Chapter 34 #2
“He’ll stay away from places with cameras,” I whisper. “Check those. She might know to hide there.”
The gym, the cafeteria, the administration offices…
“I’ll check the ones without,” I tell him.
I pull out of his grasp, my T-shirt caught in his fist, but I run, heading for the locker rooms first.
Scanning each row, I hurry to the showers and coaches’ offices before jumping over to the girls’.
Both of them are empty, though. Crossing the hall, I search the teachers’ lounge and bathrooms and run down hallway after hallway, passing classrooms and looking for any sign of life.
“Mr. Ames,” a voice calls.
I spin around, seeing Barnes running for me.
“Did you find her?” I ask.
“No,” he says. “I’ve checked everywhere that’s not locked.”
Sweat covers his black hair. He must be roasting in that suit. The air conditioners are off.
“Go outside to the car,” I tell him, giving his arm a shove as I start to run away to continue my search. “Call the police and call me if you see Anna-Katherine.”
He speeds off toward the front of the school, and I charge up the stairs.
I’ve checked everywhere that’s not locked.
The Ministry offices.
I ascend the second flight of stairs and head up the smaller staircase to the Ministry. Please let him be alone. If Jerome, Milo, or Vincent is helping him…
Dallas and I might not make it out alive.
The doors appear ahead, and I slow, grabbing Mrs. Calderon’s letter opener off her desk. I slide it into the back of my pants.
I forgot my keys, but when I twist the handle, it opens.
Everything tenses. They’re in here.
Opening the door, I walk in, seeing my father standing next to the bookcases, and I hear the singing before I even see her.
My gaze flies to Anna-Katherine crouched between the couch and another bookshelf.
Her knees are pulled up to her body, and she’s shrouded in darkness, her soft voice filled with tears.
“Anna-Katherine?” I say.
She crawls out from her spot, the look in her eyes frightened but a little hopeful that I’m here to save her. Her suspender is torn and blood trickles from the corner of her mouth.
Anger burns in my muscles. My father has slapped me a handful of times in my life. I never considered him particularly abusive—physically anyway. She must’ve had a panic attack when she saw him.
I inch forward. “Go find Dallas.”
She rises and takes a step.
“Sit!” he growls at her.
She stops, casting scared glances between us, and I gesture with my hand. We own a few firearms, and I wouldn’t put it past him to have one on him.
Anna-Katherine takes a seat on the edge of the couch, farthest from him, her head bowed.
“She used to be a good girl.” My father walks out from the shadows and into the center of the room. “Did you tell him how different you used to be?” he asks her. “How you used to moan for Daddy?”
Goddamn him. I dart my eyes to her, seeing her shrink more and more.
“She’s controlling you,” my father says in a stern voice. “And you need to stop letting her. She loved everything I did to her. She’s not a victim.”
I grind my fists together. “She was a kid who had never had attention from a man!” I howl at him. “You seduced her!”
She was fifteen when he started!
“And you should’ve seen her that night,” he coos. “She was the main event.”
My eyes burn. You son of a bitch.
He peers over at her. “You had fun with all of those men, didn’t you?”
She holds the arm of the sofa, pressing her forehead into it to shield her eyes. “Once upon a December…”
Her tinkling voice carries her away, and I keep mine steady, trying to sound like I have everything under control.
“Anna-Katherine, I’m here,” I say. “He’s trying to provoke us. Don’t let him.”
Shaking his head, he takes another step toward me, her voice continuing in the background.
“I want this finished,” he announces. “Where is it?”
What is he going to do? Kill us?
There’s only one thing my father cares about more than money. Legacy. I’ve gathered that he has a couple of illegitimate kids out there somewhere, but I’m the only son he claims, and he’s smart enough to know he won’t live forever. He won’t kill me.
But then he calls out, “Sophia?”
I glance at her as he keeps his stare locked on me.
“Do you love your brother?” he asks her.
“Don’t listen to him.”
“What would you do to keep me from hurting him?” he asks her.
Motherfucker. “He’s not going to hurt me,” I tell her.
“Would you come back to my bed?” he goes on. “If I promised to leave him alone and leave everyone in the Bay alone? If I promised that all of St. Carmen would leave them alone and all you had to do was come back into the Den?”
“Sophia…”
“Would you come play again if it meant Callum and all your new friends are safe?”
“He’s lying!” I tell her. “Ignore him.”
But she lifts her head, looking like she might speak. Like she wants to protect me so much.
