Unraveling You 02 Raveling You (20 page)

Just a quick peek then it’s home for me.

Faring Lake Ave. Street is in a subdivision near a shopping mart and a park. When I turn down the road, the first thing I notice is that a lot of the single story homes are abandoned. A lot of the structures appear old and outdated, paint peeling off the siding, mailboxes knocked down. I don’t think too much of it until I pull up to the house with the numbers 40499 next to the door. Like the other homes, this one appears vacant. Shingles are missing from the roof, the porch is collapsing, and the windows are all covered with plywood.

I start to choke up, the wind getting knocked out of me as I turn around and the headlights beam across the home. Painted across the wood, in various colors are circular marks.

Marks that resemble my tattoo.

Lyric

“You seem really happy,” my dad remarks as he stuffs half a roll into his mouth. “Like extra happy.”

“You really do,” my mother agrees as she adds a glob of butter to her potatoes. “I wonder why.” Her tone insinuates something. What, I’m not sure.

Either she’s speculating that I might be bipolar, or she’s trying to get me to fess up as to why I’ve been almost stupidly happy over the last couple of weeks.

I shovel a spoonful of corn into my mouth. “I’m a normal happy, you guys, so don’t start.”

“We weren’t starting.” My mother works with a knife to slice her steak. “And I’m sorry for ever bringing that up. I’m really sorry about that, Lyric. I should have never said anything.”

“Okay, good.” I smile at her and she returns it.

At the moment, all feels right in the world.

Despite all the drama, life has been good, something I ponder as I eat my mashed potatoes.

Things really have been great.

And calm.

As if the world is attempting to prove my thoughts wrong, all hell suddenly breaks loose as the back door flies open and bashes against the doorstopper.

Aunt Lila comes barreling into the kitchen, her eyes massive and jam-packed with terror. “I need you to watch the kids,” she sputters to my mother as she winds a scarf around her neck. “Something happened with Ayden at therapy, and he was supposed to come straight home, but it’s been over an hour since he left. Ethan’s already out looking for him, but I’m going to go check a few places, too.”

Fear pulsates through my body. I quickly check my phone to see if there are any messages from Ayden, but I have no new texts.

My mother shoves back from the table, the chair legs making a godawful scratching noise against the hardwood floor. “Let me just grab my coat and I’ll be over.”

I stand up so abruptly I damn near tip the chair over. “I’m going with you,” I say to Lila.

“Okay, that’s fine.” Aunt Lila is distracted as she glides her finger across the screen of her phone, checking for messages. “I don’t know why he’s not answering my calls or texts… he never does stuff like this.”

“I’ll drive around with Lyric, and we can check some places, too,” my dad adds as he hurries for the stairs. “Just let me grab my phone and wallet.

I send Ayden a text.

Me: Where the hell r u? Everyone’s freaking out.

Then I head to grab my jacket from the coat rack when the back door opens up behind me.

“I found her house,” Ayden says to me as he enters the foyer and closes the door.

“You’re okay!” I throw my arms around him, unaware until now how worried I was. “Everyone’s freaking out.” I pull back. “Wait, found who?”

“The last address my sister lived at.” His hair is disheveled, there are dark circles are under his eyes, and his shoulders are hunched, as if the weight of the world is crushing him.

“Rebel Tonic got back to you?”

He nods. “With an address.”

“And?”

His throat muscles work as he swallows hard and fights back tears. “It was a vacant house with this,” he lifts up the bottom of his shirt and taps his finger on the rough tattoo on his side, “painted all over the boarded up windows.”

I gulp. “Why… I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I.” He grips ahold of my hand. “But we’re going to go find out.” He marches across the room toward the kitchen.

“Where are we going?” I ask as I shuffle to keep up with him.

“To my house. I need to talk to Lila to find out what that letter was about.”

“Lila’s here, in the kitchen. She was about to go look for you,” I tell him, which only makes him quicken his pace.

When we enter the kitchen and Aunt Lila sees Ayden, a choking sob wrenches from her lungs.

“Oh, my God, we were so worried about you.” She crosses the kitchen and wraps her arms around Ayden.

He stands with his listless arms to his sides, still holding my hand. “I need you to tell me what that letter was about.” He doesn’t have to explain what letter he’s speaking of. The reluctant expression on Aunt Lila’s face reveals she already knows.

