Page 69 of Stolen Dreams

“I already am,” he gloats, again proud of himself.“I’m even helping with the search party.”My skin crawls.“Soon enough, though, I’m going to pretend I’m having a breakdown, and they’ll send me home.So I can stay with you longer.”

“You’re crazy,” I retort, and his whole demeanor changes.He grips my face with his hands, squeezing me so hard, I’m surprised nothing breaks.

“I’m not crazy.This is all because of you.You couldn’t give me a chance,” he barks and then steps away as he grips my hair in his hand, pulling it so hard I feel some of it rip from my scalp as he cuts it to my neck.“Fucking bitch.”He throws the handful of hair to the side.“Strutting your ass in my face.”He grabs the other side, and I can’t help but cry out in pain.“And then fucking Emmett.”I think he’s going to throw the hair to the other side but instead he backhands me, and I see stars.“You let him touch you.Do you know all the women he’s fucked?”he hisses.I’m trying to get my vision straight when he hits me on the other side, but this time, his hand is in a fist.“Let him fucking touch you.Now I have to wait longer.”He hits me over and over again.“He may have fucked you, but I’m going to make you mine,” he shouts, my head feeling like it’s spinning on my neck, “for-fucking-ever!”

ChapterThirty-Eight

EMMETT

“She’s not here,” I say, feeling defeated as we walk beside the creek.I stop and put my hands on my hips, looking down at my boots.“She has to be fucking somewhere.”My voice cracks.

“We’ll find her,” Charlie assures me.“We’ll get her back.”

We turn and stop walking when I see him.The man I’ve only seen in pictures, the man I’ve secretly hated since Lilah walked into my life.“What the fuck are you doing here?”I can’t help the hiss that comes out of my mouth.Charlie holds my arm, making sure I don’t do something I shouldn’t.

“I just heard the news,” he replies, running his hand through his hair.“I wanted to tell you guys that I saw her the night before.”The minute he says the words, Charlie lets go of my hand and steps in front of me.

“You have five seconds to talk before I let him loose on you,” Charlie hisses.

“I came to walk, just to clear my head, and she was here, I guess doing the same thing also.I—” He shakes his head.“I wanted to tell her how sorry I am for what I did to her.”He holds up his hands when I take a step.“Honest to God, man, we had a good talk.I said what I had to say, and then I left.I didn’t follow her, and I didn’t go after her.She went one way, and I went the other.”His face shows that he’s telling the truth.“I don’t want any more trouble.”

“Whatever,” I retort, touching Charlie so he knows I’m going to be okay.“Stay the fuck away from her,” I warn, walking by him with Charlie following me.“If he gets close to her when she gets back, I’m going to fuck him up,” I vow, walking back to the truck and getting in.“Any news?”I ask.He shakes his head, and I let him drive us back to the barn.

“We’re missing something.”I run my hand over my face and into my hair.The only hope we really had was the phone.Except we can’t trace it, so we have nothing.“What is it we aren’t getting?”My eyes roam over the whiteboards we have in the barn, then back to the four computer screens that are set up on my desk as Pops does whatever on it.The minute we called him and told him what was going on, he was here, and he brought everyone with him.

“You need to take a break and sit down,” Charlie advises from beside me.“You are better if you rest.”

“I’m not resting until I have her back,” I hiss, turning and seeing his face as tired as mine.He hasn’t left my side.“It’s been three fucking days and nothing.Not a single fucking thing.”Three fucking days of closing my eyes, and the only thing I see is the pain in her eyes after I let her go.Guilt from her not being with me is slowly eating me alive.Nothing will take me away from here.Nothing will stop me from looking for her.“We need to find her soon.”I shake my head, not willing to think of what might come after.The pain in my chest when I think of never seeing her again is too much to bear.

“You are going to fucking fall soon,” Pops interjects, coming into the barn where we’ve set up a sort of command post.People have been coming and going since we informed the sheriff that she’s been missing.They of course didn’t want to do anything until it was twenty-four hours, but I wasn’t going to wait.So we set up in the barn.“How can she just fucking vanish?”He looks at the map I’ve been studying in front of me.

We have the timeline from when she left her house and then nothing after that.A couple of Ring cams caught her going through the streets, and from what we can gather, she made it to the barn, but apparently, all feeds were cut off at one a.m.No one noticed since it was the middle of the night.“We’ve set up extra search parties to the town line,” Pops tells me as he pulls up a screen of the town map.“After that, I don’t know where else to search.”

“There is this whole area here.”Charlie points at the map.“Has anyone been there?”

“Yeah.”Pops nods.“Sammy went since he lives not too far from there.”

“Did they get anything on the cameras?”I turn and look at Charlie, who shakes his head.

“He said he is going to swing by the houses again tonight when he comes back.”

“Comes back?”I look over, confused by this.

“Yeah, he was having a nervous breakdown,” Charlie informs me.“Bobby came and said he needed to take a break, and I forced him to go home for a bit.”I turn back and look at the map.

“There are four businesses up there,” I note, “and two gas stations.”

“The BOLO is still going on and people are also looking for her truck,” Brock announces when he makes his way to us.“Everleigh sent coffee and donuts.”He motions to the table on the side where people have been dropping off food and such.

“Lucy and Saige are going to go to the store to pass out flyers,” he says, and I nod.

“Thanks for taking her in, man,” I say, bending my hand to hold my neck.“How’s she doing?”

“She wakes up crying and asking for you and then Lilah,” he shares, and I exhale deeply.“It’s okay, man.You’ll find her, and everyone will be okay.”He slaps my shoulder.“You guys need to get away for a bit after this”—he takes a sip of his own coffee—“visit a beach or something.”

He turns to walk away, and I watch him go, the cup in his hand.“Her mug.”I snap my fingers.“It was on the counter, right?”I ask Charlie, who is holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other.

“Yeah,” Charlie answers while he chews his donut.

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