Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
Aspen
After a fitful night of no sleep, my head is pounding, and I feel like I’m swaying in the wind with every step I take, my ears stuffed with cotton, and my eyes so swollen from crying that everything looks a little blurry.
I take two pain relievers and down a glass of water, trying to bring myself back from the dead.
I can’t believe this is real. Any of it.
Fallon just disappears into the night, and even with all my family’s resources and connections, we still haven’t found her by the next morning.
It’s unbelievable in this small town. And yet somehow, it’s all very real.
I want to cry again. I feel like I should be able to.
But unfortunately, despite all the pain—physical and emotional—I can’t.
I’ve cried them all, it seems. I’m left with a sharp sense of misery.
I feel like I’m standing at the edge of a deep pool of hopelessness, clinging to whatever tidbits I have left while the world spins on without me like nothing’s wrong.
I’m still getting emails from work, advertisements to buy more coffee, and a calendar reminder to get the oil checked on my car.
But I can’t bring myself to care about anything but my little girl not being here.
Bishop got up in the wee hours of the morning, no more able to sleep than I was.
He offered to take me with him searching, but I told him I wanted to be home just in case.
I wanted someone here on the off chance she comes walking in through the door after sneaking through some side entrance of the resort, hoping to avoid trouble.
She’d have a heap of it for keeping us all up and worried like this when she got home.
As much as I hate the idea of her lying to me and sneaking out into the middle of the night, I’d rather that than any of the alternatives.
I glance down and see my phone light up with a call. It’s Sheriff Jay Stockton, my uncle. We had to involve the police late last night when we couldn’t find her, and the massive crawl of Grant and Levi’s men through the city made residents uneasy.
My uncle has a complicated relationship with my brothers and me.
We loved him endlessly growing up. But when Uncle Creighton died, everything changed.
He was so angry, according to my father, that he didn’t get half of everything the way he thought he would.
He disappeared, and when he came back, installed as the sheriff by the governor, he made an attempt on my family’s lives. All of them.
Grant and Levi forgave him for the offense when they learned he was forced to do it to protect his daughter from the governor’s men.
But they’ve never quite trusted him again.
That’s the thing about Stocktons. We might find it in our hearts to forgive, but we never forget.
So having to rely on him now as a source of truth and help during this time makes me anxious.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Aspen?” he questions.
“Yes.”
“Good. I was hoping I’d get you directly.”
“Do you have information? Any leads or tips from your officers?” I ask, suddenly hopeful that the reason for his call is positive, since he wants to talk to me.
“Something like that. I need you to come meet me so I can show you something.”
“Meet you where? Show me what?” I stand up abruptly, staring into the distance.
“Come meet me at the diner off Highway 50. I’ll be in the back. And come alone. Your brothers will complicate the situation.”
“What situation?”
“I’ll explain when you get here.”
“What does that even mean? Why can’t you tell me now?”
“Because I can’t. Anyone could be listening in, and I can’t risk it. Leave your family at home. Come alone. I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.”
My heart is racing by the time he disconnects the line.
I stare at my phone for half a second before I rush to get dressed.
I’m probably taking way too big a risk showing up to this meeting alone, but if he’s worried about my brothers complicating it, I have to assume it’s a real threat.
That someone could have Fallon right now.
And I don’t have time to be scared. I have to take care of my daughter.
I grab a piece of paper from my office and scribble where I’m going and who I’m meeting on it, leaving it on top of my laptop just in case this isn’t the friendly family meeting of support I’m hoping it is.
If I call or text them, they’ll rush over, and I’m trying to do this the way Jay asked.
My uncle seems like he turned over a new leaf.
He’s been cooperating and doing his best to help my brothers the last year.
But a turncoat is a turncoat. You can never fully trust them again.
I walk to the back of the diner, where I find him in civilian clothes, casually eating hash browns and drinking coffee along with his eggs and bacon.
My stomach grumbles, annoyed to be empty but still completely devoid of any interest in food.
I can’t eat at a time like this; I don’t want to.
I also don’t want to waste my time eating if he’s about to give me something that could lead to me taking Fallon home today.
