Page 171 of Devil's Bargain

TWENTY-NINE

Nina.

“Your knee is bouncing again,” Dallas says from the passenger seat as she scrolls on her phone.

I tear my gaze away from droplets of rain on the window. “What’s taking them so long?”

She shrugs, peering out at the rundown one-story house in front of us. “It’s not as if we kidnap teachers every day.”

We tailed Scott to this address after school.

“I have a bad feeling.”

Dallas swaps the radio station on the stereo. “Don’t worry so much!”

I rub my hands over my face. It’s been days since April went missing, and we’re no closer to finding out where the fuck she is. Her mom is gone too.

“Here they come,” Dallas says, shifting in her seat.

I lower my hands, watching Ben and Matt drag a tied-up Scott down the driveway. It’s dark and wet outside. The house is off the main road, so there shouldn’t be too many witnesses.

“You think you can get away with this? You’re kids!”

The car rocks as Ben opens the trunk. “Get inside!”

“I’m not getting in the trunk. Fuck no!”

Dallas meets my eyes over her shoulder as the sound of a struggle ensues.

The trunk slams closed.

“He sounds angry,” Dallas comments and turns up the volume on the radio to drown out the screaming and shouting from the trunk.

Ben scoffs as he gets in the car and cranks the engine. Rainwater drips off his nose. “If he thinks it’s bad now, he’s seen nothing yet!”

Matt fastens his seatbelt next to me while I look through the back window at Josh and Steph following us in her car.

We drive in silence. The wipers slide across the window.

Dallas turns down the volume and looks at Ben. “Where are we going?”

He wrings the wheel as thuds sound from the trunk. “Far out where no one can hear him scream!”

“What happened to Jared? I don’t like that he’s disappeared into thin air,” I say, staring at the passing streetlights outside.

“We’ll find him!” Matt replies tersely.

“Did he say anything in there?” Dallas asks.

Ben shakes his head, glancing at her briefly. “No. We’ll have to beat the answers out of him.”

“What about his wife?” I ask, leaning forward between the seats. It smells of summer rain in here. “She didn’t see you take him, did she?”

“I doubt he has a wife,” Matt replies next to me.

I look at him, my brows knitting together. “What?”

He shakes out his wet hair and runs a hand through it. “We didn’t see any signs of a woman living in that house. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

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