Missing at 17

by Christine Conradt

  Fifteen

  A Perfect Plan

  “I need your answer, man.” Keenan leaned against the kitchen wall, waiting for Toby to answer. “You in or out?” Toby knew the time had come for him to make a decision about whether he was going to take part in the plan Pedro had put together. Twenty-four hours ago, he might have declined, but the call from Candace’s mother had been weighing on him the past few hours.

  There were too many things here in LA that threatened to rip him and Candace apart, including the less-than-legal lifestyle he’d been sharing with Keenan, and Shannon’s attempts to bring her daughter home. She had his cell number. She’d probably searched Candace’s phone records to get it. And if she’d done that, she’d probably also talked to the private detective they’d hired. Or maybe she’d gotten hold of the police report that jackass cop filled out when he arrested him. Toby wasn’t sure but regardless, it was only a matter of time before Candace’s parents showed up at his door with the cops claiming he was harboring a runaway. To truly have a life with her and be the guy she deserved, he was convinced they’d have to move away and they’d have to do it soon.

  The only way out was to do this deal. Yes, it was risky, but the money he’d make would be the start they needed. And that’s why Toby decided that this would be the last job he’d ever pull. After this, he’d go completely straight. He’d head up north, get a job in construction, work his way up to foreman, save enough for a little house, and give Candace the life she deserved.

  “All I have to do is drive, right?” Toby asked, still trying to mitigate the risk in his mind.

  “That’s what I said,” Keenan responded, hopeful that his cousin was coming around. Toby waited a few seconds to respond. He was waiting for one last warning from his gut, but it never came. He had to conclude that this was the best course of action.

  “Yeah, I’ll do it,” Toby said with conviction. Despite the inherent risk, committing actually made him feel relieved. He now had a plan and he could move forward with it.

  A broad smile came over Keenan’s features. “Smart choice, bro. This is easy-ass money.” Toby knew that was a lie. There was nothing easy about robbing a drug dealer, but the money part was true. “You didn’t say nothing to your little chica, did you?” There was concern in Keenan’s voice.

  “Of course not. She doesn’t know anything about this and I don’t want her to.”

  Keenan nodded, pleased. “I’ll let Pedro know you’re on board and we’re good to go.”

  “When are we doing this?”

  “Gotta talk to Pedro, but he was thinking tomorrow.”

  Toby nodded. Tomorrow. Good. He wanted more than anything to get this done with so he could focus on more important things, like leaving all of his and Candace’s LA problems behind.

  As Keenan ducked out of the kitchen, presumably to call Pedro and tell him the good news, Toby glanced out the window and suddenly stopped. Stretched across the very bottom corner of the frame on the other side of the screen was a thick, densely spun sheet web. Propping his elbows on the counter, Toby leaned down and saw a black widow spider nestled behind the chaotic mass of silky strands. Huddled in the cool darkness, she would have been hard to see if it weren’t for the tungsten light of the kitchen reflecting off the bloodred mark on her glossy black abdomen.

  This is an omen, Toby thought as a sense of dread settled over him. A night breeze slipped in, causing the web to vibrate. The spider remained dead still, silently waiting for the next unsuspecting insect to blunder into her trap. Had he made a mistake in telling Keenan he’d be a part of their plan? Were they as naive as the fly that couldn’t see the deadly black widow lurking behind the mesh of gossamer threads?

  Toby stood up straight, pushing the poisonous thoughts from his mind. If he let those ideas seep deeper into his brain, they could sabotage the entire job. He had to remain confident that the three of them could pull this off, that Dawson would never know who to blame, and that no one would get hurt or busted. He had to visualize himself behind the wheel, shoving the SUV into drive and peeling away with Pedro and Keenan inside, the case of cash in their grips. With explicit detail, he imagined Pedro dividing up the cash and handing each person their share. He could almost smell the scent of crisp bills, the sound they made as he thumbed through the packs.

