Missing in Jinx Cove

by Savannah Mae

  “So?” Lyra shrugged. “Why does that matter?”

  “It matters because why would a single man want to move to such a small town? How will he ever find a wife?” Calypso asked.

  “Maybe he doesn’t want one. Has that ever occurred to you? Not everyone wants to be married,” Lyra said.

  “Sure, they don’t. That’s what single people say until the holidays roll around,” Calypso mused, but immediately corrected herself before her sisters could point out the obvious. “Of course, I’ve never been married, so what do I know?”

  “Nothing,” Lyra said. “Can we get back to business now? If I remember correctly, this spell takes a lot of effort. We have to figure out the logistics. It’s not like we can make everyone drink a potion at the same time.”

  Calypso’s eyes lit up. “No, but I bet I know a way to make everyone eat the potion at the same time.”

  Lyra paused. “What do you mean?”

  “We own a bakery, don’t we?” she said.

  Lyra and Calliope nodded.

  “We haven’t had a free cookie day in a long time. There’s no time like the present. Let’s whip up a couple of batches and feed them to the masses. If the spell works, we should be in business in no time,” Calypso said.

  “How do you expect to make everyone eat one?” Bea asked. “Do you want us to hand them out all over town? Like we have time for that. I don’t even know my way around.”

  Calypso lifted a brow at her. “Way to put that brain of yours to work. Yes, I think you and Tweedle-Dee should go around town offering cookies to people. Say you want to show a token of your appreciation to everyone who prayed for your safe return or something. I’m sure everyone feels bad about what happened to you.” She glanced at their feet. “I hope you brought walking shoes with you because those aren’t going to do you any favors.”

  Juliana looked at her shoes. “But I look cute in these.”

  Consuelo groaned, “Go barefoot if you have to. No one will suspect anything. They’ll think the kidnappers took your shoes. You know when I was a young girl, my grandmother had me do something like this, except in that situation everyone ended up with diarrhea. I’m sure that won’t happen here.” She chuckled. “Good idea, Calypso. We’re on board. What do you want me to do to help?”

  Calypso patted her back. “You, my dear, get to bring down the big dog. Call that ex-husband of yours and tell him something horrible has happened to the girls.”

  “It’s too late. We’ve already contacted the enemy,” Consuelo said with a twinkle in her eye.

  “Did you ask him to bring his lovely bride along for the ride? I hope so because I’d hate to have her miss out on all the fun,” Calypso said.

  Chapter 21: The Abney Family

  “Are you ready?” Melanie took the time to change into something more appropriate for the day ahead. She put on a cute jumper she’d purchased online and a tank top. A wide-brimmed hat sat atop her head. “How do I look?”

  Ben eyed her outfit. “Like a kid but whatever. It works. Why are we doing this anyway? I still have to figure out how and when to get out of here. It’s not too late for me to audition. I gave myself some breathing room in case of a mishap. This debacle definitely qualifies as a mishap.”

  Melanie tossed a grape at him as she munched on another. “You mean disaster. We are the non-paid hired help. Don’t pout about your audition. I still believe it wasn’t your best idea. Forget about it. There will be better opportunities for you later.” She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Calypso said to dress for the weather and meet them at Abracajava in an hour. I’m curious to see what they’re up to, so why not go find out?” She looked around the house. “I hope whatever it is they have planned doesn’t land us in jail.”

  Ben took another grape off the bunch. “In that case, shouldn’t we eat first?”

  “Didn’t you eat before you got here?”

  He laughed. “Are you kidding? My mother made the works like she always does when her baby boy is hungry. She said she’d try to meet us there by the way. She needs some time to pursue her personal blend of investigation and kooky spells.”

  “What do you mean? What does she plan to do?”

  He shrugged. “Who knows? Did you really think she was done with this whole thing? Nope. She wants answers. I’m sure she’s boiling eggs and shopping for herbs right now. I guess, if it keeps her occupied and as far away from what Calypso and her sisters are up to, why not?”

  Melanie grabbed her purse off the counter and made her way for the door. “Let’s go before I change my mind. What do you think they want us to do?”

  Ben followed behind her, the bag of grapes in his arms. “I don’t know, but I hope it doesn’t make things worse. You know how they are. One of them gets a crazy idea in their head and they drag all of us down with them. I don’t want or need any more drama in my life.”

  She stopped next to the car. “Speaking of drama, look.” Anthony was parked in front of her house. “What do you think he wants?”

  Ben grumbled, “I thought I told him to leave you alone.”

  “You did?” She had no idea they’d spoken recently. “When did this conversation take place?”

  “When he broke your heart into a million miserable pieces. Do you even remember how bad things were between you?” He opened the car door for her. “Get in. I’ll talk to him.”

  She refused. “I can handle this. It’s not like I hate him or anything.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Really? I had no idea. It’s not like you didn’t get all giddy when you heard he’d be in town for a few days.”

  She handed him her bag. “Hold this, smarty pants. I’ll be back in a second.” She gathered her courage and made her way to the street. “What are you doing here, Anthony?”

