“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.