The ringing started again, and I fumbled for my phone, my lips dry as I tried to answer.
“Yep.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Thank god. Where the hell have you been? You’ve all gone AWOL. Tell me you’re good. Are you good?” Sean sounded panicked.
“I was asleep,” I muttered, my words slurring together.
“Asleep? I’ve been calling you for an hour. You didn’t hear your phone? And where’s Hana? She asleep too? I swear, if you’ve been fucking, I will end you. And Lacy and Jarrid areoffline too. I want someone to explain where the hell you’ve all been.”
I rolled my shoulders, trying to work out why my body felt so unfamiliar. “I ate a doughnut,” I said, my brain offering me the last memory I could remember.
“Great. Good to know. Where is Hana?” He said it with more intensity, and his tone nudged something in my brain, but I was still half-asleep and couldn’t make sense of anything. I swallowed, trying to make my mouth feel less like the Sahara Desert.
“Dunno.”
“Roman, what the fuck is going on? What do you mean you don’t know? Where’s Lacy and Jarrid? And do not tell me you don’t know again.”
I stayed silent, sucking in air through my nose because I felt sick, a sense of dread descending over me.
“Roman, I need you to concentrate. Where’s Hana?” When I didn’t answer, he said, “Okay, let’s try something else. Who gave you the doughnuts?”
“Amber.”
“Jarrid’s Amber came by and gave you food? Did she give some to Jarrid and Lacy?”
“Yes.” I remembered her giving them to us, but not having one herself. I pushed up suddenly, the room spinning as I tried to get my feet to work. “Hana?” I yelled as I stumbled through the house, pushing open doors like an angry drunk looking for a fight, but not finding any sign of her. “Hana?” I yelled again, louder this time. “She’s not here.” Fear echoed in my admission.
“Hold on,” Sean instructed, then his voice was muffled. “Wren, Lev, Amber… fuck, I don’t know her surname… she works in the high school…. Yes, her. Find me everything you can on her. Now!” Then he turned his attention back to me. “Roman, I want you to drink a massive glass of water. Let’s wake thatbrain back up.” I did what he said, filling a glass from the tap and drinking the lot. “Now, go outside. See if you can find Jarrid and Lacy. I’ll stay on the phone.”
I moved sluggishly, my body taking way more effort to coordinate than normal.
It didn’t take me long to find them, both in Jarrid’s car.
“Shit, they’re both unconscious,” I cried, rushing over as best I could, checking Jarrid’s pulse and then leaning over him to check Lacy’s. “Alive. Out of it, but alive.”
“Any ideas where this Amber would take Hana or why?”
I shook my head, forgetting he couldn’t see. “No,” I added. “Wait… The cabin.” Hana told me it was Amber’s family’s. It was set up with sensors and alarms to protect it. Surely, it had to be there. “I’ll drop you a pin.”
“You good to drive?”
I filled my lungs with fresh air as I hurried back to the house to grab my keys. I had to be okay. I had no choice, although I couldn’t work out why Amber would drug us or what she’d want with Hana, but none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was finding Hana.
I’d beenon the road about fifteen minutes before Sean called me back. I connected the call, his voice echoing through the Bluetooth speaker.
“Hey, I have Wren and Lev on the call too. I’m going to let them explain.”
I gripped the steering wheel, my speed exceeding the limit as I flew down the motorway.
“Amber Hunter, born Angela Lowell,” Wren explained.
The name shocked me so much, I swerved, a car in the lane next to me blasting its horn. “Wolf’s penpal in prison?” I checked, trying to keep my concentration on the road. If Amber had killed all those other people, it was obvious why she wanted Hana. I had no idea how long I’d been out of it or whether there was hope of Hana still being alive. Fear scorched my insides as I pressed the accelerator pedal harder, watching the speedometer climb.
Wren spoke. “Turns out, he was in a cell with Amber’s brother and took a shine to the photos he had pinned to his wall. They started writing to each other, and she fell for him. He promised her the usual—a life of love and adventure if she sent him money… you know the type. They wrote to each other for a couple of years. From prison records, it looks like he got a tip-off about how he ended up in prison and began to plan his revenge. We have copies of those specific letters, but it’s all in code. Him and Amber talked about a party he was going to throw when he got out. And each of Preston’s gang had their own code name. I guess Wolf thought he’d get out on parole and do the killing himself, but when he died, Amber took over the job. Given that she moved to town at the same time as Hana, she was probably watching Hana for Wolf until he got out.”
“How would he even know about Hana? She worked in secret. That’s what she told us.” The longer I listened, the more my brain cleared, the effects of the drugs ebbing from my system.
“We looked into that,” Lev replied. “Preston spoke to Wolf; sold her out. Told him he had nothing to do with it. He also told him that Hana’s brother was in the same prison as him, and if he wanted revenge, Tony was a good place to start.”
