I shake my head almost violently. “No,” I tell him. “I need to go looking for my sister.”
“No,” Noah says, taking me by the shoulders and pushing me back. “He’s right. Look at you. You can’t help us look for her like this. You need to get checked over and make sure you don’t have a concussion. I can’t be out there looking for Ari if I’m stopping to check on you every ten minutes. Please, just this once stay here and let me handle this.”
“But…”
“No. You’re a liability like this. I mean, why the fuck can’t you stand on your left leg properly?”
I look down, hating showing a weakness. “When Kelly took off, the car fishtailed and slammed into my hip. It’ll be fine. It’s probably just a little swollen.”
Noah clenches his teeth and releases my shoulder before diving for my shirt. He tears it up only to find my hip is black and blue. No wonder I can hardly walk on it. “Fuck, Spitfire.”
Noah gets in closer to look at it and pulls down the side of my jeans as the paramedic gets down on his knees before me, studying the bruising with a cringe. “Please, Miss. Let me take care of this and your head. Your boyfriend is right, your sister is going to need you at your best.”
I look up at Noah, pleading him to let me come but he shakes his head. “Stay here, Spitfire. I won’t stop looking until I’ve found her and if we haven’t got her by morning, you can come too, but we’ll get her. You’ve got every cop in town searching for her and all of us. We’ll get her.”
I have no other choice but to give in and let him take the reins. Noah’s right, I need to get checked over. If I pass out from a concussion and can barely move, I’m only slowing him down. Aria needs the best and right now, that’s not me.
“Fine,” I say, stepping closer to the paramedic. “Just, please find her.” Noah goes to head for his car when I call out to him. “Kelly only just got out of rehab so it’s possible she went looking for a hit. You could maybe try that.”
“Thanks, Spitfire,” he tells me with a shallow nod. “Keep your head up, ok. I love you.”
“Love you too,” I tell him before watching as he drops down into his car and takes off.
The paramedic leads me inside and I drop down on the couch where he instantly begins looking over my head and hip. He’s only just getting started when Tully, Violet, and Eddison come tearing through my front door, taking in all the cops in horror.
After explaining everything to them, Tully and Eddison take off in different directions, leaving Violet hurrying into the kitchen to find a packet of frozen peas for my hip, promising she won’t leave my side for even one second.
Chapter 2
Dad barges through the front door looking bigger than I’ve ever seen him. His eyes seek out mine instantly. “Henley,” he cries, racing forward and dropping to his knees before me on the couch.
His big arms wrap around me for no longer than two seconds before he’s grabbing me by the shoulders and hauling me back to see straight into my eyes. Dad holds me a little too tight and his nails dig into my flesh. “What happened?” he demands, shaking me in his need to get answers, though I don’t think he even realizes he’s doing it. “Fuck. Henley, where’s my baby girl? Tell me you got her back?”
I shake my head as the tears stream down my face for what feels like the hundredth time in less than six hours. “Not yet,” I say in a broken voice as the sobs overtake me. “I couldn’t stop them. I…I’m sorry…I tried but I couldn’t…”
I watch as dad’s eyes rake over me and his expression softens at finally taking in the bandages and icepack at my hip. “Oh, Squish,” he says, absolutely shattered while hating more than anyone seeing me like this. “I don’t doubt you did everything that you could.”
I shake my head. “No. I could have done more. I should have protected her better just like you would have. You never would have allowed them to get that far. Daddy, I couldn’t stop them.”
Dad pulls me in hard against his chest as Violet runs her hand over my back, instantly taking the ‘protective mother’ role. “It’s alright, Squish,” he says between clenched teeth. "We’ll get her back. If it’s the last thing I do, I promise you kid, I will get your sister back.”
I look down at the coffee table, feeling unworthy of looking up into my father’s eyes. He must hate me for letting this happen. “The whole town is out looking for her. Every cop in Haven Falls, everyone I go to school with, all the parents of her school friends.”
