Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
My head falls back. The drugs hit me, but I ignore the feelings and retreat from them. I find a warm room with Lucy inside, lock the door, and hold her. I won’t break. I won’t fail.
I have to survive. For Zack. For Lucy. For us. For the future.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lucy
“You shouldn’t keep watching that,” Sabrina says, touching my shoulder lightly.
We’re in the living room, cops everywhere, talking over each other as they coordinate the active kidnapping case. When they only had my eyewitness report that I’d seen Dad at night, they weren’t taking it as seriously. Now, news cameras have captured Jamie chasing Zack. A dash cam caught the mad rush down the hill and the kidnapping. The comments are flooded with people wondering how Jamie even got up after sprinting full tilt into the car.
I turn to my friend and smile tightly. “I know.”
Sabrina squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll hear something soon.”
I swallow, shaking my head, not sure what to say. It’s almost been two entire days, and we haven’t heard anything. Kyle, Kylie, and Sebastian are on their way here. Kylie wrote to me on Facebook, asking if we could speak. Once I told her it was all true, she broke down, sobbing about her big brother, the so-called killer she never let meet her nephew.
“And he did it all for me…”
Sabrina sits next to me, twirling her hair around her finger.
“Thanks for being here,” I tell her.
“I wish there was something to do. Your poor brother. Your poor boyfriend.”
Despite everything, a smile touches my lips. “Yeah, that’s what he is, right? My boyfriend?”
She squeezes my hand. “Definitely.”
I jump to my feet when the phone rings. A police officer gestures at me, telling me to wait until they’ve arranged their equipment. Since the news media has swarmed all over this—there are about a hundred cameras out front now—they’re taking it very seriously.
I answer the phone, hoping to hear Jamie’s voice or Zack’s, my little brother’s.
If he makes it out of this—when he makes it out—I will do everything I can for him. Support him like Jamie supported Kylie.
“Your cell phone’s off.” It’s Tommy, Jamie’s friend. He’s been searching the streets tirelessly since the kidnapping. He can’t forgive himself for believing his best friend could be a killer. “Is he back?”
“My cell phone’s not off,” I reply. “Tommy, I’m sorry, but you can’t use this number. We need it clear in case—”
“I clicked the wrong goddamn contact. Fuck. Jamie’s out there. He’s out there, and he needs our help.”
A police officer takes the phone gently from me. “Sir, we don’t need you to search or interfere with our—”
Ramirez winces when Tommy hangs up on her. Her hand strays to her jet-black ponytail, tugging on it for a single brief moment. Then her hand drops like it’s an old habit, and she’s trying to lose it.
She glances at me. “I wish he’d just let us do our job. He knows I can’t waste resources sending officers to stop his wild goose chase.”
“He wants to help. Anyway, he said he’d call if he found anything.”
“Or he’ll rush in. Panic. Get everybody killed. I guess we’ll see.”
Sabrina steps forward. “Can you show some sensitivity, please? This situation is very tense, and talking like that isn’t helping, okay?”
Ramirez raises her hands. “I hope I’m wrong.”
“Nobody’s dying,” Sabrina says, looking at Ramirez and me. “Got that?”
Suddenly, my cell phone starts ringing. Every officer in the room tenses up. When I tell them it’s Kylie, their shoulders sag. There’s this weird desperation in the officers as if everything relies upon them finding Jamie quickly. Maybe that’s because there was corruption back then. Perhaps they helped Dad fake his death, and now they want this whole thing over with.
“Lucy,” Kylie says passionately, her voice cracking.
“I’m here.”
“Our flight had to be grounded because of technical difficulties. We’re coming, but we’re going to be delayed. Any news?”
“Still nothing. I’m sorry.” I let out a breath, almost sobbing, walking to a private corner of the room. “I just keep waiting for him to walk through the door with that smirk on his face.”
I can hear her smile when she responds. “It’s so funny. I keep thinking you must be strangers to each other, but when you say things like that, I know exactly what you mean—Jamie’s special smirk. He always protected us, me. He took punishment from Dad and stood up for me so I didn’t have to. Then I believed it. I really believed he was a killer.”
She breaks down, sobbing, as I try to say comforting things, but it’s difficult to say anything that will heal the pain of Jamie not being here.
“He did it all for me,” she whispers. “For me and his nephew, but we wouldn’t let him see him, would we, Sebastian?”
In the background, I hear a man’s voice, torn. “We didn’t know.”