"I see," Violet said, raising an eyebrow. "It wouldn't be because your druggie friend is missing, now would it be?"
"Huh? What are you talking about, Violet?" I said, genuinely surprised that she'd have any knowledge of Liz or what was going on with her.
"Oh, I know all about Baker and her nasty little habit," Violet said, wrinkling her nose. "She's such trash. This just proves that you can take the girl out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the girl. Right, girls?"
Jessica and Lydia giggled nervously as they nodded and flipped their perfectly coiffed ponytails. I wanted to punch them all, but I knew better than to invite that mess into my world.
"I guess it takes one to know one, eh, Violet?" I said with a wide-eyed innocence that I certainly did not feel. Violet did a double take before narrowing her eyes and getting ready to pounce.
"I wouldn't know, Pierce," she said. "I've never had to deal with street trash before."
"No, of course you haven't," I said, feeling a little more angry by the minute. How dare she say such horrible things about Liz! "You've had someone to pick up after you and wipe your ass your whole life, haven't you?"
"You're so tacky, Pierce," Violet sniffed, but I could tell I'd gotten to her.
"Of course, I'm the tacky one," I said as I pulled on my top and grabbed my coat. "There you go, projecting your insecurities onto the closest target. I'm sure that when I'm not around, she uses one of you as her target, right?"
Violet's two shadows looked at me and then at each other before they stared at Violet and waited for her to tell them what to think.
"You look like you're doing the walk of shame, Pierce," Violet said, as she looked me up and down. "Where were you last night? Earning your tuition and rent money before you clocked in?"
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," I said, shaking my head as I looked the three girls up and down. "God, you all are such mindless robots. Good luck, ladies! I've got someplace I need to be!"
I grabbed my bag and ran for the door. I didn't give a rat's ass what Violet and her posse thought of me; I had one thing on my mind and that was to find Liz and make sure she was safe.
I pulled out my phone and texted Cam asking him to call me before putting it back in my bag and heading out the door, wondering how I was going to find Liz.
The question was where would Liz be hanging out, and even more than that, would I find her in time to save her from herself?
Billionaire on Fire Volume 4
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cam
When my shift was over the next morning, I loaded Tesla in the truck and headed out to help Alex find Liz. Leo was blowing up my phone trying to get me to commit to the press conference with Metzler.
"Not sure how we're going to juggle all of this, girl," I said to my canine companion as we drove toward Alex's apartment. I hadn't said anything about the rent payment I'd made to her landlord, nor was I going to. I knew that on Monday morning when the student accounts office opened up, I'd drive over and pay off her tuition, but I wasn't going to say anything about that, either. It was risky going behind Alex's back, but I figured that alleviating the financial stress was the least I could do to help her out, and that when push came to shove, Alex would understand that I'd had only the best of intentions.
I dialed Alex's number and waited for her to pick up, but her phone went straight to voicemail.
"Alex, it's Cam, call me," I said, wondering where she was and why she wasn't picking up. I looked down at Tesla and said, "No one's answering, so I think we need to go check things out."
Tesla wagged her tail as she looked out the front window, and I wondered what had happened to Liz. The last time I'd spoken to Liz, she'd sounded like she was getting herself together, although there was something strange about the fact that she kept denying her drug addiction. Anyone who looked at her could see that she was suffering, and I couldn't really blame her for drowning her sorrows in substances that would take away the pain.
The problem was that she said she wasn't addicted to anything. However, in my decade with the fire department, I'd seen countless addicts declare exactly the same thing when it wasn't true, so I was inclined to believe that Alex's assessment of the situation was correct. Liz had an addiction that was eating her up.
My phone rang, but when I looked at the screen and saw it was Leo not Alex, I let it go to voicemail. I'd get back to Leo as soon as we'd found Liz.
Chapter Thirty
Alex
I'd searched every place on campus that I could think of, and by the time Cam arrived at my apartment, I was more than a little panicked about what had happened to Liz.
"Hey, did you find her yet?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek against his chest as I wound my arms around his waist. It felt good to be in his arms again, and as worried as I was about Liz, there was something calming and reassuring about Cam. Tesla sat quietly at his feet waiting her turn for some attention and wagged her tail when I pulled away and bent down to pat her head.
"You're such a good girl." I smiled as I knelt down and put my arms around her neck. The next thing I knew, tears were streaming down my face onto the dog's fur. Tesla sat quietly for a moment, then pulled her head back and began licking my face.