HE

HE
His statement ticked a nerve, she was mine... or not, I console myself with the fact that they have known each other for several years now, and finding her was more important than anything at the moment, including the useless jealousy that had been pricking the back of my mind for years now.
 “How did you two meet?” he asked me while sticking his head out of the window, reminding me of the kid I once knew.
“Depends on who you ask.” I mutter to myself as I drive, heading to my house, where Clay had asked to meet via text.
“I am asking you.” he says pointedly, pulling his head for a second just to do so.
“At a bar, on her birthday.”
He nods and hums a response, pulling his head back into the car, I feel his stare on me for a long time before I ask,
 “What?”
“Conversations work when you ask me, how we met as well.” He gestures with his hand around us, as if being stuck in a car with him was enough to forget his crimes.
When I don’t respond fast enough, he lets out a sigh and sinks into his seat, reminding me of the harmless toddler I prayed he would remain forever, which of course never happened, they were two different people.
“She reminded me of you.” he says quietly,
That forces my attention to him, I blink at him, 
 “We have nothing in common.” She was an angel, a beautiful reminder that life was not always as messy, I was the opposite.
He laughs, his laugh is dissimilar to his father’s, it is one of the few things that remained from his childhood, it is easy to forget the man he turned out to be when he laughs like that.
 “True, but in some ways. The first time I saw her, I saw you, so I avoided her at first, but like you, she is extremely difficult to get rid of.” he says looking at me from the corner of his eyes, a glint in them reminded me of his father.
He was talking about years ago, we sat for dinner, and from nowhere, he stabs me, while father watched, I did not let me guard down, for years the only time I did was when I was alone with Rachel, but I wanted to see where he was going with it; he had looked at his father, eyes brimming with expectation, but he only carried on eating, like nothing happened, enraged Richard tries again, this time with a gun, his efforts were only met with disinterest. I was helped by Greta, we dressed the wound together, but nobody ever spoke of it again, at least not with me, and till date, I have no idea why I almost bled to death.
 “Like with you, I ended up gravitating towards her, turns out she was also an orphan, the kind that didn’t get adopted. Most times I was with her, I wonder if that was how your life would have turned out of you hadn’t met my father.” he looks outside the window.
I don’t have anything to say to that, my throat actually closed up a little, I can’t believe he was actually thinking of that. He speaks up immediately, without letting me speak,
 “Can you believe we ended up going in the same direction career wise? What if I became an actor, and starred in your movie?” he looks at me a wistful smile on his face, one that I hadn’t seen, it actually knocks the wind out of me.
“You wouldn’t have stayed longer than two weeks on the set, you can’t stand me.”
He laughs wryly, “Yes, yes I cannot. Being an actor is too much work, I like to get away when I feel stuffy, and i cannot do that when I have to spend months on a set.” he shudders as if killing a person was easier than staying put.
 Staying put had always been his kryptonite, even as a child, he always had to be on the move, his father hated it, but even a suck up like him can never change the fact that he constantly had to move.
 “But killing me is even harder.”
The smile disappears from his face, he swallows.
“Drop me off here.”
“You said you would help search for her.” I say turning to him, of course, it was like him to swerve out of doing the bare minimum.
“Yeah, and right now she is mad at you, somehow you manage to make everyone around you mad enough to want to leave you, and I don’t want to be associated with that.”
I clench my jaw, the boy I knew has been replaced by him, the sooner I realize this, the better.
 I pull the car to a screeching halt.
“I know where she is, I will be there the entire night.” he says with a smirk before slinking out of the car. I climb out of the car a second after, a second too late, he had blended into the night. I groan in frustration, that was where he shined, getting away, that was why his services were still needed by his father, a clean getaway.
 Running in the direction I hoped he went into, I find nothing but cold night air. I felt anger rush through my veins, he always knew where she was, and he rode with me all the way here, for nothing, he was never going to tell me, I believed in him for a second, and I got played, like always.
 Climbing back into the car, I make sure the windows were rolled down and his scent was out of the car as I drove, Clay was my only hope now.
“You promised you were going to tell her.” Joanne cried as soon as she saw my car pull into the garage.
I eye Clay,
 “You promised she was not going to be here.”
“Both of us aren’t very good with keeping promises it seems.” he says as an apology.
“Have you found her?”
He shakes his head, my stomach sinks, if he could not find her... I could not use any of my old sources, as cutting ties with these people meant there was no looking back at them, using force meant war, something I did not want, they would not come after me, they would go after her, Clay and Joanne, I was not going to risk it.
 “She switched off her phone, but before it was switched off, her current location showed us she was somewhere here.” he says handing me a pad with a map.
Studying it, I find nothing sticks out to me, they were just places, I should have been more attentive to her.
 “What do we do now?” I had no idea how legal things work, this would be the first time I was dealing with anything legally.
“We wait, I have someone out there working on it.”
I run my hands through my hair,
 “I can’t wait, she could be hurt...”
“She is fine. It is safe.”
He says this to reassure me, but all I can think of is Richard with her, this late at night.