  He asked, “Is that Ben over there? Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen his face. I almost didn’t recognize him. He’s usually all smiles when he’s with you. Is he still seeing that girl? The weird one with the long hair and all the tattoos?”

  She sighed. Some things never changed. He never had a good word to say about Ben or any of the women he dated.

  “He’s fine. What are you doing here? I thought you said you’d be too busy to stop for a visit.” Her throat swelled with emotion as the words left her mouth. “Did you change your mind? We’re on our way to—” She stopped, unsure whether or not to mention their destination to him.

  He smirked and walked over to greet her. “Is it a secret?” he whispered.

  Her breath caught in her throat. He was still as handsome as she remembered. It was all she could to keep herself from running into his arms.

  Ben honked the horn.

  “You look amazing as always,” he said. “Did you cut your hair?”

  She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He’d always loved her hair and made her promise she’d never cut it. “No and you didn’t answer my question.”

  He chuckled. “I wanted to see you.”

  “Why?” She was surprised by her response. “I mean, why now? You should’ve called first. Like I said, we’re on our way out.” She pointed to Ben’s car.

  “Yeah. I heard you. I guess I’ll let you go since you’re so busy. You don’t need me in your way. Besides, your buddy doesn’t look too thrilled to see me again. That’s the price you pay when you leave town for better opportunities and a ridiculous amount of money. Did I ever tell you how much they’re paying me to patrol Alliance’s streets? It almost makes me sad to come home.”

  “Are you?” she asked.

  He brushed a long curl off her cheek. “Am I what?”

  “Home?” she asked.

  He looked over his shoulder as a car drove down the road. “I could be. I’ve saved up quite a bit of money since I’ve been gone.”

  She nodded. “That’s good. What do you plan to do with it? Take a trip? Buy a new car? Waste it on junk you don’t need?”

  He turned to face her again. “No, I plan to buy a hou
se and settle down with the love of my life.”

  Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

  “Liar. I mean, good for you. I hope you and the love of your life are ridiculously happy.” She hated how those words cut her like a knife, even after all this time. Part of her wanted to walk away from him and never look back. Another part of her told her to stand her ground and pretend he couldn’t hurt her again.

  “Mel?” Ben called. “Hurry. We have to go.”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and said, “I should go. Good luck to you and your girlfriend.”

  He grabbed her hand. “You mean us. Good luck to both of us. I know you have to leave, but can I come back to see you later tonight? I have something I want to ask you.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. It’d been such a long time since he’d reached out to her. Although she hated what he did to her, she hadn’t completely gotten over him. No matter how hard she hoped, prayed, and cried her pain away, parts of it still clung to her heart.

  “It’s a simple question. I promise I’m not here to disrupt your life. Haven’t I already done enough damage in that department? You probably won’t believe this, but I hate what I did to you. I hate myself for it. You didn’t deserve any of it. I was selfish and dumb. This isn’t about that, though. I’m sure you don’t want to go down that road again. I know I don’t. Life has moved on, right? You have Ben,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I don’t have Ben. He’s my friend. Why haven’t you ever been able to see that?” She could feel herself falling back into the same disturbing pattern with him. That’s a place she hoped to never see again. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “You know what? Forget it. I don’t know why we’re even having this discussion. To answer your question, no, I don’t want to meet you later to talk.” She glanced back at Ben, who’d watched their entire exchange. “We have to go.” She walked away without looking back, for his sake and hers.

  “You okay?” Ben asked as she slid in her seat.

  “Drive,” she said as she fought back angry tears.

  He let the car coast out of the driveway. He and Anthony made eye contact.

  “I still think you could’ve done a lot better than him, but you never listen to me,” he said as he pulled the car out of the driveway. “What does he want now? To rub his perfect single man life in your face again? Doesn’t that ever get old? I’ll never understand what he gets out of hurting you? The guy is a genuine piece of work.”

  She didn’t trust she’d be able to respond without crying.

  “Talk to me. What did he say to you?” he pleaded with her.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Tell me, how did life get upside down so quickly? I feel like it was just the other day when everything was grand, or as close to grand as it could get for me. Work’s great. My client list continues to grow. You finally broke up with what’s her name.”

  He cocked at eyebrow at her. “Let me get this straight, you equate a good life with me being single? That’s good to know. I’ll remember that in case you need a few laughs.”

  She giggled. “You know that’s not what I meant. This whole week has messed with my head. Now he’s back and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  He glanced in the rearview mirror. “For starters, you might want to tell him not to follow us. What’s the deal with him? I know you don’t want to tell me what he said, but I think I can make an educated guess and say he wants you again. Don’t do it. Seriously, don’t do it. He’s a jerk.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. I know already. I’ll be the first one to say he’s a big jerk,” she said with a playful pout. “Okay. I get it. He’s bad news. I can do better.” She glanced over her shoulder at his car. “What do you think he’s doing?”

  Ben shrugged as the car inched closer. “Hold onto your seat and we’ll find out.” He slammed on the brakes, causing Anthony to swerve his car around him and skid off to the side of the road.

  “Why did you do that?” she screamed. “Let me out of this car.” She yanked the door handle and jumped out to check on Anthony.