He smiles. “The pussy can get stretched out,” he tells me. “After enough activity, it never regains its former glory. The ass, though?”
My stomach rolls, his vile words fucking with my head.
He nods. “But of course, you know that the ass always stays tight.”
He will never have her in his grasp again, and he can threaten me all he wants. He’s not getting the treasure from Sanoa Bay. I never liked him much, but I had no idea of the lengths of his imagination. I guess he was waiting for me to be a man. He thought I’d join in on his depravity.
He closes the distance between us. “What would happen to her if you were sent to cool off and think about your choices in a jail somewhere?” He cocks his head.
“I know I could get her to snap out of this. Take her shopping for some pretty clothes.” He turns his head toward her.
“You remember how I liked you in pretty panties.”
I launch for him, but he reaches behind and pulls out one of our firearms. Letting it dangle at his side, he doesn’t point it at me.
Yet.
“You wouldn’t be here to protect her,” he continues.
“Or him. Or them.” He nods, condescending to me.
“Work with me, son. You know I can go over there right now and get away with it if someone happens to disappear. There’s no way I’m letting that amount of money remain in their hands.
” He tips his chin down, eyeing me sternly.
“How much damage are you willing to watch me do?”
It’s funny. Even now, he speaks to me as if he’s still teaching me things.
He’s right, though. It wouldn’t get national attention if someone in the Bay disappeared. Maybe one of us, but not one of them.
“Let’s go,” he says.
I hold out my hand to Anna-Katherine, and she runs over, both of us holding tight as he follows us out of the Ministry office.
“To Jaeger’s classroom to get her things,” he instructs. “No trail left behind.”
We descend the stairs, and I put my arm around my sister, trying to shield her as much as possible.
“All kids have dreams of doing better than their parents,” my father says. “But you’ll be just like me.”
I definitely showed signs over the past several years, didn’t I?
But I won’t be him, and it’s hard not to believe Dallas is the difference. He doesn’t fit the world I grew up in, but he doesn’t seem to give a shit. He’ll make them fit him, and I’m looking forward to it all.
I won’t let my father take any of it away.
“And St. Carmen will never change,” he drones on, “because it works the way it is.”
I look forward to changing it, and I honestly hope he lives to see it.
“Mr. Ames?” a voice calls out.
We stop, halfway down the corridor to Dallas’s classroom, Officer Grady standing at the end of the hall. The leaves of the trees in the courtyard blow in the breeze sweeping through the roof, a crack of thunder rolling in the distance.
Grady approaches, his hand resting on the hilt of his firearm. “What’s happening?” he asks.
He creeps closer, his gaze surveying Anna-Katherine and me, and then it flies to the weapon in my father’s hand, at his side.
“Family business,” my father replies.
I flit my eyes left and right, searching for any sign of Dallas. He’d try to help, but with Grady here, I don’t think I want him to try. Grady could see him as a threat.
After a moment, the cop squares his shoulders as he takes in the scene. “There are legal channels you can go through,” he says, deducing what’s happening. “I need you to put the firearm down.”
“Go back to your business.” My father’s tone is out of patience. “Everything’s fine here.”
“I’m going to ask you one last time.” Grady gently widens his stance and puts out his hand. “Give me the kids or the weapon.”
“And I’m going to ask you to head into the security office and erase the footage from tonight.”
I glance up at the security cameras in the hallway. One pointed in each direction and one dead center. The school put them up years ago in areas where most kids congregate—hallways, cafeteria, gymnasium, and athletic fields—to combat bullying.
“Mr. Ames?” Grady prompts once again.
Then…I see the cop start for his weapon, and I twist my head, noticing my father with his pointed up.
Fuck. He has no interest in killing us or Grady, but he’s letting him know he’s not standing down.
There’s a lot of things Grady will let the people in this town get away with and make favors to let their kids off the hook, but not when someone’s children are in danger.
And all at once, everyone whips into action as if in slow motion.
I grab Anna-Katherine, pulling her toward the wall as Dallas steps out of his classroom, reaching my father in two strides.
He shoves his hand up, the gun spilling from Garrett’s hand, and they struggle, Dallas gripping his neck as he punches him with his other hand.
Grady approaches, trying to kick the weapon out of the way, but just as Dallas plants his knee in my father’s stomach, Garrett slams his palm into Dallas’s gut.
Dallas sucks in a breath, the moment’s hesitation enough for my father to throw him into the wall.