I ventured a glance over. Leif.
Woody stalked back and forth in front of my window.
Forrest had gone to work at some point. I'd barely registered that too.
"Are you all right?" Leif asked.
When my eyebrow twitched, he made a face and sat back, like I might bite his head off. "Of course you're not all right. Sorry, that was a dumbass question."
I let out a long, slow breath. "It's okay. You're trying to be nice." What would be the point of snapping at him? It wouldn't help the situation. It wouldn't help Savannah.
"I don't know what to do," I added after a few moments of frustrated thought. "Or what to think. Why would anyone take her?"
He put an arm around me and pulled me to him. "I hate to admit this, but I don't know either. The whole thing is fucked up. Why would they get us to go all the way over there, then take her?"
I had no answer. None that made sense. I had questions, plenty of those. Only one mattered right now. "Do you think she's still alive?"
"Absolutely." He didn't even hesitate. "Whoever killed that man in the stairwell, they weren't messing around. If they wanted her dead, they would have done it. People like that? They have no shits to give. Trust me, I've seen it a million times before."
"Yeah, I guess they would have." I'd cling to that. What choice did I have? I'd rather accept logical reasoning, even as confronting as her being kidnapped, than admit the possibility she was gone.
"Is this because of me?" I whispered. "Did they do this because of me?"
Woody glanced over, but looked away without saying anything.
Yeah, I already knew where he stood. If he could blame me, he would. If I was guilty, all the better.
Leif glared at him. "This is not your fault. Whatever 'this' is, it's on the person who did it." In spite of his reassuring tone, he was troubled. His cheek twitched back, lips hard together.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I don't know," he rubbed his jaw. "Someone could be trying to use you to get to us."
"Who would do that? Who knows what you…get up to?" Why not go after them directly, instead of playing games like this? Not, I should add quickly, that I wanted anyone to go after them. This mindfuck though? It was doing my head in. Which waslikely the entire plan, if this was a game. We were mice trapped in a maze, wondering if there was any cheese to find.
"That's a good question," he admitted. "Theoretically, the four of us and Harlow St. James and her boyfriends."
"Do you think they would have…" I started, wincing at the idea.
"Not for a minute," he said. "None of them would do this." He was leaving something unsaid.
"Unless?" I asked.
He sighed through his nose and reluctantly said, "Unless they thought it was funny."
I leaned back a little. "Is that likely?" If this whole thing was a prank, it was sick as fuck.
"I don't think so, but I've been wrong about people before, once or twice." Leif didn't seem happy to admit that. If course not, we all liked to be a good judge of character, didn't we?
"Who the fuck knows what they might do?" Woody stopped pacing to speak bluntly. "Believe it or not, fucked up people do fucked up things."
"I'm not seeing it." Leif chewed on his thumbnail. "They might try to prank us, but they wouldn't take Savannah." He gave Woody a 'come on bro, you don't really buy that, do you?' look.
Woody leaned the side of his head against the window. "Yeah, okay. I don't see it either. Also, if they didanyof this, I'm kickingallof their asses into the year 2126."
"Get in line," I told him. I wanted to hurt whoever was messing with us. I wanted them to suffer like I was. Worse.
Would I kill them? I might. Could I? I didn't know.