“Ayden, Ethan and I already explained that there’s some things you aren’t ready for yet,” she reminds him sympathetically.

“I tracked her last address down,” he states bluntly, firmly holding her gaze. “It was about ten miles away from here. The house is boarded up and has these marks spray painted on it, ones that match my tattoo.”

“Ayden…” Her face contorts with emotional agony.

He tugs me closer to his side. “Just tell me.”

Aunt Lila seals her quivering lips together as tears fill the corners of her eyes. Ayden’s fingers clench around my hand as he watches her unravel in front of us.

“Your sister was kidnapped again not too long after you guys were … found in that house.” She lowers herself into a chair. “She’s been with those people for the last two and a half years. The police honestly thought she was dead until they received a note from her over a year ago on the day we brought you home.”

“What did the letter say?” he chokes out hoarsely and I feel him sway, his legs about to buckle.

“I don’t know,” she replies as tears stream down her cheeks. “The police won’t release that information.”

“Is that what happened to my brother, too?” he whispers in horror. “Was he kidnapped? Did they kill him?”

“All I know about your brother is what you do. He vanished out of the system a couple of years ago. Social services assumed he’d ran away. The next time he was found…” She reaches out to touch his shoulder, but he moves away. More tears bubble in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” Ayden starts to sit down even though there’s no chair around. I quickly usher him to a nearby barstool before he ends up falling on the floor.

“Because we wanted you to have a normal life.” She fights back a sob, her chest heaving as she verges toward hysteria. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”

She runs over, wraps her arms around him, and squeezes him tightly. Ayden stares like he sees a ghost in the space in front of him, those dark eyes of his completely haunted with his past.

“You’re going to be okay,” she promises him, smoothing her hand over his head. “We’ll get through this. The police are looking for her.”

Still clutching onto my hand, my arm ends up getting crushed between their bodies. I wiggle it, but Ayden refuses to let go. Finally, I relax and let him hold on.

“I want to try to remember,” he croaks. “Do whatever it takes to find those people… Doctor Gardingdale… he said there were other methods…”

“Yeah, the detective mentioned those to me, too,” Lila’s tone is uneven. “And they’re too risky.”

“Leaving my sister with those people, hoping she’ll make it out alive is too risky…” His fingers enfold around the back of his neck and grip tight. “I swear I heard her scream in the parking lot tonight… She was there…”

“Oh, honey.” She pulls him nearer, like she has no clue what else to do but hang onto him. 

I want to stop the pain in his life and make him feel safe, but I don’t have that power.

Right now, everything relies on what the people after Ayden want. Until we find out exactly what that is, no one’s going to feel safe again.

Awakening You (Raveling You, #3) Coming March 2015

Jessica Sorensen is a
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author that lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she's not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.

Other books by Jessica Sorensen:

The Coincidence Series:

     The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

     The Redemption of Callie and Kayden

     The Destiny of Violet and Luke

     The Probabilty of Violet and Luke

     The Certainty of Violet and Luke

     The Resolution of Callie and Kayden

     Seth & Grayson (Coming Soon)

The Secret Series:

     The Prelude of Ella and Micha

     The Secret of Ella and Micha

     The Forever of Ella and Micha

     The Temptation of Lila and Ethan

     The Ever After of Ella and Micha

     Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always

     Ella and Micha: Infinitely and Always

The Shattered Promises Series:

     Shattered Promises

     Fractured Souls

     Unbroken

     Broken Visions

     Scattered Ashes (Coming Soon)

Breaking Nova Series:

     Breaking Nova

     Saving Quinton

     Delilah: The Making of Red

     Nova and Quinton: No Regrets

     Tristan: Finding Hope

     Wreck Me

     Ruin Me

The Fallen Star Series (YA):

     The Fallen Star

     The Underworld

     The Vision

     The Promise

The Fallen Souls Series (spin off from The Fallen Star):

     The Lost Soul

     The Evanescence

The Darkness Falls Series:

     Darkness Falls

     Darkness Breaks

     Darkness Fades

The Death Collectors Series (NA and YA):

     Ember X and Ember

     Cinder X and Cinder

     Spark X and Cinder (Coming Soon)

The Sins Series:

     Seduction & Temptation

     Sins & Secrets

Unbeautiful Series:

     Unbeautiful