Twenty-Eight
Standoff
Byron
Taking advantage of the break between filming, Byron let them know he was going upstairs to make a few calls. He hadn’t talked or even had a chance to check his texts all day, they’d kept him so busy. As soon as he was in his front room he plopped down onto his sofa and checked his texts skipping all of them until he saw the text from Savannah and smiled big as he clicked on it and read it.
I love you!
It’d been sent about a half hour earlier. Likely when she was done with class and headed out to La Jolla. He hit the speed dial. It rang two times before she answered.
“Hello?”
Just hearing her voice had him smiling even bigger. “Hey, baby. You on your way home already?”
“No, I forgot my charger at your place, so I’m picking up the one at the dorm first, turning in my assignment from there instead of the lab at school, then taking off.”
He almost wished he wasn’t so attuned to her demeanor, because there was an instant concern when he picked up on her sounding off. “Everything okay?” When she didn’t respond immediately, he sat up slowly. “Savannah, something wrong?”
“I ran into Irma today.”
His mind raced. Irma? Then it hit him, and his stomach plummeted making him sit up even straighter. “Yeah? She say something to you?”
She was silent for a moment but after a few harrowing seconds, she finally spoke up. “She did actually. She lost her earring when she spent the night at your place. Said it was the night before she showed up . . . The night she was so angry when she saw me there.”
Shooting up from the sofa feeling incensed and horrified, Byron refrained from growling. “I would’ve told you, Savannah. I swear to God—”
He froze when the line went dead. Glancing down at his phone he got confirmation that she’d hung up on him. “Fuck!” He roared at the top of his lungs before hitting redial instantly.
Of course, the call went straight to voicemail and he ran his fingers through his hair roughly. “Son of a bitch!”
After trying Savannah a couple more times with the same outcome, he scrolled through his old texts since he didn’t even have Irma on his contact list anymore. But before he could find the last exchange between them which was months ago there was a knock at his door. The door flung open before he could even ask who it was. Beast, Nine, and Orlando walked in.
“You ready to get back to this shit? Trying to be done with this in under an hour,” Beast said as he walked straight to the fridge. “Lila’s with Ali and the kids but I don’t wanna keep her there all night. Sure as fuck wish Ali would just let me hire a temporary care taker until she fully recovers from her C-section.”
“Why doesn’t she?” Orlando asked taking a seat at the kitchen counter.
“Doesn’t like the idea of strangers around the kids.” Beast pulled out a water bottle from the fridge. “I don’t either, but we’d go through an agency that does extensive background checks and shit. Only her sister’s adamant she’s got it. Whole foster care crap they went through growing up, has them both dead set against the kids being cared for by strangers. Even Lila’s nanny is a longtime and trusted family friend of her husbands.”
“I don’t blame them,” Nine said shaking his head. “It’s why I thank God Dee Dee can work from home.”
Byron listened impatiently to the Husbands of Boyle Heights blather on about their childcare matters. Several long minutes later, Beast slapped his hand down on the counter, marking the end of their little daddy drivel fest. “Let’s do this. I wanna get out here before six.”
With all his calls to Savannah still going straight to voicemail and her not responding to any of his pathetic pleading texts, Byron had no choice but to get back to work. She’d probably be home soon anyway. She wouldn’t be able to talk in depth until at least much later tonight.
Knowing how much Beast wanted to get back to his wife and kids, Byron offered to let his own footage be shot last, so his brother could leave early. Half hour after that, Byron’s phone rang, and he nearly jumped off his stool. His heart just about gave when he saw it was Savannah’s mom.
Not sure what to expect, he answered almost breathlessly. “Hello?”
“Is Savannah with you?”
“No.” He walked away from the crew without explanation, his heart speeding up now for an altogether different reason. “I thought she’d be with you.”
“She was supposed to be. Should’ve arrived over an hour ago but she never got here, and we can’t get a hold of her.”
“I . . . I’ve been working. I thought she’d be home by now.”
“She’s not. When’s the last time you talked to her?”
Byron checked his watch relieved, and not sure why her mother sounded so alarmed. “Just over two hours ago. She said she was going back to her dorm to turn in an assignment, then head back home right after.”
“Oh, thank God!” she said sounding overly relieved. “So, she wasn’t at school anymore?”
“No, why?”
“You haven’t watched the news? There’s some kind of standoff at her school. A shooting, and we haven’t been able to get a hold of her in over two hours. Xochitl isn’t answering either.”
Feeling his heart thud, Byron stopped in his tracks. “Standoff?”
“Yes, we’ve been so worried.” Her mother went on. “Her father is already headed out there with his brothers and my son. But you’re saying two hours ago she was going back to her dorm?”
“Yeah.” He nodded suddenly feeling enormously relieved. Obviously, her mom was overreacting, right? “She also mentioned needing to pick up her phone charger but would be headed out right after. She should be there soon. Maybe her phone just wasn’t charged enough. It might’ve died on the way.” He explained about Savannah having left her car charger at his place. “The one at her dorm only charges on the wall.”
It made sense, he told himself inwardly, despite her parents being this worried making him feel alarmed. All Byron’s calls to her had gone straight to voicemail. Even if she was pissed at him, she wouldn’t have deliberately turned her phone off knowing her family might try to get a hold of her. Her mother said she’d call her dad and let him know, since he was likely still thinking the worst.
“I’ll call you as soon as I know anything,” Byron said. “Please call me if you hear something first.”
“Will do.”
They were off the phone, but there was no way Byron was going back to filming. There had to be something he could do. “I gotta cut this short, guys,” he said as soon as he was back to where they were waiting on him, but didn’t even wait for them to respond, or bother to explain why.
He hit speed dial as he rushed upstairs to his apartment. To his surprise, Savannah’s phone wasn’t going straight to voicemail anymore, but she still wasn’t answering. He waited until it finally did go to her voicemail before hanging up.
Grabbing his keys, he cursed himself for not having asked Savannah’s mom for Xochitl’s number. He’d never thought to ask Savannah for it either. With no other recourse, he told Nine to close up for him because he had to leave ASAP and headed to her dorm.