Page 70 of Back in the Saddle

I couldn’t read that.

Did it mean he actually didn’t know where Jeff was, even if Jeff was in communication?

Or was he still lying, and he did know where he was, and for some screwed up reason, he wouldn’t tell me?

I looked away and said as a veiled threat, “Maybe I should call Katelyn.”

“No,” Joshua stated firmly. “Kat doesn’t know where he is either.”

“Okay, Joshua, straight up, it feels like you’re keeping something from me.”

Shocking me, because Joshua was a good guy, I’d always liked him, he’d always liked me, and I’d never seen him do it before, nothing close, I watched his face harden.

He then replied, “Okay, Jessica, straight up. If Jeff needed me to do something for him, you know I’d do it for him, and you know I wouldn’t ask questions or deviate from his wishes. Even for you. But honest to Christ, I don’t know where he is. But if shit wasn’t right, you also know I’d tell you.”

I felt a modicum of relief that Joshua thought shit with Jeff was right.

On the other hand, they’d gotten kicked out of a bowling alley once for “human bowling” during which they wore helmets, and frankly, even though my brother had explained it to me, I still couldn’t comprehend how they tossed each other down the lanes into the pins.

I just knew they got kicked out for trying, and I knew that particular shenanigan was Joshua’s idea.

“Do you know about this Street Warrior business?” I pushed.

He clamped his mouth shut and glowered at me.

So no more lying, because I called him on it, just no more talking.

Right.

“When you talk to him again, you tell him I’m looking for him, and it’d be nice he checked in with his big sis since I’ve been worried sick about him,” I snapped.

“Will do,” he clipped, glanced beyond me and said, “Ladies.”

He then shut the door in my face.

The gall!

Fuck him.

I wasso totallycontacting Katelyn.

I saw the error of my ways in that moment. I should have bypassed Joshua and went right to her.

I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Though, if she was on shift, I wouldn’t bother her. She worked twelve-hour shifts and dealt with enough shit during it, she didn’t need mine.

I’d text her tomorrow and hope she wasn’t working.

We all trooped back to my Mini and squeezed in.

“I know you’re pissed, and I know this is heavy stuff, but if Harlow’s sister came looking for her, and Harlow told you not to say anything, you wouldn’t say anything,” Raye pointed out before I turned on the ignition.

“Harlow doesn’t have a sister,” I reminded her, purposefully being obtuse because I was pissed and frustrated, though not in equal measure at that juncture.

Harlow, by the by, only had a Golden Boy older brother who I really tried to like the few times I’d met him, but he was such an arrogant shithead, it was hard.

“You get what I’m saying,” Raye went on.

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