Page 40 of The Book of Wrath

“She’s home. Pissed and angry that Megan waited for Roark instead of leaving with her, but Megan never liked to leave Melissa alone at night,” he said as he walked up to us. Melissa became hysterical with tears streaming down her cheeks. Rick tried to hug her, but she pushed him away.

“She… can’t…die! I promised Matt she would be safe if.. anything happened to him!” Melissa’s words landed like rocks in my chest. She’s known Megan for that long?

“Who the hell is Matt?” Roark gritted out. I couldn’t answer because I only knew what little Megan had told me.

“He was her fiancé long before Ryan bullied his way into her life. Matt said he had a feeling something bad was going to happen to him. He was getting threatening emails and messages, but he never told Megan about them. Rick has them all. He’s been secretly working on that boys murder since it happened. They were supposed to get married later that year. Megan was a ghost and then suddenly Ryan is introduced into the picture and the girl I knew was gone. Max I haven’t seen her smile since she met you,” Melissa said, barely able to regain her composure.

I watched my friends all look at me like this may be news to me that I didn’t already know. I knew she had a soul mate before she met me. I knew she had a love for someone before Ryan. I just didn’t know that Melissa knew him.

“Max, I need to know that you are mentally okay to help out here,” Rick drags my thoughts back to them. I nod.

“I know this may sound wrong, but do you have a picture of them together?” I asked Melissa. She nodded, reaching for her purse. She fished through it, finally grabbing her wallet out. She pulled out a folded picture of a young Megan in the arms of a well-built, brown haired, green eyed male. I don’t know why I needed to see this, I don’t know what good it was going to do, except show me the male who I would’ve lost her too. “Was he good to her?”

“Yes Max, he treated her like a queen. If he was still alive, I’m sorry to say this, but you never would’ve met her. He loved her with a love so unconditionally that when he died, she was placed on suicide watch. We worried we would lose her,” Melissa said. I handed her back the photo and looked at the ground. If he was still around I wouldn’t know what love truly is.

“Matt is gone, it does none of us any fucking good to talk about him or the past. Not unless you think the men who killed Matty are the ones who kidnapped Megan,” Ally said as she stormed up to us.

“Ally he has a right to know these things,” Melissa tried to reason with Ally, but it wasn’t going to work. Tony watched as Ally walked up to Roark and slapped him hard across the face.

He just sat there and took all three hits to the face. Tony finally grabbed her and pulled her away. “You were supposed to keep her fucking safe!” She spit at him before Tony got her under control.

“I could arrest you for assaulting an officer, calm the fuck down,” Tony said to her, thinking that would calm the raging wolf that was staring him down like he was lunch.

“Fuck. You.” She growled at him. I was half expecting her to slap him across the face. She went to swing; closed fist and he caught her.

“Get mad all you want, but the more you rage, the less time we have to focus on getting her back,” He was blunt with her, but she stopped trying to fight him. Instead, she fell into his arms, crying.

“I know I was supposed to protect her. I ran out of the office trying to fight my way through the guy outside the office door to get to her. Max there were two initially that I saw when the lights started to flash, but I didn’t see them when I made the rounds through the library to check the doors. They were all closed and locked. I swear I wouldn’t let anything happen to her or Melissa. The guy who was fighting me was large, muscular, probably six feet tall, roughly two thirty. He is a fighter though, or at least someone who’s been well trained. Every punch I landed he countered with one harder and faster,” Roark listed off what he could remember from the attacker. “The one who knocked Megan out had someone smaller come through the front door to help carry her out. They had this planned Max; I just think they were planning on you being here and not me.”

“Think they could be one of us? Or some other task force?” Rick asked, while holding his wife close to him.

“If not one of us, maybe someone who was formerly law enforcement or military. The way he fought me felt like I was fighting one of you guys. He knew how to counter my moves and I am one of the best on the force there is,” Roark replied. He wasn’t boasting though. He was the best second to me. He was the only one who gave me an actual workout when we spared.

“According to the footage I watched, two males entered the library while Megan was in the children’s room talking to a little girl and Melissa was in the office. Ally you were in the children’s room as well, so you wouldn’t have seen them. They entered this door back here and stayed there until after close. Where does this door lead?” Andy showed us all the footage, pointing to a door in the far back on the library.

“That’s the basement. Megan is the only person not terrified to go down there,” Ally said, her body shaking at the sight of the door opening. “Is that fucking door still open?!”

“As far as I can see, yes,” Andy said, and Ally shrieked.

“Close the fucking door! It’s not safe for it to be open!” She pushed Tony into the library.

“Ally stop it with that. Aside from the stairs, there is nothing—” Melissa began before she was cut off by Ally fussing.

“You won’t go down there either after you heard voices and books went flying! Don’t give me the it’s not haunted speech! Whatever the fuck is down there likes Megan and doesn’t bother her, but fuck that. Close that damn door and seal it for all I care,” Ally screeched before heading as far away from the doors as possible.

“Uh, guys, you might want to get in here,” Tony said into the camera, his normal olive tones looked paler than usual. Mitch and Brian nodded at us.

“Go, we’ve got Melissa and Ally,” we all nodded and headed into the library to the back of the building.

“Tony, you’re going to give Ally a heart attack if you don’t close that door,” Andy teases, but as we get closer the teasing fades away as we see blood and torn clothes scattered over pictures of Megan. Pictures of her with Matt. Matt’s eyes cut out of the pictures, red lines over his throat and face. A note lay over the clothes and photo.

She belongs to us now. Trade us Ryan Paxley for Megan Monroe, tomorrow night at the port of Wilmington. No funny business or we kill her.

A chill ran down my spine at the sight of the blood the letter was written in. Please don’t be Megan’s blood, please be pigs blood or some shit! I quickly take pictures of the scene before pulling gloves from my pocket and grabbing the letter.

“Bag everything, we are going fucking hunting!” I snarl as I grab a picture from the floor of Megan and Matt standing underneath a flower arch of roses and notice that it’s from an engagement shoot. I run from the back of the library out to Melissa.

“You said Megan and Matt were due to be married shortly after he was murdered,” Melissa nodded at me, clearly confused by my question. Ally stormed over to me, rage seething from her. I could tell she was about to bite my head off for bringing him up again. “When did they have their engagement photos taken and who took them?”

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