No Place Like Home

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I opened my mouth and then shut it, not wanting the shock, frustration, and perhaps judgment to creep into my response. The downturn of Ramirez’s mouth and the hunch of his shoulders suggested he may have been feeling guilty enough without me tossing my two cents in—which he confirmed when he hung his head, cradling it with his palms as his elbows dug into his knees as they bounced with untapped energy.

I took a couple of moments before speaking—one to compose myself and my thoughts; the other to offer Ramirez the same.

“We’ve talked about Shelby, but not how Leah inserted herself into the situation. Why not start with Leah’s plan and work our way toward the discovery of her car.” He lifted his head and nodded, shifting back on the couch. “So, this plan of hers…did she come to you to verify the logistics of her plan…to make sure it would work?” I felt a pang of jealousy, even as I asked the question.

I was typically the one Leah ran her schemes by. When had we gotten so far off-course that we couldn’t share something like that?

Ramirez shook his head. “She shared her plan with me, but it had nothing to do with confirming whether it would work. I think she knew that I’d tell her it wouldn’t, that it was a matter for law enforcement, but you know how that would have gone.”

I shrugged. There was no denying it. Leah would have ignored him and gone ahead with her plan. It’s what I would have done.

“And this reason?”

“It was two-fold. First, Leah wanted someone to know if something went sideways, that she hadn’t just disappeared.”

“And the second?” I prompted, as my heart did the Cha-Cha in my chest.

“She wanted me to let you know she was sorry for hurting you,” he replied, still refusing to make eye contact.

“There’s still something else, isn’t there?”

He pulled in a deep breath, then faced me, his brows pressing together as he spoke. “She asked—no, told—me that if something happened and she was no longer around, that I was to watch out for you.”

I bowed my head. “Oh.”

I could feel his gaze as he sat silently and emotions swarmed, threatening to overtake the last bit of strength I had. I shoved them aside, knowing I’d have to address them eventually.

For now, I would not…could not entertain the possibility that my best friend was no longer walking this earth.

Finally, I nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate you telling me.” He nodded in return. I blew out a breath and pressed forward. “And her plan—was it feasible?”

Ramirez raised a brow. “Plan? Come on, AJ. Leah’s been your best friend for what—twenty years? Have you ever known her to ‘plan’ anything?”

His overt use of finger quotes—a gesture that I’d used more than twice and typically annoyed the heck out of him—was not appreciated. The colorful selection of language I shot back was not lost on him, either.

He sighed. “To answer your question, her fuzzy-headed scheme was not feasible, and I told her as much.” I scoffed and prompted him to continue. “Regardless, she felt she had enough information, based on what Shelby had told her, to follow her down the rabbit hole. The same rabbit hole.”

When my mouth formed an “o,” but no words found their way out, he nodded. “Yeah. I tried to convince her she was better off taking what she had to the proper authorities and even suggested a few contacts to help her. But she wouldn’t have it. Even threatened me, quite creatively, if I took it upon myself to get any of them involved.”

“Threatened?” I frowned, convinced he was exaggerating. Leah rarely made threats and even then, they were in jest.

Ramirez gave me a single shake of the head, but said nothing more. I studied him for a moment. He’d been forthcoming about his conversation with Leah, but there was something about the way he’d claimed she’d contacted him that just didn’t ring true.

Meaning he was still holding something back.

Question was…should I call him on it and risk having him shutting down? Or give him a pass and miss out on whatever “it” was he had yet to divulge.

For now, I chose the latter. I would not waste any more precious time waiting for him to dole out scraps of information.

If anyone was going to track down Leah, I was the most qualified.

I just needed to figure out a way to convince Ramirez that I’d leave the matter to his pals in law enforcement so I could tackle it on my own.