She walks to one of the cement benches and sits down, putting her hands on her head and cries louder.
I go to walk towards her and Trevor holds up his hand. Walking in front of her, I watch as he rubs her arms and she throws them around his neck crying into his chest. This is all my fault had I just stayed with her I could have gone walking with her.
I should have known leaving her was fucking stupid. I should have been with her every step of the way.
“Have you called the police?” Trevor asks rubbing her back.
“I had just walked through the door when Marshall showed up wanting to know where she is.”
“Okay, calm down. Let's call them and see if they can help. Marshall, call Luca and see if he can track her cell phone. We are going to find her okay.”
I nod my head and pull my phone from my pocket. Luca better do something right today or I am going to hurt him.
“Hello?”
“Luca, I need you to track a phone for me. Can you do that? The number is 555-9587. It's Joslynn's phone. She's been missing for at least an hour. I need you to find her now!”
“Whoa, man, take a fucking breath! Slow down. Let me see what I can do.”
“Hurry up! Call me as soon as you know anything!” I yell and hang up the phone.
When I look to Trevor, he's still on the phone with the police so I walk over to Taylor. I want her to know I left because I thought I could end this.
“Tay?”
“Get the hell away from me, Marshall!”
“Tay, please, listen to me.”
“This is all your fault!” She yells.
She jumps up from the bench and slaps me hard across the face. When her hand flies back to slap me again, I grab her wrist and hold it until she looks at me.
“I left to help! While I was in the hospital, Trevor called an old friend of ours and had him try to find Frank and Tank. I wanted to end this, Taylor. I knew as long as both of them were running around she would never be safe.”
She jerks her hand away from me and sits back on the bench. Trevor walks back over and sits down beside her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest.
“We were trying to help her not hurt her. If he had told her what we were doing she would have tried to talk both of us out of it.”
Taylor nods her head.
***
The police officer asks the same round of questions for the third time.
“How do you know Miss Nethers?”
“I am her boyfriend.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“She went for a walk this morning around eight and I haven't seen or spoken to her since.”
Taylor told us what time she left before the police arrived. What was I supposed to tell them? I was out looking for the people who helped try to kill her so I could kill them? Yeah, that would help a whole fucking lot.
“Does she have any friends she could be visiting and just hasn't called?”
“Mark, seriously, this town has maybe ten thousand people. You know who the hell she is and who she talks to. Her best friend is Taylor. If she was going to go visit someone she would have told Taylor,” I say frustrated.
Joslynn and her father were the talk of the town for weeks after everything happened.
“Just answer the questions.”
“We can't report a person missing until after at least twenty-four hours. I will have my officers walk the track and check the woods line. She is still a grown woman who doesn’t have to answer to her best friend and boyfriend about where she is going,” he says and walks off.
My phone rings and I look at the screen to see that it's Luca.
“Tell me you know something.”
“Her phone is showing up at the park, Marshall.”
I look around the park once again praying maybe I just overlooked her and I see nothing. The park has cleared out since we got here. Not many people walk at night.
“She's not here, Luca, and the police aren't going to do shit until tomorrow.”
Trevor walks up to me with a question in his eyes.
“Her phone is here somewhere,” I say and he scans the park once again looking for any sign of her.
“Marshall, there's more,” Luca says.
I take a deep breath and wait for him to continue.
“After some more digging I figured out who Lucilla is. Her real name is Josie Lucilla Nethers. She lives in Texas. Frank is her brother.”
“Nethers? Brother?”
I can't believe what he is saying. Frank is kin to Joslynn as in close kin? I don't know what her mother's name is. I don't think she even knows what her mother's name is. Her father never took the time to talk to her about her mom and each time Joslynn asked her grandmother, she would tell her she didn't want to talk about her.
Joslynn's mother was a topic that seemed to be off limits with everyone.
“Yes and yes. I had to do a lot of digging to find out anything, man, but whoever she is, she is hiding from someone and she is pretty damn smart about it.”
“Alright, thanks. If you find anything else out call me.”
That has to be her mother. But who is she hiding from and why would she do something so bold as to buy Frank's? What did she plan to do with it? I walk to Trevor and Taylor as the police finish up their round on the track and leave the park saying if we don't hear from Joslynn by tomorrow night call them again and we can file a missing person report.
“Luca said her phone is here.”
