16. Tracey
Chapter 16
Tracey
I’d been ignoring the phone, seeing as it wasn’t Stel, for the last day...or was it two? Damn, I couldn’t even remember.
Chip, Tank, Tipp, Phoenix, AJ, and a host of other names had popped up on the screen. It wasn’t my girl, so they could wait. I dozed off, my eyes feeling so heavy, but a banging noise brought me slowly back around. I closed my eyes again, ignoring it too. A loud bang made me stiffen where I lay.
I guess I’d better try to wake the hell up. Jesus. Footsteps moved closer. Had Stel come back?
“Tracey Everett Daniels!”
The volume of that voice jerked me up in the bed, my bleary eyes half open, my hands clutching my head. Nope, that was not Stel; it was a banshee. I pushed in at my ears to hold back the shrieking.
My very pissed off, ready-to-tear-me-a-new-one sister, barreled through the half open door, slamming it against the wall. The noise was so loud I winced. She was scowling at me, hands on her hips. Her favorite shadow, her dog and his drool-covered jowls, was right at her side. He too just stared at me, frowning.
Nausea rolled through my gut as pain shot through my head. What in the hell had happened to me? I moved, and then it all came back to me. Stella had left, and I’d started drinking, wallowing in my own stupidity. The bottle laying at my side hit the floor with a thump. The sound sent a stab of pain through my head, then my stomach churned at being fully in the upright position. If I didn’t lose my dinner—I had to take in slow, deep breaths.
“Please, don’t scream,” I begged as pain lanced through my head.
“Scream? Oh, brother mine, you best be glad I don’t take a bat to you like Stel did ya truck. What is…for fuck’s sake! Drinking? Like that solves a fucking thing!” She yanked at the covers and stepped back. “Disgusting. I will not let you turn into him . Get ya ass up out of that fucking bed and shower off the alcohol and stank. When I come back up, you best be clean and dressed!”
“No. I’m not doing a damn thing. My girl is gone…” I sounded like some lovestruck boy whose balls haven't dropped yet.
“I swear—You haven’t been answering your phone. Did you think we were just calling you for the hell of it? Fucking men, I swear you’re all dumber than a box of fucking rocks. Couldn’t function without someone to follow you around. Well, I ain’t wiping your nose or your ass. Get up and do as I say. We have shit to do. Though, maybe I should let your ass rot in here. How could you do this? Just like that no good…” she trailed off, disappearing down the hall.
What in the hell was she on about? I blinked, staring at the doorway. Her dog just stood there, glowering at me. He barked when I didn’t move. The sound echoed, reaching the deepest creases of my inner ear. It sounded like he was right in my ear canal. I winced, falling forward as I tried to get to my feet. I was stiff, sore.
My leg was throbbing, but I had a feeling if I didn’t get up and start moving, she might come back with a frying pan or something worse.
AJ had a problem with drunk people. I got it. She’d had to deal with an alcoholic friend for a few years. She’d tried to do anything and everything to help him. When it became too much, she’d had to step back and let him go out into the world and make his own choices. If he hadn’t been a drunk, like his father before him, he might have been a good guy.
It was after that kid that she met Tom. That relationship had been doomed from the beginning. She’d gone from a drunk to an asshole abuser. When she left him, he’d started stalking her. Until he’d had enough and came to teach her a lesson. He’d been the one to get a lesson. He’d also never bother her again.
We didn’t talk about any of it much now. Times like this, it was a sore subject. I’d never hurt her on purpose by bringing it up. Though I seemed to be able to hurt people even when I didn’t mean to.
I was batting ten today already.
“NOW, you stank ass man!” AJ screamed from downstairs. I jolted, pain exploding in my head as something down there slammed. Jesus fuck.
“What?” Why was she even here? I shuddered, my stomach rolling again. With my feet now firmly pressed against the floor, I moved towards the bathroom. Pain radiates up my leg as I hobble inside. I got undressed and started the water for the shower. I sat on the bench in the stall and cursed as the heat wrapped around me. The sounds of others in the room next door made me groan. I could still hear my sister growling and slamming things. She was going to skin me alive; I just knew it.
The shower seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, but at least it woke me up. Puking up what I’d drunk over the last few hours sure helped too. It didn’t make me feel any better, but I could deal. Now I just had to go out there and get dressed.
“AJ, wait. Baby, he’s in a bad place.”
“Don’t call me baby. Let me go. I’ll show him a bad place. Look what he let himself turn into! One fight, and he turns to a bottle?”
“Amber Jaymes—” The sound of a slap ricocheted through the room just as I opened the door. Chip’s words cut off abruptly.
Turned into what? I was going to ask, but the scene before me had me coming to a stop in the doorway. My sister’s arm was still in the air, being held by Chip. His eyes bored into hers. He kept his tone hard, but the anger lacked any real heat. I saw that much in his stance. “Listen, kitten, he’s in a bad place. Let me go get him. I’ll beat some sense into him if I have to. You don’t need to see him like this.”
They hadn’t heard the door open or seen me yet. They were wrapped in their own bubble. The fire in her eyes morphed into pain, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Chip released her arm and pulled her close, holding her against his chest as she cried.
Seeing my baby sister, hurting, crying for me…It felt like someone had kicked me in the balls.
The look of hurt on Stella’s face as she’d walked out and now AJ crying in my best friend’s arms—all of it was my fault.
Diesel, ever at AJ’s side, finally had enough of Chip touching his human and started to growl. His big paw swatted at Chip’s leg, trying to push between them.
“Down, you mongrel.”
