Chapter Forty Five #3
“This is urgent,” Reid snaps, whatever composure he usually clings to completely gone now. “They’re looking for you.” There’s another pause, and I sit forward to watch the line on the screen pulse.
“Looking for me…where?” the woman asks. My eye twitches for the second time. Interestingly, she doesn’t ask who is looking for her. Reid groans, audibly running a hand over his face.
“Where they think you are, I presume. With Harrison.” The blood in my veins goes cold, the dots starting to connect.
I shudder within the blanket, no longer able to feel my limbs.
If Reid is speaking to the person who is supposed to be with Harrison, then that means he’s speaking to… “Laura, I need you to come back.”
“Are you insane? You can’t keep uprooting my life whenever you feel like it.
I did what you paid me for. I got invited to the party, I let you drug her and I vanished with those fake documents.
Just because your masterplan didn’t work out, doesn’t mean I’m going to pop back up and play the broke student again.
I…I just got a puppy,” Laura whines, no doubt pouting.
Said puppy starts to whimper and I’m treated to a round of Laura pacifying it with a baby voice.
Although, I’m barely listening anymore. The blanket slips from my shoulders as my entire body remains locked in place, that wariness alarm in my head currently screaming.
My fingers hover uselessly above the keyboard, unable to rectify a whole shit show of problems. I did a deep dive search for Harrison, presuming Laura was with him.
I didn’t even consider running her name through the program as well.
I didn’t think to look for her individually, and I’ve sent Meg to the home of an ex-con with no one to actually save.
Reid is apparently feeling the same sense of disbelief, his voice now hollow and pained.
“She was meant to go back to rehab. Not go on a suicide mission.” My eyes cut to the wall again. That fucking asshole. That’s what this was about? But…why?
“Boo fucking hoo. Not my problem anymore,” Laura cuts in, her voice sharp enough to slice straight through the panic both Reid and I are spiraling into. “It’s about time you learned you can’t play people like puppets. And it’s good to know not everyone yields to your plans.”
“You were quick enough to take my money,” he’s quick to respond, as if he’s trying to force control back into a situation that’s already slipped too far from his grasp. There’s a bark of laughter on the other end of the phone, the waveform on the screen pulsing steadily.
“It’s a bit late for a conscience. You handed me a script, some fake documents, and a paycheck that meant I never have to work again. Don’t pin this on me because your neighbor turned out to be more unhinged than you realized.”
Unhinged? I’ll show you unhinged. My jaw tightens, my mouth opening to interject into the call and blow my cover.
Luckily, the line goes dead, and on the screen, the connection flatlines.
Silence presses in around me as if it’s trying to suffocate the thought forming in my head, until suddenly, the blaring racket of rock music slams against the walls.
Beneath it, there’s a roar and a shattering of glass.
I pay Reid’s tantrum no mind, unable to confront him without giving myself away.
So I just sit there, dragging a hand down my face as everything clicks into place.
Harrison didn’t kidnap Laura. Reid staged all of it, because for some reason, he wants Meg gone.
This has been one huge power play when we didn’t know who was controlling the board.
And now, Meg is out there, walking straight into the fallout of it.
“Maldito inferno,” I breathe, pushing back from the desk hard enough that the chair rolls a few inches across the floor.
My body trembles with nervous energy, the need to call off this whole thing colliding with the fact that it’s far too late.
They’ll have already been there, already discovered what I just have.
I grab at my phone out of instinct, thumb hovering uselessly over a dead screen that won’t connect, won’t do a damn thing except remind me that I’m sitting here while they’re out there.
My chest tightens, a sharp pain building behind my ribs as every possible outcome crashes through my head at once.
None of them are good, none of them are fixable.
I was supposed to be one step ahead, the safety net she didn’t even know she needed.
Instead I handed her over to a situation I didn’t fully understand, trusted a plan that wasn’t mine, and let someone else pull the strings.
I choke on my own breath, dragging both hands through my hair as I pace the room like a caged animal, the thumping against the walls closing in.
For the first time since I met her, I don’t know where she is. I don’t know if she’s safe. I don’t know how to fix it, and that takes me straight back to the night my mom died. Straight back to the worst feeling I’ve ever had.