  Sitting down at the table, Toby pressed his fingertips into the scarred wooden top as he let his mind carry the thoughts even further. He pictured himself surprising Candace with a diamond ring in a small velvet-lined box. He’d keep the ring box hidden in his pocket as they stood at the base of picturesque Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland.

  “Where are we going?” she’d ask, and flash him her perfect smile.

  “You’ll see,” he’d say as he parked the truck, took her hand, and began to lead her through the mass of orange and red autumn foliage toward the hidden waterfall. As they got closer, they’d be able to hear the crash of the icy water as it cascaded down the rocks. He’d take her out onto the bridge where they could feel the chilly mist against their faces. Once they were there, he’d get down on one knee and pull the box from his pocket. Her gloved hands would fly to her mouth and he’d see that look of surprise and happiness that danced in her eyes.

  Then he’d ask her to spend the rest of her life with him.

  Toby savored the fantasy for a moment, holding on to an image that had never crossed his mind before. Marrying Candace. He had no idea how he could be having these thoughts, but he was. He felt like he’d known her for a lifetime.

  He pulled his cell from his pocket and searched for images of Multnomah Falls. He had been there once as a child, when his grandmother had loaded him into the car and drove up to Oregon for a funeral. He couldn’t remember who had died but he thought it was one of her friends. They were only there for two days, but before they made the fifteen-hour drive back to Los Angeles in her old Buick, she’d stopped at a McDonald’s, bought them each a kids’ meal, and drove them to the waterfall. It was the first and only time Toby had ever seen one and he was mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of it.

  As he scrolled through the photos, he decided that it was most definitely a place he wanted to take Candace. And with that thought firmly implanted, the sense of foreboding that had come with the discovery of the spider passed. Any doubt that clouded his mind was gone and he was sure he’d made the right decision. This would be his last crime, and then he’d embark on his brand-new life with her. I can do this, he told himself. I’ll do this for Candace.

  Sixteen

  A Different Approach

  Under a full moon, Vance and Candace walked down the cracked driveway to her parked car. As he opened the door for her, an autumn breeze picked up and Candace could feel a chill. She got in and rolled down her window. Vance leaned in, resting his head on his forearms. She could tell he was concerned for her.

  “So, you okay? I know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear.”

  “I don’t know what I was expecting, to be honest,” Candace said. “I just feel . . . sort of lost right now.”

  It was an understatement. Three days ago, she thought she was a normal teenager living with her natural parents and annoying little brother. Two days ago, she didn’t know who her parents were, only that the people she believed in and trusted since she was a baby had deceived her. Today, she discovered that she had a brother, her natural father had died in prison, and her mother was an addict who didn’t regret giving her up. On top of all of that, the conversation with Callie only made her feel guilty about how she’d been treating her mother, not just in the past few days but for months.

  She wasn’t sure why her mom was so hard to get along with, or how the ultra-contentious dynamic between them took hold, but it did. Despite her epiphany that perhaps her mom loved her more than she’d realized, she knew that going back home would just lead to more tension and fights like it always had. The irony is that Candace knew she was more like Shannon than she was Callie. At least she hop
ed so. Even though her mother had a temper and could be bossy and overbearing, it was better than the apathy she saw in Callie. She couldn’t imagine how Vance had dealt with it all these years.

  “I’d probably feel a little lost, too,” Vance said, and smiled. “I would like to spend more time with my little sister, though. Maybe meet this boyfriend of yours.” It was exactly what Candace needed to hear. Vance welcomed her into his world and wanted to be a part of hers.

  “Meet my boyfriend? You sound like a protective older brother,” she teased.

  “Maybe I am,” he said, and grinned.

  “I’d like to meet Monica, too.” Monica was Vance’s girlfriend of almost three years. Over dinner, he’d shown Candace a picture of her.

  “Cool. When are you gonna come back and see Mom?” he asked.

  Candace exhaled, “Think she even wants me to come back?”

  Vance nodded. “I do,” he said. “Baby steps.”

  “Then maybe you could invite me over for dinner on Sunday night.” Candace smiled broadly.

