CHAPTER 1
The world has gone to hell, I’m sure of it. And hell smells like a back alley with piss mixed with a severe case of anxiety.
The police arrive twenty minutes after O called in that Meggy got kidnapped. Fucking kidnapped. Jesus, I can’t wrap my head around it. It feels like she’s somewhere just around the corner, waiting to say she’s prankend us or something. But that’s not going to happen, because the red line of our lives right now is that everything’s fucked up and that’s she’s gone.
Because while we were waiting - and I’d managed to work myself into a frenzy while we were at it - Jonah had gone through security footage and found that she indeed got taken by two guys. The footage shows two men manhandling her and pulling her along with them as she trashes and tries to fight them off. But in the end she’s just my petite friend and she didn’t stand a chance whatsoever.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so powerless in my life. There isn’t any footage of how they got her away and the cameras don’t cover the alley leading up to the parking lot. So that leaves us with a whole bunch of nothing.
After crying my eyes out, I start shivering like crazy. I don’t know if it’s something purely physical or if it’s got something to do with how emotionally drained I feel, but I’m scared to freaking death.
This can’t be real right? Stalking, blackmailing, kidnapping. Jesus, this would make an awesome plot for a book, but it fucking sucks that this is actually my reality. We have to get Meggy back, we just have to. Not succeeding isn’t even an option. Living in a bad thriller is one thing, standing on the sidelines doing nothing and watching one unfold is another.
Two agents get out of the first car that arrives and they make their way over to us. They both have this deadly serious expression on their face, and somewhere in the back of my mind I think I recognize one of them, but I’ve seen so many faces the afternoon I spent with Jonah at the police station that I’m not sure about it.
They all do the silent nodding greeting while both Kellan and the agents look at each other suspiciously. Do they recognize each other? Did they ever have a run in with one another?
“Good evening,” one of the agents says. “I’m Officer Johnson and this is Officer Gorman. We met briefly the other day,” he continues as he looks at both Jonah and me. “What’s this about a kidnapping I hear?” His eyes flick over all of us standing in the parking lot.
“My brother here,” Jonah starts as he points to Kellan, “was talking to his girlfriend on the phone when he overheard her being taken away. I’ve got the footage from the security camera up there, Tempest is my club.”
He walks over to the officers, showing them the security footage on his phone and both are nodding earnestly. Before I know it, Officer Gorman starts calling in things in his walkie-talkie. If I’ve ever actually learned anything from all the detective shows I’ve watched, it sounds like he’s calling in reïnforcements. Perhaps they can binge eat donuts, because stress eating sounds like an awesome plan right now.
I get sucked out of my train of thought when I overhear the officers talking. The name Julia Collins reaches my ear, and I snap. Meggy will not be named in the same sentence as the girl that got abducted and murdered.
I wiggle myself out of Gil’s embrace who’s been holding me ever since we stepped outside and get into Officer Gormans face.
“No! It’s got to be someone different! This is not a Julia Collins situation!” I’m pointing at him with one finger that’s shaking from the anger that I’m feeling.
O grabs the wrist of my outstretched hand and pulls me into his body. Fresh tears are running over my already sore cheeks when he wraps his arms around me. He tries to press my face onto his chest, but I’m too mad.
Turning back to the agents, I start yelling, “What the hell are you still doing here! Go find her! Get every cop in the city to look for her! She’s no Julia Collins! Get her before she turns into another victim. GO!”
They both give me looks of pity, but I don’t give a crap. This is not happening. O pulls me along with him to the other side of the parking lot, makes me stand with my back against the wall and puts a hand on either side of my head, his chest pressed against mine. Being utterly stuck between him and the wall, I want to start trashing to get away, but I’m getting nowhere. I have to look up to look him in the eye.
“Calm down,” he says in an authoritative voice. Yeah, like when in the history of telling people to calm down has that actually worked? I ball my fists, my head still with the agents, who are still just standing there doing fucking nothing.
“Calm down, Mor,” he growls, his mouth even closer to my ear. “Cussing at them isn’t going to get her back. They’re here to help. She’s not going to be another Julia Collins. You hear me? She’s not.”
I desperately want to believe him, but beneath that flimsy layer of anger I’m experiencing is a whole buttload of fears and what if’s. My eyes finally find his and those hazel eyes that perfectly match his hazel hair are staring right back at me. Seeing me. Really seeing me. I manage to suck in a big breath of air, my shoulders slagging now that I’m calming down, no longer feeling like I’m suffocating.
With the knuckle of his index finger he tilts my chin up, and he presses his lips against mine, giving me a tender kiss.
“You taste salty,” he says, and an unwilling chuckle leaves my mouth.
“That’s because you picked a crappy moment to kiss me.”
He shrugs. “If not now, then when? All we have is now.”
I don’t have an answer for him. And fuck him for picking a shitty time to start being so poetic. It must be something he inherited from his mother. I sigh, the anger gradually leaving my body.
On the other side of the parking lot, I see Kellan mirroring my own rage. He looks like he’s about to jump the officers and shake them until they get into action. His whole body is tense and his fists are balled, his eyes so wild they could start a forest fire that would take weeks to extinguish.
Good to know that at least one of them is firmly on my side. Not the person I’d have thought it would be, though. Maybe he should be on my team and not my boys, who are all way too calm. Dean and Jonah are talking to officer Johnson in hushed tones and I can’t hear what they’re saying.
I try to get away from the wall, so I can stand closer and listen to what’s going on and make sure that they do everything that needs to be done. But O doesn’t let me go, he keeps caging me in against the wall.
“Let me go,” I demand. I’m very emotional and I’ll use all the pieces of my tiny muscles to make him let me go. He just shakes his head.