Finding Jordie: Things aren't always what they seem. (The Love Lies Bleeding Series Book 1)

by Harley, HJ

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Okay, any more problems, feel free to call us.”

  “Thank you.” I put the phone back in its cradle.

  “What did he say? Did they fix it?”

  “He said it was your remote setting it on and off. He disabled it because there may be a short. A new one is in the mail.”

  “All right, whatever.” He ran his hands through his hair.

  The buzzer went off and I jumped.

  “Frank?”

  “Yes, it’s me, Nate.”

  Frank and Ronnie walked in and the two of them did a quick run through of the place.

  “Everything looks good,” Frank assured us. “Where did Charles go?”

  “He isn’t up here. I was halfway to la la land when it went off again.” I yawned after I managed to answer him. I was exhausted.

  Frank side-eyed Ronnie and he shrugged in response. Frank was pissed. I mean, really pissed.

  “Maybe he went to the bathroom? Check the bar before you have an aneurism, Frank.” I gave him a smile in hopes it’d lighten his mood up a bit.

  “You’re far too kind, Jordie.”

  “Eh, everyone has to pee.” I yawned again.

  “Goodnight, you two. See you in the morning.” Frank nodded and Ronnie followed him out the door.

  I saw Emma off to school the next morning and headed straight to the bar. I felt like I’d neglected it so much over the last few months. There was a note from Rachel taped to my office door. I took the note off, walked in my office, and had a seat in my squeaky old chair.

  Jordie, you need to make a deposit, like NEED TO ASAP. If you’re going to continue to be the lovesick slacker that you’re being, you’re going to have to put me on the checking account. As much as I enjoy the rush from forging your signature, I’d rather be legit. Only so I can, ya know, pay bills, vendors, and employees. P Call me when you get this. Love u bitch. Xoxo.

  “Love you too, bitch.” I chuckled.

  I took out the bank bag and wrote out the deposit ticket. June 2. I stopped for a moment and smiled. My life had changed so much since that brisk night in March. I almost wished I could find the son of a bitch that hit me so I could thank him. I shook myself out from my day dreaming to finish the deposit and pay a few bills. After I finished, I noticed the blinking light on the phone. “Oh yay, voice mail,” I muttered sarcastically.

  Three new messages.

  The first message was a hang up, the second another hang up, and the third one was silence. My stomach twisted into a knot. The eerie silence that filled my office suddenly was broken by the sound of an alarm in the distance.

  “That can’t be,” I whispered.

  This time, without hesitation, I dug through my purse for my phone. I hit the speed dial to call Frank.

  He answered on the first ring. “Jordan, are you all right?”

  “Hi Frank, I have a weird message on the voice mail at the bar and I didn’t see Charles out there when I—”

  “Elliot took over for Charles and gave him a ride back to the hotel. He should be back soon. We’ll be right there. Keep the door locked and stay put,” he instructed me before he hung up.

  “Yes, sir.” I shoved my phone in my pocket as I walked up front to make sure I’d locked the door. “Good timing, kid.” I placed my hand over my stomach. “I could really use a smoke right now.” But I was now officially a non-smoker. A loud bang on the front door startled me. Who could that be? There was no way Frank had made it here that quickly.

  “Who is it?”

  Nobody responded.

  “We’re closed, open up at five o’clock.” I yelled louder just in case there was someone there and they couldn’t hear me through the door.

  Still no response though.

  “Fuck this. I’m not playing games with you. I have a gun and I will shoot your sorry ass!” I yelled in the direction of the door before I hurried back to my office to arm myself.

  The moment I stepped foot into my office the phone rang. Startled, I let out a small scream and jumped back. I shoved the chair out of the way, reached under my desk with one hand, and picked up the phone with the other, furious as hell.

  “The Post,” I practically growled.

  Silence.

