Page 25 of Darkened Promises

“Dammit, Max,” Bry whispers, not wanting to distress her. He starts driving, turning towards home.

“You didn’t see her in there. I’m not making her do anything else she doesn’t want to.”

“I’ll call Noah,” Nate says, pulling out his phone and dialling. He must do it directly, as I don’t hear anything through my earbud, and I don’t recall when the group call cut out either.

“What’s happening?” Nate asks. “Fuck, okay. Call Logan. Let him know. They can finally do their fucking job… Good. Should be there soon then.”

“N-Noah? Is he okay? Did he get h-hurt?” Rosy starts to move, her breath hissing through her teeth as it tugs at her skin, but she ignores it. Her movements become more frantic.

“He’s okay,” Nate reassures, putting Noah on speakerphone.

“Rosy, sweetheart?” Her sobs come louder when she hears his voice. “I’m so glad we found you.”

“W-where are you?” she sobs, her hands shaking as she touches the phone.

“I’m just waiting for the police to arrive, then I’ll stay and talk to them.”

“No, p-please come home,” she begs.

“I will, I just need to speak⁠—”

“Get home. We can call Logan from there,” Nate interrupts, taking the call off speaker and listening to Noah’s response. “He’s arrived? Good.”

The call ends. “He’ll be home soon.”

At his promise, Rosy’s body sags a little, and she leans back into me.

FOURTEEN

NOAH

Tonight didn’t go anywhere close to plan. With Rosy home safe, it’s hard for me to care. Even as I stand in front of an irate, fuming Logan after updating him quickly on everything that happened. Including Peter disappearing. I had hoped I could catch up to him, but by the time I managed to stagger to my feet and out of the office, he’d all but vanished.

“What the fuck were you thinking? Although you were doing anything except thinking. We were handling it. Now you’ve come in as fucking vigilantes and zero shits for the law,” he rages. The logic I usually rely on is absent as I stare at him.

“We had no intention of this happening. We were hoping to just get some more information. But I’m not going to lie to you and say I regret any of what we did when it resulted in finding Rosy,” I implore, rubbing my brow in frustration. I grimace as I touch the tender part of my face.

“Do you need to get that looked at?” Logan asks, sighing in defeat.

“No, it’s just a bruise. I need to get home. Rosy’s…not in a good way. I don’t know the details, but Nate said I need to get home.”

“She needs to go to the hospital, and we need to get a statement from her,” Logan says.

I nod. “Let me get home and see how she’s doing, then I’ll give you a call.”

“Fine, but from this point on, you do what I fucking say. If that means you don’t get involved, then you don’t get involved.”

I make it through the front door, hating that it felt so long before I was able to get here. The minutes felt more like hours.

“Rosy,” I whisper, and my voice cracks. I crash to a stop when I see her cradled asleep in Max’s lap on the sofa, a jacket draped across her.

“She wouldn’t go to the hospital and was asking for you, then wouldn’t—” Bry starts.

“What do I do?” Max implores, voice low and eyes panicked as we all hover around her. “She doesn’t need me. She…someone else should have her.”

“Fuck’s sake, Max. I’ll hold her,” Nate growls, striding up to take Rosy.

“Wait,” I cut in. “Take her into the bathroom.”