Chapter 12
Jace pushed backward and made sure the women didn’t get any further into the room than they already had.
I backed out of the room too, grabbed my phone out of my pocket, and called the sheriff.
I could hear Jace in the background. “Just stay out here ladies.” They started to bagger him and ask a million questions, but he cut them off. “I’m just gonna say it, and I’m gonna be blunt. Drew’s in there, and he’s dead. I don’t want any of you to see it. Talie was not in there, so we’re still lookin’ for her.” They started to chatter again, but Jace pushed right through it. “One’a you get on your phone, call John, and let him know to adjust the search accordingly.”
He then stepped to me and waited for me to finish up my call to the sheriff. I had told him about the situation to the best of my knowledge, told him where we were, and was just saying my goodbyes.
“Alright, Sheriff. Also, sure you’ve heard I’m lookin’ for Natalie. Wouldn’t mind if you have any spare men, you put them on the search. Drew’s dead, that ain’t changin’, but Talie needs people lookin’ for her now.”
He gave me a somberly spoken, “You got it, Tuck,” and then hung up. He hadn’t had a murder in this town in many, many years let alone a murder
and
a missing person at the same time, and it was hitting him hard.
Jace put his hand on my shoulder and spoke quietly enough that the women wouldn’t be able to hear him. “Look Tuck, this is gonna piss you off, but I gotta ask. Any chance, and this shits me to say because I love her too, but any chance Talie did that to Drew? You were there and so were we when she said she had planned to go after him all along. Any chance she got her revenge and took off?”
My initial reaction was to get extremely pissed off, every muscle in my body constricting and twitching, but I also understood why he was asking, so I squashed the anger down. I had actually had the same thought myself, albeit fleetingly.
“I get why you would ask that, but no. I really don’t think she’s capable of it. She has one hell of a bark, but not much of a bite. She loves other people, and it’s built in her to protect ‘em, not hurt ‘em and certainly not kill ‘em. Even the ones she hates. Not to mention, no way she would take off on her sister when she just got her back. Somethin’ else has got to be goin’ on here.” I didn’t think she would leave me either, but I didn’t mention it.
Jace nodded and concurred with me. “I actually agree with you. I don’t think there is a violent bone in her body, even with people she hates. And not only do I not think she would leave Kayla, or Ruthie for that matter, I don’t think she would leave you. But, I just had to ask. Tryin’ to cover all the bases here.” I understood that, and I was thankful to have someone else who knew how much this meant to me, but had a level head on his shoulders. “So now, what the fuck do you think is really goin’ on?”
I told him the ugly goddamn truth.
“I don’t have one fucking clue. And it feels like my heart is bein’ ripped out of my fuckin’ chest. I
need
her, Jace. We have to find her.”
He knew exactly what I meant. Not only did he know me better than anyone (other than Talie), he looked at Ruthie the way I looked at Talie. He knew where he would be if he was in my position.
********
It had been two hours with no sign of her. No one had seen her, and there wasn’t even anyone who had witnessed
anything
for that matter. It was like she had disappeared into thin air, and I was pretty fucking displeased.
With no leads and nowhere to go, Jace and the girls had forced me to come into the diner and try to eat something. They shoved food in front of me, but I was in a different world. One where my thoughts went in circles, slowly torturing me while trying to think of every minute, minuscule detail that could lead me to her somehow.
I prayed that she somehow still had faith in me after I’d been unable to find her for all these hours. I prayed that there was some divine mercy, and she wasn’t going through anything as horrible as I was imagining in the black hole that my mind had become. And I prayed that somehow, someway, I found a way to find her soon, and when I did, she was in one piece.
A few seconds later, as if it was a direct answer to my prayers, my phone buzzed that I had a text message. It was from an unknown number that I didn’t take the time to try to process because it read: West Outskirts, two miles. Brown farmhouse, blue shudders.
As I read the message to myself, I must have also read it aloud.
Ruthie whispered, “Why are you talking about Bobby’s house?”
Jesus.
