“She’s just a little girl.”
Noah shakes his head, a grin pulling at his lips. “If she heard you call her that right now, you’d be in for a world of trouble.”
I can’t help but smile. “Tell me about it. She’d be cursing me out for days, screaming at me saying that just because she’s short, doesn’t make her little.”
“I know. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been kicked in the shin for slipping up?”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “Who do you think taught her to do it?”
“I should have known,” he says, shaking his head.
I pull my head out of my hands and lean into him. Noah has been my rock since she was taken, always checking in on me, and making sure I’m doing ok. Not once has he allowed me to give up hope when all I’ve wanted to do was crawl into a ball and cry.
He’s given me every last shred of strength he possesses and made sure that I was able to go on another day to keep fighting. He’s been in and out, looking for her in the streets, knocking on doors, and peering through windows.
Most nights Noah comes home with bleeding knuckles after visiting the people he knew in his old life, hoping they’d have heard something or know anything about Kelly or the man she was with. I’d spend the night bandaging him back up only for him to go back out the next day and do it all over again.
My phone is constantly on me and my car has driven every street in Broken Hill, Haven Falls, and every damn town around here at least five times over. I’ve searched for the car, I’ve tried to recall the license number, I’ve tried just about everything and each time, I come up with nothing.
Noah wraps his arms around me before hauling me up onto his lap. I curl into him, squishing my face against his hard chest as his hand continues rubbing those circles against my skin.
I absolutely hate this. This is our first summer after finishing high school. All my friends should be out partying and living it up, recouping after exams and simply having the time of their lives before moving on to the next stage of their lives; instead this is what we’ve been doing.
I owe each of them my life. I don’t know where the hell I’d be without them. Noah has kept me sane, Tully and Violet have kept me alive, Aiden has somehow kept me from driving off a cliff, while Spencer has kept me down to earth.
Dad though…he’s hardly spoken a word.
I shouldn’t have told him. All I’ve done is make this so much harder for him. I should have waited until after when we have Ari home safe in our arms. Then I could have ruined it all by telling him the price I paid, but if I hadn’t told him, he might have done something stupid like go to Anton himself. Hell, he might have even lost faith and given up, which I simply can’t have.
I hate that I broke his heart as I see it every time he walks through the door. All he sees now is some other man’s child and a shitload of lies to go with it. I don’t know how he’ll ever look at me the same, I just hope that someday he will because no matter what, he’s still my daddy.
I pull up off Noah’s chest and look down at him, more than prepared to tell him how damn much I appreciate his love and support over the past week and a half when the high-pitched screeching of my phone cuts through my attention.
I groan as I hold onto Noah and lean back to grab my phone off the coffee table. My phone has rung nonstop since Ari was taken, and every single time it’s either Tully checking that I haven’t disappeared to make more deals with the devil, or Violet checking that I’ve eaten. Half the time it’s Noah making sure I haven’t locked myself inside my bedroom and am crying into a pillow.
I look down at the phone and find a private number. “Who the hell is this?” I question out loud as my brows draw down. I have all my friends’ numbers stored in my phone and when the cops call, the numbers always show up.
That only leaves one person.
My eyes go wide as they cut to Noah’s. I hastily accept the call before it rings out and find myself squeezing Noah’s arms, drawing blood with my nails as the anticipation of the call becomes way too much.
Anton’s voice cuts through the line before I even say hello. “I’ve got your girl.” Relief slams into me and my body drops down onto Noah’s as tears spring from my eyes. “Come and get her and then we’ll talk.”