Set 103

Posted by AdminHHAdmin, ? Views, Released on August 30, 2025

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Chapter 103

Aiden

I had been brooding at the bar for the better part of the day, trying to rein my anger in as well as ignore the throbbing in my jaw. Every fibre of my being was screaming at me to find the little fucker who had taken Elli and beat the holy shit out of him until he told me where she was.

The problem was, while that would be immensely satisfying, I knew I wouldn’t get the answers I was after and worse still, I’d probably be the one who ended up in jail.

Noah Winters might be some kid from a rich family but he wasn’t normal. Everything he had done didn’t scream of your average schoolyard bully. He was sneaky and clever. He had been able to stalk Ellie for this long, not to mention cause the most amount of damage with very little effort. He was a sociopath or worse, a psychopath and his parents were giving him free rein to do as he pleased.

2

There was a much smarter albeit longer way to getting Ellie back. It was obvious the police weren’t taking this too seriously for one reason or another. I hadn’t totally worked out what was going on there. So far I

was down to two theories, neither of which sat well with me. It would be easier just to assume it was because they were inexperienced to the point that could be argued as negligent but that was too simple an excuse. No, my mildly drunk brain was more inclined to believe that the police didn’t care because Ellie was from a prominent family. That or Noah’s parents had already paid the police off.

1

Taking another mouthful of my bourbon, I didn’t bother looking up from my seat at the bar when someone sat next to me. The bar wasn’t hugely busy so there were plenty of seats for the person to choose from and

yet they sat next to me.

“Can I get two bourbons, no ice?”

The familiar voice made me freeze for just a moment as guilt licked up the back of my skull.

To say I was surprised to be hearing Liam’s voice again so soon after he punched me would be putting it mildly. I had almost resigned myself to the realisation that Liam would probably never speak to me again. It felt very much like the time we got into a fight at school when we were thirteen. It had been my fault and I was sure Liam would give me the cold shoulder for eternity. However, the next day we were talking again as if nothing had happened.

This was very different though.

Glancing up, I watched as Liam paid for the drinks without looking at me before sliding one of the glasses

over to me.

“What’s this?‘ I narrowed my eyes at him.

“A peace offering.” Liam replied before taking a sip of his drink then working to shrug his coat off.

“Figured it would be me crawling back to you offering an olive branch of sorts.”

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Chapter 103

“Dunno about an olive branch but I figured I owed you.” Liam shrugged. “You were right about the cops. They are useless.”

I said nothing to that. I wasn’t in a position to gloat.

“So tell me about this Noah kid and why you think he has Ellie.” Liam asked.

“I don’t think, I know.” I replied, finishing my drink in one mouthful. “He’s obsessed with Ellie, so much so he broke into the house to plant a camera and follow her everywhere. We went to the police several weeks ago, before…well you know.” I couldn’t bring myself to talk about Ellie’s suicide attempt. “We don’t have any solid proof but we think he was behind Ellie’s drink being spiked. It seemed like no matter what we did, he just found a way to get to Ellie. It was dragging her down but we thought we had figured it out. She left school, she was doing better. She had been attending self defence classes and counselling.”