Page 100 of Bullet
Adalyn.
“Hello?” I answer reluctantly.
“Harlee?” She sobs on the other end of the phone.
“What do you want, Adalyn?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what he had planned.”
“If you did, would you have told me?”
“I don’t know. I would like to think I would have, but I don’t know.”
Sighing, I look out across the yard and stare off into the distance. As mad as I am at her, I know it’s not completely her fault. She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Why are you calling, Adalyn?”
I hear her sniffle over the line. “I need help. I need out of here.” She lowers her voice. “He hit me, Harlee. He wasn’t happy after the rally and took it out on me. One of his friends had to pull him off of me. He would have killed me.”
My breath catches at her words. He hit his daughter? His own flesh and blood just because he didn’t get his way?
“What do you think I can do?”
“Help get me out of here. Please, I’m begging you. Just help me get away from him and you’ll never have to hear or see me again. I don’t want to die, Harlee.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I’ll think about it when I hear somebody in the background.
“Adalyn…you know you can’t hide forever. You were a bad girl and needed to be punished,” a mocking voice says in the background.
That can’t be…surely it’s not him, right?
“Adalyn, come on out. You know Daddy doesn’t like it when you make him angry,” he says, making my blood freeze.
“Adalyn, tell me where you are right now,” I demand.
Before she can say anything, though, the line goes dead.
Oh my god.
I jump off the window seat and rush to the door.
“Dad!” I yell as I run down the hall.
“Harlee, what are you doing? You know you’re not supposed to run in the house,” Dad says as he walks toward me.
Breathing hard, I shake my head. “That’s not important right now. Adalyn is in trouble and needs our help.”
His face scrunches. “Adalyn, who’s Adalyn?”
“My friend, you know, the one who’s William Danver’s daughter.”
Recognition crosses his face. “She’s fine. Now come eat lunch.”
He turns to walk away, but I grab onto his arm.
“She’s not fine, Dad. He said he was going to punish her. I heard him,” I tell him through clenched teeth.
“It’s none of our business, Harlee. Now leave it to rest and come and eat.”
