“I think he was jealous of my friendship with his brother. But anyway, that’s all in past. Let’s see what he’s saying about your sister.”
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As they approached, Daniel glanced up from his conversation with Astrid’s parents, and smiled hungrily at her. He did a double-take as his eyes slunk over Jake. “Jacob Valentine, what’s a piece of shit like you doing in a place like this?”
Jake halted in front of him. “It’s Jake Quinlan now.”
Daniel scoffed. “What? Did you get married?”
“No, I found my biological family. Didn’t you hear the news? Apparently it’s all over town.”
“I don’t listen to idle gossip.”
“It never used to stop you.” He turned to speak to Astrid’s parents. “What happened to Emma?”
Her mom fiddled with her necklace. “We’re not sure, Jake. We thought it was best to alert Daniel, but…”
Sally trailed off and shook her head. Astrid knew they didn’t like Daniel any more than she did – they deemed him incompetent – and she thought the same. She sensed there was something her parents weren’t saying in front of him, and she wanted to know what it was. Obviously something to do with Emma’s disappearance.
“Hey,” Astrid said, trying to act casual. “Why don’t we all go back home and grab some coffee? We can talk about it there.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Daniel said. “I’d love some coffee.”
“Not you, Daniel,” she said. “I meant myself, my parents, and Jake. I’m sure you’ve got some important police work to be doing, huh?”
He glowered at her, but she was too worried about her sister to care about his hurt feelings.
Jake drilled Daniel with his stare. “You alerted the Feds yet?”
Daniel shrugged. “Why would I? Emma’s probably just stayed out all night. I’m sure she’ll be back later.”
“So you’re not going to do anything?” Martin asked, his patience stretching.
“We need to wait twenty-four hours before we can declare her a missing person.”
Astrid opened her mouth to suggest they get away from Daniel – before one of them slapped him for being so uncaring – but Daniel spoke over her, sizing Jake up. “Hey, if you’ve found your biological family, what about that old treasure map you told my sister about that time? The one your real old man had?”
Jake kept his cool. He’d dated Daniel’s sister for a while and confided in her about the map just after he’d found out about it himself. “She told you about that? Surely you didn’t believe it – it was just a joke.”
Daniel eyed him up suspiciously. “My sister said you seemed pretty serious about it at the time. You used to go on about how you were gonna find your destiny.”
The nylon-suit journalist called over, “Mr. Quinlan… about your adoption?”
“And what about the disappearance of Emma Lawrence?” Another journalist asked.
Jake ignored them and glared at Daniel. “Don’t you have some work to do? Like keeping the press out of my face?”
Daniel boisterously slapped Jake on the shoulder. “I bet you’ve got that map about your person, huh? What if I got a warrant to search you – I’d find it, right?”
“Fuck off.”
“Jake,” Astrid said. “Don’t lose it in front of the journalists…”
He composed himself, not taking his eyes off Daniel. “So how is your sister?”
Daniel rankled. “Just fine. Surely you don’t think she’d still be upset that you broke her heart after all this time?”
Jake glanced at Astrid. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. We just weren’t that compatible after all.”