“That’s what he is, right? I just don’t understand why people can’t stay with their own kind,” he rambles.
“I think people predominately do stay with their own kind. I’ve never met anyone that was married to an animal. Humans are humans, no matter what color their skin is,” I snap.
Silas shakes his head and marches over to me so quickly, that I don’t even have time to brace as he reaches down and grips his hands in my hair.
Without a word, he picks me up by my hair until I’m on my feet. I let out a whimper, as pain radiates from my scalp down to my toes.
He tugs me close to him, his face inches from my own as he growls down at me. I’d almost forgotten his scent. My stomach clenches as it fills my nostrils and I try to fight back the urge to throw up all over him.
“It ain’t right,” he snaps. “It’s okay. We’ll make it right. You and me.” He grins.
“You’re Joey’s father,” I whisper.
His tongue slips out as he tastes his lips. “Yeah. Been needin’ me a taste of you since you was sixteen. Been jackin’ off to you since you was fourteen. So hard not to take a taste for myself when you was sleeping under my roof. Watched you sleep, you know. Watched you and imagined it was your sweet cunt wrapped around my cock when I jacked myself above your body in bed.”
Oh. My. God.
I feel disgusted. I feel violated. I feel betrayed.
I lived with the Perrys, trusted them to keep me safe. I had no idea that Silas was fantasizing about me and doing what he was doing.
“You’re sick,” I hiss.
He jerks my head back with his fist in my hair. His lips curl as he growls in my face. My nostrils flare at his pungent smell and I swallow the bile that’s threatening to erupt from my mouth. He tilts his head to the side, his lips still curled into a smile.
“One person’s sickness is another man’s pleasure.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
LOUIS
Deputy Hernandez takes the report and looks at Tulip’s phone. I tell him everything that I know, which to be honest isn’t much at all. While Tullie and I are still getting to know one another, it’s painfully fucking obvious that I clearly don’t know enough about her, about her life and her past.
“We should try and break into her car,” Aaron suggests as the sheriff walks away, his pen gliding over his notepad.
“Do you think that would accomplish anything?” I ask.
Ford snorts. “It could. There could be a clue in there. Fuck, you never know.”
Shifting my gaze from Shawn to Aaron and then finally to Ford, I nod. Turning my back to the sheriff, I take one step before I pause to see Mark walking toward me.
“You get ahold of Charlie?” I ask.
He nods his head. “Yeah, she’s fine. Hasn’t heard a word,” he says a little too quickly.
Mark is fucking odd.
“Okay, well the sheriff left, said he would keep us updated. We’re going to head out and go home and wait, which is what he said to do,” Ford lies.
I thank Mark for his help and follow behind my friends as we head out through the store toward the front door. Once we’re in the parking lot and standing between my truck and Tulip’s car, I turn to Ford.
“Why’d you tell him that we were leaving?”
His lips twitch. “Guy’s a fucking weirdo, Louis. He doesn’t need to know what we’re doing. I’m not a hundred percent convinced that he doesn’t have anything to do with her disappearance. He likes to frequent Headlights and I know he’s seen Tulip up on stage.”
My stomach twists, it clenches at the thought of that man watching her. He is her fucking boss. Christ, and she didn’t tell me. There’s no way that she didn’t know, either. Frowning, I wonder what else she’s been keeping from me.
“Thank fuck she doesn’t have one of those new age cars that you can’t jimmy the lock open,” Aaron suddenly announces.
My body jerks from his words and I turn to look at him. He’s got something shoved in her window and I watch as he tugs the door lock open. I let out a strained low laugh at the sight, unbelieving that he’s opened her car door and fucking grateful all at the same time.
Reaching for the passenger door, I tug it open and sink down into the seat. The first thing that I do is look at the floorboards. I shouldn’t be surprised that her car is so clean, there isn’t even an empty water bottle lying around.
Tugging open the glove box, I see a couple of crumpled pieces of paper. The first one that I open, my blood runs cold as soon as I see the words. They’re written in bold letters, and there is no name signed to the bottom to identify who has written it.
Seeing you. Watching you. I know that you will never be good enough for him. Only I can give you what you need. Soon we will be together and I will show you exactly how perfectly we fit together.
Soon you will only dance for me, Tulip.
The second one is obviously a bit angrier, not only because it’s in all capitalized letters, but it’s shorter and the writing is deeper, as though he pressed down on the paper with all of his strength.
YOU HAVEN’T LEARNED. YOUR TIME IS COMING. SO SOON. IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE.
“Fuck,” I hiss as I throw the papers toward Aaron who is sitting in the front seat. I don’t want to touch them. I never want to see them again.
Someone has been watching her, had their eyes on my Tullie, been stalking her.
“She tell you about these?” Aaron asks. Shifting my gaze to his, I narrow my eyes on him. “Had to double check,” he mutters.
Ford takes the notes from Aaron and I know when he’s read them, I can hear his growl across the car. He stomps away from me. Watching him for a moment, he lifts the phone to his ear and that’s when I know that he’s probably not only calling Deputy Hernandez, but also Wyatt and Rylan as well.
Less than five minutes later, Ford is still on the phone, but I watch as Wyatt’s pickup barrels into the parking lot, stopping just behind mine. He and Rylan both jump out and jog toward us.
I almost ask where Beaumont is, I mean, shouldn’t the whole fucking Scooby gang be here? I don’t have to ask because a second after them, his truck comes into view and he pulls up behind Tulip’s car.
Shifting out of the front seat, I stand and make my way over to Beaumont, Wyatt, and Rylan. All three of them are standing with their legs spread wide and their fists on their hips as they watch me.
“Couldn’t find Joey at Raylee’s. Apparently, they been seein’ each other the past couple of weeks, but she claims he’s been at work. Went by his mama’s and she says the same. Went by his job site, but nobody’s there since it’s after five,” Wyatt explains.
“So he can’t be found.”
“Nope,” Rylan says, popping his P.
“Louis,” Ford shouts.
Turning around so fast that I almost lose my footing, I watch as Ford starts to run, in his cowboy boots, in the middle of the busy grocery store parking lot. It happens before my brain registers what my eyes are actually seeing.
Ford tackles someone to the ground. Full-on fucking body slams him. “Well, seems someone hasn’t forgotten that he was on the state champion football team almost two decades ago,” Wyatt snorts.