by Lane Hart
As the dull droning ring begins, I tighten my free hand into a fist, my nails digging into my palm. My heart thrashes against the cage of my ribs and I dread the moment I have to explain to this man why I’m calling.
“Hello?”
His voice on the line yanks me out of my worried thoughts and for a moment, I can’t think of a single thing to say.
“Hello?” he repeats. He sounds out of breath and I can hear the sounds of traffic on his end of the line.
“Yeah, uh, hi. Tripp? This is Georgia Addington calling from the South Side Community Center.”
“Jesus,” he mutters. “What happened now?”
“Um …” This is the part I was worried about. “To be honest, I don’t really know what happened, but I saw something today I think you should know about.”
“Are you telling me you’re calling me now, in the middle of yet another last-minute job I managed to find, just to tell me something happened but you don’t know what it is?”
If I could crawl under a rock and die there right now, I would. “Uh … yes?”
A man shouts Tripp’s name on the other end. “Be right there,” he calls back. “I gotta go, Miss Addington. Thanks for the chat.”
He hangs up on me then, leaving me standing in my office, the sun setting on the other side of the window. He didn’t even let me speak! I never got a chance to tell him what I saw at all. What an asshole!
After placing the receiver back on its cradle with a little more force than necessary, I sit down at my desk with a quiet grunt of frustration. Now what?
But I already know the answer to that, don’t I? It is my duty as a social worker to address this situation, even if I’m not one hundred percent sure what the situation even is. I can either do that the way I’m supposed to according to the policies of this center, or I can do Tripp Fletcher a favor and force him to hear me out and deal with it how he sees fit.
I don’t owe the Fletcher’s anything, but after the way I mishandled the whole thing with Hailey, I feel it is my responsibility to try to get to Tripp one more time. I just hope I can work up the courage to get him to listen.
Tripp
It’s almost ten o’clock by the time I get home, bone weary and ready to grab a quick shower and crawl into bed. With any luck, the heat will be working again in the house, and I can finally get a decent night’s sleep.
I reach the top step to my door and am about to insert my key when I hear her rushing up behind me.
“Mr. Fletcher?” she calls. “Mr. Fletcher? We need to talk.”
With wide eyes, I spin around and watch in shock as Georgia Addington comes bustling up the front walkway, her brown hair weighted down by a knit hat and her jacket zipped tight all the way up to her chin to keep out the cold air.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, the question coming out as more surprised than angry, though I’m not sure which I feel more of at this moment.
Her cheeks and the tip of her nose are pink from the cold and her breath billows out in front of her as she plants her hands on her hips. “You didn’t let me talk earlier, but this time you can’t hang up on me.”
Is this bitch for real? “I didn’t let you talk earlier because I was at work,” I tell her. “And you said yourself that you didn’t even really know what you were calling about. I didn’t have time to shoot the shit with you, ya know.”
I wait for her lips to part in that cute as hell way they did the other day when I’d shocked her into silence, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, she takes a step closer and pokes a finger into my chest, her eyes flashing with annoyance. “You listen here, Tripp Fletcher. You yourself told me that calling you on the phone was the best way to handle any situation I come across, but when I did that, you hung up on me. Now I’m hungry and I’m cold and I’m very, very tired, and you are going to listen to what I have to say, even if it means we both freeze to death out here.”
I glance behind her and see her Lexus sitting at the curb across the street. “How long have you been waiting out here?”
She juts her chin out in defiance, her nose in the air. “Seven o’clock, if you must know, and I’m no mood to argue with you any longer.”
I can’t help the chuckle that escapes then as I watch her stare up at me in defiance. She really is very beautiful, even for a North Side chick. With a sigh of defeat, I drop to the steps, taking a seat and pat the cold cement beside me. “You win,” I tell her. “Spill.”
As soon as she begins talking, I understand why she was in such a flurry to get me to listen. “This man you saw? Did he happen to have a tattoo on his cheek?”
Georgia’s head tilts to the side a little as she thinks back. “I think so,” she says slowly, “but he was too far away to see what it was.”
Fucking Trey Harper. “I think I know exactly who these guys are,” I admit. “And I’ll talk to Carter about it too. See if I can find out what was in that bag. Now you say they didn’t see you watching them, right?”
Georgia nods, her brow creased with worry. “They didn’t. But Carter did.”
I sigh. “You leave Carter to me. But if you see any of those guys around again, don’t go near them, okay?”
Her eyes widen as I speak. “They’re dangerous, aren’t they?”
She looks so afraid and so out of her element; I have the overwhelming urge to pull her into my arms and shield her from the truth of who Trey Harper and his posse are. To keep her from knowing the truth about who’s really in charge on the South Side.
“They’re the worst kind of dangerous,” I tell her, dipping my head to catch her eyes, praying she understands just how serious I am. “Just promise me you’ll steer clear of them.”
Georgia nods again, this time looking more worried than she had a few moments ago. “Is Carter safe?” she asks, and for a moment I can’t focus on an answer. All I can think about is how I’d just told her these men were a danger to her, and all she was worried about was if my idiot kid brother was going to be alright.
