25. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
By any means necessary…
Eden
W es went missing in less than twenty minutes.
Everything changed this morning in mere minutes…
If I wasn’t distracted, if I didn’t check on Zeb and just trusted Caleb’s assessment, if I found Wes’s backpack myself, if…
If I wasn’t an abomination.
The revolting message left behind by his kidnapper only confirms all the signs I’ve ignored lately have resulted in this.
I tell myself to keep calm, because the kids are looking to us for direction. If we show how we’re feeling, it’ll add to the trauma.
That vicious voice in my head has gained momentum. Why did I think it was over, and we’d be allowed to live without more attacks?
Harrison asks if I need anything, but all I want to say is, Yes, my son back . Instead, I shake my head, biting my tongue. “Your next-door neighbor wanted me to pass along that he’s sorry about Weston. I think the days of signs and craziness are over.”
I can’t count that as a victory right now.
Knowing Weston’s not with us, and it’s getting dark out…
I bend forward as I lose my composure. My baby is probably scared. It’s dark, he’s with a psycho… Please hold on, baby. Be alive. Be alive.
Keir kneels in front of me, handing me his phone. “It’s Chris.”
What little control I have left is gone with that. I take the phone, heading for the bathroom. “I don-” I can’t get any more out.
“Mom and I are on our way. Sis…I can’t believe this is happening. Your little guy is going to make it. You hear me? Eden, listen to me. Sis, he’s got your determination and his dad’s ingenuity. We’ll be there soon. My little nephew is coming home soon. Hear me?”
I’m not able to form the words I want to.
Will he come home?
I would give my life to have him home. Safe.
“Those Realist fucks have no idea the crew they’re messing with,” Chris says, sounding so much like his brother, Hutton. For a minute, I almost believe we’ll win. Not only will we find my baby, but we’ll wipe them off the face of the earth once and for all.
Then her voice rings through my mind, “You’re nothing but an abomination. You were never meant to exist.”
Minutes later, Keir finds me in the bathroom, my hairbrush stuck in my curly strands. I’m lying balled-up on the floor, overcome with grief, because I remember what I’ve been told before: A child not found in a stranger abduction within an hour or two…is likely dead.
“I love you, Mommy. I love you to the moon and back.” His puckered lips blow me a kiss. “Forever and ever and ever.” Weston crawls into bed when the door is unlocked to play with my hair. To tell me stories. To snuggle.
“Oh, sweetheart.” The groan from Keir as he holds back tears only makes me cry harder. Together, we sit on the tiled bathroom floor, holding each other through it.
Blaine knocks at the door, opening it a crack. “Matt has news, can you c-” Seeing us, he stops short. Quickly closing the door behind him, he comes to sit on the closed toilet lid near us. “Fuck this.” He hangs his head while wiping his cheek. “How the fuck is this happening?”
By the time we join Matt, Harrison, Bristow, and Caleb, we’re all cried out. Matt says, “They’ve followed up with the registered owners of the vehicles. A neighbor heading to work, an Amazon delivery driver, a teenager driving to the high school, and the last one…The one that could give us something is a blacked-out SUV. It’s a Starlit rental vehicle out of New York City.”
“Like an unmarked FBI squad?” Keir asks, fidgeting next to me. “My vehicle is part of the Starlit rental fleet and fits that description.”
“It wasn’t yours,” Bristow says.
“Huh. Matt, do you think this is Camp Caroll all over again?” Harrison asks carefully. “If that vehicle is involved, and it’s an FBI vehicle, they’re not playing it safe. They want you to know…”
Hutton has never trusted the FBI. I only trust the two agents I love, and this doesn’t help.
Matt is in a top-ranking position. How could the FBI play any part in this? He’d never put our kids in harm's way. Not willingly.
I try to keep up with the conversation, but I’m watching the muted television screen on the kitchen counter as an advertisement for a movie Weston wants to see comes on. My chest hurts as I’m flooded with the urge to scream at the top of my lungs. This is not okay! Stop this! He’s a baby!
Bristow starts telling us how we should conduct ourselves in the coming hours, days…however long this plays out for. He reminds us we have eyes on us, and the enemy is clocking our movements somehow. We don’t want to incite more problems. We need to prioritize our safety. I take it he wants us to hide with our tails between our legs.
As a child, I became an expert in complacency, pleasing and invisible as a means of survival.
I left that part of me behind long ago. Each of them should know that by now.
“I appreciate your advice, but when it comes to my children, there is no limit to what I will do to keep them safe.”
I will not shrivel up and stay quiet.
I will go kicking and screaming to find Wes.
To hunt down the people responsible for this nightmare.
“Anyone know where Hutton went?” Matt asks.
To Blaine’s credit, he’s kept his mouth closed to this point, only now talking back to Matt, Harrison and Bristow. “Thanks for the moving lecture.” He gets up while squeezing my shoulder. “You’ll have to forgive me for not giving one fuck what any of you have to say right now. Do your fucking jobs and bring Weston home to us. As for Hutton…He doesn’t need your permission to look for our son.” He flips them off with both middle fingers as he walks out of the room to join my grandparents and the kids.
I don’t want us to fight with each other.
Knowing Blaine, he’s lashing out because he’s feeling helpless, but he’s going to push Matt away. We have to stick together.