I hadn’t seen Noah in twenty minutes, and already, I was missing her. I looked around and couldn’t find her anywhere.
“Jenna, you seen Noah?” I asked, walking to a corner where she was drinking and dancing. She stopped to look at me.
“I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, she wasn’t here. Sophie said she was asking if anyone had seen her phone.”
I decided to go outside to look for her. It was freezing, and there was no one around. I looked left and right, even toward the woods behind us, but there wasn’t a trace of her. I went back in and checked the bedroom with an uncomfortable pressure in my chest; she was nowhere to be found. Finally I checked every room one by one, shouting her name and dialing her phone. Nothing. Not a single sign.
I ran downstairs and found Jenna and Lion by the front door. “I don’t know where she is,” Jenna said, now worried.
A horrible fear overtook me, and I ran around the corner, with Jenna and
Lion close behind me. Turning the corner on the way to my car, I saw footprints on the grass. I followed them, my heart in a knot, and when I reached the place where they ended, I found her high heels lying there as if they’d been thrown down.
“Noah!” I shouted desperately, looking from side to side. “Noah!” Jenna and Lion shouted, too. No response.
I remembered Ronnie’s threat. Had that son of a bitch taken her somewhere?
 |
“Call the cops,” I told Lion when I got over my panic.
Lion looked surprised, but he took out his phone. As he dialed, we went back inside. I walked into the DJ booth and made him cut the music. Everyone hissed and jeered, but I didn’t give a shit. “Has anyone seen Noah?” I shouted. I got up on a chair and stared out at the crowd, wishing I would see her there and hating myself for leaving her alone.
Everyone jeered and shook their head. I got down and clutched my head in my hands. Dammit… Dammit…
“Nicholas, calm down,” Jenna said.
“You don’t understand!” I screamed, not caring if anyone heard. “Ronnie’s been threatening her.” Just then, Lion grabbed me.
“Nick, the cops,” he said, handing me the phone. “They want to talk to someone from her family.”
I grabbed it and put it to my ear.
“My girlfriend’s disappeared. I need you to come right away,” I said, knowing I should control my tone better but unable to.
“Sir, calm down and explain to me what happened,” the voice on the other line responded. The person was calm, as if we were talking about the weather and not the entire purpose of my life suddenly vanishing.
“What happened is my girlfriend disappeared, that’s what’s happened!” “Calm down, sir, we’ve already sent a patrol car, and when they arrive,
they’ll search the area, but for now, I need to you to tell me exactly where you saw her for the last time.”
I told the operator what happened, but it was as if I were in a bubble and none of what was happening were real.
Soon a cop car pulled up and everyone in attendance rushed out. I didn’t care; I already knew who had done this.
“You are…?” the officer asked after taking my statement. I couldn’t believe he was dragging his feet like this; something needed to be done, and now.
“I’m Nicholas Leister,” I said for the second time that night. All these questions were absurd; what we needed to do was go find Ronnie wherever he was and rescue Noah.
“So you’re her boyfriend?” I nodded, impatient, while Jenna and Lion talked with two other cops. “Noah Morgan…is she a minor?” the officer interviewing me asked. Shit. I hadn’t thought of that.
“She’s seventeen. Look, she’s my stepsister, our parents got married a few months ago, and I already told you, I know who’s behind this. Please, we’re wasting time and they could be hurting her.”
The cop frowned at me.
“To start with, you’re not immediate family, so we don’t need to tell you anything. What I’m going to ask of you is that you call her parents or legal guardian and inform them of what happened. The law says we can’t file a missing person report for twenty-four hours, so—”
“Are you not listening to me?” I shouted, losing my nerve. “She’s been kidnapped. Now stop fucking around and do something!”
I didn’t realize how close I’d gotten to him until he grabbed me and slammed me against his car.
“Calm down or I’m going to have to arrest you,” he said. I cursed between my teeth until he let me go.
“Now call your parents or I’ll do it myself,” he said, puffing out his chest and trying to intimidate me.
I turned around, took out my phone, and dialed. Dad picked up on the fourth ring.
“Dad…I need you to come. Something’s happened.”
|
Four hours later, we were back at home. Nobody knew where Noah was, but there were people milling all around and plugging in machines to trace our calls in case her captors tried to get in touch with us. William Leister wasn’t a nobody, and when his stepdaughter disappeared, the first thing people thought was that it was a kidnapping for ransom. I’d already told ten different cops two hundred times about Ronnie’s threats, but what I didn’t know was that they’d found the threatening letters in Noah’s desk drawer. When I realized her father was the one who’d kidnapped her, I nearly lost control.
I was a disaster; I couldn’t believe what was happening. They’d had to give Raffaella a tranquilizer when she’d found out, and now she was in one of the bedrooms with a friend trying to calm her down. My father was on the phone the whole time, talking to cops and officials. All I could do was smoke one cigarette after another and try to ignore the hundreds of horrible images flashing through my head.
Lion and Jenna had arrived, along with Jenna’s parents, but their purpose remained a mystery to me. It was well past five in the morning, and there had been no word from Noah.
“If something happens, I’ll never forgive myself,” I said, my voice trembling. “This is all my fault… Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Nick, if Noah chose to keep this from us, she had her reasons,” Jenna said, trying to offer comfort. “I’ve been her friend for a month, and I didn’t know her father was in jail, let alone that he was abusive.”
“If he lays a hand on her…” I said, my voice cracking with anger. I couldn’t just sit there. I wanted to beat my head against the wall, do anything to rewind time to before this nightmare began. I had been happy for the first time in years, thanks to Noah… The thought of Ronnie touching her made me sick. I was certain Ronnie was involved in this. I’d bet my life on it.
Just then, the phone rang, cutting through the chaos. Everyone scrambled, and I followed them to Dad’s office, where a tense silence fell as he answered the call, the police indicating it was for him. The speaker was on, and the conversation was audible to everyone.
“Leister,” Dad said into the receiver.
“Mr. Leister… it’s a pleasure to speak with you,” came a deep, cheerful voice on the other end. It sounded disturbingly casual, as if this were some kind of game. “The man who took my wife and daughter to the other end of the continent so I couldn’t find them. You’re a clever man, Mr. Leister. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have your business empire, and my wife wouldn’t have spared a thought for you.”
I glanced over and saw Raffaella covering her mouth, trying to stifle her tears, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Where’s Noah?” Dad asked, his voice tight with tension.
“We’ll get to that. But frankly, Mr. Leister, the location of my daughter isn’t your concern. All you need to focus on is how much money you can come up with to get back someone who isn’t even your family.”
Dad’s gaze shifted to me.
“I’ll pay whatever it takes, but you better not touch her,” Dad said, his words echoing my own thoughts. I felt a surge of gratitude towards him. “A million dollars in used bills in two backpacks, to be delivered by you in person at noon,” Noah’s father said. “If you mess this up, you can imagine the consequences. And come alone, Mr. Leister—that’s an order.”
“I want to speak to her,” Dad insisted. “I need to know she’s okay.”
“Of course, Mr. Leister.” A moment later, I heard Noah’s voice.
“Nicholas…” It was all she said, and she sounded terrible. I took a step forward, desperate to hear more.
But then, the line went dead.
