Mia

Twenty

A few other officers followed me over, all of us in our squad cars. Instead of texting Mia back during my free minute, I made one of the hardest calls I would ever make. It may have been eleven at night for us, but he was nine hours ahead, so I was hoping he would be awake, even if it was one of his days off. 

            “Hey, man,” Kai answered, and my chest tightened. 

            “Hey, Kai.” Despite my reason for the call, it was great to hear his familiar voice. 

            “Dude, you sound like someone died. Is everything okay?”

            “Yeah. It’s not so great.” I took a deep breath. There was no easy way to tell him. “Ava… Ava got beat up by some punk at prom tonight and—”

            “What the f**k, Pierce?” he shouted. “Is she okay? Do I need to come home? How the f**k did this happen?” 

            “Look, I know it’s horrible. I’m on my way to the hospital now. I’m not sure how bad it is yet. Your parents should be there already. They’ll probably call you too. I just… I needed to tell you. It ties in with Mia and Ava’s car. Mia got caught up in some s**t. A drug ring we busted today. She was trying to get out, so they messed with Ava. They had wanted her to deal a pretty big load at prom, and she didn’t show up, so they hurt Ava.” I got it all out. Or most of it. It was shitty to keep something so huge from him. His end stayed silent, so I added, “I’m sorry to drop this bomb on you, but I wanted to be the one to tell you.” 

            “I’m coming home,” he said, his tone void of emotion. He shouted multiple expletives while stuff crashed around in the background. I knew exactly how he felt. I gripped the steering wheel as I pulled up to the hospital. “Dammit. I knew something was up with Mia, but a f*****g drug ring? Do Mom and Dad know where she is?” 

            I swallowed a few times to keep the truth in. She wasn’t lost. She was at my place. And I loved her so much, I had to keep her safe. “I’m not sure. I’ll know when I talk to them.” 

            “How bad is it, Pierce?” 

            “I would love to say it will be okay, but she’s our only known suspect who saw their boss in person, who would likely talk, that is. The people who worked for him at the factory had no clue who ran the whole thing, and even if they did, none of them are talking. If she’s found, your whole family will probably have to go into protective custody.” I parked and got out of my SUV. “Look, I just got to the hospital. I can call you when I know more about Ava’s condition.” 

            “Don’t bother.” He sighed. “I’m demanding leave, and they’ll grant it. I’ll be there tomorrow.” 

            “Good thing you’re a genius.” There was no humor behind it. He had worked his ass off in school, so much so, he moved up the ranks in the air force pretty quickly. If he asked for leave, they would grant it. “If you contact Red Cross, I can verify the situation for you, to move things along.”

            “That’d be great. I’m gonna call Dad. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

            “Yeah.” 

            The line went dead. To say I wasn’t excited to get the chance to see him would have been a lie. But now he would be in town and would probably want to come to my place at some point. The web of lies I was living in was becoming more tangled by the second. 

            The other officers rode in the elevator to the ICU with me, but it was dreadfully quiet after I told them I would talk to the parents and that they should keep watch in the waiting room. The second we stepped into the waiting room, a tiny brunette ran at me yelling my name and smothered me in the best kind of Mom hug. The emotion behind it about made me collapse. 

            “Pierce.” Mr. Hart clapped me on the shoulder when Mrs. Hart pulled back. His eyes were bloodshot, and her face red and splotchy. They only knew half of what was really going on. “They keep asking us about Mia, and we can’t get ahold of her. Her phone is off, and she stayed with a friend last night. They even asked us to file a missing persons report. Do you know why they’re asking about her when it was Ava who was hurt?” He dropped it on me just like that. 

            I squeezed my neck, looking around the room, spotting Cade sitting on the other side of it. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to discuss the case in front of him. “Why don’t we go back?” I held a hand out toward the ICU entrance. The less people I lied to, the better.

            Miller and Dunbrook stayed behind when the Harts led the way into the ICU while Cade watched us go back. When we got to Ava’s room, I almost didn’t want to go in, but Lawrence was standing guard, and I really didn’t want to talk in front of her either. 

            “We’re going in,” I told her, and she nodded at all of us. 

            “Just a word,” she said after the Harts went in ahead of me. I nodded, wanting to do anything else besides stand there and talk to her. “I’ll be standing guard the whole night. The girl’s a bit of a mess. I did her car case, and it all makes sense now based off what I’ve heard. Any word on the twin? Everyone we talked to at the museum didn’t even see her there.”

            “No word yet. But I haven’t even told the parents what’s up. They might know something.” Another f*****g lie. They were building up so fast, I wasn’t sure I could keep track of them any longer. 

            She nodded, and I went in, stopping short at the sight of sweet Ava bruised and bandaged up. Just like her sister. Just I was the only one who knew Mia was hurt. Mr. and Mrs. Hart stood next to her bed, Mrs. Hart holding Ava’s hand. They both looked at me with these helpless looks that I hated. 

            These people basically raised me while my dad worked his ass off, Mrs. Hart taking the role of loving mother when they learned why mine was missing. Now I wasn’t going to tell them that their daughter, who I was in love with, was hiding out at my house.

            “Thanks for calling Kai,” Mr. Hart said. “I wasn’t sure how to break this to him.” 

            “Sure,” I grunted, rubbing my neck. Kai must not have said anything about Mia if they still didn’t know what she was involved in. 

            “So tell us. Why are they asking about Mia?” Mrs. Hart demanded with a sniffle. 

            My chest hurt, my palms sweating. It took all my control not to adjust my collar. And Mr. Hart was a freaking lawyer. I considered telling them I was keeping Mia safe for the time being. That she too had been beat up and was healing at my house. But I couldn’t. How the hell am I supposed to get away with lying to him?