“Hello. Do you want some coffee?” he offers, motioning for me to take a seat on the bench across from him. It’s the least of my worries.
“I want to know why I’m here.”
“Down to business, just like your brothers.”
“We have priorities. The first and only right now being my daughter. Where is she?”
“Well, you certainly have a way about you. That’s for sure.” He shakes his head, tucking back another bite before he pushes his plate aside.
“So do you. Now tell me what you know about my daughter.”
“First, I want you to understand that I’m just the messenger here.
And I’m acting in the interest of this family, even though it may not seem that way when I show you what I’m about to show you.
I volunteered for this position again so I could be a conduit to help settle these fucking tensions once and for all.
This family needs it, and the people of Purgatory Falls deserve it. ”
“Show me what?” I couldn’t care less about all of this gather-around-the-fire-and-hold-hands bullshit. I want my daughter.
“This was sent to me this morning.” Uncle Jay flips his phone around and shows me a text message from an unsaved phone number.
It’s a photo of Fallon. Sitting in a chair. Her hands are tied to it, and her mouth is taped shut.
“Oh my god!” I gasp. My stomach churns and my chest tightens. I feel sick. I want to scream. I want to run to her. But most of all, I want to kill this man for being in contact with the sort of person who would kidnap my daughter.
“Stay calm,” he instructs, his eyes darting to one side and then the other. “We can have an emotional conversation about your missing daughter, but you act wild and do something we’ll both regret, and I’ll have to take you down to the jail and book you.”
“I’d like to see you fucking try.”
“I have officers waiting outside in unmarked cars.”
“You’re that afraid of my brothers?”
“I’m that afraid one of you will do something without thinking it through and put us all at risk.” He gives me a pointed look. “I’m as disgusted by this as you are, and I want to help you get her back.”
“Where is she? I want to see her now. I want to talk to her. If they’ve hurt her—”
“They haven’t hurt her. It’s the governor’s sons. I assume they’re working on his behalf. They’ve given me assurances they haven’t, and they won’t so long as we cooperate.”
“Like I’d trust the governor or his family.
The same man who was going to kill his own daughter if it saved his hide.
Spare me.” I smack my open palm on the table, and it draws the eyes of a couple of tables around us and the waiter who’s working on pouring coffee for the people on the other side of the partition.
“Listen to me. I know what you’re going through.
He held my own daughter’s life ransom against me when he was twisting my arm to turn on all of you.
He’s despicable. But he acts in his own self-interest. Hurting your daughter won’t help him.
It’ll only stir the hornet’s nest. You don’t have to trust him to trust that he’ll act accordingly. ”
“What does he want?” Because I know that spineless piece of shit would do anything for a little more money and power.
“What he always wants,” Uncle Jay answers flatly.
“The relic? He’s stealing my daughter in the middle of the night and causing her permanent emotional damage so that he can have a fucking piece of metal?”
Jay nods. “He’s still quite pissed about the originals your brothers took, as you might imagine.”
“That man is disgusting. The fact that you and your ilk let men like him walk the streets while harassing people who have done far less is absolutely pathetic.”
“I’ll be sure to pass your thoughts on to HQ.”
“Be sure to do that. It’d be a real shame if someone put you all out to pasture in the meantime though.”
“Is that a threat?”
“I didn’t say that,” I counter, trying to stick to my plan to stay calm. “I just think if you can’t keep the people of Purgatory Falls safe, maybe it’s time for you all to retire.”
“You didn’t have to say anything.”
“Well, guess that’s the Stockton name living up to its reputation. If only you could manage to.” I rake my eyes over him in disgust. I know I shouldn’t antagonize the only man who’s connecting me to my daughter. Who knows where she is. But I can’t hold back my anger.
“I want to help you get Fallon back. She doesn’t deserve any of this.
She’s an innocent girl, and she should be at home getting ready for school tomorrow.
Not sitting in the governor’s custody like a threat.
I know none of you’ll believe me ever again, but I do care about you.
I love my family, and I want what’s best for it. ”
“You continuing to fraternize with the enemy isn’t helping anyone. Grant will be livid.”