Page 43 of Treacherous

"I got it," I replied in a flat tone as JD cranked the engine and tore off.

I couldn’t feel any pain in my head.

I didn’t wipe away the blood that was trickling down my forehead.

My complete attention was fixated on Teagan's face, and the fear in her eyes as she stood in the parking lot with her hand covering her mouth, watching us drive away.

****

Teagan

"I'm not kidding around here, Hope. You need to call the cops. Noah's been kidnapped."

I was finding it hard to keep my phone to my ear as I ran the entire way home from school. I had a stitch in my side but I didn’t stop – my fear and adrenalin were what was pushing me forward. "A creepy red-haired dude smashed his head against the car door, shoved him into the passenger seat and drove off like a bat out of hell."

"If Noah has really been kidnapped then why haven’tyoucalled the cops?" I heard Hope ask in an amused tone and I almost lost it with her. "Why did you callmefirst?"

"Because I'm stupid and obviously not prepared for a crisis of such epic proportions," I screamed, puffing out a breath when I spotted my house a few hundred yards up the street. "Where I'm from puppies are bundled into cars, Hope," I hissed. "Not six-foot, tattooed muscle-heads."

Oh god, what if he was hurt...

I didn’t like him but that didn’t mean I wanted anything bad to happen to him.

I could feel tears springing in my eyes and I quickly blinked them away. "The guy who took him washuge, Hope. I mean ginormous."

The line was quiet for a moment and then I heard her voice close by. "You're not joking around, are you?" she asked as I sprinted past her house in the direction of Noah's place.

I didn’t answer Hope – I was too busy running up Noah's porch steps. "Help." I screamed as I banged on their front door like a rip-raving lunatic. "Please help."

My knuckles were throbbing from the force I was using to knock the door. "Goddammit, open the bloody door," I roared, feeling out of breath and soaked to the skin from the rain. "Your son has been kidnapped – whoa…"

The front door swung inwards and I jerked back.

"What do you want?" the man I'd come to know as Ellie's father asked in a tight voice.

"Your son." I gasped, panting as I bent over and held my side. "Noah… he's been… taken."

His face reddened as his green eyes narrowed. "You're mistaken."

I shook my head. "No," I puffed, straightening my back. "I'm not. There was this guy at school…in a black hummer…red hair…"

Mr. Dennis stepped onto the porch.

His hand shot out and latched onto my arm, roughly squeezing my bony bicep. "I'm only going to tell you this once, girl," he snarled as he leaned close to my face. "Keep your nose out of my family affairs."

"Your family affairs?" I shouted in outrage. I tried to pull my arm free, but his hold was like a vice grips. "I'm telling you that your son was kidnapped – I saw it with my own eyes…"

"What's going on?"

I physically slumped with momentary relief when I heard Noah's voice behind me.

"This one was sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong," Mr. Dennis hissed as Noah joined us on the porch.

Sure enough Noah's eyebrow was caked in dried-in blood and my stomach sank. My fingers twitched with the urge to soothe his injuries which was insanity on a whole new level considering what an asshole he'd been during detention.

Oh crap, I ran out of detention…

Noah didn’t look at my face, he didn’t look his stepfather's face. Instead he kept his gaze on the arm Mr. Dennis was still squeezing. "Let go of her arm," he told his stepfather in a deathly quiet tone. "Now."

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