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Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jax

E very minute Allie's away from me increases the anxiety flowing through me. This little gathering seemed like a good idea, but now I can't help but wonder if I'm pushing her too far again.

It felt like things were going well, but even I get annoyed with Benji's drunken stories. They become overwhelming and tedious to listen to unless I'm as drunk as he is, and I wonder if it started to frustrate Allie. They all start with "Remember that one time..."

I did what I could to get Benji to stop, but he's had more than enough to drink to allow the request to stick in his mind for a maximum of three minutes. In no time, he'd gone right back to his normal ways. And Allie has no idea this is just Benji, not his way of trying to push her to remember. Most of us don't remember what Benji does, either, thank God.

"Where's Allie?" Seth asks.

"She went outside with Sage for a breather," I say, glancing at the door for what feels like the hundredth time since the two of them left.

Laura bursts through the doors and storms over to us. "You! "

"What part of stay the hell away from Allie and me did you not understand?" I ask, glaring at her.

Her hair looks greasy, something I hadn't noticed this morning, and her shirt is buttoned incorrectly, leaving a tail towards the bottom on the left side. Red eyes glare at me, and I see the puffiness from crying. That, and the smudged makeup is a dead giveaway.

"You have a lot of nerve planting the idea with the cops that I might be the one who hurt Allie," Laura says and crosses her arms under her chest. "That hurts worse than anything else you could have done."

"What are you talking about?" I ask. "I never told them I thought you hurt Allie."

Her jaw sticks out as she glares at me, and she doesn't seem to care that everyone's staring at us. Not just my friends and family but the rest of the town. "They came to talk to me right after you left my house screaming at me that I was crazy. You expect me to believe that was just a coincidence?"

"Yes, because I didn't call them to give them a heads-up that I was storming over to tell you to stay the fuck away from Allie. And me, by extension. I don't think that discussion really shed a good light on me, to be honest."

"They served a warrant to take all of my electronic devices, including my phone, and then came back tonight to search the place. Looking for anything that could have been used as a weapon to bonk her on the head," she hisses.

"The warrant for your laptop doesn't surprise me, but they must've found something on it to issue another warrant tonight," I say.

Narrowing her eyes, Laura shakes her head. "What did you tell them to get them to take my phone and computers? "

"I told them I'm pretty sure you're the one who broke into my house, took a picture from my living room, and set up a camera in my bedroom," I say. "The one that was conveniently disconnected just as I was about to see where it was transmitting to."

"What?" Drew asks. "She put a camera in your bedroom?"

Her jaw drops. "I... I did not."

"Bullshit, Laura. The mistake you made was saying things to Allie that you couldn't have known. Unless you were watching and listening to us. In the bedroom."

"She watched you have sex with Allie?" Benji asks, dumbfounded.

Her face pales, and I chuckle. "That's how she found out about the cookout. I talked about it with Allie in bed. No one else told you, Laura."

"No one here even likes you," Drew says. "We sure as hell wouldn't have accidentally messaged you. We only talked to you because we had to. For years."

"You did this," she says. "You want them to believe I hurt her to take the heat off you. Is that why you spent two years fucking me? To get me vulnerable and willing to do anything for you?"

"You think Jax had anything to do with what happened?" Seth asks. "You really are nuts."

I shake my head. "You need to make up your mind, Laura. Did I hurt Allie? Or did Allie plan this whole thing on her own? You can't keep switching theories. I know why you planted the camera. You needed to see if we were getting intimate, but I don't get why you'd take the picture. What was it for? A dartboard?"

"What?"

"Did you take the picture from the living room or not?"

"Of course I took the picture!" she shouts and slaps her hands on her sides. "And I still believe Allie did this to herself. I always suspected she's faking, and I was looking for something, anything, to prove it. I snatched it when her parents showed up to the house."

"Why?" Seth asks. "Was the picture going to talk to you or something? Did you think something was hidden behind in the frame?"

