Chapter 25

Chapter 24
Justin’s jaw clenched, gone, great, just great. This kept getting better and better. Bree was going to be heartbroken. His steel gaze locked on Clay during the whole conversation.

“We may have found her mom, and since I can’t give any DNA we need you. Tomorrow?” Clay glanced at Justin who nodded his head. “Yeah, that’ll work, just don’t get your hopes up too much, it might not be her, I love you, Mom.” Clay hung up the phone.

“What did you mean by Tanner is gone?” Justin didn’t let his body relax, knowing exactly what was going to be said.

“He was killed, shot actually, I guess the night Emmy went missing, she was sixteen at the time, it happened five years ago, there’s always been a strain between the family, especially after I found out about being adopted, I never felt, complete, my mom said her name was Embrey Ericson, but this girl doesn’t remember, but she described Tanner to a t. My mom will be here tomorrow, what are we going to do about Marnie, though?”

“Ben and I will go out again tomorrow, Cierra can collect the swabs and send them out.” Justin stood from the table. “Do you have any pictures of your sister?”

Clay shook his head and laid it in his hands.

“Iris call me when she arrives and I’ll let Cierra know and send her over.”

Iris nodded her head as she scanned his face carefully, “Are you okay, Justin?”

“Fine, just let me know.” He stormed out of the house with Ben behind him.

Ben grabbed his arm and spun him around, “Justin, you can’t tell her until we know, you won’t, will you?”

“Damn it, Ben, I don’t know, she has a right to know.”

“But, what if it’s not true, though?”

“I don’t know, Ben, I can’t keep this from her.”

“Damn, you’ve got it bad.” Ben mused.

“Will you and Cierra stay out of it.” Justin clenched his jaw.

“Well, if it’s true, at least she’s only eleven years instead of fourteen.”

“That’s still ridiculous, she’s still basically a kid.” He grumbled.

“Don’t over think it, Justin, just let it go and if something happens, then something happens, but let me tell you, it’s going to be more hell to fight it.”

Justin glared at Ben a little, “Let’s go, I still need a shower.”

“Thank God, I thought you were sporting a new cologne.”

Justin slugged Ben in the arm then got on his bike, while Ben went to the Sonata.

Holly flew into the apartment and breezed over to the couch. As soon as Bree seen it was her, she fled to the bedroom. Even though she didn’t even know if she’d be allowed to stay in there tonight. She let out a shaky breath as she made her way over to an empty corner of the bedroom.

She sat down, leaning her back against the wall and pulled her legs up to her chest. She had to go back out there, she had to get the others free, if she was caught again it wouldn’t matter. Justin was nice but he didn’t care about her, there was nothing between them. Maybe she’d leave tonight after everyone went to sleep and get them out. Yes, that would be the plan. She’d sacrifice herself for them, they deserved better.

Three days since the girl, one six nine, left. Three miserable days and no one came to save them. Maybe Marnie just dreamed it all up. No one got free, no one was coming for them. All she wanted was her mom and dad.

She had heard the burly man talking that they’d be moved in four days. They had four days to be rescued and if they weren’t, who knew what kind of conditions they would be given to.

But after the fourth time of being battered she had stopped fighting, it hurt too much. She had no idea how one six nine kept up the fight.

~
Justin and Ben headed up to the apartment in silence at first.

“So, are we going back out tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“What if Sal comes back?”

Justin gritted his teeth hard, “We have to hope that doesn’t happen.” He strolled into his apartment and groaned when he saw Holly but fear rattled him to the core when he didn’t see his darlin’ anywhere. “Where’s Bree?”

“She went down the hallway a little bit ago, she might be in the bathroom or bedroom.” Cierra answered calmly.

Justin made his way down the hall, he saw the bathroom door was open. He headed in, pulling the door shut behind him. He turned the water on, stripped then got in.

He showered quickly, and dried off roughly. He wrapped the towel around himself then headed to his room to get clothes.

He walked into the bedroom, he panicked when he didn’t see his darlin’ on the bed. She better not of, he glanced around then seen her in the corner of the room. He slowly walked up to her, “Babe, what’re you doing?” he crouched down beside her.

“Nothing.” She whispered.

“What’s wrong, darlin’?”

She shook her head.

“Are you okay?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

He sighed a little, he held his hand out to her, “You know there’s a very comfortable bed over there that you can lay on.”

She pulled away from him though.

“Baby, look at me,” he whispered and when she didn’t, he reached out, tilting her head up to meet his gaze. “Come on, beautiful, talk to me.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Baby, what were you thinking when you left today?”

“I don’t know, I’m confused about everything, when I fell in that water, I wished to die.” She whispered. “Before Cierra showed up I was thinking about jumping, letting the water take away all the pain and never feel it again, you’ll ship me away once you find out who the man is that I remembered, and I don’t blame you.”

Justin pulled Bree into him and hugged her tightly, “Babe, don’t think like that, I’m not going to ship you off.”

“You’ll go back to where ever you came from eventually.”

“Or I could move my business here instead, I already have a place here, I would just have to sell the office and find one here.”

“No.”

“Maybe I just want to be close to my family again.”

She stared at him without saying anything.

“Come on, let’s go to bed, babe.” He stood and took her with him. Once he laid her on the bed, she hid her face. He turned to his movable drawers, so what if she was a major part of why he wanted to move to Saint Clairsville, Marnie and Iris were another reason, but she was the huge reason. He didn’t want to leave her. Some of what Ben and Cierra had said to him was starting to sink in, it was more than a desire kind of thing and he had to figure a lot of things out before he made the jump.