The Best Is Yet to Come (65)

Walking toward the school entrance, keeping Hope behind him, Cade opened the door, but not wide enough to allow them inside.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“It’s Ben,” Callie said, her eyes looking past Cade and pleading with Hope. “I got a call from my parents. Mom is freaking out. Ben contacted them and told them everything and now they can’t reach him.”

“What do you mean Ben told your parents everything?” Hope asked.

Both Spencer and Callie started talking at once.

“Stop,” Hope said, holding up both hands to get their attention. “One at a time. I can’t make sense of what you’re saying.”

Breathless, Spencer motioned toward Callie. “You go first.”

Callie drew in a deep breath, and tears filled her eyes. “Ben stayed home from school, but then we heard he showed up and was seen arguing with Scott.”

Spencer interrupted her. “We haven’t been able to find Ben anywhere. He was missing and wasn’t answering his phone or texts. Then Callie remembered the Find My iPhone app.”

Callie cut in next. “Ben must be somewhere in the school. He’s never without his phone, so if it pings here, then this is where he is. We need to find him.” Callie paused and bit into her lip. “I have this feeling something is terribly wrong. I can’t shake it. Please, Ms. Goodwin, let me in so I can find Ben.”

Being a twin herself, Hope didn’t doubt the teenager’s intuition.

Callie hurriedly spoke again when Hope didn’t respond right away. “I know you might find this hard to believe, but there’s this thing between Ben and me. I guess it has something to do with being twins. You have to believe me, Ms. Goodwin.”

“All right. Show me where his cell phone pinged, and we’ll go from there.”

“Thank you,” Spencer said. He held Callie’s hand, and Hope noticed the teen girl was fighting tears.

“No way,” Cade said, stopping them. “I’m not going to let you put yourself in any danger. I’ll go with Spencer. You two stay here.”

“You can’t do that,” Hope countered. “If you get caught in the school you’ll be arrested for trespassing. I have to be the one to go.”

“All right,” he agreed, with obvious reluctance, “but I’m going with you.”

“Can we please just find Ben,” Callie pleaded.

Using Callie’s phone, the four continued down the hallway until they stood in front of Coach Simmons’s office. When Cade turned the doorknob, it was locked.

“Try your key,” Cade suggested.

“That isn’t going to work on this door.”

“Try it anyway,” he said.

Hope handed him the key, and to her shock, with a bit of jiggling, the door opened.

Sure enough, Ben’s phone was on top of Coach’s desk. The phone was there, but Ben wasn’t.

“Where’s my brother?” Callie cried, her voice wobbling with emotion.

A muffled sound came from inside the closet. Cade hurried over to the door and found it was also locked. This time, no matter how hard they tried, her key wouldn’t work.

“Hold on,” Cade said, searching the top of the coach’s desk until he found what he wanted. Kneeling down in front of the door, he took a paperclip and tried to release the lock, to no avail.

“Try this,” Hope said, and handed him a fingernail file.

All the while they worked to open the closet, they could hear kicking and muffled sounds coming from the other side.

After several tries, Cade managed to unlock the door. Once open, they discovered Ben tied up inside, duct tape across his mouth. Cade removed it first before undoing the binding around his arms and legs.

“It’s Coach.” Those were the first words out of Ben’s mouth. “He’s the one giving us the drugs.”

“Coach Simmons?” Hope asked, stunned, finding it hard to believe. She gulped as her brain assimilated what Ben was saying. It wasn’t a student who’d been dealing drugs. It was the coach. In that moment, it felt as if all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out.

“What a mess,” Coach Simmons said, shocking them all as he strolled into the office. “Let me assure you this isn’t what it looks like.”

“You’ve been drugging your players?” Hope asked, before she could stop herself.

Coach’s demeanor changed immediately. He glared at Callie and Spencer before turning his attention to Ben and Cade. “I don’t know what lies these kids are telling you. I trust you are smart enough not to take their word over mine.”

“He’s lying,” Ben cried. “Coach is giving the whole team enhancement drugs.”

“The boy lies,” Coach insisted.

“If that’s the case, why was he tied up in your closet?” Cade demanded. He’d placed himself in front of the teens and Hope, facing the coach. Spencer was having none of it and stepped around Cade to stand at his side, wanting answers as badly as Hope did.

“Ben gave me no choice,” Coach said, with a deep sigh of regret. “This is the biggest game of the season. If Ben were to go to Dean Wilcox or Principal Wentz with his lies, they would call off the game. I couldn’t let that happen with scholarships on the line. I realize I might have overreacted by tying him up,” he conceded, “but I didn’t feel I had any choice.”