Page 85 of The Catalyst

I take in a much deeper puff of my smoke than I normally do, trying like hell to cloud my brain from the truths he’s spitting.

Block it out.

Shove it down.

Ignore it.

“What do you expect me to do? She’s gone, in case you haven’t noticed,” I growl before stubbing out my cigarette.

“Oh, I noticed.” He frowns as he looks at me. “Youlether believe something that wasn’t true and exposed something to Nigel that I bet was supposed to be a secret. Clearly, she was upset. All you need to do is talk to her and explain yourself–I know, a truly novel concept for you. You can’t just bark and expect her to go along with whatever you say.”

“Woof.” I roll my eyes. I know I don’t talk a lot and get pissy when people demand answers from me or want me to talk.

He makes it sound so easy, but he doesn’t know my princess like I do. She won’t listen to anyone when she’s pissed off and she was clearly full of rage.

“What exactly did Nigel do to her?” he asks, his voice low. “When she pulled a gun on him and tried to shoot him, she said if he didn’t let her leave, she would tell us what he did. Do you know what that was?”

I didn’t ask about the gunshot I heard, but when I watched her walk out the door, I noticed no injuries on her so, it didn’t matter who shot the gun. Now to hear it was her who pulled the trigger, I’m a little proud of her.

It’s the first sign of her standing up for herself since Nigel hurt her.

My teeth grind at the reminder of the state I found her in that night. “She didn’t tell me explicitly, but based on her behavior afterward, I’d say he raped her.”

Ronan flinches at my statement and slowly shakes his head. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

“I don’t have any concrete proof or, trust me, he would’ve been in Warehouse Five weeks ago.” I take another long drag of the cancer stick before tossing it away. “She said we let it happen because she was begging for us to help her and we let him drag her into that room.”

Guilt.

Shame.

Regret.

It all hits me like a ten-ton truck, like it does every time I think about it.

“He fucking knows better, not just morally either. He knows the fucking rules better than anyone.”

I can’t argue against that. I completely agree and Ro is usually the one that I chronically disagree with. He acts all morally superior to the rest of us, but not in a bad way. More like he’s an actual good guy instead of fucked in the head like I am.

“Hey.”

I snap my head around as Gunderson walks around the side of the house in her badly stitched, rainbow colored dress. I think she makes her own clothes and she sucks at it.

“Hey, baby. What are you doing here?” Ro asks, tilting his head.

“Um, I think something’s wrong. Nigel called me and asked me to make sure Beth got home okay. So, I waited in her driveway for an hour and…she never showed. I even went inside to see if I missed her and the house was empty. I tried calling her, but it went straight to voicemail. I even called Shanti and she hasn’t heard from her either…She’s missing. There’s nowhere else she would go. I’m scared something might have happened to her.”

And, like that, I jump into action. People don’t just disappear. Someone always makes them disappear. And, if I find out someone hurt her, blood will stain the streets of Grove Hill and heads will fucking roll.

* * *

We searchthe entire town for her and put the word out, but there has been no sign of her. It’s been hours and I’m getting increasingly more antsy as time goes by.

We split off into groups: Oisin and Charlie. Ronan and Gunderson. Me and Nigel.

It’s the most awkward time of my life.

There’s only one place I can think to go and, really, I don’t think she would be there.

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