  “Ya know what, motherfucker, I’m tired of this sh—” I was interrupted by the sound of my own muffled voice saying, “Who is it? We’re closed, open up at five o’clock.” I slammed down the phone in a panic, cocked my gun, and grabbed my purse. I stopped and stood still for a moment to just try and collect my thoughts and calm myself down. Just breathe, Jordan, you are fine. Breathe. You. Are. Fine. You’re locked up tight inside here with a loaded pistol. Fine, I repeated to myself over and over until I was calm. I made my way towards the front door when suddenly a loud bang came from the back door.

  “Go away, go the fuck away,” I screamed in tears. I spun around because I heard Nathan’s muffled shout from the front.

  “Jordie, Jordan! Open the door! It’s Nathan.”

  “Oh, thank god.” I breathed a sigh of relief and rushed to the door to unlock it.

  Nathan, Frank, and Ronnie stormed through the door. Nathan swept me off to the side, checking me over, up and down with his eyes and hands.

  “Baby, are you all right?”

  Frank lifted my hand. I was still holding the gun. “Jordie, let me have this,” he said calmly as he gently loosened the death grip I had around it.

  “Someone was banging on the doors and then called me. I guess they recorded me because they played it back when they called me...” I blurted out between my sobs and took some deep breaths in attempt to regain my composure.

  “Ronnie,” Frank barked.

  “I’m on it, boss.” Ronnie jogged off towards the back of the bar before Frank finished his instructions.

  “Babe, breathe, calm down. Come sit,” Nathan begged me as he led me to my office.

  I heard Frank lock the door, and Ronnie come back up front.

  “All clear, Frank.”

  Before he stepped into my office Frank told Ronnie to call Richard and ask him to swing by there with the phone records. He walked over to the phone, hit the speaker button, and asked me to retrieve the voice mail. I dialed the number and punched in the code. He picked up the receiver and took notes as he listened. I guessed he picked it up so I didn’t have to hear the message again. Nathan held my face between his hands, bringing my attention back to him.

  “Seriously, are you all right?”

  “I’m okay now.” I managed a small smile before I leaned in to give him a quick kiss.

  After Frank was done with the messages, he and Ronnie continued to make sure everything was secure. They finally settled down after many rechecks.

  Richard arrived about forty-five minutes later. When he walked in he greeted us cordially but I could tell something wasn’t quite right. He looked uncomfortable talking in front of Nathan and me. My suspicions were confirmed when he asked Frank to go speak in private.

  “I’ll only tell them when you leave, Richard. Save me the trouble, please. It’s always better to hear things first hand.”

  “All right, if you insist.” Richard shook his head reluctantly as he opened the folder in his hands and placed it on the bar.

  “The phone calls that were being made to here and your home originated overseas. It took us a bit longer to collect the location data due to the fact it was outside of the U.S. and the sensitivity of the situation.”

  “Sensitivity of the situation? Overseas? Why is someone from another country calling me?” I asked but my questions were ignored. “I mean, the shitty connection did remind me of the calls from Jason when he was deployed but there has to be some kind of mistake with your information.”

  Frank and Richard exchanged an odd look for the briefest second. I guessed they thought I was the misinformed one because they went about their conversation as if I hadn’t said a word.

  “I had to jump through hoops to get this i
nfo, Frank, and even still we can’t pinpoint exactly where the calls were made from. Which, as you know, will make identifying the caller a difficult task.”

  All right then, Dicky, just ignore everything I say. I slapped my hands on my thighs and huffed out a huge gust of air in frustration.

  Frank and Richard stared at one another as if they were involved in a very intense silent conversation.

  “The phone calls that just occurred came from a burn phone,” he continued.

  “Burn phone?” I asked with the hope that this time my question wouldn’t be ignored.

  “A prepaid cell phone often used to conduct illegal activity. It’s an inexpensive, simple cell phone that can’t be traced via a SIM card.”

  I nodded my head, pretending to understand what he’d just said to me made sense, and suddenly I wished he had just continued ignoring me. It wasn’t as if my understanding any of what he said would’ve made any difference.

  “So now what?” Nathan blurted out, his frustration obvious from the way he was raking his hands through his hair.

  That’s so hot when he does that. What? Seriously? There’s something wrong with you...I couldn’t help that we were in the middle of a drama fest and all I could think about was how damned sexy he was. It was what he did to me.

