Page 52 of Forever Always

“Jay, what the hell?”

“Hold on, Beck, he’s . . . he’s by the homeless shelters and shit.”

“Why the fuck would he . . . ?” Then it hit me. Mr. Chase. What was the little shit planning? Oh god. He wasn’t going to confront him, was he? Fuck. Oh no. No. No. No.

I pulled at my hair and jumped to my feet. Why would he go there? Why would he fuckin’ lie to me?

“Beckett. Beck, man. You need to calm down.”

“I-I need to go get him. He’s not safe. I . . .”

“It’s okay. It’ll all be okay. We’ll both go. Just breathe, man. Riley’s okay right now. See, his dot is still movin’.”

“I need to get him. He can’t go there. He can’t . . .”

Hands grabbed at both of my shoulders, to stop my constant pacing. “We’ll go over there and get him. I’ll drive so it’ll be faster. Just take a deep breath for me, man.”

He sounded so desperate that I obeyed. “Good. Thanks, Beck. That’s real good.”

“I need to go. I need to talk to him.”

“You can. Let’s head out and you can call him in the car. He’ll be fine, Beck.”

I nodded, but my feelings were in such a fuckin’ jumble, I just wasn’t sure. I was mostly panicked. Riley was gonna do something stupid because I couldn’t get my head outta my ass and deal with the situation, so he was taking matters into his own hands. That had to be the only reason Ri was at that place. I did this to him. He’d tried to get me to talk so many fuckin’ times and I’d kept brushing it off, and now he was gonna confront the person I hated the most. He didn’t trust me to handle it on my own. Riley lied to me, and it was my fault.

I followed Jay toward the front door on autopilot. “I’mma grab my truck and pull it out front. I’ll pick you up.”

I nodded, barely listening. Jay shoved his feet into his boots and grabbed the door handle, pulled it open, and was immediately shoved back as my father barreled in.

“Where is it?” he bellowed as he stormed toward me. I didn’t think. I dodged the fist headed for my face, grabbed Jay, and bodied him right out the front door.

“Beckett!” he screamed as I shoved him into the hallway.

“Sorry. Don’t come in, no matter what you fuckin’ hear. Stay out there. And for fuck’s sake, don’t let Riley come in.”

I slammed the door in his pissed-off face and locked it. I’d have a lot of groveling to do later, but it would be worth it to keep Jay away from this fucker.

Just as the door closed, I heard a crash and the sound of something breaking. Fuck me. I ran into the kitchen, where my dad must’ve snuck into when I was distracted.

“Michael!” I bellowed. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

The glass flew right past my head and crashed into the wall behind me. Fuck, Riley was gonna be pissed. He’d just found those glasses at a yard sale a few months ago.

Thinking about Riley caused a tinge in my chest. For the first time ever, he’d lied to me, but I had to push that aside for now. The one good thing was that he wasn’t here for this.

I was just pissed I didn’t even have a chance to go get his ass and drag him back, and now I had to deal with this tweaking asshole. There was no question he was on something. His pupils were blown and his whole body was shaking.

“Where the fuck is it?” he snapped. He tore open another cabinet with enough force, I was afraid he was gonna take the door off. He started tossing all our food out of it.

“What the fuck are you doing? Get the fuck outta here. We don’t got nothin’.”

I stormed over to him and grabbed his arm, spinning him around. Something sharp pressed into me, right below my sternum. I froze, my eyes flicked down. Somehow, the fucker had grabbed a knife.

My breath caught and I felt paralyzed. I was bigger than him now, stronger. I could take him. I could have his wrist broken and the knife on the floor in seconds. If only I remembered how to move.

Dad smiled evilly. “Show me where it is or I’ll finish the job I started years ago.”

I tried to move, to kick back, but I couldn’t do anything. Dad’s hand squeezed around my neck tighter. I clawed at his fingers, but I couldn’t get free, and with the way he had me pressed against the counter, I couldn’t get leverage. My vision started to blur around the edges as I tried to struggle for breath. The sharp metal pressed against my rib cage. I fought harder but I was stuck. I couldn’t move.

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