Broken Beast
Page 20
“Positive. She’s gone to my doctor and everything.” Holly nods.
“Holy shit.” I swallow, feeling heat spread all over my body like tiny volcanic eruptions. Somehow that makes it more real. “Holy shit.”
“Are you okay? I’m sorry you had to find out like this.” She folds her hands in her lap. “I’m sure you would have wanted to hear it from her, but…”
“I know.” My heart’s going to explode out of my chest. I rub my sternum, as if that would help. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“That’s only for her to tell you.”
“I’m glad you were the one to tell me. I don’t think I would have handled it well from anyone else.” Holly’s a calming presence, and one of the few people I actually trust.
But that still doesn’t change the fact that Simone didn’t want to tell me. But what, was she planning on not telling me ever? I would have found out eventually. Unless she was planning on going back to the city and never talking to me again. But what the fuck? You can’t just hide a baby. Nowadays, at least. And why didn’t she think she could say anything? I wrack my brain for any hint that I’d freak out about this kind of thing, but at the moment, I can’t dig too deep into my memories.
I can’t ask her any of this shit unless we find her.
“Fuck. We need to hurry and find her.” I throw the door open and hop out faster than I thought possible.
Now I’m sweating even harder. If Max had someone break in and take some of her stuff, who’s to say he wouldn’t have her kidnapped or something? It’s a crazy thought, but knowing what I know now, I don’t want to take anything lightly. I’ve never been more invested in anything in my life.
“Let’s start at the bagel shop. I know she liked to go there,” I say, parking messily in the lot on the end of the strip and instantly hopping out of the car.
Holly struggles to keep up with me when I burst inside. Jane, the owner and person who tends to work the counter the most, is there, and gives us a big smile.
“Welcome. What can I do for you two today?” She looks between the two of us, gradually sensing our lack of calm. Her smile fades.
“Have you seen this woman?” I go through my phone and find a picture of Simone that she'd asked me to take. She’s in the workshop, grinning over her shoulder while she holds a metal hook she made.
“I’ve seen her in here, but not recently.” Jane’s brow furrows. “Why?”
My heart sinks. “She’s been missing since last night.”
“Have you seen Maya?” Holly shows Jane a photo of Maya on her phone that Natasha must have sent over.
“Unfortunately, not recently. The last time I saw her was when she rung me up at the yarn store a week back.” Jane fiddles with her watch around her wrist. “I’m sorry. I can keep an eye out for them.”
I tuck my phone back into my pocket. “Thank you.”
“Here, take some coffee on the house.” Jane turns and pours us each a cup. It’s a small gesture, but it makes me feel a tiny bit better.
We thank her and leave, slightly discouraged. We keep going from shop to shop, asking if anyone’s seen Maya or Simone. Some people saw Maya at the convenience store yesterday morning, but no one’s seen Simone, or even knew that she’s been living in town for a while. We keep striking out, until we reach the tavern.
It’s a Friday afternoon, so there are already people there nursing drinks. I head up to the bartender and ask if he’s seen either of them, but he hasn’t. When we turn to leave, I spot Harrison and some of his friends in the corner, facing away from us. They seem to be in good spirits, which is a nice change of pace, at least. Harrison is still looking pretty good, too, at least compared to the last time I saw him at the coffee shop.
“Hey, can I grab you for a second, Harrison?” I ask, putting a hand on his shoulder. He jumps.
“What? What’s up?” He looks between me and Holly, his eyes wide.
“We’re looking for Simone and Maya,” I explain. “You see them?”
“Why would I have seen them?” His brow furrows, less out of worry and more out of defensiveness. “Who’s Simone?”
“We’re asking everyone,” Holly says gently. Thank God she’s here, or else I’d grab him by the shirt and shake him for his attitude. “No one’s seen them in the past eighteen hours, and they didn’t come home from a hike. We’re thinking of putting a search party together.”
