Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“You’re not,” Dad replied. “We’re doin’ everythin’ we can. Boys are out talkin’ to the neighbors that weren’t here earlier. Cops are processin’ the scene. We’ll find him.”
Answering the police’s questions had taken longer than I’d wanted, but I was grateful that they’d left Teddy alone. They’d been pissed when they realized that she’d left, but after a few words with Casper, they’d let it go. Fucking vultures. They knew we hadn’t been home when it all went down. There were fifty witnesses who put us at the club.
They’d already put out an alert for Finn. Soon, people across town would get notifications on their phones with his description.
“Curtis,” Kara called, running toward me from the direction of her house. “What can I do?”
“Baby, what are you doin’?” Draco asked, moving to intercept her.
“We’re here,” she replied, slowing to a stop. “Everyone’s been waiting at our house. What do you need? What should we do?”
“Go back home and wait,” Draco ordered.
“No,” I cut him off. I looked at Kara. “You think you could get the old ladies to talk to the neighbors—”
“We’re already doin’ that, son,” my dad reminded me.
“Ask ’em if you guys can check their yards. Sheds. Whatever. If Finn went somewhere to hide—”
“On it,” Kara said. Her face was swollen and blotchy like she’d been crying, but now she was clear-eyed.
“Motherfucker, I know it was you,” my grandfather’s voice barked from inside Dylan’s truck. We’d moved it away from the house and would’ve done the same with Teddy’s, but she’d taken her keys when she left.
My phone buzzed in my hand. Another update from Charlie.
“Teddy made it to the hospital,” I informed my dad as I put the phone back in my pocket. “Kids are both in surgery.”
“Good,” he replied.
He and Draco had been sticking close. The boys were all watching, waiting for me to lose it.
“Fuck,” I growled, shoving my hair back from my face with both hands as I put Dylan and Jesse out of my mind. They were safe. Teddy was there. As much as it killed me, there was nothing I could do for them, no matter where I was.
Finn needed my full attention.
I’d promised Teddy that I would find him, and I wasn’t any closer to knowing where the hell he was. David Granger hadn’t taken any of the numerous calls that we’d made until my grandfather had picked up the phone and called himself. He figured correctly that Granger would be willing to ignore everyone else, but not willing to show that kind of disrespect to our president. I looked over at Dylan’s truck but couldn’t see anything from my vantage point.
The fucking neighbors hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary.
Considering the absolute destruction in my living room, I couldn’t understand how no one had heard anything. The houses had good-sized lots, but they weren’t that far away from each other.
I was pacing up and down the sidewalk when my grandfather got out of the truck and headed toward me, shaking his head.
“What?” I asked as I met him halfway.
“He assured me it wasn’t him,” my grandfather said emotionlessly. “It was.”
“Fuck.” We needed to find out who Granger had used to take Finn. If they were on their way to Sacramento, we may be able to cut them off before they got there and hooked up with the rest of Granger’s crew. If we could figure out who he’d sent, we could find out what they drove and watch for it.
“But I don’t think he has Finn,” my grandfather continued.
“What?”
“He was lyin’ when he said he didn’t send anyone. He wasn’t lyin’ when he said that he didn’t have Finn. Asked how the fuck we’d lost him. The man went from amused to panicked even though he was tryin’ to hide it. He doesn’t know where Finn is.”
I tried to make sense of the development.
“Granger sent a couple of his goons up here to take Finn, but he doesn’t have him?” Draco asked in confusion. “Did they fuck him?”
“Couldn’t tell you,” Dragon replied. “The man wouldn’t admit that he sent anyone. Wouldn’t tell me if the men he sent betrayed him.”
“So we have no fucking idea who has Finn,” I stated flatly, breaking out in a cold sweat. “Whoever Granger used nearly killed my kids. If they’ve got Finn and they aren’t in touch with Granger—”
“I’ve still got feelers out,” Grandpa Casper reminded me. “We’ll hear somethin’.”
Yeah, we would. Eventually.
But our ten-year-old was somewhere, probably scared out of his fucking mind, going through only god knew what after watching Jesse and Dylan get beaten unconscious. Every minute that went by meant one more minute that he wasn’t safe. That he was going through something I couldn’t protect him from.
Walking toward the neighbor’s bushes, I barely made it there before everything I’d eaten that day came back up. I heaved and coughed as my head pounded.