  “You’re invited,” he said. Her connection to Vance was undeniable. He seemed like he could end up being a lifelong friend.

  Ready to go back to Toby’s and process all that had happened, she turned the key in the ignition. Instead of starting up, she heard a loud and unfortunately familiar whining noise. Candace threw her head back in frustration.

  “Ugh. Not again.”

  “Sounds like your starter’s going out,” Vance said, and motioned her to turn the key again. She did and the engine started right up. “Why don’t you bring it into the shop tomorrow and I’ll look at it?”

  “Shop?” Vance had mentioned earlier that he was a mechanic, but he hadn’t told her exactly where he worked.

  “Sorry, guess that’s an important piece of information. Corbin Automotive and Body over on 43rd. About a mile east of here.” He pointed behind him giving her a vague sense of how to get there. Finding the place wasn’t the problem though.

  “Will you take an IOU?” she asked, knowing she couldn’t afford to pay him to fix the starter. At least not at the moment, but she’d add it to the grand she already owed Toby and pay them both back later.

  Vance grinned. “I’m not gonna charge you, silly. Family discount.” She exhaled, relieved and touched. “Drive safe, kiddo.”

  “Thanks. See ya tomorrow,” she said, and shifted into drive. As Candace drove away, she snuck a glance at Vance, who stood in the weedy yard, watching her. That’s my big brother, she thought happily. Somehow that thought led her to thinking about Andrew and how worried he probably was. During her short stint at home, she’d promised that they’d have a heart-to-heart, but they never did. She didn’t even finish playing pool with him at the pizzeria. I suck. I need to be better to him. I need to play some of his silly games and not get so mad at his pranks and actually talk when he wants to talk. Then it dawned on her that if she stayed with Toby, any chance of proving to Andrew that she could be a better sister than she had been, was gone. And that, too, added to her feeling of being lost.

  Images of the party Callie had brought up popped into her mind. It was especially hot that year and her parents had spent hours before the party filling up water balloons in the kitchen sink for a water balloon fight. She’d had so much fun. She remembered hitting her father square in the chest with a water balloon that soaked his entire shirt.

  Maybe that’s why Candace felt so betrayed when she found out she was adopted. Maybe Candace wasn’t angry that they had lied as much as she was angry that she wasn’t really theirs. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure why she felt so much resentment toward her mom in particular. Her mother loved her. The effort she had put into that birthday party was undeniable. Her life with them before the family broke up, before she’d found out she wasn’t theirs, had been pretty great. Certainly better than Vance’s life was with Callie, and even better than a lot of her friends’. She’d thought Callie would be her salvation. Now, everything was opposite.

  Once again she wasn’t sure where she belonged. If she stayed with Toby, she’d never have the chance to do any of the things she should’ve done differently when it came to her mom, dad, and Andrew. But if she went back to them, her parents would discourage her from seeing Toby. Is this what being an adult is like? Finding myself in situations where I’m screwed no matter what choice I make? The allure of being a grown-up is kind of deceptive, Candace thought as she merged onto the freeway. She’d waited so long to be able to have control over her own life and now she wasn’t sure which doors to open and which ones to shut.

  “How’d it go?” Toby asked eagerly as soon as he saw Candace walk in the door. The television was on but he hadn’t been paying attention to it. His thoughts had been on Candace, the robbery that was going down tomorrow, and a better future in Oregon. Candace kicked off her shoes and plopped down next to him.

  “I need a beer,” she said.

  He handed her his. It was still cold. “That bad?” he asked, and shut off the TV, giving her his undivided attention. Whatever had happened, she wasn’t nearly as much of a mess as she was the first night they met, so he figured it couldn’t be that bad.

  “I have a brother who’s really cool, but the rest . . . I don’t know how I feel about anything right now.” What does that mean? Toby wondered. It was obvious that she didn’t want to go into detail even though he would’ve listened to whatever she had to say. He hated being pressed when he didn’t feel like talking about something, so he didn’t want to put the same pressure on her.

