Broken Dreams (Franklin Blues #2) (17 page)

Lance must notice that my attention is elsewhere and he nudges my side to get my attention.

“Huh? Sorry what are we talking about?” I shake my head but that feeling is still there. I feel like there’s a brick in my stomach.

“Amy, Shawn and Hailee want to tell us something later. They’d tell us now, but want us to enjoy the evening a little longer.”

I look at both of them, and now all of a sudden neither one of them can look me in the eye. They are looking everywhere but where I’m currently sitting on the left side of Lance. This night keeps getting weirder and weirder.

The DJ puts on “Don’t Take the Girl” by Tim McGraw and Lance asks me to dance.

We are trying to figure out what they want to tell us, but we aren’t coming up with anything.

“Amy, I need to ask you something.”

I look up Lance and nod my head. I’m not sure what he wants to talk about, but he needs to know he can ask me anything.

“Do you want to try and have another baby? I completely understand if it will be too much, but I’m trying to figure out where your head is at. Know that I am 100% okay with whatever you decide. We will have babies, but whether or not they are biological means nothing to me.”

I take a deep breath. I’m not really sure what I want at this point. Having these miscarriages has done a lot to me emotionally, but with Lance I’m not sure I want to give up on that dream.

“Lance, ever since we got together I always knew I wanted to have a family with you. Whether or not I carry our children or whether we adopt doesn’t matter to me. I love you, and yes I’ve been through hell and back with my body and these miscarriages, but I never want to give up on our dreams of a family. Therefore, to answer your question, I would still like us to try. Now that being said, I don’t want to ‘try’ try; I want it to happen if it’s meant to happen.”

I look up and realize that at some point during my speech we stopped dancing. I study Lance’s face, and then his face breaks out into the biggest grin that I’m afraid he might split his face in half. He leans down and kisses me with so much emotion and passion it leaves me breathless when he pulls away.

I happen to look over his shoulder, and swear I see someone standing behind the bushes. It looks like they have a camera and are taking pictures. Lance notices that I’m not looking at him and turns to look where I’m looking.

“Amy, what are you looking at over there?”

“Lance, do you not see that man over there? I saw him and it looked like he was taking pictures of us. I swear I’m not crazy.”

“I know you’re not crazy, but I don’t see anyone there. Maybe it’s one of the event photographers walking around taking pictures of the event.”

I shrug my shoulders and am starting to believe maybe I am going crazy. I swear he was there, but when I blinked after Lance started to turn around, he was gone. I tell him he’s probably right and turn back around.

We decide to go get another drink at the bar where Hailee and Shawn are still waiting. Hailee still drinking water.

“Are you guys ever going to tell us what’s going on? You’ve had us wondering all night. Come on Hailee, since when have you ever been able to keep anything from me. Pretty please tell me.”

Hailee starts laughing at me. She looks over at Shawn who nods once, and she looks back at me.

“Well we were going to wait until the end of the night so that way you’d have time to process all the emotions that we know will arise from our announcement.” She takes a deep breath and drops a huge bomb in my lap, “We’re pregnant again!”

Fuck.

Amy

“We’re pregnant again!”

Those words keep playing over and over in my head. Once she dropped the pregnancy announcement on me, I walked away from the group. I assured everyone that I was fine, but needed some time to think alone for a minute.

I’m walking around the park when I get this feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Something isn’t right, I can feel it. I look around, but don’t see anything. However, it is awfully dark without being around the lights of the gala, so I couldn’t be sure if I’d be able to see anything honestly. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.

I hear rustling, like someone walking behind me and I freeze.

“Hello Lance, I told you I need a minute to myself. I’ll be back in a minute so go back to your party.”

I turn around to start walking again when I hear the same noise again. I do a complete 360 degree turn but still can’t see anything. I’m beginning to think that walking out here by myself wasn’t such a good idea. I turn in the direction of the gala when I feel a sharp pain in my neck. I start to scream, but everything goes black.

