Chapter Fifty Four

Lincoln

She’s just gone.
Vanished.
All traces of what happened to her erased.
Someone would have had to have hauled her wrecked car off and then cleaned up the mess that was left behind. They would have had to have a doctor waiting in the wind just in case she was injured and needed medical attention. All of these things tell me that her accident, her disappearance, wasn’t by chance. It was planned and methodically thought out. Whoever has her is smart and likely well-connected.
My first thought was that Brady Stevens was behind her disappearance, considering the claims that he’s made toward her, and the things he’s done to her. And although I haven’t dismissed him as a suspect, he’s no longer at the top of the list considering he’s too cocky, thinking he’s untouchable—that there’s no doubt in my mind that he would be able to keep his mouth shut about having taken Raleigh.
And so far, he’s not said a word.
At least, not according to Serenity, and it’s already been a week.
A whole fucking week!
I’m going out of my fucking mind with worry, wracked with guilt that this is all *my* fault that this happened in the first place.
Dad has tried to assure me that it’s not my fault. There’s no way that I could have known that something like this would have happened when she left our house Thursday night but that doesn't alleviate the guilt that I feel.
He also told me that he had looked into the contract between the Stevens and Raleigh’s parents. And yes, there *was* a contract, and even though it became void upon Kent and Marjorie’s death, which seems to be a detail that the Stevens must have either overlooked or ignored—which is more than likely the case—it’s still so incredibly fucked up that they would do something so vile, so heartless, so goddamn desperate to their own daughter.
Also, Morris was able to get his hands on the police report for Kent and Marjorie’s accident and is looking deeper into what happened because from what I’ve gathered, it looks like maybe their accident wasn’t really an accident after all. He wasn’t able to give any more information than that but he said this was a good thing.
Right now, without Raleigh being back in my arms, nothing seems like a good thing.
“Hey,” Jax says plopping down onto the couch in the entry room and throwing an arm over my shoulder. “I know that life has sucked for both you and Bos recently, but just for one night, I think you both need to just go out and let loose and just get out of your own heads.”
Immediately I shrug him off and begin shaking my head no, not even wanting to entertain the idea of a party. My girl is missing and he thinks I want to get drunk and be groped by a bunch of *other* girls? Fuck that!
“Oh, come on, man!” Jax whines, poking his lower lip out. “It’s really fucking sucked around here with the both of you moping around all day like someone stole your favorite toy or something.” As soon as the words leave his mouth his eyes go huge, “Shit, I didn’t mean…”
Standing up, I turn away from him, needing a few moments to get myself under control. My entire body is shaking uncontrollably at his fuckup, but I know that he wasn't intentionally trying to hurt me with his choice of words, he just spoke without thinking.
With my back still to him and my eyes closed, I take deep breaths in and exhale slowly, the image of Raleigh the last time I saw here always there in my mind's eye every time I close my eyes.
Finally, when I think I’m ready, I do a final countdown…
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
Then, releasing one last breath, I unclench my fists and turn back around to face my brother.
His face is as white as a sheet, and I can tell that he really does regret his choice of words. “I really didn’t mean t—”
“I know,” I say, cutting him off, my voice still a little shakier than I would like but if he notices, he doesn’t let on to it. “Talk to Bos, if he’s down to go, then I’ll go,” I say with a nod. Then, desperately craving some solitude before an evening of being swarmed by people I head to my room.
The party is in full swing, most everyone is already drunk but thank God they’re all giving me a wide berth, I can only assume I’m giving off major *fuck off* vibes because not a single person has approached me since I posted up here in this corner away from the rest of the party.
But from my position, it’s the perfect place to people-watch.
Like how Luke Walker was just making out with Claire King not too long ago, but now he and Mindy Cox are tripping up the stairs, pulling at each other's clothes as they suck each other's faces and I have no doubt in my mind about what they’re heading to do.
Dal is talking to the same redhead that came to see Aspen at the hospital—Cheyenne—I think was her name.
The vibrating of my phone in my pocket pulls my attention from my brother. When I finally manage to get it wrestled out of my pocket, I find Aspen’s name staring back at me along with a picture that we took together one morning before school.
"Hello?" I say, putting the phone up to my ear and plugging the opposite ear with my index finger on my right hand so that I can hear her as I cross the short distance to the outside of the house.
"Lincoln?" She says my name, but almost asks it like a question, like she expects it to be someone else.
"Aspen?" I question, pulling the phone away from my ear to glance at the screen to make sure that it really is her. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes. No." She releases a heavy sigh and then says, "I don't know if I'm being honest."
Walking over to a tree in the front yard, I lean against it as I say, "Talk to me, what's going on."
