Unconditional

“You’re not thinking clearly. Prints Cal,” she says before she pulls on a glove and picks it up before putting it in a bag. “We need to get this back to the station.”

“I’m not leaving Maddie’s car here.” I notice the keys are still on the seat, making me wonder if it hasn’t been long since she’s been here. I’m honestly surprised no one has fucked with it. “I need to keep following the tracker. Her necklace is still sending me a signal.” When I realized that her necklace was moving, but her car and phone were staying in one place, I wasn’t sure which one was actually with Maddie. It seems that they’re moving west but they’re not far from us. “I’m going to take Maddie’s car.”

“You sure you want to go alone?” Aria looks at me with her signature look and shakes her head.

“I’ll send for backup.”

Aria reaches for her radio and sends out an SOS for a missing person on Madeline Shaw. As soon as I hear her name, I lose it. I almost collapse where I stand, and if it wasn’t for Aria within arm’s reach, I probably would have hit the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere alone.”

“I’ll—”

“No, this is too personal for you, and you’ll lose it whenever you find her, regardless of the situation.”

“If someone has my girl, they are going the fuck down.”

Flashing lights surround us, and before I can blink, yellow police tape is moving in front of the bar, they’re dusting Maddie’s cherry red Volkswagen for prints and already have Maddie’s phone in custody.

I guess when the police chief’s girl goes missing, everyone reports for duty.

“Let’s go, Grayson,” Aria says as she gets in the car. I get in the passenger seat, the adrenaline starting to slow and my heart feeling heavy in my chest.

Aria must note my somber mood because her words slice through the tension in the car. “Cut that shit out, Cal. Now is not the time to give up. Maddie needs you to keep it together.”

“I looked in her car, Aria.” I shake my head as I prepare to speak my thoughts. “There weren’t a whole lot of signs of struggle. No tire marks. Maddie’s car looked the same.” I let my head rest against the back of the seat. “She might be wherever she is…willingly.” Maybe she ran. Maybe this was all too much for her, and she ran from me.

“Bullshit, and you don’t believe that.”

“I would rather that than someone taking her. You think I want to think about her ending this? But it’s better than the alternative. It would hurt me to lose her now, but it would kill me to lose her forever.”

“Cal, she’s going to be okay. We’re going to find her. But I need you to come back from the dark side. I need you to stay positive. Where does her necklace say she is?” I look down and see that it’s stopped, in a town not too far from us.

“Fuck, it stopped.” My heart races wondering if she ditched her necklace or if maybe we’re close.

We’re driving for another twenty minutes when the one lane road becomes narrower as we come to the edge of a forest.

“We can’t take the car in there, it might spook them,” Aria says. “I’m calling for back up.”

“Tell them to stand down,” I tell her. “I’m going in.”

I’m tied to the ceiling, the burn of the tight ropes cutting into my flesh. My arms are raised above my head with a rag stuffed in my mouth and I’m missing half of my clothes in a freezing cold room. My feet are frozen solid as Henry removed my socks and forced me to stand on the freezing cold floor. My body almost feels numb with how cold I am and my vision is starting to blur. I blink my eyes several times, trying to regain focus. Stay awake, Maddie, don’t pass out. He took off my pants, which was scary as hell, watching his eyes burn into my exposed flesh as he pulled my jeans off. A wicked chuckle slithered over me as he snapped my underwear against my skin like a promise of what was to come.

So, that’s how this ends? Bile rises in my throat at the thought. I’m grateful I am still wearing a shirt, allowing me to keep a modicum of modesty. My eyes float over to my coat that was tossed in the corner with my other clothes and I just pray my necklace is still sending a signal to Cal’s phone. My cheek still hurt from his punch and I can see that it’s already started to swell when I glance downwards.

My mind struggles to stay in the present, and I can feel myself slowly disassociating from the trauma and the state of this situation. The promise of death and destruction is everywhere I look in the small room and I find my head returning to the last time death breathed down my neck. I can hear my father screaming, my mother crying, the crash and bang of things breaking and then nothing.

The door slams open forcing my drooping lids back open and Henry puts a bottle to his lips. “So,” he slurs, “you asked me why.” We’ve been here for about an hour at this point, most of which I’ve been in here by myself. Not that I’ve minded. I’ve spent the majority of the hour wondering how I’m going to get out of here, and if it were possible to get out of these ropes. Short of breaking my wrists, no. My arms are exhausted, my muscles burning despite the icy temperatures. “I figured, I owe you a biiiiiiit of an explanation.” He takes another sip and moves closer to me.

My chest moves up and down rapidly. “Cal…your precious Cal ruins everything.” He puts a finger up and snaps them. “You need pictures.”

Tears stream down my face as I realize what’s about to happen. He wouldn’t confess unless he didn’t plan on killing me. The water that I chugged just before I left the party starts to catch up with me, coupled with the feelings of terror has urine sliding down my leg and into a puddle on the floor. Henry comes back into the room and shakes his head, a disgusted snarl on his lips. “Are you a dog? You can’t keep it together?”

I sniffle and he holds a picture in front of my face. “History lesson. This was before your time. Before precious Maddie came in and became the center of everyone’s universe.” He rolls his eyes and the obvious disdain and resentment is so evident, it makes me wonder how I never picked up on it before. Was he that good at hiding his feelings from everyone? My thoughts are interrupted when he thrusts a picture in my face.

“Look, bitch,” he snarls. “You wanted answers so bad. THIS is my father.” He points at a tall man standing next to Margie and him and Cal when they were much younger. “Obviously Margie.” He points. “Me and Cal. The little bastard that ruined everything.”

I wince at his harsh words. “Note that I didn’t say our father. Nope, just mine. Turns out my dear old mom had a little boyfriend. She got pregnant and had Cal and then my father left. He abandoned me because she gave birth to that little shit!” My eyes widen when he produces a knife from his back pocket. He runs his finger up the blade and pokes the blade through the photo and through Cal’s young face. I squeeze my eyes shut to forget the image of the knife going through the picture. My mouth is sore from having this rag stuffed inside but I feel my bottom lip wobble slightly. “Now, of course, this is all new information.” He tosses the photo to the side. “I had no idea any of this until last week. My father fucking died, Maddie. He died and I never even got a chance to know him. I never got to say goodbye. Because of HIM! My father left me and it’s all Cal’s fucking fault!” He puts his knife in my face. “And then you.”