~**~

When I start to wake up, the first thing I notice is the pain in my head. The last thing I remember is walking around after Hailee announced she was going to have another baby. The first feeling that hit me was jealousy. I knew I needed to get over it so I could be happy for her, which is why I went for a walk. I was happy for her, but I needed time to process.

I look around the room and it looks like my old bedroom, from when I lived with Jeremy. I’m still trying to get my bearings when the door to the room opens up. To my surprise, Jeremy comes walking through the door.

“Hey, Hunny, I’m so glad you’re finally awake. I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever for you to wake up. I mean, I know you love your sleep, but you’ve been out for about eight hours.”

I’m totally confused on why he’s acting like this. He’s almost acting as if we are still together. I move my hand to rub my face when I notice it is handcuffed to the bed. I look down at my right hand, which is the one hand cuffed, and then look at my left hand. There’s only one thing I notice, I’m wearing my old wedding set, the set I wore while I was married to Jeremy. I look over at him, and he’s wearing his ring as well.

“Jeremy, I’m so confused. Why are we wearing our wedding rings? Why am I here?” My mind is going a million miles a minute, and it’s not slowing down. I’m starting to hyperventilate.

“Ah, come on Baby. You know you want to be with me again. You’ve always been mine, and I took our vows very seriously. There’s never going to be anyone else for us. We’re wearing our rings because that’s what we vowed to do, until death do us part.”

What the hell is he smoking? I haven’t wanted to be with him since he broke our vows the day he decided to screw Jessica.

“Are you high Jeremy? You broke those vows when you decided to be with Jessica over me. You didn’t care about our vows when I walked in on the two of you in bed together. Why would I even want to be with you again after that? You broke my heart into a million pieces, and now you think I actually would willingly leave Lance for you, damn you’re delusional.”

I was so not expecting the punch to my jaw after I made that last statement. The pain radiating through my face causes my eyes to water.

“You will never mention that asshole’s name around me again! Do you understand me Amy?”

I hold my face with my free hand and nod my head.

“Good now that that’s settled, why don’t I go make some breakfast.”

Without anything else being said, he walks back out of the room. I hear a few clicks and know I’m locked inside. My last thought is wondering if Lance knows I’m gone.

Lance please come save me.

~**~

Lance

Amy has been gone awhile. She said she was going for a walk, but it’s been over an hour and she’s still not back yet. Shawn and Hailee are getting worried as well. Hailee started crying as soon as Amy walked away, thinking she had set her back. I think Amy is okay, she needed a minute to get her emotions together. I tell them I’m going to go look for her so we can all get back to our night together.

I walk in the direction I saw Amy go and start to get this weird feeling. I can’t explain it, but I take off in a run. I get pretty far away from the party and I’m still not finding her. I yell her name, but am met with nothing but the sound of the crickets chirping. Something’s not right, I can feel it. I pull out my phone to call her. I hear in my phone that it’s ringing, and I listen closely to see if I can hear Amy’s. I hear her phone ringing in the distance, and I run towards the sound. I find her emerald green clutch sitting in the grass. I open it up and there’s her phone.

I hang up with my call to Amy’s phone and call Shawn.

“Hey man, you find Amy yet? You’ve been gone awhile.”

I can’t breathe, and I know what I’m saying isn’t making sense to him because he keeps telling me to slow down.

“AMY IS GONE!!! I THINK SOMEONE TOOK HER! IS THAT SLOW ENOUGH FOR YOU?”

I feel bad for yelling at him, but I didn’t see any other way to get through to him what I was saying.

“Okay, Lance are you sure? She could be walking around some more.”

I’m fighting the panic and now anger is coursing through me. I hang up on him because I have to get home to see if she by chance went there.

I run towards the party to get the limo driver. I’m cursing myself for not driving tonight. I could’ve gotten home a lot faster.

Shawn sees me running and stops me. He asks me if I’m okay and I shake my head. I need to get home to verify she’s not there. I’m trying to get away from him when I see my captain coming up to me with a look of concern. I pull away from Shawn and go to my boss. He knows what we’ve been working on so he’ll believe me.

“Lance, son, is everything okay? Where’s Amy?”

