Chapter 10
Reading over the message my mum sent has me reeling.
Abigail, this is your mother. You really shouldn’t leave your sister alone to go traipsing all over the countryside with your kidnapper. Are you sure you can trust those animals to keep their hands off her?
What the hell… She knows we aren’t at Ringo’s?
But how?
It’s just past six in the morning, and we are approaching the location we snuck off from hours earlier, so I wait until we stop, and fly out of the car, hitting call on the number.
“Abbey, wait!” Ringo barks, but I ignore him, hurrying across the grass to the gate in the fence we went through earlier, only to find it locked, but the moment the call connects, I stop walking anyway.
“I was expecting an abusive text, but a phone call is much better,” my mother snaps through the phone, and I grit my teeth, clenching them so hard I fear they will shatter.
“Tahli is none of your concern!” I snarl, and my mother scoffs.
“On the contrary. She is. You are. And so is little Bobbi.”
I stiffen, my feet suddenly feeling like lead.
“Bobbi is dead,” I snap, and my mother laughs, although there’s very little humour in it.
“Nice try, Abigail, but I know she’s alive. A little birdy told me so.”
My knees practically give way at those words, and as I start to tumble, Ringo catches me, once again always there when I need him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I practically whisper as Ringo carries me in his arms, cradled to his chest.
“Of course you do. Cut the BS,” she snaps, her tone impatient. “We know Bobbi is alive and well, and soon enough, I will have my granddaughter in my arms, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Stay the fuck away from her!” I yell into the phone, only for her to start laughing at me.
“Unlikely, but I suppose we could come to an agreement.” She sighs, and I want to reach through the phone and gouge her eyeballs from her head. “Like, give Tahli back to me and I’ll consider walking away from your bastard child.”
“What?! No way! Why would you think I’d ever let either of them go to you? You’re fucking crazy!”
“It’s Tahli or Bobbi. One or the other,” she snaps, and I get a little satisfaction knowing I’m annoying her.
“Or what?” I snap back as Ringo walks over the top of the ridge, carrying me down the path into the thick bushland.
“Or there will be consequences. Just be thankful I’m giving you a choice, but bear in mind, this offer won’t be on the table for long. After that, you can say goodbye to both your sister and your daughter.”
I open my mouth to speak, but I’m too shocked to string two bloody words together.
“You see, I know you’re finally understanding me now,” she says smugly. “I’m giving you options. Now, the obvious choice would be to hand over Tahli so you can keep your daughter, but the thing is, do you really think you’re fit to be a mother? You’ve killed people, Abigail.”
I stiffen, and flashes of faces rush through my mind. Some I knew. Some I didn’t. But all are covered in blood.
“You’re a monster,” I choke out, saying it to my mother but feeling like it’s really meant for me.
“Me?” she scoffs. “I’m not the one who killed your father, Abigail. You did that, didn’t you? So who’s the real monster here?”
My dad’s face jolts into the forefront of my mind then. The tears that flowed from his eyes as he revealed the ugly truth about our family. How I wanted him dead for letting awful things happen to me. And how I left a gun so he could do it himself.
I may not have pulled the trigger, but I was definitely the one who killed my dad.
Monster!
“Shut up!” I scream, although I don’t know if it’s to my mum or myself.
Ringo reaches for the phone, so I flail in his hold, stumbling from his grip to dart away so he can’t take it from me.
“I HATE YOU!” I scream into the phone, and my mother simply laughs.
“So dramatic, Abigail,” she tuts. “Your daughter, or your sister. You decide. The clock is ticking.”
The call ends then, the line beeping a couple of times before going dead, and I stare at it in my grip, blurred by the tears I didn’t realise were falling.
“Ringo! There you are!” JD’s panicked voice cuts through my growing meltdown, and I glance up to see JD, Vender and Mex rushing up the path.
“What is it?” Ringo barks, and JD skids to a stop before us, his eyes darting from Ringo to me.
“It’s Tahli. She’s gone.”
I’m running the next second, my heart thrashing wildly in my chest as I navigate the path in the dark, my phone still clutched tightly in my grip.
Was my mother teasing me? Does she already have Tahli? Have I been set up tonight? Whisked away for a secret meeting while really the mole was kidnapping my little sister?
“Tahli!” I scream as the house comes into view, the lights already on inside, like the whole house has been awake and searching for her. “Tahli!”
“Abbey!” Jols comes crashing through the back door. “I’ve looked everywhere. I can’t find her.”
I barely look at Jols, too scared all I’ll see is a traitor, so I bolt past her, bursting inside and charging for Tahli’s room.
My name gets called by multiple people, but I ignore all of them, needing to see for myself that my sister is really gone.
