“I feel like shit,” I finally tell her, looking back to the pavement. “I can’t help but feel that this is all my fault. I should never have opened the door. I should have looked out the window and kept the fuckers out. I could have called the cops earlier or found one of dad’s guns. There’s so much I could have done to save her but I didn’t. I panicked and because of that, my little sister is gone.”
“No, you didn’t panic. You fought like the badass that you are, but there were two of them and only one of you. Not to mention, you were up against a guy who slammed you into a wall. You did everything you could and I’m sure Ari knows that.”
“You didn’t see her face when they were driving away. I was so close, Tully. I could feel her fingertips against mine but I wasn’t fast enough. I could have thrown myself inside the car and given us another chance.” I let out a sigh. “I let her down.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Tully says. “No matter what you did, Kelly was going to keep coming back until she had Ari and you know that just as well as I do. What’s done is done and there’s no use dwelling on it when we should be focusing on getting her back.”
“I am focusing on getting her back.”
“I know, you went to Anton Fucking Mathers.”
“Don’t you start on me too. You know just as well as I do that Anton has the connections to find her.”
“I don’t know,” she says shrugging her shoulders. “It’s been four days already and he hasn’t got her back.”
“I know,” I sigh. “I guess how hard he looks comes down to how badly he wants me in his ranks.”
“He’d be a fool not to want you. You’re badass, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re an absolute fool for going to him, especially alone.”
“What’s this about?” I question. “Are you angry that I went to him in the first place or that I gave you the slip and didn’t take you with me? Because you should know me well enough by now to know that I would never intentionally put you in any unnecessary danger.”
Tully groans and pulls a little tighter on my arm. “I don’t know,” she tells me. “I really want to be mad at you but when it comes down to it, I know you did the right thing despite the outcome. I just hope there’s something we can do about it.”
I look up from the pavement and narrow my eyes on my best friend. “How do you mean?”
“Well, up until all this happened, Noah was talking about sending his ass to jail. What if that’s still in the cards? You know, after he finds Ari of course. But if he got taken down, you won’t be reeled into his world and you won’t have to stand by his side day in and day out. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a complete psycho and I don’t doubt that after a little training you’d be lethal and would look hot doing it, but it would destroy your soul and I don’t want that for you. The things you would see working for him…I don’t know. You saw how it affected the boys and that was just being errand boys. I can’t imagine what it would be like being on the inside of all that.”
“That’s all I’ve been able to think about,” I admit. “I’ve heard all the stories. He’s the bogeyman of Haven Falls and I’m kind of terrified, but I’d do it all a million times over to save my sister and bring her home.”
“I know you would. I guess all we can hope for is that Anton starts you off slow. Maybe you’ll just cut off a finger and work your way up to the whole hand. Oh, maybe you’ll have a reward system- a brand new, shiny weapon for each drug deal that goes down smoothly.”
I stop and stare at her blankly. “Seriously? You’re making jokes?”
“Yep,” she says, tugging on my arm to force my legs to keep moving, “because if I don’t, I’ll probably start crying and once I start, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop. I guess it’s just another one of those moments where Rivers leaving shoots us in the foot.”
“Come on,” I say, needing to defend my brother. “Give him a little credit. It’s not like he could have known Anton was going to pull this shit. He never could have known that Kelly was going to take Ari and he never could have imagined that I’d go seeking out Anton, especially after everything we’ve already gone through with him.”
“Yeah, I guess. I just…”
“You just really like being mad at him.”
“Yep.”
“You’re an idiot, you know that, right?”
She looks at me as though I’ve lost my mind. “I’m the idiot? You’ve got to be kidding.”
A smile spreads across my face and before I know it, just a bit of the load that’s been weighing down on me, lifts off my shoulders, leaving me feeling lighter than I have in days.
We continue walking and I can’t help but realize that Tully was right. This fresh air is doing wonders for my soul. I still feel like absolute shit with the weight of the world bringing me down, but having just these few moments to reflect and put things into focus is helping me to see clearer.
I’ve done nothing but stress over the past four days and it’s not been good for anyone. I’ve been a snappy bitch and to be honest, I’m sure my attitude is making this harder for everyone else.
“Thanks,” I murmur to Tully a few moments later. "I think I really needed this.”
“Why do you think I forced your stubborn ass out of the house?”
“I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“You’d be out in the streets beating up every crack addict you come by hoping one of them has seen Kelly and getting absolutely nowhere.”
“Not nowhere,” I mutter. “Beating the living shit out of someone would probably do wonders for making me feel a little better. Maybe I’d be able to release some of this pent up anger.”
“Jesus Christ,” she groans under her breath. “Just wait for Noah to get home tonight. I’m sure he’ll let you beat the crap out of him. That moron would do just about anything to make sure his Spitfire is still surviving.”
I shake my head as the image of myself laying a hand on Noah cuts through my mind. “No, I could never,” I tell her, knowing that she is right. Noah would practically beg me to do it if it meant keeping me home safe where he could keep an eye on me. “We should find a punching bag. That should help.”
