Chapter 48 Hayden
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
hayden
PRESENT DAY
Sierra hadn’t come back yet, and it was starting to get dark. We’d need to get back home soon if we were going to make it for dinner.
It was a long way, but maybe she started walking back to the house. If that was what it took for her to get her emotions in check, I wasn’t going to interfere. We all had different ways to regulate our emotions, maybe walking was hers.
I dialed the home line anyway.
“Hayden?” Mom answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Mom. Did Sierra go back to the house?”
She hesitated on the other end of the line before replying, “No? Was she supposed to?”
Fuck.
Where could she have gone?
“No worries, Mom. I just wanted to double-check. We’ll be home for dinner shortly.” I did my best to mask the panic in my voice, tried to keep it steady.
“Hayden? Are you sure everything’s okay?”
A lump in my throat constricted my air, and I swallowed it down.
Fuck.
I took a deep breath, forcing out the words. “She’s gone, Mom. I don’t know where she went. She said she would be right back and…”
“Oh, honey.” Mom’s voice broke a little. “Try calling her, okay?”
I nodded, even though I knew she couldn’t see me. “I’ll call you back, okay? I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too, honey.”
The line beeped as she hung up, and I immediately dialed Sierra’s number.
Come on, Sierra, come on. Pick up.
“Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. The person you’re trying to reach is unavailable. At the tone, please record—”
I hung up and dialed again. I’d call as many times as it would take for her to answer. We could figure this out. I’d talk it out with her all night if I had to.
“Your call has been forwarded—”
“Damn it! Come on, Skip.” A plea ripped itself from my throat, the words floating up into the sky, reaching no one.
I jogged down the hill where the pickup was parked to see if she was waiting for me there. Maybe her phone just died, and she’d be leaning against the pickup, scowling at me even though it was obvious she was just trying to hide a smile.
When I got to the parking lot, she wasn’t in the cab. She wasn’t waiting by the pickup either, and a smattering of dark red staining the sidewalk greeted me instead.
My heart instantly hammered in my chest, worst-case scenarios playing through my head. Something happened, and I wasn’t there.
A feeling of helplessness washed over me as I placed my hands on the top of my head, my face tilting toward the sky.
Dammit! Where are you, Skip?
“Sierra!” I called her name but received no response. I ran around campus, back to the spot we originally separated, thinking maybe she had turned around and I’d just missed her.
When fifteen minutes had passed and I still hadn’t found her, I dialed the next person I thought of.
“Hello?” my dad answered with a confused tone.
“Dad, Sierra’s missing.” I barely spat out the words through heaving breaths. “We got separated on SGU’s campus, and now I can’t find her and she won’t answer her phone. Mom said she wasn’t at the house, so I—”
“Slow down, son.” Dad cut me off. “Take a deep breath. What happened?”
“We came to stay with you guys for a bit because Sierra’s been getting threats for months.
Back in August her trailer was set on fire and then her saddle got cut at a rodeo in Billings.
She thought they were all a coincidence, but then someone threw a brick through my window so we came here because I didn’t think it was safe back home.
But then we came to campus and got into an argument.
We got separated and now she’s gone, Dad. A-and I’m worried that it might be…”
My dad sucked in a harsh breath as though the same idea dawned on him, too. I heard him typing furiously in the background, and then a noise of frustration ripped from his throat.
“Hayden, I need you to stay calm,” he started to say, and my heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute. “Sierra’s father was released from prison four months ago.”
“Why wasn’t she notified?” I growled, my jaw clenching.
“The courts did try to notify her, but they were unable to reach her.”
“Fuck!” I didn’t mean to lose my cool, but Spencer Bayley was dangerous. “She changed her phone number, and she moves around so much that she wouldn’t have a permanent address. This is not good, Dad.”
“I know. If it truly is her father, then we need to approach this very carefully. We’ll have SAR units deployed and dispatch will send out a BOLO.
We’ll find her, Hayden. Don’t worry. Just stay put, okay?
” It wasn’t a request, rather an order. “Please, Hayden. I know you want to find her, but I need you to stay where you are.”
It was like he knew exactly what I was thinking. And normally, I wouldn’t disobey my father, but this was different. This was Sierra. The love of my life.
I thought I’d lost her to her father once before when she didn’t show up to our high school graduation, and the same fear I felt back then creeped into my bones. I couldn’t lose her to him again.
I wouldn’t.