            To protect Mia. 

            Kenny was missing, Marcus’s conviction was riding on her identifying him at the moment. Did I want him to go down? Hell yes. But she wouldn’t even make it to the line-up room alive if she came forward. With how big their operation appeared to be, and it being a family gig, anyone could try to hurt Mia if she agreed to identify him.

            So I told them what we knew, only keeping out the fact that I knew she had planned to leave, that she spent Friday night at my place and was hopefully still there. “The kid who did this.” I pointed at Ava, who was still out cold from the painkillers they had given her. “He said Mia was supposed to do something big tonight, but she didn’t show up. They got Cade to leave by telling him some BS story that pissed him off, and Trent was told by Mia’s ex to attack Ava. We now can’t find Kenny. And if you guys have any idea where Mia is or where she might have gone, we need to know. She’s the key witness for putting this scumbag drug boss behind bars.”

            They had glassy stares that made me sick to my stomach. I knew where she was, knew she was safe—they were probably imagining her dead in some ditch like the captain had—but I couldn’t reassure them. I was the worst, most selfish kind of person.

            Mrs. Hart started sobbing. “I just—I just spent—spent the da-day with her. We had such a good time. I-I-I thought this was just a phase.” 

            “Keisha, sweetie, this isn’t your fault.” Mr. Hart tried consoling her, but had a dead, defeated look in his eyes. “I’m sure she’ll call or get in touch with us somehow.” 

            But she wouldn’t, I knew that. “You guys take all the time you need, maybe Ava will know something when she wakes. I’ll be back tomorrow to see how she’s doing.” 

            Jim nodded over his inconsolable wife’s head, and I took that as my leave. I let Sharon know I would be back the next day and got my lying ass the hell out of there. The whole way home, I imagined every scenario of how it would play out when I got home. She hadn’t texted me again, and I was horrible for leaving her hanging, but I didn’t know what to say at two in the morning, if she was even still awake… or still there.

            I almost didn’t go inside. Just stood there with the keys in my hand staring at the door like a p***y. When I finally got up the nerve to unlock it and open it, my eyes caught a brunette head popping up on the couch. I almost reached for my gun, but then she was bounding off the couch and charging toward me. She slammed into me, her arms wrapping around my waist. And after this horrible day, after multiple people pondering her being dead, I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her and breathing her in.

            It was a feat in itself not to choke on the strong scent of hair dye that she had used to switch back to her natural color, the same color as Ava’s hair. Though her hair was pin straight and almost to her waist as apposed to Ava’s short, curly mess. When I pulled back to study her red, puffy eyes and splotchy cheeks, I couldn’t ignore their resemblance. But those eyes. Even with the stark purple bruise on her cheek that still had me seeing red, I couldn’t ignore those perfectly blue eyes. This was my Mia. 

            Wait. Don’t think like that! She isn’t yours.

            “God, I was so worried about you!” she exclaimed, the sound of her voice covering me in chills. I needed to hear it but was so afraid of what was about to happen. “I texted you. What happened? You’ve been gone all freaking day.”

            “Probably the longest day of my life,” I told her when she finally detached herself from me. “I have some news. The not-so-great kind,” I added when she raised an eyebrow.

            Her face fell while she stood at the island watching me get a bottle of water from the fridge. “What happened?” All concern was gone to be replaced by anger.

            After chugging the entire bottle, I rested my hands on the island, my head sagging. I was beat, having almost been up for twenty-four hours, but I had to get this out. My gaze met her icy cold one, noting her arms crossed over her chest. And I could tell just by that dead stare that she had put a mask on. It hurt like hell watching her close up like that. It was her defense mechanism. I couldn’t change what happened. I couldn’t not tell her.

            “Right after we busted the warehouse, we got a call that Ava had been attacked. There were officers on the premises who got to her. But she’s in the hospital. Your parents are there. And basically everyone knows about you now… at least the dealing part.” 

            “Well, that was one giant bombshell of a day.” She snorted, looking away from me, her hands fisting. She kept her gaze turned elsewhere when she asked, “Who did it?” 

            With a sigh, I rubbed a hand over my face. “Trent,” I breathed, and her furious gaze snapped to mine. “He was arrested and is now spilling everything he knows about the operation, including your involvement.”

            Her nod was stiff. “Did you at least catch Noah?” Her tone could have been nicer. I had just done everything in my power to keep her safe without taking her in. I had lied for her, multiple times. 

            “His name is Marcus… but we don’t have anyone to positively identify him as Noah, since the only people who could are both ‘missing,’ so he’ll probably get off scot-free.” 

            “Sucks for you.” She did this head thing, flipping her now brown hair over her shoulder. Whatever mask this was, I had no patience or tolerance for it. “So what did my parents have to say about their failure of a daughter almost getting her perfect twin killed?” 

            There it was. She was blaming herself, which it kind of was her fault, but that didn’t make it okay. I still had no patience for the attitude. “You could show a little more gratitude,” I snapped, and she raised her eyebrows. “Your sister was hurt, and yet your parents were worried sick about you. And I had to lie to their f*****g faces, telling them we couldn’t find you and they should file a missing persons report.” 

            Her hands dropped to her sides, still fisted. “You know what? f**k you, Pierce. Ava is alive; she wasn’t the only one who got beat up. Besides, I’ll be gone in the morning, so you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about lying anymore.” She went to the couch, curling in a tiny ball. “I can’t believe I missed you today,” she grumbled into the blanket she had wrapped around herself. 

            My bones vibrated with anger. This wasn’t her; she had her defenses up for some goddamned reason, but I couldn’t coddle her just then. A run around the block and a hot shower were necessary before I could function as a human being. And maybe fifteen hours of sleep.