Show Me the Way (Fight for Me #1)(95)
38
Rex
I sprinted across the street, taking the porch steps in two bounding leaps. I barreled through the front door. I had no clue what I was even searching for, but an overwhelming anxiety pushed me forward.
I’d felt nothing but relief when I’d heard her car taking off ten or fifteen minutes ago. But right then? Nothing made sense. Everything I’d thought I’d known as truth had only been some kind of twisted fabrication. All these years, and I’d fucking thought I’d done something wrong. Neglected Janel. Didn’t treat her well enough. Didn’t give her enough time. Made her feel less than worthy. Because in truth, in my heart, she’d never been.
Had every second of it been a set up?
My eyes darted around the room, hunting for anything that might be amiss. Dishes littered the kitchen from the dinner Janel had been preparing, the trash bin out in the middle of the floor, pork chops dumped inside. Like she was pissed at me for suddenly sending her away.
That, I understood.
The idea that she might have been an accomplice to the bullshit Aaron had pulled all those years ago I did not.
I couldn’t grasp it. Accept it. But the truth of it rang out in my consciousness. A promise she was guilty. That she’d been using me all along.
Anger spiraled, and I clenched my teeth, turning to head down the hall, going directly for my room.
It was just like I’d expected. It was torn apart. Ransacked. The contents of all the drawers were dumped out onto the floor in a mad search for anything of value.
Blankets pulled from the bed, mattress shoved to the side, the small safe hidden under the bed gone.
“Bitch,” I seethed.
I should have known.
I should have known better than to let her back into my damn house. Into our lives so she could just turn around and make another mess of it. But honestly, the only thing that mattered right then was the fact she was gone. I’d gladly accept the loss of the bit of cash in that safe if it meant Janel was eradicated from our lives.
A plague eliminated.
Extinguished.
“Rex!” Rynna’s scream flooded my ears. I pushed back out of my room and into the hall.
She was at Frankie’s door, her hand pressed to her mouth, the girl staring inside.
For a beat, I froze in terror.
Frankie.
I sprang into action. Rynna stumbled out of my way when I rounded the doorway. I jerked to a stop in my daughter’s room.
In a fleeting glance, you’d think nothing was out of order, her bed made and her stuffed animals still lined against her pillows.
But the closet—clothes were pulled from the hangers and some of her shoes were gone. Frantic, I rushed for Frankie’s dresser. The drawers . . . they were empty.
The worst kind of terror took hold of me.
All the fears I’d ever had of losing my child rose to the surface.
Rising above.
Pulling me under.
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
My hands were shaking when I dug into my pocket for my phone. It was already ringing before I had the chance to dial, my mom’s name lit on the screen.
I answered it, and every part of me twisted in two.
My mother . . . she was screaming. Screaming and screaming and screaming. “She’s gone. I don’t know where she is, Rex. She’s not here. Frankie’s gone.”
39
Rynna
Jenny Gunner’s cries poured through the phone. Begging and screaming and weeping.
And Rex? Oh God, Rex made an inhuman noise. Wailed this wail that came from his soul.
Agonized.
Devastated.
Crushed.
It reverberated from the walls and pummeled through my senses.
I wound my arm around my stomach as if it might staunch the pain that split me from the inside.
Frankie Leigh.
I could feel my heart shredding at the same second my spirit moaned.
I should have done something, said something earlier.
My fault. All of this was my fault.
Right from the beginning. I should have stayed that first night when Janel had cut me apart. I should have stood my ground and stood up for myself. Exposed Janel for who she really was.
But I’d let her get away with her sins as if they hadn’t been committed at all.
Rex spouted a bunch of incoherent words to his mother before he ended that call, quick to dial 9-1-1. I could hear the moment the operator came on.
Rex had made another switch, pulling himself from the spiral of torment. His shoulders rolled back and determination set on his face. Refusing to allow his worst fears to happen. His voice was gritted—direct and hard—as he quickly relayed the information to the operator. Her name. The make and model of her car. Description of both her and Frankie. The last time both of them had been seen.
Then he ended the call and came striding across the room and into the hall, all power and barely contained intensity. He grabbed me by the outside of my shoulders, his voice a plea. “Stay here, Rynna. In case they come back, stay here. Have your phone ready to call 9-1-1.” He gave a gentle shake. “Okay?”
“Of course,” I told him, but the words were barely a breath. He pressed his lips to my forehead and then he was gone, the only trace of him the sound of him gunning his truck and it roaring down the street.