Page 142 of Dark Tangled Truths
Sophie wrings her hands and has that horribly guilty look like she did something wrong.
“He told me not to say anything, and then I didn’t want to get in trouble. This is my first real break at this school. A junior in a pretty important role.” She glances over her shoulder like she’s afraid someone will overhear, and I grab her arm to drag her into the hallway.
The door closes behind us, and I release her. “What are you talking about?”
“The rose. I didn’t know it was going to hurt her, and then it did and you were so angry. I didn’t want you mad at me. I just thought he liked her, and if she liked him, maybe she’d break up with you, and then we could be together. And I know now that was stupid, but he made it sound so fucking easy and real.” She’s practically trembling.
I take a slow breath. I filter through all the words. “The rose? You put it on the desk?”
She lifts her face and tears stream down her cheeks. “I did. He didn’t want me to touch it though, so he gave me a glove. It was odd, but a lot of kids in the art school are odd. Maybe he just didn’t want my germs on it. I didn’t know. I put the note and the rose on her script so she wouldn’t miss it. But when she picked it up...” She covers her mouth, and the tears multiply.
“Sophie, listen to me. You’re not going to get in trouble. I need to know who gave you the rose.” I keep my tone flat and sympathetic, but inside I’m raging. The temptation to ruin her life pulses through me, but I have other things to focus on.
“I thought he liked her. I thought it was a gift.” She cries a little more, wasting precious time. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known.”
“Who, Sophie?”
She peeks up at me. “Brandt.”
Damon
There’s this tight feeling in my chest, like I can’t take a full breath. Someone took her. Someone took her when I was right here. If I’d been earlier. If I’d told her we would be there. If, if, if.
Whoever has her has a lead on us, and they aren’t moving slowly. I don’t want to think about the blood smear or how badly Chase was beaten up. Is that how they managed to take Evan? They hurt her?
I’ll kill them if they hurt her.
“Hey, you okay?” Cam connects to our helmets instead of the phone. He made some calls while we tracked the dot.
“Did you get ahold of them?” I’m not examining that cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. That empty space that Evan usually fills. She’s alive. She has to be.
“Yeah, my mom and dad were still at your house. Adam talked to me. Wanted me to send the tracking information so he could let the authorities know.”
“When we stop.” It’s not exactly something he can do while we ride, and we’ve already wasted too much time.
“That’s what I told him.” Cam rides alongside me. “My dad can track my phone, so they’ll have that.”
I have my phone set so I can watch the map. The dot has stopped moving, but it’s still too far away for us to catch upquickly. Suddenly, it blinks out of existence. One second it’s there, the next second it’s gone.
I pull to the side of the road. Fuck. “Pull it up on your phone.”
Cam stops next to me and takes off his gloves to use his phone. “No signal for the ring.”
“Fuck,” I look at the spot where the signal was lost.
“It could pick it back up. Maybe it just went through a bad spot.”
“Maybe this whole area is a fucking bad spot.” Why did I think I could control this? Why did I think she was safe? Just because I put a piece of jewelry on her and called her mine?
But I didn’t think she was safe. She was always with one of us. Always with other people. Fuck, she was with Chase when she was taken. What the fuck was Chase doing with her? Did he set it up and whoever took her fucked him up as payment?
“We’re going to find her.” Cam’s words are low and steady.
“Let’s drive to where we lost the signal. Call Hawk and let him know. See if he’s found out anything.” I put my engine into first gear and shift up as we head down the road. No matter what, I’m going to find her.
EvanAnn
My head aches as I try to open my eyes. Whatever I’m on rattles below me and is moving. The road noise next to my ear is constant. When the vehicle goes over a bump, I bounce slightly. I groan as my head hits the solid surface again.
