Chapter 28
Cas
It’s been 3 hours since Emmy went missing, and I feel like I’m going out of my mind. I’ve paced a groove in the floor because I cannot sit still. Police were swarming the club, and we were told we had to leave. Scruff follows me back and forth as he tries to provide some comfort.
I pull out my phone and recheck it, but there’s nothing. I look over to the living room and see Hayleigh curled up with Nate. Something in me snaps at the scene, and I storm over and sit down in front of them.
Nate gives me a warning look, but I ignore it as I say, “Hayleigh, I need you to think. Where would Pete go?”
she’s crying softly. It’s almost as if she doesn’t see me, and my temper snaps; I shout, “Hayleigh. WAKE.THE.FUCK.UP! This isn’t about you or me. It’s about finding Emmy.”
She flinches, but she’s finally looking at me.
My chest heaving, I add a little more softly this time, “Please, Hayleigh.”
Nate puts his arm out and across her, as he looks at me and says, “Calm the fuck down, brother, this isn’t her fault”
I shake my head, and I’m about to lay into him too, but Hayleigh puts her hands on his arm and lowers it.
She sits upright and wipes the tears from her eyes as she says, “No, Nate, he’s right. Sitting around crying isn’t going to do anything.”
She looks at me as she says, “Cas, I am so sorry for everything.”
Her bottom lip trembles.
The fire inside of me douses, and I grab her hands as I try and reassure her. “I’m sorry to Hayleigh; I didn’t mean to shout, but I'm losing it here. Emmy is out there with this fucking nut job, and I can’t do anything about it. Please, is there anywhere he would have taken her?”
She racks her brain but then shakes her head, “There isn’t anywhere that screams to me, not for Pete. I can’t believe this is happening.”
She covers her face with her hands, and we’re all just silent; then she sits upright. “But there is for Chad. Jesus, I am so stupid; why didn’t I think of it before? There was a place they used to visit when they were kids, a campsite where wooden huts had been renovated into little miniature homes, kind of like glamping…”
I wave her on. “Anyway, Chad would always go on about it, but whenever Pete was around, he would become cagey and annoyed. Chad took Emmy there when they first started dating.”
I shake my head as I say, “There is no way someone who covers his tracks uses somewhere that high profile to take someone hostage, Hayleigh”, but before I can finish my sentence, she’s shaking her head as she says, “It’s abandoned Cas, has been for a while now”. As soon as she says that, I get up, ready to make a move.
Vik walks into the room, his face looking grim as he approaches me. “You need to sit down,” he says.
My family all make their way into the living room, and as we start taking our seats, I notice Vik has a big brown envelope. He places it down and taps his hand twice on it before shaking his head; I don’t take my eyes off him, though. Finally, he looks up at me, then to Hayleigh, and then back to me.
“These are stills from the security cameras at the club,”
I want to ask him how, but he shuts me down. “Don’t even ask me; you know I won’t tell you,”
I nod, encouraging him to continue. “They aren’t easy to look at, CJ,”
he warns me before handing me the envelope.
I take it from him, my hands shaking. I slide out the image stills from our CCTV footage. The first picture shows none other than Stephanie entering the club. I look at Vik, but he urges me on; the second is of her leaving the club.
The third one isn’t long after, and it features Pete and Chad talking outside; from the still, it looks heated. The following picture is of Chad with his back to Pete as he walks away, and down the side of Pete’s leg, he holds a tyre iron.
The next still shows Chad lying on the floor with Pete standing over him, and it’s clear as day what he’s just done to his brother. Hayleigh picks up the images I’ve already looked at, and I can hear her gasps, as well as the rest of my family’s, as they each take a look.
The following images make my blood run cold as I see Emmy come into the frame. I can’t see her face, but she hugs herself, and I can only imagine what she must have felt after hearing that voice note. I silently kick myself because I should have been there for her.
Pete is in the next image, comforting Emmy as he leads her to the benches in the parking lot. The last image makes me sick to my stomach: Emmy passed out in Pete’s arms as he carried her off.
I throw the last of the pictures down as I look up at Vik and say, “Please tell me you have something?”
he nods and then looks towards Hayleigh, but she squares her shoulders, so he looks back at me.
“I got word back from the record; it’s now fully unsealed,”
he says. I remain silent, waiting for him to continue. He looks around the room at my family; then his eyes return to me. "Pete was the one who was done for attempted murder…of Chad. Only his parents were, and are still, very influential, and they made it go away.”