Bobby
. Not one for naivety, I hadn’t exactly expected him to be an active part of the search, but there had been
no
sign of him. Not to mention, as memories skated through my mind, I realized he
had
been present an awful lot of places we had been over the past couple of weeks. He hadn’t caused trouble so I’d left him be, but obviously there had been more going on than I noticed.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, I took off without even saying anything. Luckily, the group had been paying attention, was ready, and followed close behind me.
I ran to my truck, pulled the door open, jumped in, and fired her up just as Jace wrenched the passenger door open and jumped in.
“What’s goin’ on, Tuck? Fill me in.”
Instead of answering his question, I planned my next steps. “Nine millimeter in the glove box. Take it, keep it on you. We might need it, but I don’t trust myself with it.”
My thoughts were absolutely fucking crazy right now, and the last thing I needed was to find Talie, have her still be willing to be with me, and then fuck it all up by killing someone in a rage.
Jace’s eyes flared, but he nodded, opened the hatch, and grabbed the gun, tucking it into his pants at the small of his back. I guess he figured that him having it was a better option than me having it.
I would have to agree with him. I wasn’t in the position or condition to handle much of anything right now, let alone weaponry.
My vision had turned into a dangerous tunnel from the combination of fear and rage, and all I could see was the steering wheel, a sliver of dash, and my lane of the road directly in front of me.
When I read the message I had instantly known it was Bobby’s place, but when Ruthie voiced it, something inside of me snapped.
I knew he didn’t like Talie, felt victimized by her even. In his eyes, I’m sure he thought Talie was the reason his relationship had ended. Abusers almost never took any responsibility on themselves. Not to mention, he had never been a fan of mine. He was insecure in himself and manhandled women physically and emotionally as a way to anchor them to him. I, on the other hand, let women be themselves, and yet, they came flocking back to me every chance they got. This had always bothered him, and I suppose me finally finding the woman of my dreams had set him off.
Add in the fact that he didn’t like women who stood up to him and mix that with Talie, who was full of attitude and hadn’t hesitated to throw some in his face a time or two, and you got a bomb waiting to explode.
Now knowing where she most likely had been, I was even more worried for her wellbeing. Drew was somewhat predictable, as we’d seen the results of his behavior, but Bobby was a wildcard. He was big, and while I had no trouble besting him, Talie would be no match for him physically.
I couldn’t help but think that that was an injustice for women. Here was a strong, confident, self-sufficient woman, yet she still wouldn’t be able to really defend herself when push came to shove.
God, she would try. I knew she would. But sometimes trying wasn’t enough.
As that last thought passed through my mind, I pushed my foot and the peddle underneath it further toward the floor.
Jace felt my actions and tried to talk some sense into me. “Look, Tuck. I ain’t gonna tell you to calm down because I sure as shit wouldn’t be able to. But I am gonna tell you to think your actions through. Be smart so that you can be there for your girl when she’s gonna need you most. And I don’t just mean right now. She’s gonna need you
after
this too.”
I gave him one nod, just to let him know that I’d heard him, and slowed the truck as we came up on the long driveway to Bobby’s house.
Finally, my brain was working logically. I knew I couldn’t just charge in there guns blazing. The last thing I wanted to do was scare Bobby and force him to make a rash decision.
I pulled my truck to a stop on the side of the road and broke down my plan for Jace.
“Ok, here’s what I’m thinkin’. We’re gonna get out here and approach soft and slow. When we get to the house, we’ll do a check around the perimeter to see if we can get a better look at what we’re dealin’ with before goin’ in.”
I wasn’t done, but I looked into the rearview mirror to see Ruthie and Kayla sliding to a stop in Jace’s truck behind us.
“Fuck.”
I grabbed the door handle, kicked the door open with my foot, and jumped down onto the gravel shoulder. Hustling back to the girls in Jace’s truck, I immediately barked out my orders. “You two are stayin’ out here. I don’t wanna hear shit about it. Jace and I are goin’ closer.”