She’d chosen a room downstairs, right near Alana’s, and my feet slide on the floor as I reach it, gripping the doorjamb, and swinging myself inside to see… nothing.
Just her empty bed. Her sheets crumpled and slept in. Her clothes still hanging messily from the drawers. A half-drunk glass of water on the white bedside table.
“Tahli!” I call again, diving to the floor to look under the bed, only there’s nothing there either.
Fisting my fingers in my hair, I stand and spin on the spot, my mind racing at where she could be, because she has to be here, right? She’s not actually gone… right?
“Angel.”
The deep rasp of Ringo’s voice doesn’t calm me the way it normally does. Instead, I see the man who woke me at three in the morning and convinced me to go somewhere with him, taking the one man with us who was charged to watch over my sister.
“No.” I shake my head, backing up. “She’s here. She has to be.”
“They’ve looked everywhere. Lewy is checking the security feed now.”
I still shake my head.
“No, she’s here. It couldn’t have been that easy for my mum to get to her.” I stab an accusing finger at my husband. “You were the one who took me away.”
“You know why I took you,” he growls, his face turning red with anger, and it hurts, right in the centre of my chest, because part of me wants to accuse him of having something to do with this, but the other part of me will literally die if the one person I thought I could trust has betrayed me.
I can’t speak. Tears fall, and a war wages in my mind. I don’t know what’s right or wrong. Real or fake. I don’t know if I can trust my own thoughts right now.
“Abs, you know me. Better than anyone. I know you know I would never ever do anything to hurt you, your sister, or Bobbi. You know I love you. You know I love your sister. And you know I already love Bobbi like she is my own. Tell me you know that.”
There’s pain in his voice. Lashing pain that I know has the ability to break him completely, and that’s the very thing that breaks through my panic, reminding me of my reality.
A loud sob escapes me, and I slap my hand over my mouth, shaking my head.
“I’m sorry.”
His shoulders drop in relief, and in two long strides he reaches me and pulls me into his arms.
“It’s okay, Angel. We both don’t know who to trust right now.” He pulls back, hooking his finger under my chin and lifting my head until our eyes meet. “But we have to trust each other. We’ll never get through this if we don’t have that.”
I nod, fisting his shirt. “I love you. I’m sorry,” I mutter.
“You don’t need to be sorry.” He presses his lips to my forehead. “Come on. Let’s search for your sister while Lewy does his thing.”
I nod, giving him a long squeeze before we emerge from Tahli’s room and go in search of my little sister.
We spend ten minutes searching the lower floors, and then make our way upstairs.
In Ringo’s room, the lights are on, obviously left that way from others searching, and I notice through the windows that the sun is slowly rising, lighting the sky beyond.
There aren’t many places to hide up here, so I check under the bed while Ringo checks the bathroom, and then I step into the wardrobe, the light already on.
“Tahli?”
“Abbey!”
The screech of my name fills the small space, and a moment later, my little sister bursts through the hanging dresses and coats, throwing herself into my arms.
“Oh my God!” I cry with an umph as we collide, and I hold on to her so tightly as Ringo stares in at us from the open doorway.
“We found her!” he calls, and I can hear excited and relieved yelling beyond, but keep my focus on my little sister.
“Chook, what the hell?” I snap, shoving back from her to take her in.
Her blonde hair is a mess, and she’s still in her PJs, clutching something in her hand.
“Don’t what the hell me!” she yells right back.
“I woke up, and my lamp was on, and I don’t remember leaving it on, but then there was this note, and I read it, and I panicked, and I came up here but you were gone.
” She shoves me. Hard. And I stumble backwards, nearly tripping over Ringo’s riding boots. “You were GONE!”
“Chook, I…”
“Riggs wasn’t here either! I went over to the barn looking for him, and he wasn’t there. No one was around. No one even saw me. I could have walked right down the road and I don’t think they would have even noticed.”
My eyes flick to Ringo. “Where was everyone?”
“I don’t know, but perimeter security is still tight.”
“Except for where we left,” I point out, and Ringo nods.
“There were a couple of Marx men that knew we had left. That’s why we got off the property without a hitch.”
“Where did you go?” Tahli cries, still distraught, and then I remember what she said.
She woke up. Her lamp was on. And there was a note.
My eyes flick down to her hand. “Is that the note?”
Tahli nods, holding it out to me.
Taking it, I unravel it from its crumpled ball form, smoothing it out as I start reading, and I swear, the blood in my veins turns to ice.
Tahli.
Those bad people have kidnapped you.
Don’t let them get in your head.
Mummy will have you back safe and sound soon.
Your grandfather is really looking forward to spending more time with you.
He said he really liked the flower you wore in your hair yesterday.
See you soon.
Love Mum