“Good,” Dad grumbles. “So will I. I just stopped to park the truck. I’ll be able to get around better in the pickup truck.” I nod my head. The truck is fucking huge and getting around bends quickly while trying to look out for a five year old girl is not going to be easy. “Did you talk to the cops? What did they say?”
“Officer Dunham and Detective Schultz just left about half an hour ago. The cops have spread out wide and are scouring every inch of Haven Falls and the surrounding suburbs to find her, but when it comes to what they’re going to do about it…they’re not sure. They said something about it possibly not being a kidnapping case due to it being a domestic matter. It’s her word against ours. She could say that Ari was just with us while she went to rehab. After all, she didn’t specify if she was coming back or not. We just assumed.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. Kelly abandoned her here. She gave her a shitty life and then left her without even looking back. As far as I’m concerned, she gave up her rights, and that child is now one hundred percent ours.”
“I know,” I tell him as he crosses the room and searches out the keys for his old pick up. “They just don’t know if they can make those charges stick, you know, that’s if they can ever find her.”
“They better make them fucking stick,” dad warns, “or I’ll be taking matters into my own hands. Besides, if it comes down to court, any judge could see where she needs to be. No one in their right mind would award Aria to that woman. We’ll get her back one way or another and I can assure you; Kelly won’t get away with this.”
Dad finds his keys and fishes them out of the bowl before disappearing into the kitchen. He comes back out a moment later with a huge can of energy drink and throws back half the can in the time it takes him to walk across to the front door.
It’s nearing two in the morning and my patience is wearing thin. I keep getting updates from Noah, Tully, Aiden, and Spencer. Each one of them telling me which streets they’ve hit and that they’ve come up with nothing.
Noah has checked in run down bars and clubs and gone past all the places he used to frequent when chasing drug debts for Anton, and so far, he’s got nothing.
There’s a very real possibility that Kelly took off and is already out of state and if that’s the case, she could be anywhere. We could be wasting our time searching the streets.
“I’m going to try search out all of Kelly’s old friends and all the places she used to hang out while she was living here. You never know, someone might just know something.”
Dad disappears out the door before I even get a chance to tell him to be careful. It could be ages before I see him again and something tells me that he won’t be coming home until he has his daughter in his arms.
I feel as though we’re so out of our depth here. I could handle high school, I can handle bitchy cheerleaders wanting to take me down and trying to steal the man of my dreams with fake pregnancies, but kidnapping? This is so out of my league.
The only way to win this war is to fight fire with fire. We’re just kids from Haven Falls who only just graduated high school. Dad’s just a regular guy who sits in his truck all day, lying to himself as he takes another bite of his burger. And the cops? They are the people who have been trying to put away Anton Mathers for years and despite how blatantly obvious he is about what he does, they’ve never been able to catch him. What am I going to do?
We have no connections out in the real world. We don’t know where Kelly could have taken Ari or what she intends to do with
her. There are too many questions that I can’t answer.
I need someone like my mother, like Gina Rivers who knows the ins and the outs of that world, but she’ll never help me, especially not after the last time I was there. She would have the contacts to be able to help find Kelly. Hell, she’s a smart woman, she probably already knows who Kelly is, but it’s useless. I couldn’t even try. Besides, she’s kind of busy being locked up and all.
Though, there is one person who could probably help me. One person who is dirty enough to know when shit goes down in this town. The one person who has eyes and ears everywhere.
Noah’s never going to forgive me for this, but if I’m going to fight fire with fire, then I need Anton Fucking Mathers and I need him now.
The only questions is; how the fuck am I going to find him?
I think back to everything I know about the guy as Violet sits beside me on the couch, staring off into the distance, lost inside her head, probably terrified of losing another little girl in her life.
It was less than twelve hours ago that I sat in Rivers’ beat up car, staring at a piece of paper that held so many answers. Tully had asked Noah if he knew the address and if it was Anton’s, he said no and explained that Anton lives on the other side of the tracks.