  “That’s okay. You don’t have to,” he said as he noticed the little invitation in her hand. “What’s that thing?”

  She held it up and looked at it, some of the aging glitter falling into her lap. “An invitation to my sixth birthday party. My mom made it.”

  Confused, Toby said, “I thought she gave you up when you were just a baby. . . .”

  “Yeah, she did. I meant my adoptive mom. Shannon,” Candace clarified, and took another sip of beer. Toby deflated a little. That was the first time he’d heard her refer to anything Shannon had done without a note of contempt. He hoped things weren’t so crappy with her biological family that she was considering heading back to Shannon’s house. The very thought of it made him uneasy.

  “She, uh, called my cell, by the way. Looking for you. I hung up on her,” he said. He was hoping Candace would say Good! Maybe that’ll teach her never to call here again!, but she didn’t. Candace didn’t say anything, just looked at him with a conflicted expression. “You’re okay with that, right?” he asked, suddenly unsure.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been kinda hard on her,” Candace said, staring at the invite. Toby could feel panic rising in him.

  “No you haven’t,” he quickly chimed in, taking her hand. “Look, if you talk to her, she’s just gonna try to convince you to go home. She’ll make it impossible for us to see each other. That’s not what you want, is it?”

  Even as he said the words, Toby knew that he was being selfish. But no. He wanted Candace to stay with him, to run off with him and start a new life, and he absolutely refused to entertain the idea that maybe being home with her mother was actually the best thing for her. Every objection Shannon could come up with—that Candace needed to graduate high school, that she needed to be in a safe environment, that she needed to be taken care of—he would make sure those things happened. The more he’d thought about it, the more he was convinced that he could give Candace everything she needed to be happy.

  He could only imagine the fit Shannon would pitch if she knew Candace was dating a guy who was twenty-three.

  This sucks, Toby thought. He didn’t want to give her up. He was falling in love with her and the life they’d shared for the last few days: falling asleep in each other’s arms, sleeping late, making breakfast, hanging out during the day, partying at night. His entire future somehow hinged on Candace now. He absolutely could not handle it if she moved back to her house in the
suburbs.

  When Candace just looked down at the invitation again, he could tell she was missing her mom. “I know I tease you a lot and stuff,” he said with sincerity. “But I like having you here. I don’t want you to go.” Those were tough words for him to say. He took such pains to keep his feelings private. He felt more at ease when she smiled at him. God, how he loved that sparkle in her eye.

  “The way I feel about you, I haven’t felt that way in a long time. Maybe not ever,” he said, unable to look at her as the words spilled out. It was like a window to his heart had opened just a crack and he could finally articulate what he’d been feeling.

  She put her beer down, reached over, and laced her fingers in his. “I’m not going to leave you,” she said. “No matter what.”

  “Would it freak you out if I said that I think I might be falling in love with you?” he asked, feeling like that twelve-year-old boy once again, the one who was head over heels for Cara. When she didn’t immediately answer, he flicked his gaze up to look into her eyes.

  “No,” Candace said gently. “That wouldn’t freak me out at all. I’m falling in love with you, too.”

  As soon as she said it, Toby felt a wave of peace wash over him and the anxiety he’d been feeling was almost completely gone. He leaned in and kissed her full, round lips, letting his tongue dip into her mouth. His heart swelled in his chest, and as he tangled his fingers in her long hair, tilting her head back so he could kiss her more deeply, he wanted nothing more than to do this for the rest of his life.

  “Come on,” Toby said, and stood up. “Let’s go to bed.” As Candace let him pull her by the hand off the sofa, she felt as if she were going to burst with joy. Toby had just told her he was falling for her and now that they’d put their feelings out into the open, she no longer had to wonder what was going through his mind. Never in a million years had she expected to fall in love with a gorgeous bad boy like Toby. And even more surprising, she’d never expected someone like him to fall for her. But there was a connection there, a real connection that she’d never experienced before, and she knew she’d never be able to let it go.