Page 36 of The Sound of Secrets

Before I could call and ask Rocco where they were, my phone rang.

“Boss, it’s bad. Winnie is missing.” In all the years we’d worked together, and with all the horrors he’d seen, I’d never heard Rocco sound so shaken.

“What do you mean, she’s missing?” I tried to keep calm, but the words were strangled. Channing paled to the point she looked like a sheet of paper, and all the good humor and tipsiness faded from her face.

“She wanted to take Archie back to the care facility so she could say hello to Channing’s mom. I didn’tsee the harm in it since it’s on the way.” He swore, and I heard metal being kicked or punched on the other end of the call. “Your brother needed to make a quick stop. He said he wasn’t feeling well. I pulled over to a gas station and Winnie went inside to grab some stuff. I followed her in just to be safe, but Archie looked terrible, like he was gonna pass out any minute. I was trying to monitor both of them. Winnie said she needed to use the restroom. I couldn’t follow her in, and she swore she couldn’t hold it.” I could hear the anxiety and frustration in his voice and sirens in the background. “I waited ten minutes, and once Winnie didn’t come out, I sent a female employee in to check on her. The bathroom was empty.”

I went cold. I had to hold on to the counter to keep upright. Channing grabbed my arm, her face as frantic as I felt.

Rocco swore again, and his voice dropped. “It was Channing’s dad. He’s been in contact with Archie all along. Your brother still considers him his father-in-law. He has no idea the guy is a scumbag and a criminal. He convinced Archie you wouldn’t let him see Winnie because of greed. He told him you don’t want to relinquish control of her trust and lose guardianship. He painted himself as a concerned grandfather who just wants the chance to know his granddaughter. They planned this ambush. Archie didn’t know Winnie was going to get kidnapped. He’s inconsolable. The police are on their way.” I heard Rocco kicking something again. “Winnie’s backpack is in the car, along with her phone. I don’t have any way to track her, Win.” He sounded as helpless as I’d ever heard him.

“Where are you?” All I could think was I needed to get there as quickly as possible. I had to see with my own eyes Winnie was missing. I needed to confront my brother and ask him how he could betray his family like this.

“There’s nothing you can do here. The police and the FBI are sending people to the brownstone. He’s going to call you and ask for money in exchange for Winnie. This is beyond a scam or smear campaign. You need to prepare Channing. He’s going to prison for a long time for this stunt.”

“Unless I find him first.” I never considered myself bloodthirsty, but at the moment, I could rip apart Channing’s father with my bare hands.

“I’m so sorry, Boss.”

I grunted because I couldn’t tell my long-time head of security it was okay. “Bring my brother to me, Rocco.” He had more to answer for than the bald man.

I hung up the phone and gave Channing the condensed version of what was going on. She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth and bolted for the kitchen sink, where she was sick for a solid five minutes.

When she was finished gagging, she rushed around until she found a phone charger to power her cell back on. She was shaking so badly, I had to plug it in for her.

She kept muttering over and over again, “This is all my fault.”

I hugged her tightly and assured her it wasn’t. Deep down inside, I knew that if I just gave the bastard the money he wanted, he would’ve gone away and not kept hurting the women I loved.

It was so unfair that every adult in my niece’s life was fucked up beyond imagination. How was she supposed to grow up and be the best of us with the terrible examples we set for her?

Channing

The fear that coursed through me when Win said Winnie was missing was unlike anything I’d felt before. It was almost as if I disassociated from reality and was watching everything happen outside of my body. Nothing felt real. My body was numb, and my brain kept circling around the idea that it was my fault Winnie became the focus of my father’s scheme because he couldn’t break me. I should’ve done more to protect her from him. And I never should’ve let him get away with manipulating my family for his own means. I’d never been this frightened.

Not the night I nearly died at Parker’s hands.

Not when I ventured into the bowels of Halliday manor on a ghost hunt.

Not when I was knocked out and kidnapped by said ghost.

Not when Colette pulled a gun on me.

Not when I thought Win was murdered right in front of my eyes.

At some point, my body sank to the ground like my bones turned to butter. The brownstone was bustling with uniformed police officers and federal agents in suits. Win’s security team was also in the mix, but Rocco seemed less fierce than usual and the tension between him and Win was palpable. Archie was sitting in the living room, looking dazed and staying mute. He wore a hat pulled low on his face, a pair of dark glasses, and a bandana around his neck. His ears were almost nonexistent after the fire, so he couldn’t wear a normal mask. His tear ducts were also damaged, so he couldn’t cry, but the way his shoulders shook and the way his hands silently trembled indicated he was inconsolable.

Realizing it wouldn’t do my niece any good to give up and berate myself, I eventually got my legs underneath me and pulled myself to my feet. The fact I was on the floor, nearly comatose and unnoticed for Lord knows how long was a sign as to how distracted Win was. He was laser focused on getting Winnie back and making my father regret every choice he made since reappearing in our lives. He would never let me lower myself to my father’s level, figuratively or literally. Winnie needed me. He needed me. Now was not the time to fall apart.

I walked to the living room and sat down on the edge of the coffee table across from Archie. I’d gotten used to his appearance over time, but there was something about the guilt and remorse he was dealing with that made him look more like the young man ruined in his prime than he had since his miraculous rebirth. I tried to grab his hands, but he jerked away from me, his entire body vibrating with emotion.

“He uses and abuses everyone. You aren’t the first person he’s taken advantage of, Archie. Right now, the best thing you can do is try to recall anything he said to you that might help us figure out where he would take Winnie.”

“It was so nice to have someone to talk to about Willow.” His voice was thin and cracked. His body shook harder. “Her mom…” he trailed off because I didn’t need an explanation about how difficult it was to have a conversation with my mother. “I thought Win was being unreasonable trying to keep him from seeing his granddaughter. My brother is ruthless. I was angry when Winnie told me how he fired the security woman she liked so much. I felt like he was being cruel and controlling. I didn’t understand he was protecting her from people like Paul. I was foolish.”

I gulped and made a silent promise to apologize to Ky for repeatedly blaming him for passing private information to my father. The call was coming from inside the house all along.

“PT is painful and stressful, especially since I had to travel outside the care facility to see a burn specialist. I felt like a freak. Like everyone was staring at me like I was some kind of monster. I thought it was so nice my father-in-law made the time to come and encourage me during my sessions. I never realized he spent the entire time asking me about Win and Winnie. I thought he was curious about his granddaughter and wanted to make sure she was doing well with Willow gone. But he was looking for a way to get her away from Win the entire time. I’m so stupid. Willow used to warn me about him. Iwanted to believe he reconsidered his actions after losing a child. I thought we shared a similar grief. My God, what if he hurts Winnie?”

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