Taylor pulls out her phone and dials Joslynn's number as she walks around the tree line. She walks a small distance into the trees and comes out with another phone in her hand. She looks so defeated as she sits on the ground crying with what must be Joslynn's phone held tightly in her hands against her chest.
I failed at the one promise I made Joslynn. I told her as long as my heart was beating I would keep her safe. I have no idea where she is and no way to find her with her phone here. She has to be okay.
“Tay, come on, let's go back to the house. You need to lie down,” Trevor says.
He bends down and picks her up toting her towards the house. I take one more look around the park and follow them. I have to find her. She has to be okay.
Chapter Five
Joslynn
I take a deep breath and sit up wrapping an arm around my stomach, my ribs hurting in protest when I sit up. What does he plan to do? Keep me locked in here and then beat the shit out of me for kicks and giggles.
His laugh is the same as it always was and one of the worst sounds I have ever heard. I always used to hate how he could say such mean things and hit me and then walk away laughing like he just won a poker game with his friends.
I tighten my arm around my stomach and try to stand and walk to my bed. The pain is unlike anything I have ever felt before. I kick the beer bottle he left lying on the floor, and it hits my dresser and shatters. I notice one of the shards of glass and I pick it up.
If he wants to come back in here and beat the hell out of me, I am going to make sure he walks away with at least some stitches. I take my pillowcase off my pillow and cut it with the glass. I wrap it around the bottom of the glass and stick it under my leg and wait.
It doesn't take long before I hear footsteps and he's opening my door, beer in hand. When he sees me sitting on the edge of the bed, he stops at the door and smiles. His teeth are all yellow from the years of smoking and never brushing them. He looks around my room like he knows I am up to something. Shutting the door behind him, he stands in front of it.
“You know they let me out on house arrest until the court date. Funny how that happened, huh?”
“They should have fried your ass the second you came in,” I say and smile.
I want him to come close enough to me so I can show him how it feels to be hit and cut. I am not the little girl he could kick around and scare any more.
“Now that's not very nice is it? I am your father.”
<
br /> “No, you're the piece of shit who used to cuss out and beat his ten year old little girl because he couldn't admit that he was the reason his wife left!” I yell.
My words shock him as he stops mid drink to stare at me.
“Getting feisty, huh?”
He walks towards the bed and bends down in my face. It takes all I have not to throw up at his feet as he bends down inches from me.
“I WANT YOU DEAD!” He yells.
I pull the piece of glass from under my leg and swing it towards his face. His hand flies to his eye as blood starts to gush out.
“You little bitch!”
He brings his hand back to hit me, and I jump up running for the door. I can feel the doorknob in my hand when he grabs my hair and slings me against my dresser. He throws me so hard I slide across the dresser and hit the wall on the other side. The glass from my hand flies across the room.
I feel like there isn't a bone inside of me that isn't broken or at least fractured. Everything hurts. His boots are in my view before I have time to move. When I look up at his face, I see the cut and smile. It goes from his eye to his chin. He will definitely have a scar. In a small wicked way, I feel like I have won a small victory in knowing that even if I die today when he looks in the mirror, he will never forget me.
I kick my leg out toward him hitting him in the stomach. He yells and grabs my foot dragging me from the wall across the floor over the glass from the bottles. I kick my leg out trying to hit his hand so he will let go of my foot. My body hurts all over. My brain tells me “don't give up, Joslynn, don't give up.” I know no one else is in the house, and I don't know how long I have before they come.
My foot hits his hand and he yells. His face is swelling. His left eye is swollen shut as he continues to fight with me. When he lets go of my foot, I scoot as far back as I can trying to get out of the way before he hits me again. I don't know how many more kicks I can take before I pass out again, and that is not an option. If I pass out again, I have no chance of making it out of here alive.
He bends over in front of me once again, a smug smile on his face like he thinks he's already won.
“I wanted to make this last, Joslynn. I wanted to take my time but you are making it very hard.”
I claw at his face and laugh. The memories of all the nights he sat and yelled at me and all the hits I took at his hands makes each small cut, kick and punch feel fucking epic. When my nails make contact with the cut he falls to the floor covering his face.
“BITCH!” He yells.
I look around the room and will my body to stand and make it to the door. Looking back, he's just lying there with his hands on his face. I twist the knob, walk out, shut the door and lock it behind me and enter into the living room. It can't be this easy. He would have never just laid on the floor and let me walk out.
I slowly walk around the living room making sure no one is here. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end. The living room looks the same as it did when my grandmother was still alive other than all the beer bottles and full ashtrays laying around.