“There’s probably a few at Anton’s place,” Tully supplies, not helpful at all.
I roll my eyes at the wicked witch. “You know, if it comes down to it, and Anton drags me away, you’re coming with me.”
“Bullshit,” she laughs. “There’s no way in hell I could live under that man’s roof, especially after what he did to my brother. I’d probably kill him in his sleep. Besides, you’re lying through your teeth. You’d never drag me into that mess. In fact, I’m sure as hell that you’d go to extraordinary lengths to keep me and Noah away.”
I grin. I hate that she knows me so damn well.
Tully scoffs, loving that she’s right and looks up from the ground before stopping in the middle of the pathway. “Shit,” she gasps, wide-eyed. “I didn’t realize we were walking this way.”
“Huh?” I grumble looking up and quickly glancing around. It takes me all of two seconds to recognize the house before me with the ‘G. Rivers’ scrawled on the mailbox. “Well…shit.”
We both stand there staring at the house, each with a mess of emotions tearing through us as we think about the guy who’s had such a significant impact on both of our lives. “Are you ok?”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” Tully sighs. “He’s your brother.”
“Yeah, but he’s your…um, sort of boyfriend.”
“He’s not my sort of boyfriend. He’s the guy that I…uh, sometimes…”
“Yeah. Exactly. He’s your sort of boyfriend.”
“Whatever,” she grumbles, pulling on my rm. "Come on. Let’s get out of here, I don’t want to dwell on this bullshit. There’s already enough going on.”
“Yeah,” I agree, letting her pull me along. I glance back over my shoulder and take in the house that used to be my mother’s
and the house where I discovered that my father is well…not actually my father.
I let out a sigh. It wouldn’t be awful if that place burned down. I mean after we got all of Rivers belongings out of it and forced him to move in with Noah and Tully.
I go to turn back when something moves in the living room window. “Wait,” I rush out, pulling on Tully’s arm and coming to a stop. "There’s someone in there.”
“What?” she grumbles, staring back at the house. “Where?”
“In the living room window,” I tell her. “Something moved in there just now.”
Tully focuses a little harder and after a moment of seeing nothing, I can see that she’s close to telling me that I’ve lost my mind when a figure crosses in front of the window. We both suck in a breath. “Who the fuck was that?”
I shrug my shoulders, focusing a little harder on all the other windows, hoping that the person crosses once again and I can get a good look at who the hell it is. “I’ve got no clue,” I grumble as a deep sense of protectiveness comes over me. I mean, while this may be a dump, it’s still Rivers’ home. My brother’s home. “Come on, I think we should check it out.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Tully grumbles as we each look up and down the street before quickly crossing, looking like the dodgiest people in Haven Falls.
We sneak up to the house and double check that nobody is wandering around who are about to bust our asses for being peeping toms, but then, that’s exactly what we are. We hurry around to the side of the house, being as discreet as possible before peering in through the kitchen window where we’d be able to see the whole living area.
Our mouths drop open in unison.
“Is that?”
“Uh huh.”
I have to blink a few times, trying to work out why the hell Lacey would be snooping around Rivers’ home when I remember the picture Tully had found here four days ago. “What is she doing here?” Tully murmurs, her brows dropping down as she watches the girl who she thought only good things of up until four days ago.
“I don’t know. Are we going in?”
Tully’s already three steps away when she throws back over her shoulder. “Fuck yeah. I’m getting to the bottom of this shit. Are you coming?”
Well, shit. I wouldn’t want to miss a throw down. Hell, this might just be what my poor little soul needs. Lacey better be careful because I have a feeling it won't take much for me and Tully to go straight back to our roots and whoop a bitch’s ass.
Tully storms through the front door, suddenly not giving a shit about nosy neighbors. I come in behind her and am just in time to watch Lacey spin around in shock. “What the hell are you doing here?” Tully demands as I slam the door closed behind me.
Lacey looks on in shock for all of three seconds before pulling herself together. “Excuse me?” she demands. “I have all the right in the world to be here. Though, I can’t say the same for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Rivers is my guy. He’s our pack and you’re just…how the hell do you even know him?”
“He’s my cousin,” she shoots back.
My brows practically fly up to my hairline. “What?” I gasp as I look over the girl in a way I’ve never looked at her before while trying to decipher any kind of resemblance to Rivers. “What do you mean he’s your cousin?”
“I mean exactly what I said,” she says, looking at me in confusion, probably wondering why she has to explain herself to me. “My dad is his dad’s brother.”
“What?” I gasp again.
“What’s the big deal?” she questions, letting out a huff and leaning back against the kitchen counter. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you haven’t explained why you two are here.”
Tully stands a little taller. “We’re here because we saw some random girl snooping around our friend’s home while he’s not here to defend it.”
“I wasn’t snooping,” Lacey throws back.
“Oh yeah? It certainly looked like it to me. What are you looking for?”
“It’s none of your business why I’m here.”
