I woke up to something very different.
14
Bastian
“What do you mean, get to the food truck? It’s five in the morning,” I bellowed into the phone, but my brother Cade was always a tweaked human being. When he called, you answered and did what he said.
“I’m saying I turned a traffic security camera on that section of the beach. She went in there and stayed the night. Hours later three guys broke in. You should send someone over to check.”
As he talked, I got dressed and went to bang on Dante’s door. We were still staying in a hotel penthouse minutes outside of the town.
I needed to purchase a condo immediately. It would be today if what my brother said was true.
Dante came from his bedroom as I slipped shoes on and he followed suit as I talked. “Did the men leave the food truck? How long were they in there?”
“Not long. I’m guessing she’s fine. She changed and climbed up into some hole.”
“She changed? Did you watch?” I ground out.
“I watch everything but it’s not to fucking jack off, dumbass.” His voice was muffled.
“Are you texting someone right now? I hear you pressing fucking buttons.” My blood boiled. He wasn’t taking this seriously. I motioned for Dante to follow me to the car, and we took an elevator straight down.
“I’ve got this irritating glitch I’ve been trying to figure out,” Cade said like he didn’t care at all that the girl I was supposed to marry might have just been murdered in her van. “Some hacker is fucking with me and you–”
“I’m going to strangle you when you get here.” I was dead serious too.
“Well, you’re going to be waiting awhile to do that. I’m working on new software for the businesses here and–”
I hung up on him.
“Jesus fuck!” I pounded the roof of the Rolls Royce before I got in. Dante didn’t even blink. He just folded into the car and started it. We were well on our way toward the beach before I’d settled down enough to speak. “Why does nothing go right in this town?”
“Because we don’t have it under control yet. It’ll get there.”
“Your optimism is infuriating right now, Dante.” I dialed Morina’s number.
She wasn’t going to answer.
“Why the fuck would she answer?” I said more to myself than anyone. She’d been the most irritating woman I’d ever met in my life and there was no reason for her to change her ways now.
“Drive faster,” I commanded, but Dante just laughed.
“I’m going 50 in a 25 already. I’m not risking a pedestrian’s life.”
“So you’re willing to risk Morina’s?”
“Oh, we care about her now? Or is it the company we’re concerned about?” He picked up speed, though.
That was good enough. I wouldn’t argue with him. There was no use to trivial bickering when it was the source of our frustrations anyway.
We passed palm trees and the little brick road in the center of their city. The town hadn’t woken yet, but the sun rising on the beach gave it an allure that most places would have envied. I understood the pull of the touristy community. Welcoming locals, a beautiful landscape, and oil terminals and farms near enough that many could get a great jobs and return home in good time.
Yet, like every little town that surrounded a big one, it came with underground filth. People like my father were always trying to get ahead and they didn’t care who they had to trample on to get there.
Before Dante even parked the car, I told him to watch the perimeter and then I was out and pacing toward the food truck. The back door had been jimmied open. It would have made for a pretty silent break in. When I opened it, I found they’d ripped open a few cabinets, knocked over her dishes and smashed up her blenders.
“Morina?” I tried to sound authoritative and kind at the same time. “Morina?”