Page 114 of Burning for You
As I adjust the rear-view mirror of my rental car, I notice a piece of paper poking out behind the sun visor.
Welcome to Montana. You can stop calling your boyfriend now. You’re still smart, I was doubting that you’d find out about your phone at all. But, if you’d paid more attention, you would’ve noticed that your Levi ‘Love Bug’ Holt contact has had a different number in the past week or so.
“Bastard!” I say and check Levi’s number in my contacts. This is indeed a foreign number. So that message congratulating me and Anton wasn’t from him at all? And I’ve been calling a ghost? No wonder Levi hasn’t been answering!
I punch in Levi’s real number manually, but I’m still getting voicemail.
As soon as I hang up, a call comes through.
“Caro.”
A voice I wish I’d never heard again—an enemy that I’d mistaken as the man I was going to build my life with. “Fuck you, Josh!”
“Feeling the pinch, are we?”
“You can never tear us apart. I know your game.”
“I’m not playing a game. I’m claiming back my rights.”
“Even a pig has more rights than you.”
Josh sniggers. “I’ve put a destination inside the navigation system. I’ll meet you there. You’ll be surprised who’s there.”
“Your boss, Rupert Teller,” I mock. Whatever I can do to make my ex feel low.
He responds with a quick gulp, and then he says, “That’s not who I have in mind.”
I clutch the steering wheel. He’s got Levi?
Josh continues, “I can’t wait to peel off those tats. Maybe with my army knife, maybe with a potato peeler.” He chuckles. “Maybe the rose one first, then the Weeping Virgin Mary. I’ll make sure he won’t have any skin left to put on a new one. In case he wants to immortalize you. Maybe CM?”
“I will kill you, Joshua Bright!”
“See you there, Caro.”
I will kill my ex-fiancé, but first, I need to know where Levi is. I don’t believe Josh has got him.
I run back to the rental car office, not wanting to use my tampered phone anymore. The customer service person lets me use their phone to call Rhea Chan back in New York.
“Can you track if Levi has another number?”
After hearing some frantic keyboard tapping, Rhea responds, “I don’t think so, Caro. He might’ve got a new one recently, prepaid maybe, but there’s no way of knowing it.”
“How about the Holt ranch? Any other numbers? Unlisted numbers?”
“No.”
I ponder. Grant Barnes!
I say, “How about the Barneses? They own a ranch next to the Holts.”
“Yes.”
I immediately try the number. After five or six rings, a man who sounds a lot like my dad answers, “Peter Barnes.”
“Mr. Barnes. My name is Carolyn Meyer. I need to speak to one of your neighbors, Levi Holt.”
“Miss Meyer,” Peter says. “I heard a lot about you from Grant—”