CHAPTER 19:
BEN
Tonight I was dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future. I wore a jean jacket, paired with a red puffy vest, red t-shirt, a button-up shirt, Levi jeans, and an old pair of plain white Nike’s I’d found in the back of my dad’s closet. I had to admit—Juniper’s idea for this was pretty freaking awesome, even if that meant I’d be hotter than balls in this outfit all night.
Sitting at the bar with Nate West, a.k.a. Nathanial, I made eye-contact with Juniper from across the room. She wore leggings, the neon ruffled skirt I'd picked out for her, and a cutoff t-shirt that hung over one bare shoulder. Her red hair was big and wild, styled on top of her head. She made 80's night look damn sexy. I gave her a small nod, which she returned with a smile before she went back to speaking with Owen, the band's keyboardist. Riptide Rush was playing tonight and they were all currently on stage finishing setting up. I'd been waiting all week for this chance to see her sing again.
“If another person asks me to take a selfie with them I’m going to snap,” Nathanial muttered under his breath. As a famous actor, I would think Ellie’s husband would be used to the attention, but apparently he wasn’t. Nathanial wore a black mullet wig, a t-shirt cut into a tank top, and black eyeliner in an attempt at an 80’s heavy metal rocker. In actuality, he’d told me, his outfit was meant to be more of a disguise than a costume.
Another woman came up to greet him. I guess his disguise wasn’t working. He kept his composure rather well, taking a quick photo with her and exchanging a few polite words. He groaned in agony after she’d left, though. “Okay, take a photo with me Ben.” He got out his own cell phone now.
“What?”
“Pictures of me in this costume will be circulating on social media in about five minutes whether I want them to or not. It’s better when I can control which one goes out first.”
I smiled as he gave me little choice, sticking his phone out in front of us as he snapped a quick picture of the two of us looking ridiculous.
“Nah, that’s no good.” He decided and took another. Then another. Oh God, he was worse than a woman. Then I watched as he immediately tweeted and Instragramed the photo he liked best to all his millions of followers. “So, you’re really doing this thing,” he commented absentmindedly as he posted. “You’re sticking with this girl even though she’s pregnant with someone else’s kid.”
My blood temperature raised a notch. “When you put it that way it sounds like she got knocked up after we started dating. It happened before. And, yes, I’m doing this thing.”
“Whoa,” he quickly said, putting his phone away. “I didn’t mean to come across as crass or offensive or anything. Actually, I think it’s pretty gallant what you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing it to be gallant. I’m doing it because I love her.”
The person sitting on my opposite side, some random stranger, huffed under his breath. I gave him a sideways look. People were always listening in on conversations when ‘Nate West’ was present. For a moment, I sort of understood how annoying it must be for him to have to deal with people always trying to poke their nose in his personal business. I ignored the person who got up and walked off a moment later.
Nathanial sighed, adjusting his mullet wig. “Maybe gallant is the wrong word. I respect that you love her enough not to care about anything else. How about that? I’m trying to give you a compliment here. Something I’m not good at doing. Could you just accept it?”
“Okay. But I’m with her because I love her—as long as that’s understood.” I took a deep breath, relaxing some. I knew Nathanial meant well. He always meant well. He was a good guy. Ellie wouldn’t have settled for anything less. “I’m still living in North Carolina because I love her. I became a fucking real estate agent because I love her.” And I’m about to become a dad because I love her. I left that last part off. But wow, these were heavy realizations. The craziest part of all—I didn't even mind any of it. I was happy because I loved her.
Nathanial signaled the bartender, ordering two shots. “Let’s drink to that,” he said. “Because it’s not every day that you find someone like that.”
The bartender returned, pouring our shots. Though I was a little reluctant to start drinking already tonight, I accepted the shot, clinking my glass against Nathanial’s glass. Then I drank the liquid down in one quick motion. When I set the empty shot glass back down on the bar and turned around, Rhett was waving like an idiot in my direction. I scanned the stage and didn’t see Juniper up there with him.
“I better go see what he wants,” I said to Nathanial. I stood and pushed my way through the crowded bar. It seemed like people were restless, all waiting for the band to start playing. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, checking the time, realizing that it was past nine—everything was supposed to start at nine. What was the delay?
“Where’s Juniper?” were the first words out of Rhett’s mouth as I approached.
I’d just seen her on stage with Owen not long ago. “What do you mean where's Juniper?” I yelled up at him from the ground. “I just saw her up there with you all a few minutes ago.” It wasn’t like she would have wandered off like a toddler and gotten lost.
Ellie came hustling up on my right. Normally cheerful, she looked worried as fuck. And that meant I, too, was suddenly worried as fuck. Every cell in my body started buzzing on high alert.