“Okay,” I lied, knowing the moment I hung up the phone I was going to run all over town looking for her. I’d run myself into the ground if that’s what it took.
“Thank you. We’ll find her, son. I promise.”
The minute we hung up, I hopped in my pickup and peeled out of the parking lot. If I had to drive around town all night I would. I wouldn’t sleep, I wouldn’t eat, I wouldn’t stop until Sierra was safe.
I navigated to my police scanner app and turned the volume all the way up. The second I heard something regarding Sierra, I would be on my way. I knew it wasn’t smart to intervene, and I should leave the police work to my dad and his coworkers, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait.
My mind filed through all of the places she could potentially be, places her father might drag her to, but I came up short. My mind couldn’t operate the same way as a criminal’s.
If I were a piece of shit who kidnapped my own daughter, where would I go?
Somewhere secluded for sure, but where?
Parking my truck at Ranger’s, I ran down the street toward the gas station her father liked to frequent. A bell chimed as I flung open the door, heading straight for the counter where an employee had headphones on.
“Excuse me?” I slammed my hand down on the counter, scaring the young man.
He jumped, ripping his headphones off his head. “Huh?” He shook his head, blinking a few times. “S-sorry. How can I help you?”
“Did a woman about twenty-six years old, five-foot-five, jet-black hair, and green eyes come in with an older man by chance?” I rattled off the question.
“No, sorry, we’ve been really slow.” He gestured to his phone where some animated cartoon with a pirate wearing a straw hat was playing.
“Okay, thanks.” I pursed my lips and nodded, then rushed out the door back into the cold. The sun had gone down now, and time was of the essence. I ran around the block, keeping my eyes peeled for any signs of a struggle while listening to the police scanner.
Voices crackled on the radio. “We’ve got tracks leading into the Jasper Wilderness near Bluebell Basin. SAR units dispatched to the area.”
The part of Jasper Wilderness where SAR units were dispatched was a scarcely trafficked area with no trails for hikers. Only experienced backpackers and hunters frequented it, and rarely in November.
It was isolated and quiet. An ideal location to dispose of a body.
My lungs burned as I sprinted to my vehicle, speeding all the way out of town toward the base of a popular trail. I’d park there then figure out how the hell I was going to get to Bluebell Basin.
The trailhead was dark, the pine trees looming overhead and reaching into the night like skyscrapers. There were no police vehicles to be found, and I couldn’t hear the crackle of their radios, so I started walking into the brush with a flashlight.
I was taking a huge risk, creeping into the forest like this when police were looking for a suspect, but it was one I was willing to take, even if it was fucking stupid.
I knew the general vicinity of where they said the tracks were, I was just going to be taking a roundabout way. Probably the best, considering my dad and his coworkers would have questions if I ran into them.
I hiked through the woods, careful not to make too much noise as to not alert Sierra’s father of my presence.
Red and blue lights up ahead told me that I was close to the area, and I continued on, pausing every few seconds to listen for footsteps or a sign of struggle.
Voices up a few hundred feet or so caught my attention, and I moved as quickly as I could without drawing attention to myself. A small clearing was up ahead, and I hid behind a tree when a few silhouettes came into view.
“Put the gun down, Spencer,” a deputy tried to reason with the man I knew was Sierra’s father.
Prison had hardened him even more. His eyes were hollow, and his appearance gave the impression that he hadn’t shaved or showered in days.
I feared what he would do to Sierra if they couldn’t reach a resolution.
On the bright side, she was on the opposite side of the clearing from Spencer. He didn’t have a gun to her head, so she must have been able to get away from him at some point.
“Don’t take another step or I’ll shoot.” His voice was calm, steady; he was a fucking sociopath.
“Drop the weapon!” one of the other officers ordered Spencer as officers raised their guns. “Put the gun down, Spencer, and no one will get hurt.”
“You boys almost convinced me, but I don’t think so.” Spencer raised his gun and pointed it toward Sierra. “I have nothing to lose anymore, so shoot me if you have to, but I’m taking her with me.” His finger flirted with the trigger as he slowly squeezed it.
“Look out for your friends, Hayden. If they’re in trouble, help them, okay?”
My dad’s voice echoed in my ears.
Maybe I wasn’t able to help Sierra before. I couldn’t save her from the pain she endured as a kid, but I could save her now.
“Stop!” The scream ripped itself from my throat as I threw myself forward out of the bushes, in front of his line of fire.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!