The girls started to jabber, but Jace joined the conversation right at that moment with a stern voice. “You aren’t comin’ closer, Ruth. Don’t question it. Jesus Christ, for once, don’t question it, please. Just stay here.”
I used his command as the opportunity to continue with my plan uninterrupted. “Ok, Jace. I was sayin’, we get close, check everything out, you call the sheriff right before we go in. That way he doesn’t come flyin’ in here and put Talie in danger, but he
will
already be on his way while we’re takin’ care of the situation. Right?”
He gave me a nod, and not waiting to hear any commentary from the female peanut gallery, we took off, up past my truck, turned right, and jogged in a crouched position up the driveway towards the little brown farmhouse.
His driveway was about a hundred yards long so it took us a little while to make it all the way to the end, especially since we slowed our pace as we got close in the hopes of drawing less attention to ourselves.
When we neared the end I signaled Jace to go right while I went left with a jerk of my head. He read my meaning, crept up to the house, and started circling the perimeter of it in a counter-clockwise direction.
I went left with the intention of meeting him in the middle, at the back of the house, before doubling back.
I approached the first window and got really low, just peaking my head up enough to look inside. I looked both directions and saw that I was looking into an old style sitting room, but there were no people.
Staying in my crouch, I moved slowly to the next window down. Repeating my motions from the first window, I looked inside and found that, this time, I was seeing a bedroom. But again, no people.
My breathing was accelerated, but other than that, I seemed to have actually found a place of calm. My guess was that having something to do had focused my energy, and it was time to do
whatever
I needed to do to get my girl safe.
I made my way to the last window on my side of the house and looked in the same way I had the two times previously. This time when my vision penetrated the glass I saw the most perfect auburn hair I’d ever run my fingers through.
She was laid out on the couch of the living room, and she looked like she was either asleep or unconscious. I could see that her face was bruised and bloody as if she’d taken a savage beating. I was overwhelmed by a combination of unimaginable sadness and ferocious anger.
I had to fucking get in there. I saw no sign of Bobby and my immediate urge was to break the window and climb in right here. But Jace’s words to be smart flashed through my mind, and I knew I needed to find him first so I’d have a better chance of not doing something I would regret.
I hated to let her out of my sight, but I had to for just a minute so that Jace and I could regroup.
As soon as I rounded the corner of the house, Jace spotted me and I signaled to head back to the front. He gave a nod and turned on his boot so swiftly that it seemed like he had to have known that was the plan before I even told him.
I ran quickly and quietly back to the front of the house, and I did not like what I saw when I got there.
Kayla and Ruthie were crouched next to the bushes whispering to each other. Neither one of them noticed me or Jace coming, and I was dying to teach them a lesson. We both approached them from opposite sides and each covered the mouth of a girl to keep the screams we knew would come from escaping.
Once their muffled screams subsided I moved my hand off of Kayla’s mouth only to get an earful. “What are you fucking
crazy
Hotman? You scared the absolute shit out of me!”
She had at least had the forethought to yell-whisper instead of just yelling.
Ruthie said nothing because she had actually learned the lesson we were trying to teach.
I was in absolutely no mood, and yell-whispered back, “Me crazy? The two’a you are fuckin’ crazy! I should tan both of your asses for this stunt. We told you to stay at the fuckin’ truck. Now I’m wastin’ precious fuckin’ time I should be usin’ to get in there to your sister who’s laid out on the couch bruised and fuckin’ bloody, but instead I’m here chewin’ you out. Do not move from this fuckin’ spot. You got me?”
Kayla just nodded quietly, and it was probably because I’d just told her of her sister’s condition with no preamble whatsoever.
Oh, well. I would coddle her later. There just wasn’t time now.
Jace turned and headed for the front door, and I followed close behind.
I filled him in as he tested the doorknob. “She’s in the back, in the living room, on the couch. I saw no sign of Bobby, so he could be anywhere.”
The knob turned, so at least getting in would be easy and we could go quietly.
Jace told me, “You go in, get to Talie, and I’ll cover your back.”
That fucking worked for me. All I wanted was to get to Talie.