“Of course I did.” Ella Valentine had the same idea and called Mr. Bastón while I was in her office. “Her dad said she wasn’t home and that he hadn’t seen her since Friday night when she visited her brother.”
“I’m inclined to tell you to wait a few hours,” Officer Wright said. “Maybe she’s going through some things. Did you two fight?”
“Yeah, but we were fine already. We spoke yesterday and everything was back to normal.”
“Sometimes women need a little break, Mr. Fitzgerald.” Officer Wright shot me a kind smile. “I know it’s hard for you to understand that, but it happens.”
“Nobody has seen her.” I leaned forward, gripping the edge of her desk. “Nobody has seen her or heard from her since yesterday afternoon. This isn’t something Amelia does.”
“I’m just—”
“What Logan means is, you don’t want another Lana Ly case on your hands, officer. We’re trying to prevent your department from looking like a total joke, and the only way you can do that is by starting this search right now, as soon as possible. Maybe she’s taking a break, and that’s great, but if that’s the case, don’t you want to be the ones who find her safe?” Nolan asked. He set a hand on my shoulder and squeezed so that I’d stay quiet. I breathed out, letting him have his moment because he really was doing a better job than I could right now.
“I’ll have some of my officers take a look around,” she said.
“Thank you.” I brought my face down to my hands with an exhale.
People like Amelia Bastón didn’t just disappear without a trace and I refused to believe she was doing this to take a break from us. That was bullshit and not the Amelia I knew.
Chapter 45
Amelia
I woke up in the complete darkness, my eyes trying and failing to adjust to it. My feet were still bound, but the ties around my wrists felt a little looser than before, probably from me trying to pull them apart. I kicked my legs out and hit a wall. I turned over and hit a wall. I tried to sit up, and hit the roof. Realization started to sink in slowly, and I was suddenly overcome with panic. Was I inside of a box? My chest heaved. I wiggled around as much as I could. I was inside some sort of coffin. She’d buried me alive in the hole Deacon had been digging. The thought alone was enough to have me come apart. I hated confined spaces. Hailey knew this. She fucking knew this and she stuck me in a fucking coffin.
“Hailey,” I screamed. “Hailey get me out of here. Please. Please. Oh my God get me out!”
No answer. I couldn’t even hear anything above me. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe, and I wasn’t sure if it was the mild asthma that came with my allergies or the fact that I really couldn’t breathe in here.
“Hailey!” I kept shouting her name over and over before switching to, “Lana! Deacon!”
Nothing.
I started thrashing, against the ropes I was tied to, against the walls I was confined to. I heard a clinking sound and stopped to try to feel around for what it could be. My fingers tapped against metal, round, a pipe? I grabbed onto it and tried to place it between the rope in hopes that I could pull it apart far enough to stick my hands out. It didn’t work. Anger bubbled inside me and I thrashed again, as hard as I could, banging the wood above me with the pipe. Dirt seeped through when I did that, so I stopped, coughing as I tried to clear my face from it. Bringing my hands up, I felt the wood. It was definitely thin. As I felt around, I noticed a hole. It felt like one of those white pipes people used for plumbing. Some sort of PVC pipe maybe? I’d used those once for a science experiment. Tentatively, I touched around it and noticed no dirt coming out of it. I took the pipe in my hand and stuck it in there, placing my mouth against it.
“Hello?” I called out. “Hailey? Please. God. Hailey! Lana! Deacon! Help!”
Nothing.
I pressed my ear beside the pipe and found that I couldn’t hear anything from it either. How long had she been planning this out? My chest raked with unshed tears. I closed my eyes. She hadn’t even left water.
She didn’t want me to suffer.
She wanted me to die.
Chapter 46
Logan
The investigation was moving too slow for my liking. Today marked two days and God knew how many hours. Mr. Bastón had enlisted the help of people who dressed and acted like the S.W.A.T. but weren’t. They’d brought search dogs with them. Search dogs. The mere thought of what that could mean sent a chill down my spine. I’d missed two days of hockey practice and was planning on missing tonight’s game because I knew damn well I wouldn’t be able to give it my all. I was pacing the corridor of The Lab when Nora walked in with Will and Adam at her tail. I froze. Will and Adam were Swords. We only allowed each other in our perspective house under extreme circumstances. It was funny. Will was Nora’s twin and Adam was Nolan’s. Nora and Will looked nothing alike, and Adam and Nolan you could barely tell apart. I always did a double-take when I saw him, even though Adam wore his hair shorter than his brother.
“They’re helping,” Nora said.
“How exactly are they helping if they’re here?” I looked between the three of them. The only reason I was here was because I had to use the restroom and now I was trying to figure out places I hadn’t yet been to try to look for Amelia.
“We’re still hazing,” Adam said. “We’re making the guys do a search on the back end of our woods right now. We’ll take over tonight.”
“You look like shit, by the way,” Will added.
“Fuck you.” I started pacing again. “I just don’t understand why we’re only searching the woods. She would never have gone to the woods by herself.”
“I think . . . ” Nora started and paused to lower her voice. “I think they’re searching in case someone kidnapped her and tossed her body.”
“Don’t talk like that.” I cast a glare at her and then at the other two guys. “She’s not dead.”
“It’s only been two days,” Adam said. “The body is meant to survive ten days without water.”
“Don’t give me a fucking scientific countdown, Adam. I don’t want to fucking hear it. I want to hear you tell me that my girlfriend is going to be okay. I want her to call me and tell me she needed a break and apologize for driving me out of my mind. I do not want to hear about survival.”
“I’m going to go back out and search,” Will said. “I have to go pick up my cloak.”
“I’ll go with you,” Adam said. He turned to me once more. “If you need anything at all, we’re here.”
“Thanks.”
They left out the back and the front door opened. Nolan walked inside. I did a double-take, making sure it was the right brother.
“Your brother just left,” Nora said. “With mine.”
“He told me they were helping.” Nolan sighed heavily, running a hand through his long hair. “Are you missing tonight’s game?”