She sighs. "I don't know, okay? Everything about Allie drives me fucking insane. Always has, and I never understood why everyone wants to kiss her ass so damn badly."

I just blink at her. "She drives you so crazy that you really believe that Allie's faking her memory loss? All of this? That she... locked herself up?"

"Think about it, Jax," Laura snaps. "It seems pretty convenient she was able to escape the night of our engagement party, but she can't remember where the hell she escaped from. She can't retrace her steps or tell anyone the direction she walked. And then she doesn’t even know her name? She doesn't know her name, but she knows the house she lived in seven years ago. Doesn't know you, but the street looked familiar. Enough to skip going to the goddamned police station. None of this sounds suspicious to anyone else?"

Looking around the room, she waits for anyone to jump in and join her in her thinking. There is some merit to the logic, but every one of us has seen Allie struggling without her memory. I don't believe for a second that she's faking anything.

"You want us to believe that Allie kept herself locked away for seven years, never seeing the sun, and emaciating herself just to pull something over on us?" Seth asks.

"And what would her reason for all of this be?" I ask.

"I don't know. I don't speak crazy woman!" Laura screams. "Money. Publicity. Who knows? "

Drew laughs beside me. "Yeah, because Allie's rolling in dough over all of this. Oh, and the publicity has just totally gone to her head."

"Fuck you, Drew."

"You know, it's actually kind of convenient now that you say it," Benji says.

I look at him, my mouth agape. "Huh?"

"Yeah, I mean, Allie goes missing on the night that Laura knew you were planning to propose. That's convenient timing. Especially when Laura disappeared before we all found out Allie was gone. No one saw Laura the rest of the night. Talk about convenient."

Damn, Benji's not as drunk as I thought. "Wait, no one remembers seeing Laura the rest of that night?"

"Of course no one saw me. I ran home and cried myself to sleep. I helped decorate for the party that solidified losing the only man I'd ever loved. The person I fell in love with at twelve years old. I didn't exactly want to stick around and watch you get on one knee in front of Allie," Laura snaps at me.

"Likely story.” Benji scoffs. “Anyone able to corroborate it?"

Rolling her eyes, she glares at him and tosses a box to me. "I thought you should have the engagement ring you gave me back. You know, in case you want to propose to Allie if she ever falls in love with you again."

"You think Jax gave you the ring he bought for Allie?" Seth asks and laughs. "You really are deluded, aren't you?"

Taking a step back, Laura shakes her head and lets out a humorless chuckle. "Of course, you had a different ring for Allie. Allie is special. She gets everything I never did even though I gave you everything ! God, I put in so much time and work just to get you to see me. I put up with you mourning her loss for five fucking years."

"That was your choice, Laura," I say .

"I even put up with knowing you were drinking and screwing Sage while you were grieving, but I was still there for you!"

I shake my head as I try and follow her train of thought. "I never slept with Sage. Never even thought of kissing her. She's like my sister. That's actually really disturbing to even think about."

"I don't believe that. Just like I don't believe you aren't trying to pin Allie's abduction on me. After seven years, you've become so vindictive. I can't believe I thought I loved someone who could do this to me."

"I didn't do that, Laura. But if the cops are looking in your direction, there's a reason. And the reason didn't come from me. Maybe you should take a step back and look at the things you’ve said and done. You brought this on yourself, not me.”

Seth walks over to the windows where the others are now looking out, and I see flashing lights. "Uh, there's a lot of lights out there."

All but throwing Laura to the side, I run to the door. "Allie?"

Sage bursts in right as I reach the door, her eyes locking with mine. "You have to come quick."

"Where?"

"The parking lot of the bank. Come. Hurry up!"

I race after her with the heavy thuds of everyone else following behind me. My stomach ties in knots as I worry about what might have happened. Did the person who took Allie see her again? Did he try to take her? Or maybe they tried to kill her this time?

"I can't lose her. Not again," I whisper, pushing through everyone to get to the parking lot. “I can’t. I just can’t.”