“Bullshit,” Tully says. “And you know what else? It’s certainly funny that you managed to ‘forget’ to mention that you know Rivers.”
“What? I told you that my cousin went to your school, remember? I told you that he would tell me to leave you and Noah alone.”
I step between the two girls and hold a hand up at each of them before someone says something they’ll regret, especially after that last comment was thrown out there. I mean, I don’t even want to begin to understand why Rivers would purposefully try to keep Lacey away from the twins when she knows so much about their little sister. “Can we just rewind?” I say, hoping they can manage to reel in their anger. “Go back to the whole ‘cousins’ thing. What do you mean?”
Lacey raises an unimpressed brow at me. “Are you serious? I literally just explained this.”
“Yeah, but…you realize Rivers is my brother, right? And for him to be my brother, that would make us…”
“Cousins.”
“Yeah…”
Well…shit. I have a cousin. “Are there…any more cousins?”
Lacey bites her lips and slowly shakes her head as she starts looking over me in the same way I had when she first mentioned it. Though ‘surprise’ doesn’t even begin to cover the look on her face. Shocked seems a little more appropriate. “How…how are you Samuel’s sister? I never knew he had a sister. He didn’t mention it.”
“Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are,” I tell her before indicating to the dining table with the chairs flipped upside, sitting on top. “Come on, we better sit. I guess there’s a lot you need to know.”
Lacey slowly nods while Tully continues watching through narrowed eyes. I sit down with Lacey and half an hour later, have basically told her everything there is to know while she’s covered her side of the family.
“So, what does this mean from now on?” Lacey questions.
“It means that it’s time you tell us what you’re doing here.”
Lacey looks up at her and it’s clear that over the past thirty minutes here, Lacey has decided that she doesn’t like Tully much which is a huge leap from the way they were looking as close as family the last time they met.
Lacey lets out a sigh, clearly seeing that Tully isn’t about to give in. “He asked me to look after his place while he was gone. You know, collect the mail, cut the grass every now and then, and make sure no one burns it to the ground.”
I look back at Tully and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that her heart is breaking. Rivers trusted his cousin with this instead of her. Not to mention, he was willing to share it with Lacey while keeping Tully in the dark. “Why didn’t he ask me to do that?”
“Because as far as he’s concerned, you don’t know about this place and that’s the way he wanted to keep it. I only found out because I followed him home from Anton’s one night, and believe me, he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it,” she explains. “As to why he didn’t tell you. I can’t answer that, but my guess is that he’s ashamed. He doesn’t want his friends to be involved in this life. You guys have it good and he would never want to take you away from that. He believes he’s covered in darkness, and you Tully, are his light and he’s terrified that if he lets you in, he’s going to cover your world in darkness too.”
“Doesn’t he realize that my world is already covered in darkness without him?”
Lacey just shrugs as I push up from the chair and wrap my arms around Tully. “Come on, let's go home and order pizza.”
She sighs and gives in before finally snapping out of it. “Fine,” Tully says before looking to Lacey. “Did uh…did you want to come?”
Lacey glances around the mess that is Rivers’ home before slowly shaking her head. “Nah, I think I’m going to stay and tidy this up a bit. Thanks though.”
Tully nods and makes her way out the door with me following behind, only I stop in the doorway
and look back at Lacey, the girl who's apparently my cousin. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah,” she says with an awkward smile, probably feeling as weird about this as I do. “I guess so…and um, I’m sorry about your sister. I heard she went missing.”
Lacey cringes and I try to shake off the feelings that tear through me with that reminder. “Yeah, she did, but we’ll get her back. How did you hear about that?”
“Nate and Jesse Ryder heard it from Kaylah and well, ever since then, they’ve been treating everyone in Broken Hill as a suspect. They’re kind of scary, you know?”
“Yeah,” I say as a strange sense of pride pulses through me knowing that the Ryder brothers have my back. “Thanks for letting me know, and uh…the other things.”
Lacey gives another awkward smile and with that, I step out the door and close it behind me, wondering how many more lies and secrets I could possibly uncover about myself.
Chapter 6
A week and five days.
I don’t know how much longer I can go on not knowing where she is.
The first week was torturous but the past five days have been absolutely horrendous. That first week, I had a little ray of hope shining within me, telling me that somehow Anton will find her, but too much time has passed and that little ray of hope has burned within me, leaving nothing but pure devastation behind.
He can’t find her. Hell, I’m not even happy that it means I won’t have to spend my life as Anton’s sidekick. I just want my little sister back, but it’s clearly not possible.
She’s gone forever.
“Stop that,” Noah growls beside me. I look across at him and let out a heavy breath, doing my best to ignore him, but naturally he won’t allow it. “We will get her back. Anton is not going to give up on the chance of taking you as his prize.”
Tully and Spencer quickly look at each other and a second later, Spencer places his hand at Tully’s lower back and leads her out the front door, realizing that whatever’s about to happen in here, needs to go down in private.
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 5