The room stills, and Hayleigh lets out a small sob. Vik continues, “They had a family friend, and when she showed more interest in Chad than in Pete, he lost it and took it out on his brother. Her family filed complaints with the local police, but because of who his parents were, they didn’t want to ruin his future. So it was brushed under the carpet, but things took a dark turn: CJ. He stalked this girl for months, and when Chad got in the way, he beat him so bad he ended up in the hospital”
We all sit there in silence; the only one of us making any noise are the sounds Hayleigh makes as she cries.
I put my arm out and brought her in for a hug, whispering, “We'll get her back, Hayleigh. I promise.”
This only makes her cry harder. Lacey gets up from where she sits and takes a seat next to Hayleigh to comfort her.
I get up and nod for my brothers, Vik included, and my Dad to follow me into the kitchen while my Mum stays behind with Hayleigh and Lacey. We stand around the kitchen table, and for once, Archie and Nate aren’t cracking jokes; all of them have their game faces on.
Archie breaks the silence as he looks around. “So what’s the plan?”
My dad surprises us all when he says, “We go get our knuckle dusters, get our girl back and fuck up this little shit’s day.”
We’re all stunned into silence when I hear my Mum shout from the living room, “Here, here!”
Archie and Nate erupt into laughter, and I offer a half-smile before turning back to Vik. I say, “Hayleigh thinks they could be held up at an old campsite that Chad took Hayleigh to when they started dating. It was somewhere they went as kids with their parents…”
I notice the look on Vik’s face, so I ask, “What is it?”
He shakes his head as he tells me, “That’s where Pete almost killed Chad.”
I nod my head as I say, “Then that’s where he’s gone. I’m not waiting for the police on this one. Vik, I know you can’t go to them with what you've and what you've obtained,”
I pointedly look at him, and he nods once, so I carry on, “so let's pull ourselves together and head out to get Emmy back.”
I look at each of my brothers and my dad, and they nod back at me in return.
I face Vik again. “Can you stay behind with Cole and keep my Mum, Lacey, and Hayleigh safe… just in case?”
He nods once at me.
I look to my dad and brothers. “You’re all with me. Archie, on the way, I need you to make an anonymous phone call tipping off the police to a kidnapping at the old campsite.”
“Sure CJ”
Scruff jumps up at my legs as if silently asking me to bring home our Emmy, I sit on the floor and let him jump into my lap, breathing him in for a few minutes as my family start getting ready.
**********
It's now been a total of 5 and a half hours since Emmy was taken. Although I wanted to jump in the car and drive straight to where we thought she was, we had to make sure, and that took time because Vik had to call in again a favour to track Emmy’s bag, but as soon as we had confirmation, we all jumped in either my truck or Rafe’s van.
My dad drives my truck, and I can see him glancing out of the corner of his eye at me every so often. So, I finally said to him, “Dad, I’m fine.”
You can stop fussing.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not fussing; I’m concerned, CJ.”
I go to say something else, but he cuts me off. “We’re all here for you, CJ, and we’re all here for Emmy too. I know what this vile human being has done and is capable of, but don’t lose yourself. You don’t need to be on his level to win, do you understand me?”
I nod but say, “Yeah, Dad, I understand,”
and I do because there is nothing more I want than to kill Pete with my bare hands, but in the real world, that just isn’t an option. There are enough of us here tonight that we can overpower him and get Emmy back safe, but that still doesn’t quieten down the voice inside my head that tells me the world would be better off without Pete Winters in it.
We finally pull up outside of the entrance to the camp. The plan is to leave our vehicles outside so that when the police finally arrive, they know where to look. Arch sees to that with the phone call he’s making right now. We get out of our trucks, and my dad surprises me by really having knuckle dusters on his hands; just as Arch walks past, I hear him whisper in awe, “Dad is so cool”, but I shake it off because this isn’t the time for games. I need to focus, and we need to inspect every single cabin here because, from the outside, every one of them looks deserted, and that worries me.
Emmy
The side of my face hurts, and my brain feels like it’s too big for my skull as it throbs away. My hands and feet are bound. I don’t dare open my eyes; I don’t want to know what lies beyond my eyelids. I keep my breathing even as I strain to listen for a sign that Pete is still here.
I hear nothing at first, but then I hear murmuring; it’s muffled like whoever it is, is outside, and so I dare to open my eyes just a crack, and when I do, Pete is kneeling in front of me, eyes staring straight at me. I flinch back, and my heart rate skyrockets. His face softens again, and he brings his hand to cup the side of my cheek, his thumb rubbing small circles against it. I don’t flinch this time, that voice inside me telling me to play along, at least for now, and so I act as if I don’t know what happened earlier, as if I’ve lost my memory of all of this.
I try to make myself seem as clueless as possible as I say, “Pete? What’s going on? I feel groggy.”
He looks confused for a second, but then his face morphs into the perfect Pete mask again —the nice guy who has everyone fooled.