“And this is Simone.” I show him the picture. He tenses for the briefest second, but his face stays neutral.
He studies Holly for a second. “Well, good luck.”
“Since you know the town well, we were hoping you could help us gather some people, maybe,” I say. I crowd him a tiny bit to pressure him. I can’t help myself. It’s like some primal instinct to protect my young has kicked in, and I’ve only known about the baby for less than fifteen minutes.
“I can’t,” Harrison stammers. “I have to get home.”
“You sure about that?” I snap. “You’ve always been there for the town. What’s so important that you can’t help find two missing women?”
We glare at each other for several moments.
“I guess I can help.” Harrison slams the rest of his beer and turns to his friends. “You guys in to help?”
His friends, even though I doubt they know either Simone or Maya, readily agree.
“Let’s go, then.” Harrison stands and stalks past me. I follow him closely.
“Harrison, you’re coming with me,” I order. “I’m driving.”
“I can’t drive my own damn car?” He rolls his eyes.
“No, because we need to stick together.” I nod my head toward my car. “I need to talk to you anyway.”
Holly will be my buffer, so I don’t do or say anything stupid. We climb into the car and I drive off toward the head of the trail, where Natasha’s waiting for us. Harrison’s silent in the back seat, his arms crossed over his chest. He’s staring out the window like I’m his dad dragging him to soccer practice against his will.
“Are you familiar with this trail, Harrison?” Holly asks, turning around.
“Nope.” He’s still staring out the window.
“You okay?” I ask, trying to sound like I’m worried about him, but I think I just come across as a dick. Well, I tried.
“Yep.” He glares at me through the rearview mirror. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”
“You seem reluctant to help,” I finally say. Jesus, is this what it’s going to be like in ten years? Driving around a punk in the backseat of the car? At least that punk will be my own, assuming everything ends up okay.
“Nope.” He looks out the window again. “Just tired. I don’t even know who Simone is.”
“You know her — we bumped into each other at the coffee shop a month back. She was getting a latte and you were getting your morning cup,” I remind him. It was a really brief meeting, sure, but he definitely checked her out enough for him to at least vaguely remember. I remember feeling a weird mix of pride that my girl’s hot and anger over his complete lack of tact that made me want to punch him in the face
“Oh, her?” He raises his eyebrows. Faux surprise. “I didn’t know she was your girlfriend.”
“I never said she was.” I turn off the highway and onto the road to the trail. “What made you think that?”
“J-just the way you guys looked together.” Harrison jiggles his leg.
Holly and I exchange glances. At least she seems to see what I see — someone who’s hiding something, or at least isn’t being totally truthful.
“I don’t know where she’s been taken,” Harrison finally blurts.
“How do you know she was taken?”
He doesn’t respond.
“How do you know?” I pull over abruptly onto the curb, my vision going red. I’m sick of his bullshit. I’m sick of all of this. I just want answers, and if I have to punch them out of a guy, I’ll fucking punch them out of a guy.
“Jay —” Ho
lly says, fear written all over her face. But I don’t care. She’ll be inside the car.
I throw the car into park and jump out. Harrison tries to jump out the opposite way, but I catch him by the back of the shirt. I pick him up and drop him, so he falls backward onto the grass, scrambling on his hands like a crab.
“You’re going to tell me what you know, or I’ll make you regret it.” I hover over him. He stares up at me for a few beats.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Having your face in its current arrangement and your butthole without my foot up it.” I feel moments from going completely apeshit. I don’t want to — I thought I’d lost this part of myself a long time ago — but the thought of Simone being hurt makes me lose all control.
“Fine, I’ll fucking talk.” Harrison goes limp, resigned, and I step back. “Just don’t be mad when you hear it.”
