Teagan
"I'm not kidding around here, Hope. You need to call the cops. Noah's been kidnapped."
I was finding it hard to keep my phone to my ear as I ran the entire way home from school. I had a stitch in my side but I didn’t stop – my fear and adrenalin were what was pushing me forward. "A creepy red-haired dude smashed his head against the car door, shoved him into the passenger seat and drove off like a bat out of hell."
"If Noah has really been kidnapped then why haven’t you called the cops?" I heard Hope ask in an amused tone and I almost lost it with her. "Why did you call me first?"
"Because I'm stupid and obviously not prepared for a crisis of such epic proportions," I screamed, puffing out a breath when I spotted my house a few hundred yards up the street. "Where I'm from puppies are bundled into cars, Hope," I hissed. "Not six-foot, tattooed muscle-heads."
Oh god, what if he was hurt...
I didn’t like him but that didn’t mean I wanted anything bad to happen to him.
I could feel tears springing in my eyes and I quickly blinked them away. "The guy who took him was huge, Hope. I mean ginormous."
The line was quiet for a moment and then I heard her voice close by. "You're not joking around, are you?" she asked as I sprinted past her house in the direction of Noah's place.
I didn’t answer Hope – I was too busy running up Noah's porch steps. "Help." I screamed as I banged on their front door like a rip-raving lunatic. "Please help."
My knuckles were throbbing from the force I was using to knock the door. "Goddammit, open the bloody door," I roared, feeling out of breath and soaked to the skin from the rain. "Your son has been kidnapped – whoa…"
The front door swung inwards and I jerked back.
"What do you want?" the man I'd come to know as Ellie's father asked in a tight voice.
"Your son." I gasped, panting as I bent over and held my side. "Noah… he's been… taken."
His face reddened as his green eyes narrowed. "You're mistaken."
I shook my head. "No," I puffed, straightening my back. "I'm not. There was this guy at school…in a black hummer…red hair…"
Mr. Dennis stepped onto the porch.
His hand shot out and latched onto my arm, roughly squeezing my bony bicep. "I'm only going to tell you this once, girl," he snarled as he leaned close to my face. "Keep your nose out of my family affairs."
"Your family affairs?" I shouted in outrage. I tried to pull my arm free, but his hold was like a vice grips. "I'm telling you that your son was kidnapped – I saw it with my own eyes…"
"What's going on?"
I physically slumped with momentary relief when I heard Noah's voice behind me.
"This one was sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong," Mr. Dennis hissed as Noah joined us on the porch.
Sure enough Noah's eyebrow was caked in dried-in blood and my stomach sank. My fingers twitched with the urge to soothe his injuries which was insanity on a whole new level considering what an asshole he'd been during detention.
Oh crap, I ran out of detention…
Noah didn’t look at my face, he didn’t look his stepfather's face. Instead he kept his gaze on the arm Mr. Dennis was still squeezing. "Let go of her arm," he told his stepfather in a deathly quiet tone. "Now."
Mr. Dennis let go of my arm and he let go quickly. "We need to talk, son," was all he said before storming into his house and slamming the door.
"What the hell are you doing, you little nut?" Noah demanded the second the front door shut and the momentary relief I'd been feeling was quickly replaced with heated anger. "Telling George I was kidnapped?" he shook his head and glared at me. "What the hell is the matter with you?"
"Little nut?" I stalked forward and cusped the back of his neck, pulling his face down to my level. "You were kidnapped, you fool."
I touched the cut on Noah's face, his eyes blazed with something other than anger and I quickly let go – the surge of electricity tingling through my body was too much. "Who was that guy in the hummer?" I asked him. "Where did he take you? Why didn’t you kick his ass for doing that to you?" I shook my head and stepped closer to him. "Noah, what's going on with you?" I want to help…
"You need to stay away from me, Thorn," Noah rasped in a husky tone as he brushed past me. "As far as you can."
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