Page 89 of Fighting Shadows

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Chapter 45

Noah

“Are we ready?” I ask everyone as we all sit around the dining table in Zander’s house. Nerves make me feel jittery, but I refuse to let my hands shake.

This is for my Strange Girl so she can move on and finally start to live her life fully. Whether that’s with me by her side or not is still to be determined.

The phone in my hand feels like lead, but when everyone nods their heads and murmurs their agreement, I dial his number, placing the phone on the wooden table on speakerphone.

The phone rings for what feels like an eternity when it suddenly goes silent, and I think he’s hung up on me until his harsh voice filters through, “What do you want?”

“I want to help,” I say, proud when my voice stays strong.

“You did enough helping, don’t you think?” he sneers. I have my own plan anyway. I’ll have my Little One back with me soon, and then nobody can steal her from me.”

Everyone tenses around the table, their bodies primed to strike as if his plan to attack is at this very moment.

Autumn sits wedged between Atlas and Tobias; their hands clutched in her trembling ones. She stares at the phone, her eyes wide with fear.

I take a deep breath, maintaining my control. I can’t afford to blow this; every part of the plan is riding on this call and for him to fall for it.

“I see it now, you know? She doesn’t look at them like she looked at you. I want to help you, Dad; I want to help you get her back. Let me help,” I choke out, hating how genuine I have to sound.

“And how do you expect to help me get her back? She’s surrounded,” he grinds out; the sound of his grinding his teeth together makes me visibly cringe.

Then his words fully register, and I realize he can’t be watching her as much as he hoped to be if he has no clue about me hanging around, “I’ve managed to get close to the crazy one,” I say, shooting Dominic a grin as he narrows his eyes at me, “I can get close enough to take her and bring her to you. My brother has a warehouse a few miles from here that he doesn’t use; we can meet there. None of them know about it, and she’ll be drugged in the back of my car.”

“What’s in it for you?” he asks, sounding wary.

“I just want my dad back, and she’s not happy here. I made a mistake before, but we’ve all done that, haven’t we? Let me make this right, Dad, please.”

He sighs, sounding tired, “Fine. Message me where this warehouse is, and I’ll check it out. If anything seems fishy, though, I’ll do this myself. You hear me?”

“Crystal,” I mutter as he hangs up.

We all stare at the phone blankly, processing his words.

“I can’t wait to kill him,” Dominic sighs.

“Send over the details. We don’t want to give him any reason to pull out,” Kelvin says, nodding his head to my phone. He’s tapping his finger on the wooden table, his eyes fixed on it like he can kill the threat to Autumn with willpower alone, and I wish he could.

I don’t want her to see him again, to give him the satisfaction of seeing her one last time before we kill him. He doesn’t deserve to look at her, never mind having any comfort that he’ll no doubt take from her presence.

Doing as I’m told, I quickly send the message to him, and the three dots appear almost immediately.

Charlie

Tomorrow. 7 PM12:16 PM

“He moves quickly,” Sebastian grunts from over my shoulder, startling me.

When I glare at him, he shrugs his shoulders in response, “I wanted to make sure you weren’t being sneaky and giving him the heads-up to our plan.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Strange Girl is all that matters,” I say confidently, even as heat rushes to my cheeks when she smiles at me widely.

“Always my Knight, huh.”

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