Chapter Forty-three
I cut across the lawn, staying within the shadows until I make it to the bottom of the trellis and don’t wait a single second to start climbing. I’m frantic to get to her, frantic to see her face. I haven’t slept for even an hour since I left her at the track, so perhaps I’m feeling a little manic but fuck, I can’t breathe.
I need her.
I need to beg her for forgiveness, explain it to her, show her that I didn’t mean it. I can’t live without her. Shit.
Finally making it to her window, I tug on it only to find it locked, the curtains drawn back to show an empty room. An empty room that has been completely trashed. The mattress lays half on, half off the bed frame, the drawers overturned, all her makeup thrown across the room along with her clothes and boxes upon boxes of random items. The lamp is smashed to pieces, the art on her walls destroyed and lying in the middle of the room is my Sinclair Motors shirt.
Fuck, what happened here? Where is Marly!? Panic makes my heart speed, my hands become clammy with anxiety, and I have to go slower back down to avoid slipping and falling. The last thing I want to do is be found injured on the Winchester’s property.
Sneaking around the side of the house and staying out of view, I notice Liam’s Porsche parked out front, his two front tires slashed and blocking the garage. Marly’s Mercedes isn’t here.
I have to find her. Cutting back the way I came, I scale the wall and sprint to my jeep, throwing myself inside as I reach for my cell and dial her number. I didn’t call before since I didn’t think she’d pick up and I wanted her to listen to me before she cut me off but now, I have no choice.
It rings and rings…
“This is Marly,” Her voice filters through the speaker, like a balm to my soul, “I can’t get to the phone right now, leave a message and I’ll get right back to you!” Her voice cuts off with a beep and I hang up, calling again.
I get the voicemail again.
“Marly, princess,” I breathe, “Pick up, baby, please. Where are you? Please call me back.” I rush out the message and dial again and again until it stops ringing at all. She shut it off.
My heart cracks just a little more.
No. No this can’t be how it ends. I go into my contacts and dial Jake who answers on the third ring.
“Shit man,” Jake answers, “Where you been!? We’ve been looking for you!”
“Do you know where Marly is?” I rush out, ignoring his questions.
“Marly? No, why?”
“I’m at her place, her room has been trashed and she isn’t here.”
“Marly’s missing!?” Jake curses. “Fuck.”
“You don’t know where she is?”
“Why would I know, River?” He snaps, “I haven’t seen her since you left her at the track!”
“Are you with Zara?”
“No,” I hear him tapping against the screen, “I’ve text her your number but don’t expect a pleasant call.”
“She knows?”
“Some fucks filmed the whole thing, put it on social media. She’s pissed, River.”
“I don’t blame her,” I wince.
“I’ll make some calls, ask around and see if anyone knows where she is.”
It’s unlikely he’ll be able to find her, but I thank him and hang up. Not a moment later my phone lights up with an incoming call. I answer it quickly, hoping it’s Marly but knowing in my heart that it’s not.
“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” Zara snaps into the phone, tone laced in venom. “After what you did, Marly doesn’t want to see you.”
“I get it,” I rush, “Please, I get it, but I need to explain.”
“Explain what?” She hisses, “How you humiliated her and then left her in the dirt?”
“Where is she, Zara?” I beg, “Please.”
“I haven’t seen her, River,” Zara growls, so clearly pissed at me and with reason, “I’ve tried but you hurt her and now she won’t even talk to me.”
“She isn’t at her house, Zara, her room is trashed. I need to find her, even if she doesn’t want to talk to me, I just need to know she is okay.”
“What do you mean, her room is trashed?” The anger leeches from her tone, replaced by concern.
“Trashed,” I explain, “Someone ripped it apart. Her car is gone too, I don’t know where she is.”
“Shit,” Zara hisses, “You don’t think they…”
She doesn’t finish the question, but I know what she was going to ask. Have they hurt her? It’s within the realm of possibilities, they are more than capable of doing it but surely, they wouldn’t just for being with me.
“I have to find her, Zara,” I breathe, pain lancing through me. What if they hurt her? What if she’s alone and injured? Dead? And for what? Being with me, falling in love with me? Is it such a crime to them that they’d hurt their own daughter?
I rub my chest as my heart makes a painful thud. There is no world if Marly is not in it.
“Meet me at Jake’s house,” She snaps into the phone, “We’re going to find her.”
I pull up to Jake’s two bed town house, the paneling on the outside worn and falling off in some places. The lights are on downstairs, and he comes to the door before I can knock.
“Quiet,” He murmurs, “Amy is asleep.”
I dip my head in a nod, I already knew his daughter would be asleep considering the hour. Zara arrives around ten minutes later, letting herself inside before she kisses Jake sweetly and then glares daggers in my direction.
“Understand this, River,” Zara warns before I can even open my mouth, “If something has happened to my best friend because of you, I will kill you.”
I didn’t doubt it.
Jake squeezes her thigh, “So what do we know?”
“Nothing,” I run my hand through my hair, gripping the strands until I feel a sting on my scalp. “She isn’t answering my calls.”
“She isn’t answering mine either.” Zara chews her lip, “And I asked a few of our mutual friends, and no one has seen her.”
I can’t get a grip on my emotions, it’s panic and rage, sorrow and guilt, it swirls like a tornado inside of me.
“Her father is making an announcement in the town square tomorrow,” I say, “She’d be there, right?”
Zara nods, “It would be expected of her, yes, and people will expect to see her so it would raise questions if she’s not there. I don’t think they would do that to her, though.”
I stare down at my feet.
“What?”
“Liam murdered my brother, Zara and his father covered it up, they absolutely would do that to her.”
Her eyes widen, “What are you talking about?”
I explain it to her, all of it and by the time I’m finished, her skin is three times paler and horror shines in her eyes.
“Oh my god,” She whispers, “We have to do something.”
I nod in agreement but fuck if I know what. I can’t find Marly; I don’t know what they’ve done to her and tomorrow, the mayor is going to announce the complete destruction of our part of town.
The world is quite literally falling apart around me but none of it matters.
Only she does.
And I am going to find her.