I yawned and stretched, as I blinked away the fogginess from my eyes. After sitting through a two-and-a-half-hour movie, I was famished and needed a nap.

Rain stretched his legs and yawned, too. The way he’d carried on during the movie, I momentarily mistook it for a football game. I’d never seen him like that before, especially considering the bloody nature of it.

“So, what’d you think about the movie?” he asked, scooting to the edge of the sofa.

“That next time I need to be the one picking it.” I got up to grab a juice out of the fridge. “Want one?”

“Yeah. Thanks. So whaddaya mean you should have picked it? Didn’t you like it?”

“Rain, it lasted forever.” I handed him his juice. “And to top it off, it was nothing more than the expected white-boy bravado.”

“Oh, come on . . . tell me you didn’t feel anything when he got shot in the Achilles.”

“Not a thing,” I said, wrestling with the top on my bottle of juice. “I’m sick of hero movies. When it comes down to the real thing, all of them are nothing but cowards.”

“You are a true feminist,” Rain said, laughing.

“Umm, that’s not funny. And I’m far from being a feminist. I just know that a lot of men do a lot of talking, but when it comes down to it, they chicken out.”

“Why do I get the feeling we’re no longer talking about the movie?”

I sat beside him and exhaled. “Maybe it’s because we aren’t. Do you know that my father is still refusing to grant Alex bail? Rain, they’re holding him at the correctional facility instead of the jail. That’s absolutely ridiculous! My own father.”

“I know. I know,” Rain said, shaking his head. “It’s not fair, but I’m sure your father believes he has his reasons.”

“I don’t give a damn about reasons. Alex is innocent—and he knows it. He’s only doing this to pacify the mayor, since he’s up for re-election. Gotta make the real criminals look good.”

A brief smile flittered across Rain’s lips. “Who’s the real criminal, your father or the mayor?”

“You know who I’m talking about. That old buzzard has slept with every available woman in the Bay, made mad enemies and now he’s using my father to get him re-elected—to Alex’s detriment. Don’t you see that?”

“Hey, relax. I didn’t say I was on their side. I’m just trying to understand why your father’s doing what he’s doing. I’d probably know more, if you weren’t constantly keeping me in the dark about things.”

He raised the juice to his mouth in a manner I knew was meant to avoid eye contact, and added, “So, why doesn’t he want to let them set bail?” he asked, before taking a sip.

“Because he’s riding another man’s jock. That’s why.”

“Now we both know that can’t be true. I’ve known your father for a while, and I’ve never seen any show of bitchism in him.”

I gave Rain a wide-eyed stare. “What’d you say?”

“You heard me,” he replied, chuckling.

“Sounds like you’re expanding your vocabulary.”

He laughed. “Some would say it’s decreasing.”

I giggled and said, “Anyway, his thinking is that Alex has the means for flight, though, that’s ludicrous because he’d never leave his family.”

“Nope, you’re right. He’d take them with him.”

“Rain?”

“Hey, just trying to find some humor in all this.”

“When I want humor, I’ll ask for it. K?”

Rain held up his hands in mock surrender. “Whatsoever me lady desires, so shall she have.”

“Rain, stop. This is a serious situation.”

“And I’m taking it just as seriously as you are. Alex and I have been like family for years. Whatever I can do to free him, you know I’m down.”

“I wish you could wave your magic scalpel and make Sheldon appear.”

“So, you really think he’s alive—what with them matching the blood DNA to him and everything?”

“Oh, I have no doubt that crooked mutha is alive. He’s sitting back gloating somewhere. He’d better hope like hell the police find him before our men do.”

“Has he tried to contact Mason’s mother?”

“If he has, it hasn’t been through her current phone lines. I’m thinking she’s picked up an extra cell. My gut tells me she knows where he is. Mason’s been trying to get it out of her, but she’s sticking to her story. We’ve got someone tailing her, hoping she’ll slip up. Seems Andrew taught her well, because all tracks have led to dead ends.”

“Something will give—it’s got to. We both know that Alex brought no real harm to Sheldon. Hell, when did he get the chance to do it?”

“I guess you haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

My phone rang, and I held up a finger. “Yanni speaking,” I spoke into the receiver.

There was a lot of crackling on the line, followed by a heavily accented voice. “I know where to find who you’re looking for, but it won’t happen unless you help me first.”

I pulled the phone from my ear, trying to see who the caller was. The display read Private Name. When I placed the receiver back to my ear, the line was dead.

“What’s wrong?” Rain asked.

“I just got the oddest of calls that I think was about Sheldon. What’s odder is that they knew my home number.”