  “Well, there are a few options,” Richard began to say just as Ronnie shouted from the front door that he needed Frank. Frank ran to the door with Richard right behind him.

  “Stay here, both of you,” Frank shouted as he exited the bar.

  “Like hell stay here.” I hopped off the barstool.

  “Jordie, just... Oh, Christ, why am I even trying? Let’s go.” Nathan took my hand and led the way. We stepped outside and saw Frank, Richard, and Ronnie at the end of the railing looking at my building. Elliot had just pulled up as well. It wasn’t until I took a few steps that I realized the alarm to my place was going off again. Just then Charles pulled up in another car. I was happy to see he didn’t lose his job over my mistake. I smiled a sheepish smile his way and he nodded.

  “Seriously, this thing again?” I looked at Nathan.

  I reached in my purse to find my keys to shut off the alarm. It stopped before I could find them though.

  “Here we go again. I’m so over this, Nathan,” I gritted through my teeth as I pulled the keys out of my purse.

  “Nathan? Hello?” I looked up at him.

  “Yeah? Sorry, what’s up?” He was watching Frank and Richard, paying no mind to me.

  “What are you doing?” I was annoyed because he made zero attempt to even try and look at me when he spoke. He was just concentrating on Frank.

  “Nathan!” I shouted and stomped my foot.

  “What Jordan? I’m trying to listen, quiet for a second. Please,” he begged, clearly annoyed with me.

  Ew, he yelled at you. “Whatever,” I pouted.

  My phone rang so I started to dig through my purse again. “Now what?” I pulled it out and looked at the number. It was the alarm company.

  “Who’s that, Jordie?” Nathan asked me.

  “The alarm company,” I snapped and rolled my eyes, turning my back to him.

  “This is Jordie,” I answered.

  After the guy gave me his official alarm speech I let him have it.

  “I’m fine, but I can’t begin to tell you how annoyed I am that this keeps happening. Can you please send someone out like today to fix this issue? I mean we can’t even disarm the stupid thing. What do I need to do, start cutting wires?” I was definitely taking out my frustrations on the poor guy.

  As he explained to me that it wasn’t a malfunction in the system, it was actually a malfunction of a remote, I felt my blood pressure rise most likely above a healthy range.

  “No sir, not possible. That remote is disabled. Your company disabled it last night and a new one was being mailed,” I informed him through clenched teeth. “All right, sure, yep whatever you say, thank you.” I hung up and walked over to where the guys were standing. They were very involved in their conversation so I called Rachel while they pow-wowed or whatever it was they were doing. Besides, I was still really irked with Nathan.

  “Hi, bitch,” she greeted me when she answered.

  “Hey, ho.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Well, let’s see, got a weird phone call, someone was banging on the doors at the bar while I was doing the deposit this morning, and the alarm in my apartment is going haywire. Oh, hey, yeah, I’m pregnant.” I squinted and pulled the phone away from my ear because I knew what was coming next.

  “What!? Where are you? Oh my fucking god!” She screamed so loud the guys stopped mid conversation to see what the noise was about. All I could do was laugh and point to the phone and mouth to them, “It’s Rachel.”

  “At the bar. See you in a few,” I answered her with a laugh.

  “Bet your ass you will, we’ll be right down! Love you!” She hung up.

  “What did the alarm company say?” Nathan asked after he saw me take the phone away from my ear.

  “That it’s being triggered by the spare remote again. They’re hard resetting the system so we shouldn’t have any more problems.” I pretended to look for something in my purse so I didn’t have to look up at him just yet.

  “Let’s get inside, kids,” Frank suggested.

  “I need to go back in and get the bank bag and make a deposit. It’s long overdue.”

  “Elliot will run to the bank for you.” Frank motioned to Elliot and he nodded.

  “No, I’m quite capable. Thank you, though. It’s only up the block. Rachel will be here soon. She can come with me.”

  “Jordie, how quickly you forget that there is some—” Frank began but I cut him off.