"Boston and I were texting, and he told me that he was at a party with you and Jackson. And I don't know, I just got this bad feeling." Then a moment later she says, “You know what, I'm just being insecure. Don't worry about it."
"Aspen! Don't hang up!" I shout, afraid that she’s fixing to hang up.
*Obviously it isn’t nothing. I’ve not known Aspen to be insecure about much of anything, and definitely not anything regarding her and Bos’s relationship. The two of them are like relationship goals…and I sounded like a chick just then. Good thing I’m having this conversation with myself in my head and not with someone or out in the open…* I think to myself.
I hear her laugh, but it sounds almost deranged, but then she says, "It's probably nothing."
"It's bothering you enough to make you call me, so talk to me. You know I'm always here for you." A commotion behind me pulls my attention back toward the house just in time to see two guys fall
Her voice sounds sad as she says, "I just don't have a good feeling. And it keeps getting worse. I don't why, or what it's about, it's just there."
A commotion behind me pulls my attention back toward the house just in time to see two guys falling down the steps and flat on their faces. Landing, they sprawl out in the yard and crack up laughing.
Grinning, I shake my head and tune back into what Aspen is saying, only to realize that she’s finished talking.
*Shit!*
"Okay... did he say something that would have prompted this feeling?"
"That's just it, he didn't. He just said that you guys were at a party. But then, he stopped texting me and I don't know. It's just unlike him to stop responding in the middle of a conversation." She stops speaking for a moment, sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. But then she says, " I'm probably just being vulnerable."
"You? Vulnerable? No way!" I say, trying to cheer her up and lighten the mood.
"Hush!" she returns, with a chuckle. "But seriously though," she sighs, hesitating a moment before continuing. "I told him that I missed him and wished that I was there with him, and he never responded."
*Girls overthink things way too fucking much,* I think but instead I say, "Aspen, listen okay, if you're feeling like this, I'll check it out."
"Thank you,” she mumbles, sounding like she may cry again.
*Damn pregnancy hormones.*
"I said I would try," I tease. "Listen, you are one of the most sure of yourself people that I have ever met." *Not to mention Bos is absolutely miserable without you. But I can’t say that.* "Why would you be feeling vulnerable?"
"Why wouldn't I, Lincoln?" She asks in turn, but without giving me a chance to say anything she keeps talking. "I'm pregnant with his child. I'm going to get as big as a whale. But it's more than that..."
"Okay, tell brother Linc what's going on? This isn't like you." I tell her, realizing that maybe there’s more than she’s telling me.
Releasing another sigh, she says, "It's just that, he's there and I'm here. And he's freaking hot, ya know? Girls, I have no doubt, want him and he has needs."
"Aspen," I snap, irritated that she wouldn’t think that he would ever even think about cheating on her. “He would never hurt you like that. He loves you."
"But you don't know that!" She protests, the sound of her crying coming through the phone.
I hate hearing her cry. Aspen is like a little sister to me and all I want is for her to be happy and hearing her crying breaks my heart.
"I do,” I tell her honestly. "I do know that. That boy is head over heels in love with you."
"I think that I loved him too," she says in return. "I think that's why all of this hurts and is scaring me so much. Because...I don't know...I feel like I'm in limbo. I'm just stuck."
"You did love him," I confirm, thinking about how happy they made one another. "I don't know if you ever told him, but I know you did."
"I guess you haven't convinced your mom to come back yet?" I ask after a few silent moments.
"No," she mutters. "She won't talk to me about it, but I think it really hurt her that Collin didn't tell her after Boston told her about us."
"Honestly, I see both sides.” Sighing, I go on, "Dad is so damn miserable since you guys left. To be honest, it's not the same with you guys gone. The whole house seems dull, lifeless."
"It was only a few months," she says, but the words are so quiet I think she didn’t really mean for me to hear them.
Regardless, I did.
"It doesn't matter if it was a few months or twenty years, you two left your mark on us Jones boys, and we won't ever be the same because of it," I tell her honestly, knowing that they both made a major impact on my life.
"No matter what, I won't lose you, will I?" she asks and I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips.
"I meant it when I said that I will always be here for you. No matter what."
"That means more to me than you could possibly imagine,” Aspen tells me, the sadness not as evident in her tone.
"Okay, I'll go check on your boy and check back." I tell her, "And Aspen, don't worry, everything will be okay."
"Thank you, Lincoln,” she says and I think I can actually hear her smiling.
"Always." Ending the call, I glance around and go in search of Bos, just as I promised, only when I find him my stomach turns, not at all liking what I’m seeing.
*That conniving little…*
"What the fuck?"