Remembering that, I put a plan into place. First, I need to get out of here and second, I have to figure out where the hell on the other side of the tracks Noah was talking about.
Technically, the second you cross the tracks, you head into Broken Hill territory and that means security gates, alarms, and bad karma.
Violet’s phone rings on the coffee table, drawing me out of my inner thoughts. I see Tully’s name flash across the screen moments before Violet scoops it up and answers the calls. “How are you doing, honey?”
Violet pauses a short while before glancing at me with a sad smile. “She’s holding up as best she can.” I instantly look away, hating the pity and heartbreak in her eyes.
Violet talks to Tully for a little while longer before ending the call and dropping the phone into her lap. “Tully’s eyes are getting a bit too heavy for the road,” she explains. “She’s going to head back here and then we’ll switch. You should think about getting a little bit of sleep so you’ll have fresh eyes if you need to go out looking tomorrow.”
“Tully’s coming here?”
“Yes, she doesn’t want you to be alone and I figured after that hit you took to your head, someone should keep an eye on you. Things are bad enough. We don’t want to risk having to take any trips to the hospital. God knows I’ve spent enough time in that place as it is.”
I couldn’t agree more but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s no way in hell I’ll be getting any sleep tonight. How could I when Aria is out there somewhere, scared out of her mind?
Violet gets up and starts cleaning up the dishes and my untouched, cold dinner as she prepares to go out on the road, searching for my baby sister just as I should be doing. “You’re just about due for some more pain killers,” she says. “Shall I get them for you now so you can get off to bed when Tully returns?”
“Sure,” I tell her as the fact that Tully is coming here really hits me. I need to go and see Anton and the sooner the better. With Tully here, I have no chance in hell of sneaking out, but with Violet, it’s as easy as waking up in the morning. “I’m just going to go to the bathroom.”
“Alright, sweetheart. Take it easy, ok? No fast movements. I don’t want that hip of yours getting any worse.”
“It’ll be alright,” I tell her, getting up off the couch with a pained cringe. “It’s just bruising. It’ll settle in a few days and then I’ll be back to normal.”
Violet smiles as she starts heading for the kitchen. “What I would give to have the body of an eighteen year old again,” she sighs, “but unfortunately things just aren’t the same after pushing twins out, especially when one of those twins came out the size of a toddler.”
I give her a warm smile knowing she’s referring to Noah while wishing I could somehow find the laughter within me, but it’s just not there.
Violet disappears into the kitchen and I make my move. I grab my keys off the entryway table and find a hoodie before slipping out the backdoor, making sure to close the bathroom door so she doesn’t come looking for me too quickly.
The sky is pitch black but the lamppost outside my home is doing a great job of showing the world exactly where I am, so I go as fast as I can. First things first, I hurry into the neighbor's yard, doing my best not to groan and grunt as my hip screams in protest. I make my way around to the backdoor, hating how fucking creepy this feels, but it’s a necessary evil.
The door opens straight away and I shake my head. What kind of security is that? Everyone in Haven Falls knows that you lock your back door, but I guess when your name is Rocko Stevenson, you assume that you’re better than the rest.
The house is dark and I make my way through it, hoping to whoever above that I’m not about to walk into his parents’ bedroom. I mean, I’m all for scaring the shit out of Rocko, but his parents? Now, that’s just a whole heap of awkward that I could do without.
I make my way down the hall, lighting the space before me with my phone when I come to a door that has a sign reading ‘Stay the fuck out.’ Hmm, I guess finding his door isn’t going to be as hard as I thought.
I take the handle and gently twist, letting the door fall open before me. I flash my light into the room and hold my breath, not wanting to make a single noise. I step over the threshold, and the first thing I notice is ‘Harry Potter’ memorabilia covering every single wall.
What the actual fuck?