Chapter Seventeen
Simone
I wake up feeling hungover as hell, the room spinning, my stomach churning and my mouth dry. I can’t remember what I did last night. My eyes slowly peel open, and I realize I don’t know where I am. That wakes me up right away. I can’t be hungover, since I’m pregnant, and it looks like it’s the middle of the night anyway — the tiny room is only lit up by moonlight streaming in from a window way above where I can reach, even on my tiptoes.
It looks like a cabin; all wood walls, floors, and ceilings, with a slightly damp smell that suggests the place is a little old. The only things in here are the cot I’m on, an old mop bucket, and a stack of pillows and blankets in the corner. The door is on the opposite side of the room. My wrists are tightly bound together with rope, and Maya’s back is to me on the cot.
“Maya?” I press on her back with my bound hands.
“Wha?” She shifts around. “Where are we?”
I sit up, nausea washing over me again. I want water, even though I’m so freaked out that I don’t want anything that’ll make it easier for me to pee my pants.
“I don’t know.” I want to stand, but my ankles are also bound. I’m still wearing what I wore on the hike, but my hair’s been unbraided, and my hat is gone. My boots are across the room, too. “We were on the hike. The last thing I remember is someone dragging me backward by my ponytail and everything going black.”
Maya stiffens. “I remember that, too, but someone threw a bag over my head and put their hand over my mouth. I think I passed out.”
She starts to yank at her ropes, panicking, so I put my feet on her.
“Shh, we have to stay calm,” I whisper, hoping I sound at least a little bit soothing. With every second that passes, the more I realize that we might be in imminent danger. “The more we panic, the more we’ll hurt ourselves.”
“How long have we been passed out?” she asks, looking at her wrists. “What the hell? My Apple Watch is gone. It took me ages to save up for it.”
I still have my watch on, a simple digital one, underneath my ropes. I push the ropes aside on the fabric of my pants and check the time. It’s three in the morning. Shit. I don’t know if it’s three in the morning the day directly after our hike or if we’ve been out for more than twenty-four hours. Either way, I bet people are looking for us. Maya’s still living at home, so her parents are probably worried sick. I know that Jay probably is, too.
I hold back tears. Goddamn it, I wish I hadn’t been such a coward. I should have told him about the baby, and now I might not get the chance to.
“We’ll get it back once we get out of here, okay?” I try to sound reassuring, but my voice wobbles a little bit. “I know we’ll be okay.”
“But why would someone take us?” she asks, a tear sliding down her cheek. “Where are we?”
I look out the window again. There are trees, which is completely unhelpful. I don’t know anything about the different kinds of trees, even if that would help. I lay back down on the cot to hopefully settle my stomach. The one-two punch of potent fear mixed with pregnancy hormones doesn’t bode well for me keeping whatever granola bars are left in my stomach inside my body.
There’s only one person who would even think to do this, and it’s Max. But at the same time, I never thought he would take it this far. Somehow stalking me or burning my living space down felt within reach, but kidnapping? No. And kidnapping could lead to murder.
I suck in a breath. I can’t go there already. There’s still so much time for us to pull out of this. And who knows… Maybe it’s literally just a random kidnapping.
Okay, maybe not, considering how unlikely that is. But still — I’m trying to stay even vaguely optimistic. I can’t let anything bad happen to the baby or to Maya, and freaking out will only make that more likely.
We both freeze when we hear footsteps on the other side of the door, thumping across the ground. The door creaks open slowly, almost like we’re in a horror film.
“Hey, you’re awake,” Max says, just like he’s walked back into the bedroom after waking up before I did. He’s smiling and relaxed, which puts me more on edge than anything else would. He’s so damn gorgeous. It’s a shame that’s the only good thing about him.
Maya opens her mouth to say something, but I kick her. I glare up at Max. He’s not the kind of guy to blend in, but he’s clearly trying. He’s wearing jeans worn from wear, not from a factory, and a shirt that he must have thrifted. His boots aren’t new either. But the rest of him — his well-cared-for skin, his expertly-cut and professionally-styled hair — is just the same as always.
“I’ve brought some food.” He holds up two small plastic containers stacked on top of each other in one hand. “I’m sure you’re both hungry.”
“Will you untie us so we can eat?” Maya asks.
Max pauses, glancing behind him. “Sure. But only one at a time.”
He kicks the door behind him closed and locks it with a key from his pocket. I flinch away when he approaches me to untie me first.
“Why are you scared of me, love?” he asks, looking genuinely offended.
“You fucking kidnapped us?” I snap, with an incredulous laugh. “And before that, you stalked me, hurt me, maybe burned a house down to scare me, and had someone ransack where I was staying to take back all the shit you gave me when we were together. So that’s why.”
I can see Maya’s eyes widen out of the corner of my eye. I need to stay stable for her sake, but my edges are already fraying.
“I didn’t burn down a house to scare you.” His perfectly maintained brow furrows. “That’s crazy.”
“And everything else isn’t?” I blurt.
“They’re much more reasonable things to do.” He unties one of my hands but ties the one still wrapped in rope to my ankles so I still can’t move. “First of all, you were avoiding me when I needed to talk to you. Then you weren’t cooperating when I finally got in touch with you, so we got in that little argument. You moved all the way up here, so I couldn’t even find you. And then when you refused to talk to me outside of Gigi’s party, I knew I had to get serious.”
“How did you know I was up here?” I ask, staring down at the container of food. He hasn’t even opened it yet, but whatever’s inside smells awful. Now that I’m pregnant, I’m sensitive to the most random smells, and some foods are intolerable for me to even look at. I hope I can choke down whatever he’s packed.
“I just had to ask around to piece things together.” He opens the container and I gag immediately. “What’s wrong? You love quinoa and salmon.”
‘Love’ is a stretch, but I tolerated it for the sake of health. But now, the idea of eating fish makes me want to pass out just to avoid it. Ugh, it’s like he shoved some sweaty socks into that container and left it in the hot trunk of his car for a week.
“I’m not in the mood for it,” I manage, once I get my gag reflex under control.
“Mm.” He hands me the fork anyway. “It’ll be good for you. You’ve gained some weight since you’ve been up here and you definitely need to lose it.”
“Fine, then. You’ll lose it faster if you don’t eat at all.” He slams the lid on the food and puts it down. “We can work on reintroducing food when we’re back in the city.”
“What do you mean, ‘we’?” I ask, staring longingly at the food that I just rejected. I’d prefer to just eat the quinoa, if anything. My stomach growls.
“Once I talk to you about our relationship, we’ll go back to the city together.” He shrugs and ties my free hand to my ankles so I have even less movement than I did before. The rope digs into my skin. “And we’ll move on from this.”
“What about me?” Maya asks.
“Once I have your word that you’ll stay quiet about all this, I’ll let you go back to your job and your life.” He unties one of her hands. “Here, eat.”
“How do you know I have a job?” Maya eyes the food in the second container warily and picks up the plastic fork. She’s a picky eater, but she’s probably hungry.
“I’ve had eyes around town.” He sits at the end of the cot, cross-legged. “Katya’s the one who tipped me off that you’re up here, by the way. Did you know her grandson wants to be a model? I offered to show him the ropes. From there, she told me everything I needed to know.”
I hold back tears. Goddamn it. I never thought that Katya would be the one I needed to worry about. But I couldn’t tell her not to tell anyone where I was going without tipping her off that something was wrong. And besides, she’s met Max a handful of times, not enough for her to know what he’s truly like.
“How long have you been up here?” I ask, doing mental calculations back to when my stuff was taken.
“I’ll tell you more later.” He gently touches the top of my foot, and I resist the urge to flinch again. He doesn’t seem angry or annoyed yet, but he’s like a viper — one minute, he’s fine, and the next, he strikes. “Why don’t we catch up first?”
“If you’ve been following me, don’t you know?” I try to sound playful, but my question ends up sounding flat.