He helps me sit up as he says to me, “Emily, you’re fine; I’m here now; I got here just in time.”
I see the cogs turning in his head as he makes up his story.
So I play along again, asking, “What do you mean, Pete?”
He turns around and looks to where Chad sits, now awake but still tied to the chair, a piece of duct tape around his mouth. His eyes meet mine, and they’re pleading with me as tears fall down his cheeks. I know for a fact that Pete is the one who orchestrated this, but I don’t know how far Chad’s loyalty to his brother extends. So, rather than giving anything away, I put on a mask of fear and asked Pete, “Why is Chad tied to the chair, Pete? What’s going on?”
I want to applaud myself with my acting skills but I also let a bit of real fear seep in.
He turns to me, shushes me, brushes my hair behind my ear and kisses my cheek. He smiles and says, “I always wanted to do that”, then he chuckles to himself like this is one big funny game; he walks to Chad and stands behind the chair, hands on his shoulders; he says, “You fainted outside of the club and I asked Chad to watch over you so I could go back inside to get Cas, but when I came back out I saw that he was carrying you to his car and so I followed and saw he brought you here. This is where he brought you when you started dating. Do you remember Emily?”
I nod my head but stay silent, “he planned to bring you here and blackmail you into leaving Cas and being with him again; if you look next to you, then you can see the photos he planned to use”
I shudder at the thought of those pictures, but luckily Pete mistakes it for revulsion towards Chad.
He grabs his brother by the hair, and Chad whimpers at the pain. Pete smiles and puts his head right by Chad’s ear, saying, “He never loved you, Emily, not truly, not the way I do. None of them can ever love you the way I do.”
I don’t make the same mistake as last time; I don’t anger him or tell him he’s crazy. Instead, I play along, just like that little voice tells me to.
I ignore Chad and his tears, and instead, I focus on Pete as I say, “Thank you for saving me; I think I’ve always known you loved me, Pete. Maybe because…I’ve always loved you.”
The words feel like acid in my mouth. I watch as his face turns into disbelief and then joy, and so I carry on, “It’s always been you, Pete, why I was friends with Hayleigh, why I settled for Chad; I was just hoping you would come around one day”
I see the look of hurt in Chad’s eyes, but I don’t dare give away my true feelings.
Pete’s face lights up. He walks over and kneels in front of me. I chance a quick look at Chad, who wriggles his left arm, trying to get it free. So, I focus back on Pete in front of me and smile at him; he smiles back.
His hand moves to cup the side of my face, and I close my eyes, pretending it’s Cas in front of me. A small smile plays on my lips, but then his hand tightens, and he squeezes my jaw. My eyes fly open, and cruel Pete is back.
He chuckles as he says, “Bold attempt and an A for effort, but I know you, Emily, and I’ve seen real love shine in your eyes. Just not for me.”
I brace myself for another backhander but it doesn’t come. Instead, he stands up and turns to his brother, “You’re no better than me, brother; you can look at me with all the hatred in the world, but the fact of the matter is, you treated her like shit, and it’s your fault she ran into the arms of another”
I stay silent as he carries on “you never loved her, not really, admit it?”
Chad looks at me, and I can see in his eyes that he thought he loved me in his own way. He struggles against his bindings as his brother advances on him. Pete continues his tirade, “I love her the way a man should, dearest brother; I mean, I love her enough to get rid of my own flesh and blood. All for her” he points his arm at me but keeps his eyes on his brother and panic sets in as I understand now what his plan is. Get rid of his own flesh and blood; no matter what Chad has done to me in the past, there is no way he deserves this. I tried the soft approach with Pete, and it didn’t work, but maybe the opposite will.
“Pete!”
he stops and turns towards me, and I see Chad try to release himself, so I carry on distracting him. “You’re right; he was no good for me. He was cruel and calculated and knew exactly what he was doing”
Chad gives me a look that screams, ‘Really!’ “But he never hurt me physically; that’s your job now—drugging me? Slapping me? You’re a fucking coward, and you know it!”
shock registers on Pete’s face at me, swearing at him, but I don’t let it stop me. “Cas is a million times the man you would EVER wish to be, and I cannot wait for him to get here and save me from your fucking psychotic bullshit!” he doesn’t move. He doesn’t speak.
It’s unnerving to watch, but then he walks calmly to Chad and stands behind him before he says, “This is on you, Emily”, and then his arm circles around Chad’s neck, and he squeezes, his eyes rolling back in his head and I do the only thing I can and scream as loud as possible.
Pete stops what he’s doing and zeros in on me, screaming, and then he’s coming for me as Chad thrashes in his chair, trying to break free.
