Page 49 of Into the Light

I needed to get home. I closed my eyes and when I reopened them, the forest floor was dark, as were the trees around me. I’d been gone for far too long, and if Santiago hadn’t already gotten wind that I’d left, he would soon.

I jumped into the car, leaving Ash’s phone charging, before I pulled my phone out and checked the messages. There was nothing, which meant I could take my time on the drive back to Isles.

I couldn’t believe Franco killed my mom. He’s the person they were after. My dad was the reason Rain didn’t have a dad and got roped into this. Rain had to have known, so why didn’t he tell me? So much of his message hit me in the face like a slap.

He-he loved me?

Chapter seventeen

When Ember left this morning, all I wanted to do was go to the library and finish some of the work I needed to get done for my classes, but Mr. Ortiz had a different idea.

Just as I was reversing down the driveway, his familiar entourage of cars pulled to the front of the Den, which was a surprise because none of us were notified of his departure from Dansport.

Pico came running out the front door before glancing over at me as I dismounted the motorcycle, letting out a large exhale.

“I can entertain him if you need to go somewhere,” Pico offered.

“Nah. I was just going to study because I’m still failing, but he’ll tell me this is more important and I need to sit my ass down.” I cracked my neck, the tension rippling through me.

As I parked the bike, took off my helmet and walked over toward him, he exited one of the middle cars.

“Rain.” His smooth voice echoed throughout the property, and a few more guys rushed to the front door. He looked so much like Ash it was uncanny. He had the same brown curls framing his face, and although there were far more lines etched in his face than Ash would ever have, there was something so sinister about Mr. Ortiz. Ash may have looked like the villain from the outside, but he was always warm and fuzzy when you got to know him. Nothing about Mr. Ortiz gave anyone the warm fuzzies.

“To what do we owe this pleasure to?”

“I need to talk to you.” He glided past me with his gazillion bodyguards, which he believed made him impenetrable, but it was more obvious than just going under the radar.

“Oh-kay,” I grumbled once he was out of earshot and striding into the house. I stood there on the porch of the house and took a deep breath before I walked in.

“Sit next to me,” I told Pico because, little did anyone know, I had a plan for next year and part of it required Pico’s help.

Once inside, a few guys brought Mr. Ortiz his cigar cutter and a glass of whiskey on the rocks before we all gathered in the formal living area. He settled into one of the oversized mustard chairs in the corner while Pico and I took the couch.

As I sat down, I couldn’t help but think of the last time I was in here the morning after we found Ash passed away and I made Ember sleep on this exact couch and stayed up watching her. That night. It haunted my dreams. It kept me up when I thought about the way I saw him. The day I lost a part of my heart.

“We found him,” one of the members of the Den told me as I paced around the house waiting for this call. None of them would let me go look. They feared something with the Alpha house because the bonfire technically was supposed to happen tonight.

“Where is he?”

“We sent you coordinates. You need to come here now.” I nodded, hanging up, and then realized where they wanted me to go was off campus.

I looked to Pico. “Come with me, but leave everyone else here. I don’t want to risk anyone being off-campus.”

The implications of finding Ash off-campus penetrated through my brain because I knew this would not be good. I’d been calling him for hours, but this couldn’t happen. He tried ending it all when we were in high school, but I thought he was doing better. I thought he was okay.

Yeah, I knew he and Ember were going through a rough spot, but I thought with being away from Mr. Ortiz and the confines of the house, he was doing good. Fuck.

I jumped on the bike, and Pico hopped behind me before we peeled out of the driveway and followed the directions that the guys sent us. Why would Ash have even been found off-campus?

As we veered off the road into the darkness, I quickly scanned our surroundings to ensure we were alone before heading toward the location he was last seen.

Upon arrival, the first thing that caught my attention was his car. I swiftly brought the bike to a halt and dismounted, discarding my helmet on the ground. As I circled the vehicle, I realized the car was in pristine condition. There were no signs of it being rammed into this small clearing along the woodland path. Instead, it seemed deliberately parked here, hinting at one unsettling possibility.

“Please,” I muttered as Pico raced down the path, maintaining a stoic silence, refusing to confront the looming dread. As he bolted toward the other members of the Den, I followed the trail, meticulously documenting the track marks on the dirt road, capturing photos obsessively as I pressed forward.

Thankfully, we were blessed with a brief spell of decent weather in Isles, which prevented the total obliteration of crucial evidence but a lot of the mud was washed away already. As I traced his path leading to a clearing, my breath caught in my throat. Even in the dimness, an eerie tranquility hung in the air, and a dreadful certainty settled over me.

My gut churned with an attempt to betray me as I approached what I already knew. I looked down over the ledge.

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