayce a text to tell him I was on my way and glanced at the Mustang again. As I was pulling away from the curb, I had a random thought. I stopped in front of the mailbox and leaned over to open it. Immediately, a few envelopes fell out. I opened the door to grab them, clamping my lip between my teeth.

Why was his mailbox this full? Unless he regularly received an ungodly amount of junk mail, this had been building up. Worrygnawed at my gut. My brother was into some shady shit. I knew that, but I didn’t think it was all that dangerous. Then again, I wouldn’t know, would I? I didn’t check in or ask about his business.

Something could have happened to him. I thought about going to the police but decided I’d check again tomorrow. If he wasn’t here, I’d file a report. It could be problematic to involve the police if he ended up being okay. He’d be pissed if I put his business at risk by bringing in cops. This was my brother, though. Close or not, we’d once relied on each other in order to stay safe. I cared about his wellbeing and I knew that if the roles were reversed, he’d use all of his shady resources to find me.

*****

“This is Ben and Bean. If you’re a client, give me your name- just your name- and hang up. I’ll get back to you. If we slept together and I said I’d call you, it was a lie. Trust me, you dodged a bullet. If it’s anyone else, I don’t want to talk to you.”

I hated Ben’s voicemail. It got worse every time I heard it. I was so worried that I hadn’t eaten dinner last night and didn’t have an appetite today. Alongside worry was fear and possibly the need for a good cry. He was my only family aside from my parents, who didn’t count as far as I was concerned.

Guilt began to trickle in as I thought about the missed moments, the Christmases we might have experienced together, and the time we should’ve spent healing after our parents were arrested. Instead, I moved in with Jake’s parents. Ben was two years older than me and had a shared apartment near his university at the time, but I should’ve thought more about how he felt. I’d been selfish, drowning myself in my boyfriend to make myself feel better. I got through it, but what did Ben go through? That was something I’d never asked and currently, it was one of my greatest regrets.

Arms came around me from behind, looping over my shoulders. Jayce pressed a kiss beneath my ear, then inhaled deeply.

“You’ve been nursing that tea for an hour,” he noted.

I looked at the mug. Last time I checked, it was steaming. I confirmed that it was cold before I pushed it away.

“What’s going on?” he asked, sitting in the stool beside me. “Are you still worried about Ben?”

“Yeah. He isn’t answering the phone. I need to go back over there.”

“If he doesn’t want to be bothered, he won’t answer. You know how he is. He keeps himself busy.”

“No, I don’t really know. Not anymore. Maybe he just doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Jayce rubbed my back soothingly. “Will it make you feel better if we go knock on his door again?”

“If he answers, yeah. If not, I’m gonna file a missing persons report.”

His hand stopped moving. I glanced over at him, but his face didn’t betray that anything was wrong. He just looked deep in thought. I tapped his nose with my index finger and he smiled.

“You should stop worrying so much, baby. I’m sure Ben is fine.”

I wanted to argue, but I didn’t really know what to say. Jayce’s phone buzzed and he set it on the counter as he checked his texts. When he chuckled, I looked at the screen.

“Alicia?” I confirmed.

He nodded. “She’s hounding me about having a sleepover here. Apparently, she wants to do both of our nails.”

I snorted a laugh. “You’ll look so pretty in pink.”

“Damn right I will. I’ll wear a pink suit to our wedding.”

---