Page 47 of Secrets Unveiled

Five minutes later, Owen comes running in through the front door.

“I’m so sorry, man! I didn’t know. I?—”

“It’s fine. We learned some things from Charles. The biggest being that Frankie wants Sage and I dead. Did he say anything else that would indicate where he was taking her?” Owen runs his fingers through his hair, guilt plastered all over his face.

“Nah, he came to the hospital. Asked how she was doing. Sage finally woke up about ten minutes after you all left, said she was in pain and the nurse gave her more pain meds. Frankie then left and spoke with the nurse about discharge. The nurse said she wouldn’t be discharged for another couple days, but Frankie was insistent that it be tonight. I remember he looked flustered and in a rush of some kind.” Owen takes a deep breath before continuing. “Then he demanded that he take her home. He wanted her comfortable in her own space and had to fill out a form that stated he was going against hospital recommendations. But then the doctor came in and said she is legally an adult, and she has to make the decision herself.”

“What did Sage say?” I ask.

“Well, at first, she was hesitant and wanted to stay in the hospital due to her pain level, but then Frankie sat on her bed beside her and whispered something in her ear. After that, she agreed and said she wanted to go home. Ophelia and I tried to talk her out of it due to her state, but she was adamant that she needed to go home. Fifteen minutes later she was wheeled down to Frankie’s car, and they left.”

“That motherfucker.” The backdoor suddenly bursts open and the twins rush in, looking like they just played around in the mud. Technically, they did, while disposing of Charles.

“What the fuck is going on?” Finn yells, both twins breathing heavily as they just ran from even deeper in the woods than Saxon and me. Saxon quickly gives Owen a rundown of what happened in the basement, while I inform Finn and Brooks about what happened at the hospital. The longer we take explaining this shit show, the more danger Sage is going to be in.

“Right, let’s check Frankie’s house first. See if he’s dumb enough to go there,” Saxon says and starts for the front door. However, I have something that no one knows about: I had placed a tracker on Sage’s phone a while back in case she found herself in danger. I knew it was wrong and an invasion of her privacy, but right now, I’m pretty fucking thankful I had.

“I put a tracker on Sage’s phone.” The room falls silent as Saxon gives me a hard look.

“In any other situation, I would beat the fuck out of you. For now, I have to say, smart move.” I pull out my phone and click to my tracker app. Sage’s icon pings almost immediately. I look at the location and see that she’s currently moving. It looks like she is heading towards the hills. “She’s headed towards Ruhn Canyon on the outskirts of town.” I say, lifting my head from my phone.

“Fuck, and guess who lives by Ruhn Canyon? Fucking Mayor Harrison,” Saxon says as we make our way to the front door. I grab the knob and swing open the door, and freeze. The last person on earth I’d expect to be standing on the porch is now standing face to face with me, hand raised as if he was about to knock on the door. The rest of the guys also freeze behind me. Five sets of eyes trained on the person we thought had died, now alive and well, staring back at us.

“Dante?” I ask in utter bewilderment.

“Yeah… we need to talk.”

SAGE

My whole body is screaming at me; my skin still feels like someone is holding a torch too close to me. The burning and stinging sensation travels through my whole body, and I can’t help the silent tears sliding down my check. Frankie is driving, but he won’t tell me where to. While in the hospital, he insisted I come home with him, but I knew my body was not ready to leave the hospital. I hesitated at first, especially after seeing that Frankie was in the van that tried to kill me. I wanted to oust him right there, expose him for who he truly is. Then he told me something that quickly changed my mind.

If you don’t come with me right now, Saxon and Saint will be dead in the next hour. I’ll make sure of that. So, I suggest you act normally and sign this release paper so we can leave. If you make a scene, they’re as good as dead.

I immediately signed myself out of the hospital against the doctor’s advice. There was no amount of pain that I could be in that would make me stay and take the chance of my family dying. Leaving the hospital, Frankie pushed me in my wheelchair to his waiting car. Putting me in the passenger seat, he then proceeded to place zip ties around my bandaged wrists.

“Is this entirely necessary? I mean, look at me Frankie,” I winced as he’d tightened the zip ties around my badly torn up, and heavily bandaged, wrists. He hadn’t answered me. Hell, he hadn’t even looked at me.

“Frankie, what’s going on? Why are you doing this?” I pleaded, as he got into the driver’s seat, starting the engine, and pulling out of the parking lot. Again, no answer, not even a small glimpse out of the corner of his eyes.

“Where are you taking me? Where are the guys?”

“Shut up, Sage. Please, just shut up.” His voice was pained, as if he was conflicted about what he was doing. A tone that displayed so much emotion, yet so little at the same time.

“Uncle Frankie, please. Are you in some type of trouble?” I’d lowered my voice in hopes that my smaller, childlike voice would crack the stone that had encased his once gentle heart. He didn’t answer again. I’d stared at the side of his face, his profile looking so much like my father’s it triggered a sharp pain in my chest.

“I can help you if you are—if you’d just tell me what’s going on?”

“Shut up!” he’d yelled, making me flinch in my seat. Gone was the calm, silly, caring, and generous uncle that briefly raised me. In his place sat a stranger, unrecognizable and tormented by his own actions. I wondered if who he was before was an act this whole time.

We have been sitting in silence since that outburst. I glance at Frankie again and try once more to get some answers. “Are you going to hurt me, Frankie?” I turn my head back to the front, staring out the windshield at the darkness outside. We are traveling towards the hills. Towards the canyons near the quarry. The one I loved to visit as a teen. I don’t know where he’s taking me, or if he’d truly going to hurt me. I have to assume yes, or why would he be doing this in the first place?

“Did you try to kill me that day? I saw you in the passenger seat of that van.” The air suddenly shifts; the weight of the world feels like it’s crashing down on me as the inside of the car begins shrinking around us. I know his answer, but when he finally speaks, it becomes so much more real.

“Just know, this is all your father’s fault. You can thank him soon enough.” I can’t form another question, a response, a retort—anything. I am completely speechless. What was my father’s fault?

We finally reach the end of the road at the top of Ruhn Canyon. A massive white, Mediterranean style mansion, with beautiful arches and gardens filled with luscious flowers of every color that line the exterior, comes into view. Greenery expands the length of one side, the vines climbing the architecture so perfectly it looks like this house is straight out of a magazine. The house is absolutely breathtaking, and I can’t stop staring. I don’t even notice the man who opens my door until it’s swinging open so abruptly, I jump in my seat.

Rough hands grab my shoulder, my skin burning beneath his grasp, and I groan in pain as he drags me out of the car.

---