Page 27 of Grave Kisses (Graveyard of Hearts Collection #1)

Marcus

“Fuck!” I scream and slam my fist down on the hood of my truck.

“Goddamn it, I am going to fucking kill that stupid bitch,” Bellamy groans. “Are you okay? That dumb bitch aimed for your head.”

“I’m okay,” I say. “Let me see.”

Bellamy comes around the truck, and his arm is bleeding fairly heavily. As I look around the truck for something to help, a few nurses run outside with a med bag.

“Is everyone okay?” the woman asks before she rounds the truck and sees Bellamy.

I step back and let her work. I can hear the sirens.

I can hear Bellamy calling Chrissy. I focus on not breaking because I can’t fall apart.

I have to find her. We can’t rely on Jeff because he’s a fucking creep, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with this.

We have to play it cool with him and just focus on finding her when he isn’t looking.

Maybe that is the wrong decision, but I am going with my gut instinct.

I wasn’t surprised to see Tina shooting at us, but the fact that the driver was wearing a mask makes me question things.

They just grabbed Kendra and threw her into the van.

Why would Archer wear a mask? He will automatically get the blame, considering, but maybe that’s what they want?

I feel as though we are missing a big piece of the puzzle here, and he will need to solve it to find Kendra.

I don’t know the condition we will find her in, but no matter who took her, they won’t kill her right away.

They went through far too much to get her just to kill her in an hour.

As long as she is alive, we can save her.

We did it before, and we can do it again.

Chrissy and Decan get to us first and hurriedly snap as many pictures as they can.

The cops show up, but not Jeff. I’m not even surprised.

As soon as we are free to leave, we go home.

As much as I’d like to burn this goddamn city down to get to her, we need to go about this strategically.

We knew there was a chance something could happen today.

We needed to make sure the babies were okay, and it was a risk worth taking.

Looking back, though, it’s hard to see that.

I’m trying to maintain some level of composure, but I just want to get her back.

The thing we never really told Kendra was her getting kidnapped was inevitable.

We didn’t tell her all the little reasons why we think that Jeff is a huge factor in this.

He knows too much. His presence is convenient, and there is absolutely no trace of Tina.

The only trace of her or Archer, for that matter, is just by what Jeff has said.

We’ve never met another detective on this case.

That’s fucking convenient for a supposed serial killer case.

Now that she has been taken, we are all in high gear.

The media will be alerted within the hour, and everything will be leaked.

The police will get a tremendous amount of pressure put on them and will allow us to freely move around without Jeff breathing down our neck.

I know he will pop up at some point if he wants to maintain any sort of facade that he is a functioning member of society.

When we get back to the house, we set the alarm while Bellamy does a sweep for bugs. We do this frequently to make sure that we can talk freely. “All good,” Bellamy sighs.

“Okay,” Chrissy says, drawing in a deep breath.

“I know everyone is angry. I know everyone wants to beat the dog shit out of Jeff until he tells us what we want to know, but that is not going to help find Kendra. We knew this was a possibility and we planned for this. She might not know how ready we were for this, but we are. Don’t let doubt cloud your judgment. ”

“We need to get into Alan’s house,” Dad says quietly.

“Why?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at him. He sighs heavily, and I know he is hiding something. “What did you do, Dad?”

“Son,” Mom scolds.

“No, it’s okay,” Dad says. “The necklace that she wears. The metal heart. Alan gave that to her.”

“Okay? And?” I ask. I’m trying not to sound so irritated, but I am. I know what is happening to Kendra, and it’s fucking killing me inside.

“And… He gave that to her and drilled it into her head that she had to wear it because it would keep her safe. She always thought it was something sentimental… but it’s a tracker.”

“Well, shit,” Decan laughs. “The man is dead and gone, but he gets to save her one last time. Where was the info for the tracker?”

“It’s in the stuff from his safe,” Dad says.

“I tried to get to it without her knowing, but I couldn’t.

It’s in a journal and inconspicuous enough that you don’t know exactly what you are looking at.

I know how to read it because he showed me.

He wanted someone other than himself to be able to access that.

I had access to the safe the entire time, but Alan made me promise to not say anything unless I absolutely had to… I knew he was dying...”

“Okay,” I sigh. “So, we find it, and we find her?”

“Kinda,” he says. “It’s all of the information we need to track her.

It is accurate within one hundred feet. When he was alive, he was able to switch out the pendant a few times to make sure that it was working properly.

He was afraid that Archer would come for her, so he wanted to be able to find her.

There’s something missing from this, though.

There was a lot he didn’t explain but said that he needed to when he was ready. ”

“So, first,” Decan says. “We need to get that information. In order to do that, we need to figure out where it is. That means we need to play nice with Jeff.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for Jeff to know that there’s a way to track her,” Hannah says. “Even if he is not involved with something with Archer, I would not put it past that fucking creep to find her and keep her for himself.”

“We definitely should be working the angle that he is somehow connected to Archer,” I say. “If there is a connection, we need to find it.”

“The chief of police should be here in just a second,” Decan says.

“What?” I ask. How?”

“It’s a long story. He will help, though,” she says.

“No. If I am going to trust him, I need answers,” Bellamy says.

