Annette didn’t give her normal greeting. This meant something was wrong.
I got tense. Since I got tense, I felt both Mace and Vance get tense.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Wel , Jason and I are on our way out there. We’re in bumfuck Iowa, goddess almighty. Iowa.”
She stopped, as if there were no words for Iowa, so I prompted, “And?”
“Wel , we went by your place and it was kind of trashed.” I got even tenser. Vance and Mace were watching me.
“Trashed?”
“Yeah. Your laptop was there and it didn’t look like anything was missing but a lot of stuff was broken, your furniture was slashed. I’m no expert but it looked like someone was looking for something. I got most of your clothes and some other stuff I thought you might want.” I closed my eyes, put my elbow on the table and my head in my hand.
“Thanks, Nettie.”
“We’re gonna see if we can power through. We’l get a hotel or something when we get there. I’l cal you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Be careful and… thanks.”
“Later.”
Then she disconnected and I flipped the phone shut.
Vance and Mace were stil watching me.
“Trashed?” Vance asked.
“My loft. A friend went by to pick up some of my stuff.
She said it looked like someone was looking for something. She said nothing was missing that she could tel . She even got my laptop so they couldn’t have been there to rob me,” I told him.
Vance looked at Mace.
Mace peeled off mumbling, “Gotta make a cal .” I ignored Mace and asked Vance, “Should I be worried?” He stared at me.
“I should be worried,” I said.
His hand came out and grabbed mine. “It was probably the people after Flynn. They already proved they have no interest in you. You likely have nothin’ to worry about.” I nodded but I didn’t much appreciate him using the word
“likely”.
Then I saw Vance looking over my shoulder again. He let go of my hand but dropped his head and smiled at the table when my phone rang again.
It said “Indy Cal ing”.
I took a deep breath and answered it.
“Where the f**k are you? I cal ed home a f**kin’ mil ion times,” Uncle Tex boomed.
“Sorry, Uncle Tex, I should have cal ed you. I went with Eddie to the station to press charges against Bil y. Now, I’m having lunch at Lincoln’s Road House with Vance and Mace.”
I felt the hairs rise on my neck and turned. That’s when I saw Mace standing in the back doorway talking with Lee, Eddie and f**king Hank.
“Fuck,” I said, turning around.
Vance was smiling at me.