Cars, naked girls, guns, maybe a poster of a sporting team. That’s all the shit I was expecting Rocko Stevenson to have on his walls. A life-sized poster of ‘Harry Potter?’ Not so much.
I flash my light up over the walls, needing the full effect when I realize it’s not a life-sized poster at all but a cardboard cut-out. I mean…wow. I’m…I don’t even know what I am. Shocked, frazzled, terrified that he’s going to pull out a wand and throw one of the ‘Unforgivable Curses’ my way.
I grin and shake my head the second I turn and scan over his desk only to find the said wand. This is just getting ridiculous now.
I pick it up and look it over before rolling my eyes and turning to Rocko. He’s sound asleep in bed, snoring with the covers pulled right up to his chin. Easy. This should be like taking candy from a baby.
I pull my hoodie up until the black material is sitting low over my face, covering my features in dark shadows. I creep right up to the side of his bed and look down at the bastard who took me from the races. I guess karma is a dish best served cold.
I launch myself up onto his chest, pinning him down with my knees on either side of his shoulders while making sure to keep the blanket tight beneath me, acting as an extra barrier between me and the slime ball between my legs.
Rocko’s eyes tear open and I take the wand in my hand and press it against his neck. “Don’t move,” I warn as he sucks in a sharp breath, most likely thinking it’s a knife. I mean, I probably couldn’t make magic with this thing, but watching Rocko being rocked by fear is pretty fucking magical to me, even more so seeing the faded cuts and bruises still covering his face that Noah had so kindly supplied him with at prom.
If he knows who I am, he certainly hasn’t implied it, so I get the show on the road. “Where can I find Anton Mathers?”
His eyes open wider and I relax a little when he starts talking. “I can’t,” he says in a panicked tone. “He’ll kill me.”
I press down harder on the wand, feeling like a complete idiot as I threaten the guy with a cheap piece of wood. “I’ll fucking kill you. Now, I won’t ask you again; where the fuck can I find Anton Mathers?”
Rocko cringes and I see the indecision in his eyes before he sighs. “He lives in Broken Hill but you’re asking for fucking trouble if you’re looking for him.”
“Where
?” I demand.
I let up on his throat just a bit as a sign of good faith, if he gives me what I want then I’ll leave him the fuck alone. “He lives just over the tracks. Right by the gas station. You can’t fucking miss it. It’s a massive white house with dogs and a big metal gate. His initials are wielded into the gate. A.M.”
Like lightning, I get the fuck out of there.
I run and within two seconds, I hear Rocko coming after me, no longer pinned to his bed and with anger pulsing through him after getting bested by a girl. Hell, maybe he realized that I was threatening him with a wand and it’s still in my hand.
I burst through the back door and instantly hide among the trees in his yard. He stops by the backdoor, only in a pair of tighty whites. Unlucky for him, he looks to the left of his yard while I make a break through the right. I slip out into the front yard and hear Violet from within my home only now just realizing that I’m not there.
“Henley?” she calls. “Honey, where are you?”
Guilt pours through me at deceiving her but I had to do it. This is my little sister hanging in the balance and I’m quickly realizing that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
With Rocko out back searching for me and Violet on the lookout, I make a run for it, once again ignoring the way my hip screams at me to just give in. Within moments, I’m diving into my car and tearing out of my driveway, cringing at the way the roar of my engine gives me away.
I pull out onto the street and moments before I disappear from view, Tully’s Jeep appears in my rearview mirror. I suck in a desperate breath as I watch her headlights for three painfully long seconds before she turns into my driveway and cuts her engine.
I let out a shaky breath. Step one complete, now all I have to do is find my father.
Chapter 3
“Holy shit.” Well, this is going to be the stupidest thing I’ll ever do.
My car idles at the top of Anton’s driveway, staring at the massive gates before me with the initials A.M carved into the intricate design. Rocko wasn’t lying; I couldn’t miss this house even if I tried. It screams of money and I don’t doubt that every cent of it was made from Anton’s dirty schemes.
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 2