“Rhett—she wasn't in the women's bathroom!” Ellie hollered. “Or the men's. I checked there too just in case.”
“What the hell is going on?” My heart raced. My worst fears were materializing. Where was she?
“What's going on?” Noah echoed, who'd noticed the commotion and had left his nearby table with Georgina to come check on us.
“We need to start playing and Juniper is missing,” Rhett clarified.
The questions and the speculation continued. No one was voicing it but everyone seemed to have the same fear—Quinton. Juniper would not just have disappeared without telling anyone.
I’d been trying to tell myself not to panic or jump to conclusions. But then I remembered something and my stomach sank to the floor. “That man!” I shouted at them all. At this point, Nathanial had joined us from the bar. “The man,” I repeated, turning to Nathanial, trying to spit out a sentence.
“What man?” Nathanial asked.
“The asshole sitting beside me who was listening in on our conversation. That man.”
Judging by the blank stare on his face, he didn't have a clue who I meant.
“Fuck.” I ran my hands through my hair, tugging the shit out of it, while my eyes scanned the crowd around me for either this person—that, frankly, I didn’t get a really good look at—or Juniper. “I got a funny vibe from the man sitting beside us. I ignored it. What if it was Quinton? What if he took her? What if—?” Oh God, I couldn't even think past that.
I left the others behind, pushing and shoving my way through the crowded bar, until my hands hit the doors and fresh air hit my face. I thought, maybe, just maybe, I still might have enough time to catch him taking her—if indeed that was what was happening.
But…nothing.
Like a crazy person, I frantically started searching the parking lot. A few people lingered outside, smoking cigarettes, laughing, chatting. But otherwise it was deserted and there was no sign of her. I asked a few strangers if they’d seen her or noticed anything strange—no one had.
It felt like my whole entire world was slipping through my fingers.
He'd taken her.
Quinton had taken her.
Somehow, I just knew he had. Every fiber of my being screamed it. He’d done it so easily too—right in front of all of us. I promised to protect her, and I’d failed. My eyes left her for only a couple minutes and now she was gone. I dropped to my knees struggling to keep it together, struggling to think straight, struggling to formulate a plan for what I needed to do next.
It was Noah that pulled me from the gravel, back to my feet. He and the others had joined me outside in the darkened parking lot. “Tell me everything you can about the person you saw.”
My stomach was acid. “Um…” Pinching my eyes shut, I tried to focus. “White. Man. Um, late twenties, maybe. My height. Suit.” Yes, he’d been wearing a suit. I think. “Blond… maybe? I don’t know. It’s not like I was studying him.”
“Okay,” Noah said, speaking calmly and quickly. “And we know she’s from Virginia? Right? So if he’s abducted her the car would have Virginia plates.” Noah took a breath. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Rhett and Nathanial—you two drive south, toward Highway 64. Be on the lookout for anyone driving fast, maybe recklessly, with Virginia plates. Ben and I will go toward the north bridge.”
Everyone knew there were only two bridges in and out of the OBX. Unless Quinton had kidnapped Juniper and taken her somewhere local, his only options were to drive either north or south, and he’d have to leave the islands over one of the two bridges. If we could catch them before they hit either bridge, we might just have a chance at saving her. Noah’s plan was a sound one.
“Aston Martin db11,” Rhett randomly added.
We all stared at him.
“What? I like cars,” he said. “And Juniper and I had a conversation about it. He might not be in that car, as he owns several, but of the ones Juniper mentioned him owning, that one is the fastest. That would be my getaway car.”
For the first time, I did not even care that Rhett had spent so much time with her that he knew something I didn’t know. I was thankful he had, thankful he’d asked her such dumb, random questions that I never would have thought to ask.
Noah nodded. He turned his attention to Ellie. Under the moonlight, my sister’s face was pale and her eyes glistened with unshed tears, but she attentively hung onto every word Noah said. “Call the police for us,” he said to her. “Then get back inside, get on the mike, get every person in that damn bar searching for her, searching their phones for pictures of her or this guy. He was sitting close to Nathanial—someone had to have gotten a picture with him in it. Okay? Then find the bar manager. Figure out if they have security footage or whatever. Georgie—help her, keep your phone in your hand, and call me if you find anything. Alright. Let's go.”
Now that Noah had finished barking out directions, we all split up. Noah and I ran across the street to Noah’s parked Honda, where we both hurriedly clamored inside. He started the ignition and we sped off, heading north.
I said a silent pray that we would find her. That she and the babies would be safe and unharmed. We had to find her. I wouldn’t be able to survive if something happened to her.