“Now, I’m trying to decide,” I said.

“Trying to decide what?”

“Tell me something,” I said, dodging the question. “Now that you know the money isn’t an issue and that your father isn’t holding anything over you, will you go see him?”

He folded his arms across his chest, leaned back in the couch and shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I hate who he is,” he said. Then he pointed to his swollen shut eyes. “This? He does this to people all the time. And worse. I don’t want any part of that. It’s not who I am.” He shook his head again. “I don’t have to be a part of it anymore. I’m old enough to get out from under him.”

I nodded. “Why’d you tell him you’d step in for him then? With the business?”

“I was desperate,” he said. “I needed that money for Jessica.”

“You love her?”

He hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah.”

“So she’s worth it? All of this?”

“That’s for me to decide, not you.”

“I know it is and I’m not criticizing,” I said. “I’m just asking. You say she is, I believe you.”

“She’s got problems.” He hesitated. “But she wants to get clean. I believe her. And I’m gonna help.”

“Okay.”

“She’s the only reason I’d ever go to my father. Did I like lying to him? No. But we were both screwed at that point.”

“What did you do with the money?” I asked. “After you borrowed it from your father, you didn’t go pay Miller.”

“I never had the chance,” he said. “That asshole Laser had Jessica. Claimed she owed him even more after we’d paid up the first time. I had to get to her before I could do anything else.”

I nodded. I admired his loyalty to Jessica, if not his methods.

“So, I went there. He tried to shake me down for more money and I told him no way,” he explained. “I knew she was locked up in one of those rooms, so I went banging on doors. They obviously didn’t like that. I think it was Nate that hit me in the back of the head. I went out cold. Next thing I knew, I was in the room with Jessica and I couldn’t see. Couldn’t move for three days. I actually feel decent right now compared to how I felt then.”

He was lucky. They could’ve killed him. Still, I liked his toughness.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” I said. “Both of you.”

“Thank you,” he said, clearing his throat. “For coming to get us. For helping Isabel.”

“She was really worried about you.”

His shoulders sagged a bit and he rubbed at his chin. “I know. I knew she would be. But I had no way to contact her. She’s awesome. She really is.”

“I’d like for you to go see your dad,” I said.

He sat there on the sofa and without being able to see his eyes, I couldn’t read his expression. I wasn’t sure if he was angry or frustrated or something else entirely. But I did want him to go see his father. I knew all too well that time could disappear in an instant and no matter how angry he was at his father, the pain of missing someone could be ten times worse.

“And before you say no, hear me out,” I said. “Yes, he asked me to find you. And I’ll tell him that I found you and that you’re safe. If you insist, I won’t tell him where you are. You’re right. You’re old enough to make your own decisions and I’m not going to force anything on you. That would only make things worse. I’m not disputing who your father is and I’m not here to argue that he’s a good guy. I don’t know him well enough to make that judgment.”

“How exactly do you know him?” Marc asked.

I ran down how I got in contact with him.

“So, even though he asked me to find you, I feel no sense of obligation to put you in a car and take you to him,” I said. “That’s your call. But I’ll tell you this. I think you should go see him.”

He ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed at his jaw again. “Why? I hate him. I hate everything he stands for.”

It wasn’t my place to share the news about his father’s health with him. That was his father’s and his father’s only. For all I knew, it might not even make a difference. Maybe he wanted his father to die. But either way, it wasn’t my place to tell him.

“My daughter’s been missing for a long time,” I said finally. “A long time. I would give just about anything to see her again. You were gone a few days. I met with your dad. I have no reason to lie to you. He was worried about you and needs to know you’re okay.”

Marc shifted his weight on the sofa. “You can tell him I’m okay.”

“And I will. But it would be better if he saw you in person. That’s all. It’s your choice.”

He leaned back in the sofa, digesting my words.

Isabel came into the apartment, a stack of blankets in her arms. “This will have to do for tonight. I’ve got a bunch of blankets, Marc. You guys will have to sleep on the floor or the couch.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “Thank you.”

Jessica emerged from the hallway, her hair wet and her face scrubbed clean. She wore a clean white T-shirt and navy sweatpants that swallowed her. She sat down on the couch next to Marc. She looked young, vulnerable.

“Better?” Isabel asked, setting the blankets down on the arm of the couch.

She nodded and yawned. “Yes. Thank you.”

“You need to sleep,” Isabel said. “Both of you. We can talk in the morning and figure out what you guys wanna do next.”

They both nodded, the weariness beginning to settle in over both of them.

“Come on,” Isabel said, grabbing the blankets. “We’ll get you both set up in the bedroom.”

Jessica stood and followed her to the bedroom.

Marc was slower to get up and I went over to give him a hand standing up. I steadied him with a hand under his elbow.

“I can make it,” he said. “I can see a little bit with the light in here. Hopefully the swelling will be gone soon. But thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He took two tentative steps toward the hallway, then stopped. He turned back to me, the ugly purple orbs where his eyes should have been trained on me.

“I can’t promise you anything,” he said. “I’m not sure I can go see him.”

“I understand,” I said. “I hope you can figure it out. He’d like to see you.”

He nodded, then headed to the bedroom to find sleep.

THIRTY-FIVE

The fatigue wouldn’t let me sleep.

I tossed and turned in my bed. Night gave way to dawn and my muscles ached as the adrenaline of the night wore off. But I couldn’t get comfortable and the more I wished I could fall asleep, the more awake I felt.

Being in Laser’s place had set the wheels in my head in motion. Not the good ones. All I could picture was Elizabeth some place similar, feeling like there was no better place, like that was her best option. It physically pained me to think of her in that kind of situation. Those girls walked out of the rooms like zombies and it was impossible not to see Elizabeth’s face in theirs.

I threw back the sheets, irritated that I couldn’t sleep. I pulled on my clothes and boots and walked outside.

The snow had finally stopped and I shaded my eyes against the brilliant white blanket that coated the roads and sidewalks. The snow crystals sparkled like diamonds in the early morning sunlight and it was as if the snow had muted all of the sound in the world, everything having gone silent for the moment.

I took a deep breath, the cold air filling my lungs, biting, constricting.

A door creaked open and I glanced over to see Isabel stepping out of the office. She did the same thing I did, shading her eyes from the bright light. She saw me and trudged over, her boots sinking into the snow as she walked.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked.

“How’d you know?”

“I always have trouble sleeping after the really long nights,” she said. “Always.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“When we left you in there last night…”

I shook my head. “Nothing happened. I made some threats, made sure they’d be afraid. That was it. Nothing bad.”

She nodded, squinting into the sunlight. “You seemed capable of…a lot. In there last night.”