  “Are you okay?” Anthony stepped out of his car and ran toward her. “How did he get a license? He shouldn’t be on the road.”

  Ben jumped out of the car. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  The two men squared off face-to-face, staring at each other with venom in their eyes.

  Melanie took a deep breath and wiped her brow. “Okay. Enough of this. Anthony, I told you I don’t want to speak to you. We’re over. Ben, I told you to leave it alone. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

  Anthony cast his eyes to the ground. “I think you have this all wrong. What I wanted to tell you is … I know who stole the car and kidnapped those girls.”

  Chapter 22: The Montoya Sisters

  “You do it,” I urged.

  Juliana shook her head. “No. I can’t. If she wants him to come here, she’ll have to make this call. I don’t want any part of this. I don’t believe he had anything to do with it.”

  “Neither do I, but there has to be a reason why he isn’t here to see how things played out. Aren’t you curious?” I asked. “I know he loves us, but I wonder if the thinks he’s gone too far and can’t bear to face us and tell us the truth.” The stress of the whole ordeal had finally caught up to me. My mother’s insistence that he was behind our kidnapping made no sense. He’d never once did anything to hurt us. Their marital problems were their own. We had two loving parents no matter their marital status.

  “You better make a decision because Mom will want to know what his status is,” Juliana said as she glanced down the stairs.

  I rolled my eyes. “She can call him herself. He’ll wonder why kidnapping victims are allowed to make so many calls. Let her handle it.”

  My mother yelled, “I can hear you. I’m not afraid to call him. It’d probably be better if I did it. It will make it more authentic.”

  “Aren’t you on the phone?” I yelled back. “Why are you talking to us?”

  Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked back and forth downstairs. “I’m on hold. Is that okay with you, young lady?”

  “This has to stop.” I grabbed my cell phone and ran into the bathroom.

  Juliana banged on the door. “What are you doing?”

  I dialed without thinking and waited for my father to answer.

  “Hi, baby girl. What are you up to?” he answered with his usual greeting.

  “Hi, Daddy. It’s me,” I said.

  He chuckled. “I know. I have caller ID. What’s up? Why do you sound funny? Is it your sister again? I told you a thousand times, she’s hard-headed. Nothing you say or do will change that. Just nod and smile. That’s what I used to do with your mother. It always worked.”

  I wished it was that simple.

  “What? No laughter? What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I could hear Amanda’s voice in the background.

  I took a deep breath and went for it. It was now or never. “We need help.”

  He inhaled loudly. “What kind of help? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Is it your mother? Is she hurt?”

  Amanda yelled in the background, “Why do you care what happens to your ex-wife? I thought you were over her.”

  He asked me to hold while he tried to calm her down.

  While he spoke to her, I left the restroom. My mother and Juliana were on the bed, waiting for me.

  “Is that him?” Juliana whispered.

  I nodded.

  My mother’s hand went to her mouth. “This is it.”

  I wanted to scream at her for putting me in this position, but we needed answers and since I had no other ideas, I had to see this through and hope it wouldn’t ruin our relationship with him.

  He returned to the phone. “Okay. Sorry about that, honey. What’s wrong? What kind of trouble are you in?”

  I found it interesting he didn’t ask about my mother again. Amanda’s reaction must have spooked hi
m.

  “We need help. We were kidnapped.”

  He gasped.

  My mother nodded. “Go on. We need them here.”

  Lying to my father didn’t sit well with me, even if it was supposed to help us figure out who attacked us.

  “Daddy, I don’t have much time. I need you to listen. This is important. We’ve been kidnapped. I don’t know who took us or why, but we need your help.” I swallowed a lump of emotion that formed in my throat.

  His voice shook as he spoke, “Where are you?”

  I didn’t have a response. We hadn’t anticipated he’d ask that question.

  “Where am I?” I looked at my mother.

  “Tell him you’re in Jinx Cove.”

  “Are you still there?” he asked. “Tell me where you are.”

  I panicked. Words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.

  Juliana jumped up and grabbed the phone. “Help us, please. We’re in the trunk of a car somewhere near a place called Jinx Cove. Come quickly. Bring Amanda with you.” She disconnected the line.

  “There, it’s done.” She clapped her hands at her perceived brilliance. “What? Why the long faces?”

  “Do you not understand what we just did? We’ve been told our whole lives not to lie. Ever. And what did we just do – to our father no less? I hope it turns out to be worth it.” I walked back into the restroom to hide my tears.

  After a few minutes, my mother knocked on the door. “Sweetheart, I wouldn’t have asked you to do this if I didn’t think it would work.”

  “I know, Mom. I know.”

  I listened to the sound of her heels clicking on the wood floors as she walked away. When it sounded like she was far enough away, I opened the door and signaled for Juliana to follow me.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I have to get answers. You stay here with her. Keep her occupied. I need to get things ready before they get here,” I said.

  “What do you mean by get things ready? No one has even told us what it is they plan to do with them,” she said. “As much as I hate to say it, if we don’t let Mom do this, she’ll come up with something worse for us to do. Let’s get it over with, then, we can get out of here and get back to our lives.”