Page 6 of Catch My Fall

My skin is bright red when I step out of the shower, securing the towel around my waist.

I swipe my phone off the counter and dial a number I’ve used more times in two weeks than I have since I met the guy nine years ago.

“Alec, what can I do for you today?”

“We got a video. A video of her being raped, Max. Have you got anything? Anything at all? It’s been two weeks. You’re the FBI for fuck sake, surely you have something!”

“I know you’re frustrated, but we’re exhausting all our resources and all of our manpower to find her.”

“Really? Well you could’ve fooled me.”

“Alec. We’re trying. We’re not just sat on our asses playing I—fucking—spy in our office. We have to be careful. Austin Sloane and his organisation have been on our radar for some time and you start poking too hard, they’ll get spooked and it’ll blow the whole thing.”

“So you do have something?”

There’s a pause. “We have a lead, yes. It’s not solid, but it’s something. And as I said, we have to tread carefully. When I know more, you’ll be the first to know, alright?”

A little over a year ago, we had an altercation with a guy called Bryce Tanner, an altercation that ended up with Rafe killing him after the abduction of Gage’s wife, Della. Little did we know, he had a half-brother, Austin Sloane, who has made it his mission to bring the Hudson family down in retaliation for his brother’s death.

Just as Tanner had, Sloane has his fingers in every pie going; Money laundering, corruption, prostitution, pornography and human trafficking. The authorities have been after him for years, but he’s a slippery bastard so I’m told, and getting to him is as hard as trying to break into Fort Knox.

“I appreciate it, Max. Sorry for being a dick.”

He chuckles. “It’s not a problem, man. You’re lucky I’m your friend or you’d have my size twelve boot up your ass.” Max and I met during our time on tour in the Marines and we’ve been friends ever since. While I went into private security, he took a job in the FBI. And I guess it helps to have friends in high places.

“Oh yeah? If I remember right you tried that in Iraq and let’s not forget how that ended.”

“You speak a word of that to anyone, or even think it and they’ll never find your body.”

I laugh out loud, a feeling that feels so foreign to me of late.

“Alec? I promise you, we’ll find your girl.”

“Thank you, man.” I hang up and toss my phone back down onto the counter.

I hope he’s right, because I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. Knowing Sierra’s out there somewhere and there’s nothing I can do to help her cuts me up inside.

But one thing is absolutely certain, I won’t rest until Sierra is home safe, reunited with her brothers, with her friends…

With me.

2

With my head resting on top of my folded arms that lie on the mattress, I stare up at my father, asleep. If I couldn’t see the steady, barely-there rise and fall of his chest, I’d have thought him dead.

It’s not long now… That thought alone has dread sinking deep into my bones and tears prickling my eyes.

He grows weaker by the day, the skin hanging loosely from his bones, his eyes sunken in and his cheeks hollowed. The cancer is slowly sucking all the life out of him and it won’t stop until there’s nothing left for it to feed on.

If I stare at him for long enough, he doesn’t look like my father, not the man I remember from my childhood. Strong, energetic, fun. Now he’s sullen, weak… Dying.

A cough has my eyes lifting to find my dad’s half-open peering down at me. “You d—don’t have to watch over me, sweetheart. I’m not going anyw—where just yet,” he says breathlessly, his voice weak and hoarse, barely a whisper.

Since his stroke a while back, his words come slower to him now, and he stumbles over them sometimes. Pair that with the fact he’s barely eaten in weeks and he doesn’t have any energy anymore, just another perk of living with terminal cancer.

“I don’t want to leave you.” My chin trembles.

Most of the time I’m able to school my features, force a smile and put on a brave face. But when he’s asleep or not looking, I break down into an uncontrollable sob I can’t contain. It’s taking all my strength to remain strong, but it’s so hard when the inevitable looms like a dark cloud above us.

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