my mind switches over to Charlotte and Cedric.
“Security systems backup,” Joaquin says, “Doors are unlocked there for you. Go!” He tells me as I sprint towards the doors hanging them open. A sensored stairwell lights turn on but I fling the door to the classrooms open. Charlotte’s doors are open, Knowing her habit of closing the door and locking it before she leaves, she was here. The only question was if she was here when Cedric was.
I look around as Jackson follows behind me looking into the other classrooms. The classrooms are empty, no lights that were lit, no messes that were trashed. Not until we got into the last classroom.
Jackson and I step into it, turning the light on. If you close your eyes and listen closely you could envision what happened here. My hands start to itch, fumbling with needing something to touch to throw to smash.
Shattered red pieces or remnants of the vase lay on the floor. Chairs turned over. I could hear the ghost scraping of the chairs echo. I can imagine Charlotte in here, hiding, her screaming out. The art pictures that hung on the wall now scattered. Jackson tries to put a hand on my shoulder but I jerk my shoulder back. I don't want his sympathy, I don't want his sorrow and his apologies.
Charlotte is nowhere to be found and it's my damn fault. I should have gone with her. I would have protected her. or she even protected herself if we took precautions.
I ground my hands at my temple, squeezing at the pressure that built. I want to scream. I want the roof to cave in at the pure anger that bubbles over me.
“Keola, you might want to take a look at this.” Jackson's soft voice gets my attention.
I stood up, removing my hands from my head looking at the direction that he was facing.
There on the Whiteboard a message just for us.
“Come find the grim bitch and her little dog too,” it reads.
“I’m going to fucking end them, even if that means I lose my patch!,” I yell, grabbing the first thing next to me, and chucking it.
I went to throw another thing but was stopped. “You're not going to lose your patch because you're not going to do anything stupid.” Jackson tries to reassure me.
“How do you know? If it was Teresa you would do the same exact thing,” I yanked my hand away from him.
He grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me, “Because when I did she almost lost her life.”
He lets go with me, “We're going to find her.”
Daylight was soon to be breaking. We have limited hours of how much we can do. All I know is I can't go back on my promise to Finn. I told him that I would never break her heart and that I would protect her and right now I'm failing at it.
The only hope that we have is that Joaquin or Coda was able to find something, a lead, a direction.
I want to be able to understand what happened here. Knowing my angel, she wanted to make sure everyone was safe and that she didn't risk any more lives.
I run many scenarios in my head. When I was on the force, we had too many calls of missing people or runaways. And the success rate sometimes wasn't the best. My timer starts now and I'll be damned if I don't find her by the end of this night and have her safe back in my arms while I have the blood of a few dead birds smeared in my hands.
Joaquin comes running in, breathless from a sprint, “I got a trail on them!”
Jackson and I whip our heads in his direction.
Hope.
That’s all I have.
Chapter 50
Lottie
“Lookyatwhowehave here,” one of them says. His menacing smirk sinks every emotion I have in me.
They approach us, taking slow but small steps, to be cautious or try not to frighten us. Even though it's just the two of them they start to surround us. I run the options in my head. There's only two specific ways I could see this happening. One, Cedric and I fight and try to get away but take the risk of putting others in shelter at risk for the sake of our safety. Or two, I surrender and hope that the Grim Wolves are not far behind me.
My eyes lower to the ground, taking a deep breath and thinking of my next move. I trust and know that Keola will find me. He may not like it and maybe in the end there will be consequences to my actions but, I know that he'll find me. He won't let his angel fly too far away.
I slowly start to raise my arms high above me to surrender, even getting down on my knees. I rather go willingly than risk any harm. My eyes plead with Cedric to do the same.
