“Like hidden rooms?” William asked.
“Panic rooms. Basements. Stuff like that. Hidden walls?” Gideon snorted. “Everyone has said what a great guy Alexander is. He’s smart. Why not adapt his house and all this time be living right under our noses?”
“It’s a long shot. You know that, right?” I asked.
“It’s better than anything we’ve got right now. No one knows where he is or what he’s doing. This is our best chance. I think we should take it.”
So ten minutes later, we all sat in my car as I drove us to Sian’s house.
It wasn’t a large house like ours, but it wasn’t small either with a nice private yard.
After pulling into the driveway, I turned off the engine and looked toward the house. There was no sign of life, but that meant nothing.
“I’m not going to lie, guys, but I’m kind of getting the chills. You don’t think Sian’s house is haunted, do you?” William asked.
I glanced in the rearview mirror. “Are you crazy right now?”
“I feel like I’m being watched.” William looked up at the house. “Come on, a dark house. Anyone else feeling it?”
“You watch way too much horror,” I said as I climbed out of the car and looked up at the house.
It was dark outside and the streetlight overlooking the house wasn’t working. I pointed at it. “Convenient,” I said.
Less light made it easier to move around.
We moved toward Sian’s house. She’d handed over the key to Lucas when she arrived months ago for us to take care of her. Gideon slid the key into the lock and turned it.
I didn’t know why, but it sounded so fucking loud.
Gritting my teeth, I knew we were doing something fucking crazy right now. We’d left the house without a word to our fathers, and now we were entering a known murderer’s house. This wasn’t the brightest of ideas. In fact, as far as ideas went, I was going to rate this a big giant, fucking stupid one.
Also, I was pissed at William. Now that he’d said he felt like someone was watching him, I had this overwhelming feeling someone was watching me too, and I didn’t like it.
I didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits or any of that kind of bullshit. I was the kind of guy who had to see it to know it existed, within reason, of course.
We entered the main hallway, and it was small in comparison to what I was used to. I bet this pissed Alexander off no end. He’d taken the All Saints girl, and still, he lived in a smaller home than all of them.
No company. No empire. Just his reputation as being a decent lawyer.
“Anyone else getting the sense that Alexander’s rage has been building for years?” William asked.
We all grunted our agreement.
Something felt off about this house. “I’m going to head upstairs, see if I find anything.”
“Scream or yell if you see a ghost,” William said.
I wanted to pound his fucking face. “There’s no ghost.”
“Says the guy who will be screaming like a girl the first time he sees one.”
I rolled my eyes, taking the steps up to the first landing. It was spacious.
At first, I didn’t make a sound, wondering if I could hear anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. I went to the first room and opened the door, stepping inside.
I realized I was inside Sian’s room, only none of the stuff here felt like her at all. The walls had been painted pink, as if it was for a child’s bedroom rather than a teenager’s. There was a stillness to the room.
There was a large double bed, a vanity table, a small bedside cabinet, and as I got closer, I saw a single picture beside the bed of Sian with an older woman, who I guessed was Drew.
They looked like mother and daughter. The only times I’d seen Sian’s mother were when the woman was drugged up and looked as far out of it as anyone could.
I couldn’t resist sitting on the edge of the bed, wondering how many times Sian had sat here, waiting, scared, worried.
Did she spend a lot of her time afraid of her father? Of her parents?
Shaking the thoughts from my mind, I got to my feet. There were no answers inside her room. Just feelings of a broken child who desperately needed a real parent.
Leaving the room, I went and found the bathroom. Then a spare bedroom.
In the next bedroom, I froze as I saw the feet on the bed.
My heart raced. They were real feet. What was more, they were twitching.
I entered the room and saw Sian’s mother on the bed, twitching with white gunk spilling from her mouth.
“Need some help! Fuck.” I yelled each word as I rushed to Joan’s side, helping her move from her back to stop her from choking.
Dante, William, and Gideon came into the room.
“Shit.”
“Fuck.”
“Call an ambulance,” I said.
With Joan here, we all knew Gideon had been right. Alexander had been living here, but now he was gone. The question was where?
We couldn’t answer that right now, but it looked like he’d stepped up his game as I held a seizing Joan. I tried to think of all my biology lessons to help me figure out how to help her.
“An ambulance is on the way,” Gideon said.
“Call our dads,” I said. “They’re going to want to be here.”
“Don’t you think we should do that when we get to the hospital?” William asked. “They can’t do anything here, and this is going to ruin them.”
I didn’t know what the seizure meant. Was she dying? OD’ing? I wasn’t a doctor.
Gideon and William went down to the ambulance. They had arrived within ten minutes. I stepped back as I told the paramedics everything that had happened.
They got to work on Joan. My hands were shaking as they put her on the bed, and then they were carrying her out to the ambulance.
Rather than drive with my friends, I climbed into the back of the ambulance. At first, the paramedics looked like they wanted to argue, but I gave them a look that quickly shut their mouths.
There was no way I was letting Sian’s mom ride to the hospital alone.
While they got to work with her, I held Joan’s hand.
How did this happen?
Did Alexander give her too much?
Did he fuck up?
Her hand was limp within mine, but I held her, not wanting to let her go. Sian didn’t have the best relationship with her mother, but that didn’t mean in time she wouldn’t.
We arrived at the hospital quickly. I climbed out of the back and they forced me to stay in reception to sign Joan in as we entered.
Dante, William, and Gideon joined me next.
“Our dads have been called. They’re on their way,” Dante said.
“Sian?”
“She’s coming with them,” William said.
“What the fuck do you think happened?” Gideon asked.
“Either Alexander got sloppy or Joan took something that meant he had no choice but to fucking run,” I said.
Chapter Fifteen
Dante
The tension in the hospital could be cut with a knife. The doctors had taken Joan, and so far, after an hour, we still hadn’t heard anything.
My dad was getting pissed. Lucas looked ready to explode. George and Justin weren’t much better.