I shake my head because I am totally not okay. “Sir, Amy has been taken. Yes, before you even ask, I’m completely sure. She went for a walk, I went to go look for her, and found her purse thing she carried tonight lying in the grass. You all know as well as I do that she wouldn’t go anywhere without her phone. She’s attached to that thing.”

The captain slowly nods his head, my words sinking in. He looks back up to me with determination written all over his face.

“Okay, Lance, take me to where you found the purse and we will take it from there. This is an official crime scene now. Good thing we have all of our finest here tonight. We’ll find her Lance, I promise you.”

“Yeah, we may find her, but in what condition will she be in?”

Amy, hang on. I’m coming to find you. I love you.

Amy

I must’ve fallen asleep waiting for Jeremy to come back in with food, because by the time I wake up its dark out again and there’s a tray with pancakes, bacon, and orange juice sitting on the nightstand by the bed.

I hear the door open and I look over to see Jeremy walking in with a smile on his face.

“Ah, she’s alive. I made you breakfast but you were asleep so I left it for when you woke up. I checked on you several times, but you were still peacefully asleep and I wanted you to get your rest. Why don’t you go ahead and eat then we can talk?”

I shake my head. What is going on? Why is he doing this to me?

“Jeremy, please let me go. I won’t tell anyone that you took me if you let me go. Please, let me go home.”

“But you are home Baby. We are married and we are finally going to have a family now that I know you can get pregnant, too bad it was with that asshole who thought he could have what was mine. I forgive you for your infidelity. Now we can start our own family.”

By the time he’s done, I’m crying. I don’t want to be here, but it’s clear he’s had some kind of psychotic break. He thinks we are still married and that I cheated on him and got pregnant.

“Jeremy, we are no longer married, haven’t been for a few years now. I’m with Lance now, remember.”

He’s on the bed with me in a flash. He takes my right hand, the one that is hooked to the bed, and takes my index finger. He bends it at a weird angle, and I can feel it snap. I cry out in pain, I can’t believe he broke my finger. I cradle my hand as much as I can with my free hand. Jeremy gets off the bed and starts yelling at me.

“What did I tell you about saying his name? I told you not to say his name and you disobeyed me. Why must you piss me off like that? Do you want me to hurt you? I love you, Amy, and I do not want to hurt you, but you piss me off. I will teach you that you are no longer his, I swear.”

He storms out of the room, and all I can do is cradle my hand as much as I can and cry.

Lance please come find me. I need you.

~**~

Lance

It’s been two days since Amy went missing. I haven’t slept at all since that night. My captain took me off the case, saying I’m too close. Shawn has been keeping me updated as much as he can. He’s been taking Jax out with some of Amy’s clothes to try and see if he can track her scent, but they haven’t had any luck. In the part of the park where I found her phone, there were tire marks leading away. They can’t be sure, but they think that there was a car waiting to take Amy away.

I’m still pacing my apartment when I decide to call the only person who used to be able to keep me calm.

“Hello?”

“Aaron, Amy’s gone. She was taken from me. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. All I think about is how she’s out there with some asshole that has probably been targeting her all along. What if she never comes home? What if I failed her?”

“Lance, bub, calm down. I heard about Amy and I’m so sorry. I wanted you to come to me which is why I haven’t been the one to call you. Didn’t want to add more to your plate. Now one thing I can tell you is how much that woman loves you. She will fight until she can get back to you, of that I’m sure. Now, Tyler and I are on our way to you. We will be there in about an hour, text me your address.”

I get off the phone with him and text him the address. I go into the bedroom and start pacing again. What am I missing? I know there’s something I’ve missed, and it’s something huge, but I can’t put my finger on it. I go to my nightstand and take the case file again. I go through it page by page until it all starts to click. How did I not see it before?

I jump off the bed and race to the front door. As soon as I pull it open, I see Aaron and Tyler standing on the other side. Aaron has his arm up like he was getting ready to knock on the door. I tell them hey and to follow me so that way I don’t have to explain it all over again. We all jump into my truck and I speed to the station. I finally know who took her and why.