Page 107 of Broken Halo
“I get that. From what I’ve seen of Quinn, she’s quiet but friendly. I’m sure she was doing her best to fly under the radar. But fuck me, after this and the babysitter, make sure I run a background check on anyone who wants to work for Ellie Montgomery in the future. This would have been out in the open instead of getting this far.”
“Don’t worry, I will. Look, I’ve gotta go. Ellie’s in waiting for Quinn and I’m anxious to get to know the sister I didn’t know I had until yesterday.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Jen’s almost beside herself wanting to know everything there is about their long-lost cousin. Just wanted to give you the heads up that your dad either has the flu or he’s on a Netflix binge. I’m getting nothing but literal fucking crickets on those closed-circuit feeds. He hasn’t even walked outside for a smoke,” he adds.
“I’ll keep an eye on it. Talk to you tomorrow.” I press the engine button and grab my wallet. When I drop my stuff on the kitchen counter and wade through the boxes and furniture that is our combined lives, the front door is standing open. Frowning, I move through to the front porch and a white car is parked in the driveway.
“Ellie?” I yell into the darkness and jog to the car but when I get to the driver’s side, the door is standing open and there’s a purse on the ground I don’t recognize. Tearing through it, it’s exactly what I feared. Rino Toussaint—her driver’s license and a slew of credit cards to prove it.
“Ellie! Quinn!” I yell as I look down the street where something reflects in the dark from the dim, lonely street light. Shit. My insides twist when I get close and bend to pick it up.
Ellie’s phone, in a million fucking pieces, tossed to the street.
“Fuck!”
32
A Puzzle
Settin’ the truth free isn’t always liberatin’. Sometimes it’s toxic.
Ellie
Shit.
It happened in a blink. One moment I had Quinn in an embrace, reassuring her we were fine, and even though I didn’t totally understand why she kept her identity a secret, that it didn’t matter. That the truth is freeing and we needed to get beyond the secrets. She was crying and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, but I made her look at me and promise she wouldn’t run off again. Because we not only shared Montgomery blood, we had Faye in common and I knew that if Faye had a hand in raising her, she was good to the bone, just like Trig.
Her wounded, icy eyes were guarded, but she nodded.
I was about to take her inside when my world was flipped and shaken and turned inside-out.
An old sedan came out of nowhere and screeched to a stop. When I saw who it was, I grabbed Quinn’s arm and ran—or I tried to. She was confused and turned into a deer in the headlights.
They got to us both—Ray and his brother. I screamed and fought and scraped at Trig’s father, the past coming back in a rush—what are nightmares for most people were a reality for me. I was thrown into the trunk and Quinn was easily tossed in after me, but not before he wrestled my phone away and all I heard was glass shattering on concrete.
“Ellie?” Quinn weeps next to me where we’re packed in tight with debris and foul trash. “What are we going to do?”
We’ve been driving forever and I’ve given up on screaming. My voice is hoarse and my abdomen is killing me from where they tackled me before throwing us in the trunk.
“I don’t know.” I clear my froggy throat and try to calm my speeding heart. “Right now, we don’t have many choices. My ribs are killing me. Feel around and see if there’s anything sharp. Do you have your phone? They threw mine out.”
“No, it was in my purse.”
Shit. I try not to think about where we’re going or how far we might be from civilization. Or Trig. He’s got to be going crazy.
“I’m sorry,” she cries. “You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
“Stop. It’s not you. It’s a long story and I’ll explain when we get out of this mess—and we will get out of this mess. But Ray Barrett hates me. My statements to the police helped send him to prison.” I try not to think about the restraining order he’s breaking along with kidnapping us. If he’s willing to resort to this while on parole, it doesn’t bode well for our outcome. My voice hitches, deceiving me. “We need to stay calm and be smart. There’re two of us—being kidnapped with a friend is better than being kidnapped alone, right?”
Quinn continues to cry.
I wince in pain when the smooth ride turns bumpy—gravel pings and jumps, biting the metal of the old car we were thrown in. When we lurch to a stop, the pain is unbearable.
“Ellie,” she whispers through the dark.
“Did you find anything?” I ask.
Her hand finds my arm and it slides down, pressing a cool piece of metal into my palm. It feels sharp … ish. It’s better than nothing and I slide it into my front pocket. Loud talking turns to yelling.
