Crouching down, I don’t touch the device. “Call the police. Now,” I bark, my eyes focused on Mark’s.
He nods woodenly as he digs his phone out of his back pocket. I watch as he puts it up to his ear before shifting my gaze back to the device.
Lifting my eyes, I look around the back parking lot, at the loading and unloading area. It’s quiet back here.
Secluded.
A car could pull up, throw her inside, then pull off without anyone being the wiser. But in Gallup? That shit just isn’t likely.
But other than Mark and a few employees, who would even know that she was back here? Mark said that it was a decision he made after seeing her, it’s not like this is where she normally works.
“Who would take her?” Shawn asks, sounding his young age and fucking sad.
“You talk to Joey lately?” Ford asks, his words mirroring what I’m thinking.
Pressing my lips together, I lift my eyes to Mark’s. “Police are on their way.”
“You got cameras out here?”
His face pales and that’s when I know that he doesn’t. Fuck. Closing my eyes slowly, I wonder what the fuck I’m going to do.
“Wyatt and Rylan should be off work. Want me to have them go around and try to find Joey?” Ford offers.
Rylan doesn’t need to get into trouble, hell, none of my friends do. I think about telling him no, but I have to wait here for the police and those are precious minutes that will be wasted.
“Yeah. I don’t know where he’s living. All I know is that he cheated on Tulip with a girl named Raylee. That was the final straw that made her leave. But that’s all I got. You know…” I begin. “He picked her up from work the other day, when I was late, and she had started walking home. I was pissed that she got in the pickup with him, but why was he even around?”
Ford growls, turning away from me without saying a word, I watch as he puts his phone to his ear and starts barking out orders, presumably to Wyatt and Rylan.
“What about that friend of hers at the club, I don’t know her name. Tall, pretty girl.”
“Charlie,” Mark murmurs. “She’s not with her.”
Turning around slowly, I lift my chin and look down my nose at him. “And you know this because?”
He looks to the side, then lifts his gaze back to me. “Charlie was with me all night the past two nights.”
“Where?” I demand.
“Her place. I live with my mom.”
Mark’s face turns pink and if I wasn’t so fucking panicked, I would find that tidbit of information downright hilarious. Nothing is funny right now though.
“Get her on the phone. See if she’s heard from her,” I shout as a police cruiser pulls up.
I’m bummed that Sheriff Robby has left to work in Austin, at least I know who he is and I could attempt to demand he get to work on this, reminding him of how the shit went down with Channing.
“Hernandez,” Ford drawls as the man begins to make his way toward us.
I recognize him from the day that Hutton’s beauty shop was vandalized. Hopefully he’ll help us, God, I fucking hope so anyway. Because I know without a doubt that something is very fucking wrong here.
TULIP
My head is pounding. I’ve experienced pain like this before. It’s dark and every time the car stops or turns, I’m thrown either against the back seat or the side, which is starting to make the rest of my body achy.
The car comes to a stop and I mentally brace myself, but it doesn’t lurch forward again. Instead, the engine turns off and I hear the door slam closed.
Oh my God, this is it. This is when I die. The trunk opens and instead of the bright sun, darkness shrouds the sky behind Joey’s father.
He doesn’t say anything as he reaches forward and roughly pulls me out of the trunk. I expect him to pick me up, but he doesn’t. Instead, he wraps his hand too tightly around my forearm and pulls me behind him as he starts to swiftly walk forward.
I don’t attempt to shrug out of his grasp. I’m in too much pain and trying to figure out where we are and where I can attempt to run for help. Branches crunch beneath my feet and I narrow my eyes as a cabin comes into view.
Without a word, he opens the small cabin front door and throws me inside. My entire body flies forward before I fall onto the floor. Pain radiates up my arms as I attempt to break my fall when I land on the hard ground.
Slowly, I lift my gaze to meet his, but he’s not looking at me at all. In fact, he’s acting as if I don’t exist as he locks the door, flicks on the light and starts to move around the cabin. Turning my head, I try to take in the place.
It smells like dust and dirt, like must. It smells like an old shack and it’s then that I realize exactly where I am. We’re at a fucking hunting cabin, out on Joey’s father’s hunting land, about two hours from Gallup.
Joey and I came out here after our first dance and as cliché as it sounds, this is where I lost my virginity. It was the one and only time that Joey attempted to be romantic. He was fifteen with his driver’s permit and used his father’s truck to drive us out here.
There is nothing for miles around us. Nothing but rocks, cactus, hills, cedar trees, live oak trees, and live animals. As if on cue, the sound of a pack of coyotes howl somewhere outside of the small building.
The cabin has only one bathroom, a microscopic kitchen, a wood-burning stove, and a loft where there is a mattress on the floor for a bed.
“Why did you bring me here?” I whisper.
Silas turns slowly and stares at me. I’ve always called him Mr. Perry, but I have a feeling that type of formality between us is over. His eyes slowly move down, then back up my body until his eyes find my own. I watch as a smile pulls up at his lips.
“You know why, Tulip,” he rasps.
Shaking my head, I don’t make a move to get up off of the floor, too afraid to even twitch and startle him. He doesn’t seem right, doesn’t seem himself. Not that I’ve really seen him much over the last few years.
Mr. Perry was always just Joey’s dad, he didn’t say much while I lived there. Never really did much either. Went to work, came home and sat on the couch. Watched some football while drinking a few beers, then went to bed.
I do remember him going hunting several times a year, it was the only time he would get excited about anything. I don’t even remember him cracking a smile on Joey’s graduation day, but talk about a nice sized buck and his lips would curl up into a grin.
“I don’t, Mr. Perry,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “Silas,” he corrects, just like I thought that he might. “You’ve been taunting me with that body, Tulip. Since you were just a girl, you’ve been showing off for me. Then taking your clothes off like a common whore at Headlights. The final straw was moving my boy out and then getting with that, half-breed, I couldn’t stand it anymore. The time has come.”
“Excuse me?” I breathe. “Did you really just say that?”
“What part?” he asks with a smirk.
He knows exactly what I’m referring to and I can’t even think the words, let alone repeat them.
Shaking my head, I scoot back slightly, trying to get to the wall so that I can possibly stand up easier and quicker. Maybe even attempt to break fucking free of this place. I would rather the animals outside rip me apart than Silas doing the same.