“Jesus. Fine. He is kind of… a mafia boss of sorts. I might have fucked him a few months ago as a one-night stand. I didn’t know who he was until we went to talk to him, and well… he is eager to help.”

Bellamy gasps, and I can’t help but laugh. “Christina Marie Teller! Did you offer yourself up to the sheriff to help find Kendra?”

Decan is grinning from ear to ear watching her blush so hard she might catch fire. “Yeah, Chrissy. Did you?” She glares at Decan, and he chuckles.

“I agreed to a date. That’s it,” she says firmly.

“Correction,” Decan says. “She agreed to a date, and I have to be there too. Not that I would miss this for anything.”

“Hell yeah, girl!” Julie says happily. “Kendra will approve.”

“Anyway,” she says, looking at her phone. “He is here.”

“And he is the chief of police?” I ask.

“Yeah. For now. It’s temporary, since the last guy died. He… I don’t actually know what he was doing, but I’m not about to ask,” she says.

I check the camera at the front gate and confirm it is just one man in a car. When I let the gate open, I wait for him to pass through before closing it back. We all wait around for the man. When he knocks on the door, I think that Chrissy might actually run away.

Bellamy shakes his head at his little sister before pulling the front door open. When he doubles over laughing, I step to the side to see none other than Andre DeLuca. Chrissy groans when Bellamy is practically wheezing.

“What am I missing?” Hannah asks.

“Andre DeLuca,” I say, shaking his hand. “Hannah, this is a friend of mine and Bellamy's. We went to school together.”

“Good to see you, man,” Andre says with a smirk. When his eyes find Chrissy, he lights up in a devious way. “Chris.”

“This is too good,” Bellamy laughs again. “Damn, Chrissy. I didn’t know…”

“I will fucking stab you,” she growls. “Can we just focus on Kendra?”

“So,” Andre says. “I pulled all of Jeff’s current cases, and…

He doesn’t have a person of interest listed for anything other than the apartment fire.

There is absolutely no connection being made on paper between the murders and Archer.

Without Chris explaining anything, I wouldn’t even bother going after Archer.

That’s why he hasn’t been found. He just has a warrant for arson. ”

“Fuck,” I sigh. “Okay. So… We gave the media everything.”

“I saw that. It will give me a chance to force an investigation. If Jeff is guilty of something, he will bolt. So, until then, just play it cool with him,” Andre says. “Tell me about the kidnapping.”

We move to the office where Chrissy and Decan have been working.

Andre goes over to a large board that Chrissy goes to.

She stiffens a bit, but not in a way that makes me worry about her.

We go through the entire shooting, and Chrissy makes notes and draws out a basic map of the scene for reference.

“So, now we need to find out where the box was placed,” I say.

“He might have written it in more than one place, so we can look around the house if we need,” Dad says.

“That might have to be the case because he hasn’t logged anything, which means he kept everything,” Andre says. “I can get Chris and Decan into the house. Just be specific about what we are looking for.”

“I’ll write it out,” Martin says, grabbing a notepad off my desk.

“You really gonna make her go on a date with you for helping?” Bellamy asks.

“I would have helped either way, but I do enjoy seeing her beg,” Andre says coolly.

“I didn’t beg, asshole,” Chrissy snarls at him.

“This is more entertaining than it should be,” Decan laughs.

“You just wait, cuck boy. Don’t think we don’t know why he wants you there,” Julie laughs.

“Someone should muzzle you,” Decan says to Julie, making her grin. “So play nice with Jeff. Give minimal details.”

“Speaking of,” Jesse says, looking up from her phone. “He is requesting a statement.”

“I’ll have a friend of mine sit in on the statement,” Andre says. “I will work with them on a plan to get into the house.”

“So are we assuming that Jeff is a part of this?” I ask.

“From what Chris told me, I am willing to bet my empire that he and Archer are connected somehow,” Andre says. “Give me some time, and I’ll get you an answer.”

I slip out of the room so I can go upstairs.

Once I had closed myself into the room, tears rolled on my face.

I am drawn to the bed where Kendra’s fluffy throw blanket is.

I feel so fucking lost without her. I press the blanket against my face and inhale deeply, letting her scent flood my brain.

I choke back a sob when the door opens, and Bellamy comes into the room.

“Hey,” he says gently, sitting beside me. I am gripping onto her blanket for dear life, afraid this is my only connection to her.

“She’s being hurt. We walked her out of the house, promised her she’d be okay, but we knew it would happen. We knew someone would get her somehow, and we didn’t warn her,” I cry. “I feel so fucking guilty.”

“Marcus, man. I couldn’t tell her. In order for her to survive, she needs to shut down like she always does.

We both know if she was given the chance, she would end up fighting back.

She is much more likely to get herself killed if she fights back with her anger.

Her freezing up is what will save her,” he says.

“I know it’s shit, and she might even get mad at us, but she will survive.

We will put every broken piece back into place.

No matter what she endures, she will survive.

You have to keep faith in that, or all of the planning that Chrissy and Decan have done will be for nothing.

I trust my sister, and if she tells me this is what we need to do, that is what we are going to do. ”

“I know,” I say quietly. “I miss her.”

“I miss her too,” Bellamy sighs.