  “No, I didn’t forget that some asshole is harassing me, but you know what? That asshole will not get the best of me. I fucking hate bullies and that’s what they’re trying to do—bully me. I’ll be just fine walking to the corner and back, guys.” I tried my damnedest to sound unaffected by any of the chaos that had crept its way into my life, but I was affected. I was scared, but I wouldn’t let anyone force me into a corner.

  “Fine, let’s move into the bar at least until we come to an agreement,” Frank demanded.

  Nathan took my arm and practically dragged me towards the bar. By that time it was pretty clear that he’d gone from annoyed to pissed off.

  “Let go of me.” I tugged my arm out of his hand. Nathan shot Frank a look and ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Why are you so goddamned stubborn, Jordan?”

  Oh yay, our first real fight. “Stubborn? I’m not stubborn, Nathan. I won’t apologize because I refuse to play the victim. Fuck that. I—”

  “Stop right there.”

  I could tell he was trying his best not to lose his temper.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t about just you any longer. It’s a we now. And us. Not you. If something happens to you, Jordie, think of the impact it’ll have on all of us—me, Emma, Rachel...” He stood in front of me and put his hand on my stomach. “This baby. All of us are affected. So stop with the you for fuck’s sake. Please.” He finished, putting his forehead against mine.

  “Fine,” I breathed out, defeated.

  “Is congratulations in order here?” Frank smiled.

  “Yes, sir, found out last night,” Nathan replied.

  “Please, we’re keeping this quiet until I see the doctor though.”

  “No problem. You hear that men?” Frank addressed Ronnie, Charles, and Elliot.

  “Yes, sir,” they all answered.

  “Now that we have less resistance, what’s the plan of action?” Nathan glanced back at me and smirked.

  “Can we please take this inside now?” Frank motioned to the bar.

  “Sure,” I mumbled.

  Nathan let out a small laugh, shaking his head. “So stubborn.” He took my hand.

  “Shall we?” Frank led the way inside.


  “So you said these calls are coming from overseas. Do we have a country or something to work with?” I asked.

  “Not yet. I have the required equipment for those specifics set up now though. Next time he calls, we’ll have a clearer picture.”

  “I don’t understand. I don’t even know anyone out of the Tri-State area.” I furrowed my eyebrows, confused, but I was quickly sidetracked by Rachel and Tyler walking in.

  “Hola, mamasita!” she yelled as she shuffled toward me. “Ahhh! I’m so excited!”

  “Okay! Ow,” I teased, giving her a hug back.

  “Some serious life changes going on here.”

  “Well, you did say I should start living.” I raised my eyebrows.

  “You jumped right into that shit, huh? Maybe I should’ve told you to pace yourself.”

  “You know me, all or nothing.”

  Tyler gave Nathan a bro-hug and congratulated us. Nathan looked so happy I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Looks like this trip is coming at a good time,” Nathan grinned at me.

  “Trip? What trip?” Rachel chimed in immediately and I laughed. She was so passionate about traveling.

  “Yes, the other thing I needed to talk to you about.” I took a deep breath.

  “Yeah sure, I’ll man the bar while you’re off gallivanting.” She slumped her shoulders in disappointment.

  “Not exactly what I needed, but thank you.” I smiled at her.

  She immediately perked up, giving me her full attention.

  “Nathan has to go to Vancouver for work, and I was wondering if you’d like to come—”

  “Hell yes!” She jumped up and down like a kid again, interrupting me.

  “Can I finish?”

  “Oh, there’s more?”

  “Come to Vancouver with us and then catch a flight to Vegas to be my Biotch of Honor.”

  “Hell effing yes!” she shrieked and hugged me. “You’re going too, right?” she asked Tyler.

  “Of course he’s going. I need my best man.” Nathan slapped Tyler on the back.

  “Damn straight, I’ll be there, man. I’m happy for you both, congrats.”

  “Oh and please, don’t tell anyone about the bun in the oven yet. We’re waiting until I see the doctor. Make sure everything is okay and whatnot before telling anyone, including Emma. I mean nobody.” I shot a look at Rachel, not forgetting the last secret of mine she shared.