Obsessed

If he knew about Emily, that her life was in danger, it may soften him up. As horrible as he was during our time as a family, he had a soft spot for her. But I don’t know how to bring her into the conversation without telling him the truth about us. A truth that I’m certain he won’t be happy about after what Emily told me about her mom.

“You’re something else, you know that?” My dad pushes up from his chair, and ambles around the desk to pace the length of the floor behind me. “You have the balls to come waltzing in here like nothing happened, like you didn’t toss me away like a used napkin, and ask me for a favor?” He stops his pacing long enough to fix me with an angry glare.

I can’t stand being talked down to, especially by him, so I stand up, too. Squaring my shoulders, I meet his hateful gaze head on. I refuse to shrink in front of him.

“It’s not a favor,” I say. My voice is strained by the effort it takes to keep calm. “I’m asking you to do the right thing. If we don’t act fast, someone could end up getting hurt.”

“Yeah, that sounds like your problem, kiddo. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

He turns to leave, and without thinking, I grab a hold of his arm and spin him back round to face me. His eyes are wide with alarm.

“Can’t you just do the right thing for once in your life? For me?”

“For you?” My dad pulls out of my grip and takes a few steps back. “I owe you nothing! You were the one who walked away from me—”

“You made it impossible not to!” My temper has finally cracked. He almost looks pleased with himself as he carries on.

“—telling me you never wanted to see me again, calling me all kinds of trash, saying what a waste of space I was.”

“Yeah, well, you walk out of here without helping me and you’ll just be proving me right.”

He scoffs. “And if I help you? Are you suddenly going to change your mind about me? Start coming over to watch the game together?”

I drop my eyes. I don’t know how logical it is for me to be the one feeling guilty right now, but here we are.

“That’s what I thought,” he says. “You came here to use me, to take what you wanted, and then disappear. And you think I’m the bad guy?”

I look up at him then, my eyes daggers that I wish could actually pierce him. They don’t. And they don’t stop him from talking either.

“Son—”

“Don’t.”

“—I gotta say, you’ve turned out to be a chip off the old block.”

“Shut up.”

He holds up his hands as a sign of surrender. “Just calling ‘em like I see ‘em. You think I don’t know a sleazebag user when I see one? I wrote the book on it, Petey.”

“Screw you.” I advance on my dad in two short strides and in seconds, I have balls of his shirt in my fists and he’s pressed up against the wall. “I am nothing like you,” I say, decades of disdain seething in my words.

He lets out a smug, strangled little laugh. “You sure about that?”

My dad uses both his arms to push his way out of my enraged grip and slinks off to the side. I don’t move, afraid I might go for him again. So I stand there, staring at the blank wall, trying to regain control of my temper.

“So, I guess I’ll see you in a few years, then.”

I hear the door open and my dad leaves. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. I have to calm down. I can’t believe I’m going to walk out of here having failed. With everything about this case coming up empty, I don’t have a clue what our next step is going to be.

At least this way I figured there might be an alternate address for Trevor. A lot of kids are living with their parents when they apply to college, and that could be why he never showed up at the address we got from UMass. But if the guy had bought that car after moving out, the insurance papers might have his new address. It was a long shot, but a good one.

I could get Ross and the guys to try the other dealerships, but this is the only one central to the school, Trevor’s parents, and Emily’s old apartment. If chances were slim I’d find his sales records here, they become close to zero at any other dealer.

“Peter?”

I jump at the sound of my name. There’s a mature, stern-looking woman standing in the open doorway. I recognize her as the assistant we passed on our way in. My dad’s assistant. I’ve never met her before, but he must have told her my name just now when he ordered her to throw me off the premises.

“It’s okay, I was just leaving.” Without making eye contact, I edge around her and try to make a hasty getaway.