Chapter 63 Roman
ROMAN
A ringing invaded my sleep, and I mumbled for them to fuck off. They listened because it stopped, but then it started again.
“I’m asleep,” I shouted, shifting in bed. But the bed was hard, something pressed into my side, and my neck rolled backwards, as if there wasn’t a pillow holding it in place.
The ringing stopped and then started again. The fuckers were never going to stop.
I cracked open an eye, confused why I was looking at the dining table and not my bedroom walls. Had I fallen asleep while I worked?
The ringing started again, and I fumbled for my phone, my lips dry as I tried to answer.
“Yep.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Thank god. Where the hell have you been? You’ve all gone AWOL. Tell me you’re good. Are you good?” Sean sounded panicked.
“I was asleep,” I muttered, my words slurring together.
“Asleep? I’ve been calling you for an hour. You didn’t hear your phone? And where’s Hana? She asleep too? I swear, if you’ve been fucking, I will end you. And Lacy and Jarrid are offline too. I want someone to explain where the hell you’ve all been.”
I rolled my shoulders, trying to work out why my body felt so unfamiliar. “I ate a doughnut,” I said, my brain offering me the last memory I could remember.
“Great. Good to know. Where is Hana?” He said it with more intensity, and his tone nudged something in my brain, but I was still half-asleep and couldn’t make sense of anything. I swallowed, trying to make my mouth feel less like the Sahara Desert.
“Dunno.”
“Roman, what the fuck is going on? What do you mean you don’t know? Where’s Lacy and Jarrid? And do not tell me you don’t know again.”
I stayed silent, sucking in air through my nose because I felt sick, a sense of dread descending over me.
“Roman, I need you to concentrate. Where’s Hana?” When I didn’t answer, he said, “Okay, let’s try something else. Who gave you the doughnuts?”
“Amber.”
“Jarrid’s Amber came by and gave you food? Did she give some to Jarrid and Lacy?”
“Yes.” I remembered her giving them to us, but not having one herself.
I pushed up suddenly, the room spinning as I tried to get my feet to work.
“Hana?” I yelled as I stumbled through the house, pushing open doors like an angry drunk looking for a fight, but not finding any sign of her.
“Hana?” I yelled again, louder this time.
“She’s not here.” Fear echoed in my admission.
“Hold on,” Sean instructed, then his voice was muffled.
“Wren, Lev, Amber… fuck, I don’t know her surname…
she works in the high school…. Yes, her.
Find me everything you can on her. Now!” Then he turned his attention back to me.
“Roman, I want you to drink a massive glass of water. Let’s wake that brain back up.
” I did what he said, filling a glass from the tap and drinking the lot.
“Now, go outside. See if you can find Jarrid and Lacy. I’ll stay on the phone. ”
I moved sluggishly, my body taking way more effort to coordinate than normal.
It didn’t take me long to find them, both in Jarrid’s car.
“Shit, they’re both unconscious,” I cried, rushing over as best I could, checking Jarrid’s pulse and then leaning over him to check Lacy’s. “Alive. Out of it, but alive.”
“Any ideas where this Amber would take Hana or why?”
I shook my head, forgetting he couldn’t see. “No,” I added. “Wait… The cabin.” Hana told me it was Amber’s family’s. It was set up with sensors and alarms to protect it. Surely, it had to be there. “I’ll drop you a pin.”
“You good to drive?”
I filled my lungs with fresh air as I hurried back to the house to grab my keys. I had to be okay. I had no choice, although I couldn’t work out why Amber would drug us or what she’d want with Hana, but none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was finding Hana.
I’d been on the road about fifteen minutes before Sean called me back. I connected the call, his voice echoing through the Bluetooth speaker.
“Hey, I have Wren and Lev on the call too. I’m going to let them explain.”
I gripped the steering wheel, my speed exceeding the limit as I flew down the motorway.
“Amber Hunter, born Angela Lowell,” Wren explained.
The name shocked me so much, I swerved, a car in the lane next to me blasting its horn.
“Wolf’s penpal in prison?” I checked, trying to keep my concentration on the road.
If Amber had killed all those other people, it was obvious why she wanted Hana.
I had no idea how long I’d been out of it or whether there was hope of Hana still being alive.
Fear scorched my insides as I pressed the accelerator pedal harder, watching the speedometer climb.
Wren spoke. “Turns out, he was in a cell with Amber’s brother and took a shine to the photos he had pinned to his wall.
They started writing to each other, and she fell for him.
He promised her the usual—a life of love and adventure if she sent him money…
you know the type. They wrote to each other for a couple of years.
From prison records, it looks like he got a tip-off about how he ended up in prison and began to plan his revenge.
We have copies of those specific letters, but it’s all in code.
Him and Amber talked about a party he was going to throw when he got out.
And each of Preston’s gang had their own code name.
I guess Wolf thought he’d get out on parole and do the killing himself, but when he died, Amber took over the job.
Given that she moved to town at the same time as Hana, she was probably watching Hana for Wolf until he got out. ”
“How would he even know about Hana? She worked in secret. That’s what she told us.” The longer I listened, the more my brain cleared, the effects of the drugs ebbing from my system.
“We looked into that,” Lev replied. “Preston spoke to Wolf; sold her out. Told him he had nothing to do with it. He also told him that Hana’s brother was in the same prison as him, and if he wanted revenge, Tony was a good place to start.”
I slammed my hand against the steering wheel, yelling, “Motherfucker.” I sucked a deep breath in through my nose, trying to curb my anger that Hana and Tony had been caught up in any of this. “Wait, you got that from the prison records?” I asked, none of this adding up.
“No. That was in Preston’s files. A recording. In it, Wolf told Preston they’d all sold him out, and he’d get his revenge. Looks like while planning it, he fashioned Amber into his weapon of choice.”
“Shit,” I muttered, flicking on my indicator to take the slip road off the motorway. The sun was setting, the sky a fiery red that gave me a sense of foreboding I refused to acknowledge because I couldn’t lose Hana. It would kill me. I would kill Amber.
“I let her walk into my fucking house today,” I muttered almost to myself. “She walked right in, offered me a drugged doughnut, and then watched while I ate it. I need to get Hana back, Sean,” I said, knowing he’d be listening.
“And we will, but you need to wait until I get there. I’m already in my car. Don’t be a hero, Roman. We have no idea what you’re walking into.”
“I’m not just sitting outside, waiting for her to kill Hana. No fucking way.” My voice got louder as my anger rose, clouding my thinking.
“I’m half an hour behind. Wait until I get there. That’s an order.”
I hummed my agreement, but I had no intention of listening to a word of it. I was going in for Hana the minute I got to that cabin.