Chapter 102
His grip on my arm was rough enough to leave bruises. Noah practically dragged me out of the small but dirty bathroom into a small room down the hallway. The was a small cot with a lumpy pillow and sheet but also clothes. A single naked bulb hung pathetically from the cracked ceiling, oozing sickly yellow light out. Letterbox windows lined the top of the wall against the head of the bed. I don’t think this was ever a bedroom before as the cot looked like one you could buy from a camping supplies store or army surplus store. Either way, this was my new cell.
I gasped as Noah roughly shoved me into the room and I turned immediately to protect myself from any
attacks. However, Noah didn’t come for me. Instead he simply stood at the door smirking before he slammed the old metal door shut, the lock screaming as he pushed it into place. I continued to glare at the door, wanting to turn all the boiling rage and glacial hatred in me into energy to melt that rusted old door into nothing. I imagined Noah being behind that door as it exploded under the heat of my anger. The molten metal would burst all over him, burning that disgusting smarminess of his perfect face once and for
the monster he truly was.
all. Then he’d look like s
The light above me suddenly went out, snapping me from my horrible thoughts. In the darkness that wrapped its inky body around me, I felt my shame creep in along with the unsettling fear. I had been able to keep the fear deep inside of me. I wanted to keep it to myself, process it when I wasn’t being watched by my tormentor but now I was alone, I could feel it’s icy fingers brushing over me, wrapping around my neck.
But it was the shame that unsettled me the most. It settled in my belly like a cold weight, leaving my insides crawling. I was annoyed with myself for letting Noah get under my skin. He had coaxed and nurtured such ugly emotions and thoughts inside of me so suddenly that they had swept me up like a storm. I wasn’t a violent person, I never wished harm to anyone and yet since being kidnapped, there have been several brief moments where my anger had bloomed like a geyser under the surface. Dark thoughts had rolled like a storm, fogging my mind.
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Shaking my head, I took a few cleansing breaths, ignoring the pain it caused my abused lungs. I needed to keep my head about me because Noah wasn’t done with me, not by a long shot.
Aiden
I hadn’t been able to sit still since this whole nightmare began. I wasn’t used to just sitting doing nothing and yet my every move was under watch as the police fumbled around trying to find clues on Ellie’s disappearance,
I knew the police were more interested in pinning this on me than in actually looking into the true culprit. The detective hadn’t even bothered to go look at the police report from when Ellie went to them a few weeks back. The idiot thought he was a regular Colombo but he was as inept as a paperweight in crime solving. So far his method had been to send the crime scene team away with whatever evidence they had found like the blood on the doorframe and the empty syringe and then continue to get me to tell my version of events like a broken record no doubt hoping I’d slip up.
To make matters worse, in just a few minutes, Liam Ramirez was about to walk through the front door
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Chapter 102
wondering where the hell his little sister was and why there was police crawling through the house like
termites.
The sound of the car pulling up brought my attention back into the room. It took just ten second for the car to pull up before the door burst open and the imposing and uniformed frame of my best friend appeared. I was on my feet in a second when I saw the rage in his eyes directed purely at me. I didn’t have time to do anything else before he landed a punch to my cheek sending me stumbling back onto my ass.
“You asshole! I trusted you to keep Ellie safe!” Liam snarled, trying to come for me again but thankfully two officers held him back. “I’m going to kick your ass!”
“Lieutenant Ramirez calm down or I will have the officers handcuff you!” The detective boomed, finally doing something right.
Liam was still staring daggers into me but he thankfully didn’t make any further attempts to smash my face in for which I was grateful. The coppery tang of blood swirled around my mouth as I eyed Liam. He had every right to be angry at me but that didn’t stop the urge to punch him back. I righted myself, keeping space between us as an uncomfortable silence fell between everyone. For what felt like forever, Liam and I just stared at each other. I wasn’t sure what was going through my best friend’s head (probably how many hits he could get in before the police hauled him off of me) but I knew I was feeling my guilt increasing tenfold.
He was right. He had trusted me to keep Ellie safe and I had failed.
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“What are you doing to find my sister?” Liam finally turned his attention to the detective.
“We’re making door–to–door enquiries to find out if any of your neighbours saw anything.” The detective spoke up. “We also have evidence that suggests there was a struggle. We won’t know if the attacker left anything behind until the forensic teams have finished testing everything.”
“But you haven’t questioned Noah Winters yet.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
“We can’t approach him without anything linking him to the disa—”
“He was stalking her!”
“That’s enough, Mr Green!” The Detective snapped. “Unless you have anything to add to your statement I suggest you leave.”
“Gladly.” I growled, casting one more glaring look at Liam and the detective before grabbing my jacket and storming out.
