Chapter 32 Reid
THIRTY-TWO
Reid
“Slow down!” West called from half a block behind me.
My steps hit the pavement with determination. I was jogging at this point. I hadn’t wanted to park right in front of Callum’s house in case I was totally off base, and Hazel hadn’t come here to confront him without me.
But my gut told me she was here. I’d tried calling her close to five hundred times after that vague text she’d sent, but her phone had been switched off. I was full-on panicking at this point.
Thankfully, Callum was not private when it came to the internet. I was able to figure out his last name from his social media, and a quick white pages search sent me straight to his current address.
West had driven us. I was shaking too hard, and he said if I got behind the wheel, we’d end up in a ditch or something.
I really hoped Hazel wasn’t here, but deep down I knew that she was.
Damnit. Why hadn’t she texted me?
I slowed down when I reached the end of his block, looking for any signs of Hazel. When I didn’t see her or her car, relief trickled through me.
“Reid?” I jerked my gaze toward the man addressing me. He looked like he worked construction or something, wearing a neon vest and bulky boots. I didn’t recognize him. West finally caught up with me, folding over to catch his breath.
“Sorry, who—” but before I could finish my question, the man tore off his beanie and recognition hit.
Jackson.
Shit. If he was here, then that meant…
My gaze whipped up and down the block. “Where’s Hazel?”
His face contorted into one of discomfort. Dread racked through me.
“Uh, well. You see….”
“What?” I demanded.
Jackson looked back down the street, not meeting my eyes. “She may or may not be currently stuck inside that house with the man who stole her cat.”
“What!?” I barked. West grabbed my arm, which was the only way I realized I had launched myself in the direction of the front steps.
“For how long?” I demanded.
“Not that long,” he added hurriedly. “We had this plan. I was going to distract him, and Hazel would sneak in and out with Vermont. But he had the attention span of a fly. I could only keep him outside for, like, two minutes before he blew me off. And Hazel didn’t have a chance to leave.
This was only, like, five minutes ago, though.
I was debating knocking again to give her a shot to get out. ”
I nodded, trying to process the information in somewhat of a calm manner to come up with a plan. But at this point, I was half a second away from knocking on the door myself and barging inside. I didn’t give a fuck if Callum tried to stop me.
“Alright, chill, Mr. Action-hero,” West said, eyeing me up and down. He could tell exactly what was going through my mind.
“What do we do?” Jackson asked, looking to both of us. “I tried texting her, but I think she left her phone in her car.”
“We need to do something now,” I said, eyes fixed on the house, as the chaos in my mind finally began to settle into something resembling a coherent thought. “Okay, so there was no scream or scuffle, right?”
Jackson nodded.
“Good.” I let out a breath. “So Callum hasn’t discovered she’s in there yet. But she hasn’t come out, which means she might be stuck.”
“Shit,” West muttered.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I continued, Jackson hanging on my every word. “You knock on the door again, make up some bullshit excuse. Say you need his email, I don’t care. Just get him to answer. I’ll go around back and see if I can see into a window, or something.”
“What can I do?” West asked.
I glared at him, still not forgetting that he was likely the reason Hazel hadn’t wanted to talk to me in the first place. “You’ve done enough.”
He threw his hands up. “I’m sorry, okay? How many times can I say it?”
Jackson pursed his lips. “Oh, so you’re the friend with the big mouth?”
We both shot West a dirty look.
West nodded toward the end of the block. “I’m going to wait by the car. Holler if you need me.”
I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to get the energy into one spot.
Hazel was inside, with someone unhinged enough to hold her cat for ransom.
I didn’t want to cause a scene or start a fight, but if I didn’t get her out of there in the next few minutes, I was barging in, subtleties be damned.
What could he do? Call the cops? “Yes officer, these two broke in to take a cat that I stole and have been using as leverage to extort a lot of money.”
“Okay, you go,” I said to Jackson, pointing at the front door as I was already slinking around to the side of the house. I crouched in the corner by the bush and waited for him to approach the front door.
I looked in the first window I came to and saw Callum there, alone, flipping through the channels on his TV. I ducked below the window. Then I heard a knock. I peeked in the window again and Callum rolled his eyes before throwing the remote at the couch and heading for the front door. I sprinted.
I passed one window on the way, but it faced into a hallway.
I jumped over a short chain link fence into his yard, with agility that would have shocked me if I wasn’t so high on adrenaline.
The yard was unkempt, with a shed that was practically falling over in the corner, and overgrown dead weeds wherever you looked.
One sad lawn chair with a broken arm sat among them.
There was a door leading to the yard, and a window on either side. Movement caught my eye in one and I moved toward it. It was high up, but still chest level for me. When I peered through, Hazel was looking back at me, her eyes wide.
“What are you doing here?” she mouthed.
“Open this.” I tapped at the window.
“It’s stuck,” she mouthed, pulling it up to show me. The window frame was covered in layers of caked-on grime and paint.
“Keep pulling,” I said, this time pressing my own hands to the glass and pushing up with as much force as I could muster from this angle. A sharp noise cracked out, and the window jerked upward an inch.
I put my hand underneath and pulled up even harder. It continued to move up in the track, struggling and resisting with each push.
“Go. Go. Go.” Hazel looked back. “I can hear him.”
A vein in my neck bulged as I pushed open the window just enough for Hazel to be able to squeeze through.
“Give me your backpack,” I said.
She handed it through. When I took it, I realized it wasn’t a backpack at all. Vermont’s face pressed against the mesh side.
“You got him!” I said, unable to contain my excitement.
Hazel put one leg out the window and I reached up to help her.
“What the fuck?” A man’s voice roared and Hazel was jerked backward, her leg hitting the window frame in the process.
All I saw was red.
Callum stood behind Hazel, gripping the side of her shirt.
“Let her fucking go,” I seethed.
He narrowed his beady eyes. “Give me the money and I will.”
“Get off me, asshole!” Hazel squirmed, and my rage took over. Without thinking, I set Vermont on the ground. I put both my hands on the windowsill and hoisted myself up and through the window, doing a kind of duck and tuck roll-to-stand that felt pretty cool, but probably looked ridiculous.
“Back up,” Callum said, glaring at me.
I shoved his chest without a second thought. “We’re leaving, and we’re taking the cat. And you’re going to leave Hazel alone, got it?”
“No, I don’t got it,” he said, trying his best to look menacing despite the ridiculous cropped muscle tee and flannel pajama bottoms he wore.
Hazel bit down on the hand holding her sweater and he yelped, letting go.
“You bitch!”
“What’s wrong with you?” she shouted. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me. You know how broke I’ve always been.”
“I’m broke too!” he yelled, glaring at her. “And I can’t afford this fucking house by myself.” He lifted his hands up.
“That’s not my problem!”
“When Paul told me he was moving to this side of the state, I wanted him to take the second bedroom. Then you decided you two should move in together, and then all of a sudden I had a whole mortgage to pay without him.”
I glanced at Hazel to see her reaction, and her mouth fell open.
“Are you fucking serious, Callum? Paul literally moved out here with me. We were always planning to live together. Get other roommates, you freak! I’m sure it’s not that hard, especially with how nice you keep the place.
” I winced, wishing she could refrain from the sarcastic digs while Callum was so red-faced and angry.
He took a step toward her, but I placed myself between them. I was not going to allow him to touch her again.
The room was small, and Callum and I were completely up in each other’s faces. I’d never been in a fight before, and I didn’t want to start today, but it was quickly becoming clear I had no other option.
“We’re leaving,” I said firmly.
Callum scowled, his jagged front tooth sticking out. “The fuck you are.”
“Hazel, go,” I said.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I got this.”
I did not have this. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I knew that I needed her out of here.
Before I could process what was happening, Callum reached back, wound up, and socked me right in the eye.
I cursed, clutching my face. My glasses sat crooked on my nose, one lens fractured with a jagged crack.
Without thinking, I lunged forward and punched him straight in the gut.
He made a retching sound and doubled over. I had never hit someone before in my life. I shook my hand out, in shock. I flexed my fingers a few times to make sure I hadn’t done any real damage.
Hazel sprang up behind me. I tried to pull her back, but she was too fast. She kicked him right between the legs with more force than I’d have thought her capable of.
Ouch.
“Fuuuckk,” he cried out, grasping himself, eyes squeezed shut.
I wasn’t about to wait around for him to right himself.
“Let’s go,” I hurried Hazel out the window. I steadied her as she slipped through, her feet landing softly on the patch of grass below. She shouldered the bag with Vermont, and I swung one leg out the window before ducking and squeezing the rest of the way out.
I glanced back to see Callum limping toward the window, his face basically maroon. My left eye blurred and I swiped at it before realizing I was bleeding a little.
Callum kept shouting obscenities after us, but we were already gone. I gave Hazel a boost over the fence, then scrambled after her, and together we tore down the sidewalk, hearts pounding and feet slapping the pavement.
“Run,” Hazel yelled at Jackson as we passed him.
We sprinted down the street, and the next one, not stopping until Callum’s screams had completely faded away.