I hear his voice and my heart races. I have to be hurt. His voice is like a sliver of hope in the darkness. It tells me that the bad things are defeated, and I am going to be okay. Nothing can get to me, and nothing can hurt me when he is here. I walk to the couch and sit down. The room is fuzzy, and I can't breathe. I watch as the door flies open and Marshall runs in, gun in hand, tears coming out of his eyes. I have won, and my saving grace is a man with gunk on his arms and a voice that makes me go weak in the knees. I lie back and close my eyes.
Chapter Six
Marshall
We make it back to the house and Trevor takes Taylor to her room to relax. Something we didn’t think any of us would be able to do until Joslynn was safely at home and in my arms. I walk to Joslynn's room and sit on her bed looking around. It looks just the same as it did the last time I was here. I lie back on the pillows and her smell is everywhere. I only hope she can forgive me.
Trevor walks into the room looking around shaking his head.
“Does she ever make her bed?” He asks laughing.
He walks to the bed and sits down.
“How is Taylor?”
“She's asleep. Joslynn is all she has, Marshall, and she's thinking the worst.”
“Yeah, join the crowd. I feel helpless. I should be doing something, looking somewhere. Someone had to have taken her somewhere.”
My phone dings and I jump. My whole body goes on alert.
“Yeah?”
“Man, you might want to sit down.”
“Fucking talk, Luca.”
“Her father got out of jail yesterday. He's on house arrest until the court date.”
I jump out of the bed and punch the wall. That son of a bitch! How the hell does someone get out of jail on attempted fucking murder?
“How?”
“They're fucking idiots? I don't know but I do know where he is supposed to be.”
“WHERE, LUCA?!” I yell walking towards the door.
“His mothers. Apparently she passed away two years ago and she left him the house.”
“Of course he took her back to her own personal hell.”
I hang up the phone and jump in the car. I take my gun out of the glove box and put it in my waist line. This shit ends now! Trevor runs to the car.
“There's no way I'm letting you go by yourself, Marshall.”
“You have no choice. We can't leave Taylor here alone.”
He looks back to the house and I see the decision in his eyes. He nods his head.
“You got your gun?”
“Yeah.”
“Bring her home, Marshall.”
Joslynn's house is at least two hours from here. I don't know how the hell her father got her from the park to there without a fight. I step on the gas and speed down the road running every light and stop sign on the way. She has been with him for at least a day and there is no telling what he's done to her. The thoughts that run through my head are nothing I want to think of.
I take a deep breath to clear my thoughts and drive. She will be safe before I leave that house- I will make sure of it.
When I pull up to the house, my heart is beating a mile a minute. I jump out of the car and run to the door calling her name. Of course the door is locked so I take a step back. Putting all my anger in to kicking the door, I make it fly open and hit the wall behind it with force.
As soon as the door opens, my heart hits the breaks. Joslynn is laying on the couch with cuts all along her arms and face. Her hand is cradling her stomach as she lays back, her eyes closed.
I run to her and drop to the floor by the couch. She moans when I run my hand along her arm, and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that she is okay. There is no way in hell I will ever leave her again. Had I not left the first fucking time this would have never happened. I walk around the house looking for her father. There's no way he would let me get into the house and not try to kill me or both of us.
When I go to her room the door is locked. I unlock the door and pull my gun out waiting for whatever or whoever is on the other side of the door. I see her father lying on the floor, his hand on his face and blood all around him. As soon as he sees me, he starts to laugh sitting up and scooting his back against the dresser behind him.
“I should have known you would always come to her rescue. You always did. You know she cried for weeks after you left? There was no one to tell her how bad Daddy was or to make her fake promises of safety.”
“They were never fake promises. I will keep her safe.”
I raise my gun and he just sits watching me. He makes no move to defend himself or beg for his life. It's like he's given up. He knows he has already lost whether I pull the trigger or not, his life is over. He may have gotten out on house arrest but after he goes back to court because of this, the rest of his life will be spent in prison. I slowly lower my gun, pull out my cell phone and dial 911.
As much as I would love to do nothing more than end him now, knowing he is sitting in prison for the rest of his life and knowing why and thinking about it every day is better than ending him now.
***
I pace the hospital waiting room as I wait for the doctor to come to tell me Joslynn's okay. Taylor and Trevor run in.
Forgive Me (Say Something Book 2) Page 2