I stand, holding a hand out to her, then help her to her feet. “Depends on how well my conversation goes with him,” I tell her, only partially joking. Carter knows how I feel about Trey and everything he stands for. Him having anything to do with those guys is a huge middle finger to me.
Georgia nods, her body trembling with cold. “You need to get into the car and warm yourself up.”
Leading her to the car, I turn and catch her eye. “Thank you for being so stubborn and forcing me to listen. I know that’s not the way things are supposed to go down there. Will you lose your job over this?”
She shrugs and a small smile forms on her lips. “Not if they don’t find out.” She climbs into her car then and as I shut the door behind her, she lifts her hand in a tiny wave.
Perhaps I had judged Georgia just a little too quickly. Her coming here and confronting me like that took balls. It also proved that she understood just how much was at stake when shit like this happens with a family like ours. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.
Chapter Five
Georgia
“No, Benjamin, I won’t reconsider. I have an obligation here.”
Benjamin’s sigh is forceful, even through the phone. Even though it is already Tuesday, and the gala is tonight, he hasn’t stopped attempting to sway me into coming with him.
“You have an obligation to me,” he snaps. “Your fiancé.”
I’d met Benjamin at a gala my mother had forced me to attend last year. He’d been the perfect gentleman that night, and every day since then. This is the first time he’d ever used a forceful tone with me, and for a second, I’m stunned into silence.
“That job is not your future, Georgia. You’re Harold and Lillian Addington’s daughter for Christ’s sake. You shouldn’t be working in the slums as a glorified daycare worker. You should be at this function with me tonight.”
My nostrils flare with anger with every word he says. “If you think for one minute that being my parents’
child gives me a free pass on life, then you obviously don’t know me as well as I thought you did,” I hiss. “I will not be some trophy wife you can take out when you feel like it, show me off and put me back on the shelf when you’d rather not deal with me. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
I hear the beginning of his argument, but I don’t stop long enough to let him speak it. Benjamin has never spoken like that to me before and for a moment, it was almost like speaking to my mother, only with a much deeper voice.
“Miss Addington?” a voice calls from the other side of the room. “Maisy has a bloody nose.”
Dropping my phone back into my purse, I put Benjamin and our argument out of my mind for the time being. I have less than an hour left of the Tuesday evening youth night and I still have a few activities to get to with the children after I see to Maisy’s bloody nose.
One of the main objectives of the center is to provide these children with a warm, safe environment and to give them somewhere to go in the evenings besides hanging out on the street where they tend to get themselves into all sorts of trouble.
We provide activities, snacks and arts and crafts for any child under the age of eighteen that comes in after hours until ten o’clock in the evening. The idea makes sense, but I have been astonished tonight at how many kids actually come here to just hang out with their friends and kill some time.
Maybe Benjamin is right, I think as I press a wadded up tissue against the little girl’s nose. Maybe I am a glorified daycare worker, but after seeing the smiles on these children’s faces when I’d brought out the ice cream and toppings just a little while ago, I realized I didn’t care one bit. These kids need this center, and to keep it going, they need people like me that are willing to work there for very little money and put in a whole lot of hours. Being one of those people is a privilege as far as I’m concerned.
From the other side of the room, I watch as Hailey helps her youngest brother, Max, with a puzzle he’d been working on. Earlier this afternoon, at the after-school program, I’d seen them both there. One person I hadn’t seen though, was Carter.
I wonder how things went last night, between Tripp and his brother. Did he find out what was in that bag? Was it as bad as I’d assumed it was?
“Penny for your thoughts?” Jane says from behind me.
I turn and meet her shy smile, pleased to see that she’s wearing the cute little scoop neck shirt I’d suggested she buy when we were at Walmart the other day. Jane may be shy but she has a nice little body under all that fabric. She just needs the confidence to stop hiding it.
I sigh. “Just thinking about the Fletcher’s,” I admit. “I went over there last night to talk to Tripp about–”
Her gasp of surprise cuts me off. “You went to their house? Why?”
I pause for a moment, considering just how much I should tell her. I hadn’t exactly done what I was supposed to according to protocol and I’m not sure if I can trust her with the truth quite yet. “I had something to discuss with Tripp, and he hung up on me.”
Her eyes grow wide from beneath her glasses. “And?”
“And, he listened to me. Finally. And I haven’t heard a peep about it since then. I’m dying to know how things went with Carter.”
Jane frowns. “Carter? But he doesn’t go into your workroom, does he?”
Crap. Jane might just get the full story out of me yet. “No, but I saw something … worrisome, so I went to talk to his brother about it.”
She blinks and pushes her glasses further up her nose. “How did that go?”
I think about the way Tripp had listened to everything I’d had to say, and the way he’d warned me to stay away from those men. He’d seemed concerned. For me.
“Good,” I tell her. “But I haven’t seen Carter since then, and I was just wondering what happened after I left.”
Jane thinks for a moment. “Carter wasn’t there this afternoon.”
Just then, the front door to the center opens, a tiny tornado of cold air swirling down the hall as it closes again. I watch with wide eyes as Tripp approaches, his gaze trained on me. “Is he here?” he asks, looking from me to Jane.
Jane slowly shakes her head, her lips parted in surprise as he stands before us, dwarfing us both with his size.
“He never came home last night,” he tells me, gently taking my arm and guiding me away from Jane and the rest of the room. “I went upstairs to talk to him after you left, and he was gone. Actually, I don’t think he’d even come home. He’s never done this before, Georgia.” His voice is steady and low, but the look in his eyes betrays him, telling me just how worried he really is. “Never. He might go out and get into some trouble from time to time, but he always comes home at night.”
I glance over his shoulder at Jane, who bugs her eyes out, as if to ask me what the hell he’s doing here. Ignoring her, I consider what Tripp has just told me. “Have you called his friends?”
“I’ve called his friends, his teacher, the lady at the convenience store he always goes to with his buds. I’ve called everyone.”
“Okay,” I say, placing a hand on his arm, hoping to lend him a little bit of my strength. “I have …” I check my watch. “Another twenty minutes here before I have to lock up. Why don’t you take Max and Hailey home, and when I’m done, I’ll meet you there? We can go out and search for him together, okay?”
Tripp pulls back, his arm pulling from my grasp. “I don’t need your help,” he snaps. “I just wanted to know if you’d seen him.”
Wow. Okay. That was a complete and total change of attitude that I wasn’t expecting. And after the conversation I’d just had with Benjamin, I was tired of men ripping into me. “I don’t care what you think you need,” I inform him, my eyes narrowed to mere slits. “I offered to help you look for him because he’s a sixteen-year-old boy that needs to be found. Now I can either go with you and search, or I can do it on my own, but one way or another, at ten o’clock, I am going to lock up this building and go looking for your brother.”
His eyes remain locked on mine, a wordless battle taking place between the two of us, and for a moment, I almost think he’s going to storm out of the building, but in the end, the anger fades from that place inside him and he simply nods. “Okay.”
Without another word, he walks toward Hailey and Max, the three of them quickly tidy up Max’s puzzle and then they leave. Okay? Okay, we’ll look together, or okay, suit yourself?
“I’m going with you,” Jane says, coming up to stand beside me. Turning my head to the side, I stare back at her in surprise. “Carter’s a good kid. I like him, and I want to help.”
Not one to turn down an able body to join our search, I simply nod. “We’ll head out as soon as we get this place locked up for the night.”
Tripp
I’m already stepping at the door when Georgia shows up with another social worker from the center at her side. I don’t know how I feel about either one of them being here. Child Services has never exactly been a friend of mine, and now that I’ve actually lost my brother, I don’t know what they would do to me and the rest of my family.
“Tripp,” Georgia says with a small smile. “This is Jane. She wants to help too.”
“Me too,” Zack calls from the sidewalk and I look up just as he bounds up the front steps. “Couldn’t let ya go looking on your own, now could I?” He looks towards the two women between us and I can’t help but feel a twinge of possessiveness when he rakes his eyes over Georgia. “And who do we have here?”
Stepping around the women, I put myself between them and my best friend. It’s not that I’m afraid he’d harm them, but Zack is a player, and I suddenly don’t like the idea of him being anywhere near Georgia. “This is Jane and Georgia. They’re going to help us search. I thought we could break off in pairs. Cover more ground.”
Georgia nods. “Sure. Jane and I can search east of Tenth Avenue and you guys can hit everything west.” Jane nods, clearly happy with that plan.
“I don’t think so,” I inform them. “There’s no way you two are wandering around out here alone at night. Jane, you go with Zack, Georgia, you’re with me.”
Neither Zack, nor Jane look happy with my plan, but they don’t complain. Instead, after a simple goodbye, they head off to the east, leaving me and Georgia alone on the front step.
“Do you have any idea where to look?” she asks, following me down the steps and out onto the sidewalk.
I stuff my hands into my coat pockets and shake my head. “He could be anywhere by now. He’s never done anything like this before to have a spot I’d know to check for.”
Georgia is quiet as she walks alongside me. “Look, uh … I’m sorry about being so bossy earlier. I just wanted to help, you know?”
I smirk and bump her lightly from the side. “Hey, don’t go apologizing on me now. That was ballsy. I kinda liked it.”
Her laughter catches me off guard. It’s not the restrained and ladylike laugh I had been expecting but instead comes out in a musical peal complete with an adorable little snort that has me laughing right alongside her.
“You are definitely the first person to ever say that to me,” she admits, her face still alight with her smile. “I’ve always been kind of a pushover, doing what I’m told and acting like the perfect young lady. It’s exhausting.”
The way she says it makes me think that she’s never really told anyone that before. “So why do it then?” I ask. “Why not just speak your mind and stand up for yourself?”
From the corner of my eye, I watch her smile fade as we continue to walk. “You haven’t met my mother. She’s not someone that you stand up to. Or at least that’s what I always believed.”
“And now?”
“And now, I realize that my mother lives in her own perfect little world, and I don’t want to be a part of that anymore. I want to live my own life, and that means I need to get better at speaking my mind.”