I close my eyes and think of Cas and his smile and how much I love him.
Cas
Emmy’s scream echoes through the night, and I zero in on the sound, making a break for the cabin it’s coming from. It abruptly stops, and panic makes me run faster. I can hear my dad shouting at me to slow down, but nothing else matters, just getting to Emmy and making sure she’s safe.
I hear footsteps behind and I don’t need to look back to know my brothers are here with me. I reach the cabin and see that the door is just as flimsy as the rest of them. Rather than stop, I try my luck and run straight at it, throwing all my weight into my shoulder. The door splinters everywhere and I go careening into the cabin.
I find my feet and take in the scene in front of me: Chad in the chair, bound and struggling. He nods his head behind me, and I whirl around to find Pete on top of Emmy, his hands around her throat. He doesn’t even register I’m here, doesn’t even realise I’m on top of him within seconds and ripping him away from her.
I throw him to the floor just as my brothers pile in, and I snarl, “Get her out of here!”
Then I’m on top of him again. I sit up and punch Pete once, twice, three times in the face and each time he comes back laughing, the red haze goes over my eyes, and so I keep on punching until I feel Rafe and Ethan pull me off him, “He’s done CJ, he’s out cold, and the police are pulling up.”
One of them murmurs in my ear.
As the haze lifts, I turn panicked, trying to find Emmy. My dad has undone her bindings and sits with his arm around her, but I need to be near her; I need to know she’s ok. My dad notices the look in my eyes and stands aside as I propel myself forward and drop to my knees in front of her.
She’s crying as I take her face in my hands, my knuckles bloodied from Pete; I wipe her tears away as I choke out, “I’m so fucking sorry, Emmy, what you heard…it wasn’t recent…it was at the beginning…”
she cuts me off with a fierce kiss to my lips.
She pulls away and says, “I know you love me, and I knew you would find me.”
With that, she dissolves into tears again and melts against me as I hold her in my arms.
**********
We stayed like that for what felt like forever. The ambulance came over twice, but each time, she told them she was fine and to check on Chad and even Pete. On the third time, the paramedic said to her that if she didn’t get checked over, she was going to the hospital and would be told to stay overnight. After some grumbling, we were herded into the back of the ambulance, where the paramedic now examined her.
I keep stealing little glances at her to make sure she's really here, and she’s okay. She catches me watching her and gives me a tired smile. The paramedic looks at me, and he says, “She needs to come to the hospital for blood tests, just as a precaution, but apart from that, she’s fine”
he turns to Emmy and says, “Blood tests aren’t optional”
he gives her a pointed look, and she nods in agreement. I breathe a sigh of relief. When the paramedic climbs out, my Dad and Rafe are waiting at the back door for us.
My dad looks at Emmy and says, “May sends her love and says she can’t wait for a giant hug from you”
Emmy smiles and chats with my dad as I climb out after Rafe.
He pulls me to one side as he says, “Before the police arrived, I did a bit of snooping in Pete’s car and took some photos.”
I look at him in disbelief, and he carries on, ignoring my shocked expression, “Don’t look at me like that; I was careful. He had detailed diaries CJ of everything Emmy did, and I mean everything. There were also intimate pictures of the two of you,”
I shake my head, and a shudder goes through my body at the thought of it.
He continued, “The diaries stated that he was obtaining his information from Hayleigh. Obviously, with Hayleigh being Emmy’s best friend, she had confided in him, such as where you two were after the break-in at your house, but she didn’t know anything about it,”
He looks like there’s something else.
“What else did they say, Rafe?”
I grit out.
“He talks about having a helper. A female helper that he was having an affair with, and I’ll give you one guess at who that was?”
His lip curls in disgust.
“Stephanie?”
I ask; he nods and continues, “He also wrote about how all of this would come to an end.”
I look at him and ask, “What do you mean, Rafe? How would it come to an end?”
He looks nervous, something I never thought I would see from my older brother, but he responds, “CJ, he was going to kill Emmy. He knew she wouldn’t come with him willingly, so he planned to kill her and himself and pin it on his brother. Some of the things he wrote…”
he trails off and before I can ask him anything else he claps me on my shoulder and heads off towards the rest of my brothers.
My dad climbs out of the ambulance and pulls me into a hug; he says in my ear, “She’s going to need a lot of love and rest, CJ; we’ll take care of everything at home and Scruff. I’m proud of you son”
he kisses my cheek, and I hug him back.
They file out, and I climb into the back of the ambulance, sitting next to Emmy; I pull her in and tuck her to my side. She rests her head on my chest, and I hold her like this as she softly cries.
I have never been more thankful than at this moment.
I will always keep her safe in my arms until the day I take my last breath.