“Don’t be mean to my dog!” AJ slapped his arm, but there was no heat there anymore. She was wiping her face when she caught sight of me. The heat did return to her eyes then, with a fire born of hell and pissed-off women. She pointed at me. If her finger had been a sword, I’d have been dead. “Get dressed. Gear up, and if you know what is good for you, you will keep your damn mouth shut.”
“Whoa, kitten. Relax. Give him a minute to get dressed, okay? I won’t let him get back in bed, I promise.”
She huffed and stormed out of the room, Diesel at her side.
What in the hell had I missed? “What’s up her ass?”
“Don’t be a dick. I’ll gladly step aside next time she comes at you. Better yet, next time, I’ll let Keith come with her. Would serve your stupid ass right. Get dressed; we need to get to the station. Stel’s missing. No one knows where she got off to.”
That got my full attention. “What? Where is she?”
“If we knew that, dumbass, we wouldn’t be putting together a search party. Jesus. Did you drink away all your brain cells over the last ten hours or what?”
Seriously? I took in a deep breath, let it out, and hurried around to get dressed. Chip helped with my bandages. I was in too big of a hurry. Stella missing? What had happened over the last however many hours? I should have gone after her. I knew she needed time; I needed time to cool down too. I had a message from her, I think. It had come a few hours after she’d left. I scrambled to find my phone.
Yes, I had a message from her. I replied, begging her to come home. She never replied back. My eyes twitched. Fuck!
“Let’s go,” Chip said, walking out of the room.
“Where are you, Stella Grace? Where are you?” I muttered, shoving the phone into my cargo pants pocket.
The trek downstairs was painful, but I kept quiet. We left the house, and I was lucky enough to get to sit by the freaking buffalo called a dog. He watched me as if he were judging me. I cracked my neck when the truck stopped. I’d never been so grateful to pull up to a police station in my life.
I got out of AJ’s truck, biting back a curse when I hit the cement a little too hard. My leg was not happy with me, but I didn’t care. I had to find out what was going on.
Walking into the station was akin to walking into a war zone. Phones were ringing, people were bustling about, radios going off. AJ located Wayne and said something to him. He turned and locked me in a glare that made me want to take a step back. I didn’t, though. I stood my ground. He turned back to Gabe and Robert, whose eyes were locked on a map. What in the hell was going on here?
“About time you drug your sorry ass out of bed.” Charlie slapped a paper against my chest and walked on by.
“Asshole,” I muttered. I scanned the paper, which turned out to be a map. The red lines along the roads made my brows shoot up.
“What you’re looking at is a map denoting the known whereabouts of Kurt Bohlen. It seems like he has some help, but from whom we don’t know.” Gabe turned when the door to the inner office hall opened. Lieutenant Ridgewood and Officer Kruger, his K9 partner at his side, both came in, grim-faced.
“Sorry for the interruption, Sheriff. We’ve gotten a call from a resident out off county road 15. She tried calling here, but,” he waved his arm around, “My dispatcher said she was calling about a strange car driving down past her house. The only thing out there, according to her, is an old barn. Possibly kids messing around, but in light of current events, we’re going to check it out.”
“I’ll send a deputy with you. Charles.”
“On it, boss. Come on, boys, let’s roll.”
“Wait. Can someone tell me what in the hell is going on here?” They walked past me and out the door without a second glance. I sighed. “Please?” My head was pounding, and not for the first time today, I wanted to puke. What had I been drinking? Oh yeah, moonshine and Jack. My liver and brain would never be the same.
Fuck. I was an idiot.
“Your fiancée is missing. You’re a dumbass. Anything else you want to know?” my sister snarled at me.
I raised a hand and shook my head. “How do we know she’s missing? Did she not go…” Wayne was staring daggers at me. Okay, so she hadn’t gone to her dad’s, then she would have gone?
Everyone was looking at me as if I had painted my face red and had balloons coming out of my ass. I shifted, my leg protesting. Stel was really missing. No, there had to be something else, another explanation.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I pulled it out. Another call from an unknown number. I’d been getting them for...son of a bitch. I hit accept and brought the phone to my ear. “What?” I snarled.
“Ah, finally. I was beginning to think you were dead.” I stayed quiet, my eyes narrowing at the familiar voice in my ear. “Not much of a talker? Well, fine. I have something you want. You have something I want.” That brought me up short.
What did I have that he wanted? Rage boiled up through me as I took a step back from the others. The noise in here was making it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. What was he up to? My knuckles turned white as I hobbled toward Derek’s desk. He watched me, brows raised. I pointed to my cell then to his laptop. In a flash he was in his seat, his fingers slamming down against the keys. I looked down at the map in my hand. The county was spread out before my eyes. He had to be close. He’d been quiet since he attacked Stel on the street.
“What do you want?” My words came out low, menacing. If I got my hands on him again, he wouldn’t be walking away.
“The same thing I told that sniveling bitch. Her.”
“What?” He’d talked to Stel? Did he have her now? Was he just playing with me?
“I will use her until she is used up. Then I’ll skin her alive and filet her into tiny pieces.” My breath whooshed out of me when I heard skin on skin contact. Someone grunted. My eyes scanned the room. Everyone was here. Who would he have that Stella would want? What was his game?
“Why don’t you just come and face me now? I’ll put you out of your misery.”
He chuckled. Another grunt was followed by the sound of skin against skin. “Maybe you need a little incentive.” His words were followed by another grunt. “Say something.”
“Fuck. You!” The air left my lungs at the sound of that pain filled voice.
Carter.
He had Carter.
How? How did he get him? Fuck! There was no way in hell Stel wouldn’t go after him. I had to get to them fast. Stel would destroy the world to save her brother, and I would do the same for her.