Vanished (Private 12)

Taking a deep breath, I opened a new message and started to type.

Dear Ivy,

I’m so sorry about the way I’ve treated you, especially that night in the bathroom. I can only say that I was under a ton of stress, and didn’t really know what I was saying. I know it’s no excuse, and I won’t blame you if you never want to speak to me again. I just wanted you to know I’m sorry.

Love,

Reed

I read it over once and, too tired to quibble with myself over grammar or eloquence, hit send.

Five minutes later I was still sitting there, contemplating a ten-minute catnap, but decided I was too wrecked to even get up the energy to drop into bed, when there was a knock on my door.

My head whipped around and I stared at it. Was it Noelle, come to try to explain again? Could it possibly be Ivy? Maybe she’d already received and read the e-mail. I got up slowly, my heart pounding, and opened the door.

It was Josh. Who should have been in poli sci right about then.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. My fingers gripped the doorknob for dear life, knowing that if I removed them, I’d probably fall right over at his feet.

“Ouch.” He winced and reached out to touch my chin with his fingertips, turning my face to the side to see my scratch. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m … whatever,” I said, my brain all foggy. “What’re you doing here?”

“This,” he said. And then he kissed me.

That was when my knees actually did buckle. Josh held me up with both arms and kept kissing me, backing me a few steps into the room and kicking the door closed with his foot. My exhaustion forgotten, all I could do was kiss him back. I had thought I was never going to touch his lips again and now that I was, I couldn’t imagine stopping.

He was the first to pull away. His lips were completely swollen, his eyes glassy.

“What are you—”

“I thought about it and I realized … it made no sense, you breaking up with me,” he said, looping his arms around my waist. “I mean, we’d fought a little about Ivy and yeah, I’d seen you with Sawyer and talking to that Upton dude, and it was a little annoying, but then I realized … I trust you. And you trust me. So the whole thing made no sense. And then it hit me.”

“The kidnappers,” I said, the word like acid on my tongue.

“The kidnappers,” he replied with a smile. “They told you to do it, didn’t they? I was assignment number four.”

I nodded. It was all I could muster. How was I going to tell him that there were no kidnappers? That it was all just a game constructed by Noelle? He already loathed her. If I told him the truth he would go ballistic. He’d want to kill her.

But then … did I even care? Did I want to be friends with her anymore?

“So, Sawyer told Graham who told Gage who told Trey that he picked you up in the middle of Soldier Woods this morning,” Josh said. “What happened? Did you find Noelle?” he asked, leaning back a bit to look into my face. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She is.”

“Thank God,” Josh said, hugging me tightly.

“Why? You thought she wouldn’t be?” I asked. Hindsight being twenty-twenty and all, it now seemed kind of impossible to me that I’d ever thought the whole thing was for real.

“Well, this is Easton,” Josh said with a sad smirk. “So where is she? What happened?”

I swallowed hard and took a step away from him. “She’s … with her family,” I said, my tongue curling at the vile taste my words brought into my mouth. “They actually found her, in the end. It’s kind of a long story.”

His brow knit in confusion, but when I stepped into him again and rested my good cheek against his wool coat, he simply wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder.