The Missing One (Lost Series Book 2) Page 8

  “I need to go home and get ready for work,” I announced, hopping up.

  “Let me drive you home?” He took my hand and we left together. Nothing could wipe the smile off my face.

  Well, I thought nothing could wipe the smile off my face; that was until I got to work and saw that our windows were smashed and there was glass everywhere.

  Jess came running over to me, her breathing fast and ragged as she clutched at her chest.

  “This is terrible, Abby. Who would do this?”

  “I don’t know. Did you ring the police?”

  She nodded her head.

  “Good. Did you ring Tracey?” Tracey was our boss and she was literally going to flip when she heard about this.

  “I haven’t. I’m too scared. She scares me when she’s mad.”

  “It’s okay, I’ll ring her now,” I said, taking my phone from my bag. I had like fifty calls from Jacob from last night when I checked it this morning. I didn’t ring him back. I didn’t have the guts to talk to him yet. Looking at the screen I had a further ten missed calls from Blake. I ignored them and rang Tracey, who wasn’t very pleased about what had happened. She just told me she was on her way and hung up. Yep, angry didn’t begin to describe how she felt when she saw what had happened to her shop.

  Getting off the phone to her I called Blake and he answered after the first ring.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re all right. We got the call about the shop this morning. We are on our way. How are you?” His voice was panicked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little shocked. Who would do this? It’s only a small clothes shop.”

  “They might have thought there was money in there or something. We won’t know until we check out the camera surveillance and everything else. Don’t worry we’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay, bye.”

  I hung up and moved to stand by Jess, who was clearly shaken by the event before us. “I rang Tracey. She isn’t too pleased and will be here soon. Are you all right, Jess?”

  “Yeah, just a little worried about our jobs and stuff. What if Tracey thinks we’re incompetent and can’t do our jobs or something and just gets rid of us? I need this job.” She was on the verge of tears. I wrapped my arm around her in comfort as we stood in silence, looking over the destruction of our workplace. After a few minutes, we could hear the police sirens. A screeching set of tires caught my attention and immediately my blood ran cold. What was he doing here?

  “Abby, are you all right?” The caring, loving boyfriend mask was on, but evaluating his cold eyes told me everything I needed to know. He went to wrap his arms around me, but I quickly stepped back, not wanting his dirty, vile hands to ever touch my skin again.

  “I’m fine. What are you doing here?” My voice was cold and uninviting.

  “I’ve come to see you before I went away for work.”

  “Just go. I don’t care. We aren’t together anymore. I’m no concern of yours.” I stare him fair and square in those cold flinty eyes. Anger flared on his face. He grabbed my arm tightly, pulling me away from Jess, who was taking in the scene we were making.

  “You’re hurting me. Like usual,” I spat at him.

  “You will be my wife. You will treat me with respect.” He squeezed my arms tighter, causing me to wince in pain.

  “I will never be your wife. I want you gone and out of my life. I will get the ring back to you when you get back from your business trip. Make sure you tell your skank I said hi.” I smiled at him. He thought I didn’t know about his little mistresses he had in all the places he visited. It was funny what you find out going through his phone after he had passed out for the night.

  Did he think I was that stupid?

  He looked taken aback by my statement. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t go playing dumb on me now. I know things. They can have you, especially if they like the abuse you give them. I won’t stand for it anymo—” Before I could finish, the palm of his hand connected with my cheek, causing me to fall to the ground because the force was so hard. Tears stung my eyes.

  “Hey, you. Don’t ever touch a lady like that again.”

  My heart was racing. I knew who that voice was, my rescuer and future, Blake.

  “This is a personal matter,” Jacob spat toward Blake.

  “It’s not personal when you slap a girl in the street. Would you like to press charges, Miss?” Blake tenderly helped me up to the curb. I shook my head.

  “It was just a misunderstanding.”

  “Are you sure? You have every right to press charges.”

  “No. It’s okay. Just go, Jacob. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

  Jacob’s face was red with anger. “This isn’t over, Abby.” With his last statement, he left not looking back.

  I willed myself not to cry.

  Blake turned me toward him, lifting my chin so I met his emerald green eyes shining with worry and concern. “Why didn’t you press charges?”

  “Because I don’t want anything to do with him, and doing something like that would just prolong him in my life. Did you contact your friend yet?” I whispered the last part. He merely nodded. I desperately wanted him to wrap me in his arms and make me feel better, but our moment was cut short by a not so happy Tracey, who was yelling at the other officer.

  “I better get to work,” he smiled, releasing me. I go over and stand with Jess again.

  “Do you have surveillance cameras? An alarm system?” Blake inquired.

  “Yes, I was the last to leave yesterday and set the alarm before I left. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t have gone off last night.”

  “It may be faulty. We’ll take copies of your camera surveillance and our tech guys will come check out the alarm system. I’m terribly sorry about this. You should be right to go back into the store after lunch. That should give us plenty of time to gather the evidence we need.” Blake was using his calm, professional voice, trying not to allow Tracey to blow her top and become angry.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Abby

  Three Years Ago

  When we were allowed back into the store, we spent well into the night cleaning up the glass and straightening the racks. Tracey ran around to price new windows. Luckily, we were able to have a glazier come in and they had what we were after. Otherwise, we would have been camping out at the store.

  Nine rolled around and Jess and I were finally released from our duties. Walking outside together, we walked silently to our cars.

  “Are you all right, Abby?” Jess asked, stopping me in my tracks.

  I released a sigh. “Yeah, just a lot going on. As I’m sure you saw today.”

  “Yeah, your boyfriend…well, he isn’t very nice.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend anymore. I finished that relationship last night.”

  “Why was he here?” Her question had me wondering why myself. I knew he said he was coming to see me before he left, but something told me that he perhaps knew the shop was in this state.

  “He was coming to see me before he went away for work.”

  “Oh, yeah. I could see the way that police officer saw red when your boyfriend hit you. I thought he was going to punch him.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he wanted to as well, but being on duty he had to restrain himself.”

  “Are you seeing him?” A cheeky smile swept across her face.

  I couldn’t help the smile that flooded my own face. “I don’t know, honestly. I need to close things with Jacob, well and truly. But yeah, I really like Blake, the police officer.” We both giggled like little school girls. It had been a while since I’d had a moment with Jess like that.

  “Do you wanna go grab some dinner? I can ring Melodi to come as well?” I secretly hoped she wanted to, or I would just get Melodi to come with me.

  “Sure, that would be great! It’s been too long since we hung out. I miss it.”

  “Yeah, me too. I’ll give Mel a ring and ask her to meet us up around t
he corner, at that small burger place.”

  “Sure, sounds good.”

  Once we were seated, we ordered our favourite burgers and fries and a few drinks. We chatted like we did back in the days, before Jacob. It was a good night. I chose to shut my phone off because I was sure Jacob would have a few choice words for me since I pushed him away today. I figured Blake would be okay for now. I would ring him later.

  I was still feeling rather anxious about the whole Jacob thing. He terrified me, but I’m glad I’ve finally cut that cord. I’m not sure he sees it that way, though. He probably thought I’d embarrassed him. I couldn’t deal with it anymore and after meeting Blake, I’d decided not to go for second-best and put up with his crap and abuse. Blake wanted to show me what it was really like in a loving relationship and I planned to let him.

  “So, what did the police say about the breakin?” I heard Melodi ask, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “They’re looking at the camera footage and surveillance in hope that they can find something. I couldn’t believe how destroyed the place looked,” Jess said, her voice solemn and upset.

  I reached out taking her hand and gave her an encouraging smile.

  “It’s okay. They’ll get to the bottom of it and everything will go back to normal. Now all it need is just a few small touch-ups here and there,” I comforted her. The table fell silent as we continued our meals.

  Out of nowhere, Melodi piped in with something I didn’t want to discuss. “Where’s Jacob? He usually doesn’t let you out of his sight.” I heard the snide tone in her voice. I know I’d hurt her in the past by closing her out because of Jacob. I needed to work on our relationship again and fix it. I needed my sister back.

  “He’s gone away on business for the next week or two.”

  Jess looked up confused as to why I didn’t tell her the whole story. I eyed her, practically begging her not to say anything. She must have understood because she said nothing.

  “Oh, okay, cool. Well, I’m going to head home. Are you coming, Abs?”

  “Nah, I’ll be home later. Going to hang out here a little more.”

  After the girls had left, I sat looking around the room at all the couples cuddled together, friends and family together and laughing. It brought a smile to my lips.

  What am I going to about this whole mess?

  I’m going to have to leave my family. I’ll have to tell them that I needed a fresh start, might even go back to Australia for a little while. I do miss that place. Now I have all these crazy full on feelings for Blake. Will he come with me? Could I ask him to leave his family and life just for me? I released a heavy sigh and knew that I couldn’t possibly do that to him. The guilt would eat away at me.

  “What are you doing here alone?” I looked up into the kind eyes of the man who’d quickly stolen my heart…Blake.

  I smiled at him, my stomach swelling with excitement. “I wasn’t alone. Jess and Melodi were here with me, but they left not that long ago. I decided to stay a little while longer.”

  He took a seat as I explained. He nodded, reaching out and taking my hand in his, causing my body to flame up instantly. He sat there quietly, just watching me with his emerald green eyes. Even his gaze does magical things to me. He looked divine in his jeans and fitted plain black tee. He must have finished work not that long ago, he looked fresh from a shower and he smelled fabulous.

  “You looked lost in thought before I disturbed you.”

  “Yeah, I was just thinking a few things over.” I tried to pretend it was just something casual I was thinking about.

  “Want to talk about it?” he asked, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand, shooting tingles right to my heart.

  I shook my head. I needed these thoughts to stay with me because I didn’t know what was going to happen in the future. I didn’t want him alerted to my plans.

  “Would you stay with me again tonight?” he whispered, looking me directly in the eyes.

  I beamed back at him and nodded once.

  We left together, hand in hand. I was so relaxed and at peace. Blake could quite possibly be my happily ever after, but I knew there was a dark cloud lying over me called Jacob. My fear of him had multiplied tenfold, but with Blake by my side, I was home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Abby

  Three Years Ago

  I was startled awake by my phone vibrating like crazy on my bedside table. It had been two days since I stayed at Blake’s. As I reached for my phone, it stopped, so I left it. If it were important, they’d call back. Work was going well and everything was back to running smoothly, almost as if the break in hadn’t happened.

  Today was my day off. I was planning to have a day to myself with some shopping and pampering. With Jacob away at the moment, I didn’t feel the need to look over my shoulder every minute of the day. I could never relax when he was in town because it felt like he was always watching me. You would think he would be at work, but honestly I never really knew. He would always call or text to find out where I was or what I was doing.

  My phone went crazy once again. I reached over, seeing an unknown number buzzing away on my screen. I quickly answered and instantly regretted it. Yelling in my ear caused my heart to leap into my throat.

  “Why haven’t you contacted me since I left!” Jacob yelled.

  I was unable to form coherent words as fear gripped me like a vice around my lungs, making my breaths short and ragged.

  “Answer me!” the yelling continued.

  “I…I’ve been busy…” I struggled with each word.

  “You’re a liar!” Every word that spilled from his mouth was filled with anger and hate. “You have humiliated me publicly by not accepting my proposal. You haven’t called or messaged me—”

  “Well, have you tried to contact me before now? No! So leave me the hell alone.” I forced the words out angrily, getting over my initial shock of his outburst.

  I was met with silence, but even that was enough to tell me how angry he was. I needed to escape this man and move on with my life, but I doubted he would ever allow that to happen. Eventually, he spoke again.

  “How dare you!” he hissed at me. “I work hard so I can buy you beautiful things.”

  “I don’t want anything more from you because me and you are done.” My words were laced with conviction because I knew deep down in my heart I could never be with this man. A man who tore away at my soul, piece by piece, and if I stayed, I would become nothing but a hollow existence to those around me. An empty shell. A girl who wore a mask every day of her life. I knew I couldn’t be that person, not since Blake had shown me love and compassion. He lit up my life like a full moon lights up the night sky. He was my new life and my own happily ever after.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Melodi

  Present Day

  I swear my mouth is hanging open. I still didn’t get all answers I wanted, but I’m sure she’ll give them to me eventually. I glance toward the window and see that the sun is setting in hues of blues and pinks. We’ve been closed up in this room for the entire day. Rachel and Flick came in throughout the day to check if it was okay to give Katie some food. I can’t believe what she went through with Jacob and she never told me.

  “Are you okay, Mel?” she asks quietly, the hesitation evident in her voice.

  Am I okay? I honestly don’t know. I feel angry at her for keeping this to herself. I’m her sister! Then thinking about what she’d done, making us believe she was dead. How dare she? If she had told us, we could have helped somehow. I sense her watching me, feeling her unease.

  “I need a minute.” With that, I get up and walk out of the room to a full house of people.

  “Melodi, what’s wrong?” I look up to see Corban walking towards me. He’s who I need right now. I can’t even look at Blake. I’m sure now he’s lied to me about what actually went on as well. I’m even convinced he knew where she was this entire time, so when he put on a show for my family, it was all ju
st a lie.

  “I need to get out of here for a minute,” I whisper. My arms wrap around my stomach. I feel sick to my stomach hearing what Abby endured as well as what she has put us through.

  He just nods and guides me to the door. “Just wait and I’ll grab your coat.” With those words, he’s gone.

  I don’t know what to say to anyone. How could she do this to us? How are my parents going to react to this new information? Oh, man, Mum is going to flip and Dad is going to be furious. We mourned her. It’s taken us a long time to finally move on.

  Corban comes back, wraps me in my coat, and ushers me out the door. We are silent, but it’s what I need and Corban knows it. So much has happened and the last thing I need right now is my sister coming back from the dead. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy she isn’t actually dead, but she knowingly put me in danger the day she left—or died—or whatever it is that happened. Jacob knew and was probably following me for the last three years, and his showing up at my work was no coincidence. I’m sure he’s been planning and lying in wait for the perfect opportunity for him to bring Abby out of her concealment. Now I have my babies and Corban to think about.

  I think Abby needs to come out of hiding and tell the police and get the protection she more than obviously needs. Why didn’t she go to the police? I’m sure they could have helped, instead of just leaving and letting us all think she was dead.

  “Are you okay?” Corban’s words pull me out of my dark moment. He has a way of doing that.

  “Yeah. I guess as well as I can be with knowing most of what went down.”

  “What do you mean…most?”

  “I didn’t let Abby finish; it’s all too much for me at the moment. I needed space and food,” I giggle at my last words.

  “Let’s get you and these babies some food then, beautiful.” He kisses my cheek as we walk out of the building and into the fresh air.

  It’s a beautiful night, but I can’t help looking everywhere, and at everyone around me. Wondering and thinking if Jacob is around here somewhere, watching and waiting.