Dark Secret - Avelyn Paige Page 0,39

meet?

I shake as I type out my response.

GamerGirl13: Yes. When?

HayDay911: Today. I’ll come to you.

I start to answer the user back, but they log off.

I think we may have just found that fucking haystack needle after all.

Shelby

“You can’t keep me prisoner in here, Wyatt.”

He sighs, his head falling back in frustration. “Jesus Christ, woman. I’m not keeping you prisoner. I’m keeping you safe until I know what this asshole wants.”

I glare at his retreating back with my arms crossed, looking like a petulant child, but I don’t care. I want to know who this HayDay911 is. I want to know what he knows about Hayden.

A shout from outside wafts through the window, and I forget all about Wyatt as I turn and run to look. At first, all I see is a wall of men. It seems like every single member of the club is there, forming a barricade between whoever’s standing out front and the clubhouse.

I see Judge and Wyatt through the spaces between them, talking to someone, but I can’t see who.

And then, the men part, each of them turning toward the clubhouse, but waiting for Wyatt to pass. And beside him is the kid who’d had Hayden’s phone.

Oh, hell no. I’m not hiding in here like some china doll, knowing this kid could lead me to my daughter.

I whip open the door to Wyatt’s room and hurry toward the common area, getting there just as Wyatt places a cold bottle of water on the table in front of him.

“Goddamnit, Shelby,” Wyatt snaps when he sees me.

A couple of the guys chuckle, but I pay them no mind. Instead, I focus on the kid. “Where’s my daughter?”

He looks up at me, and that’s when I notice his face. Somebody beat him up real good. His lip is split in three different places, his left eye is swollen shut entirely, and his face has more purple on it than normal flesh tone.

“I don’t know,” he answers, his voice raw and hoarse. He has bruises around his throat, like he’d been choked as well.

“Shelby,” Wyatt urges. “Just come and sit. Let him talk.”

I don’t want to come and sit. I want this kid to tell me where my daughter is. I want to hit him myself for luring her away from me. But for once, I take Wyatt’s advice and sit across the table from the kid.

“Talk,” Judge orders, dropping down at the table with us, a beer clutched in his hand.

“The last time I saw her, Hayden was okay,” the kid informs us. “But my uncle saw you. He saw you questioning me, and he saw that I had Hayden’s phone. I was supposed to get rid of it, along with her backpack.”

“Who’s your uncle?” That question comes from GP.

“Randall McDade.”

All the men around the room start talking at once, angry questions coming from every corner. It scares me, so it’s not a shock when the kid shrinks back in his chair.

On instinct, I reach out and place my hand on his. “Please,” I whisper. “Hayden is my daughter. I know you’re scared, but focus on me now, okay?”

He nods.

“Where is Hayden?”

“I don’t know. Once my uncle saw me with you,” he says, looking to Wyatt, “he was really angry. He took me out back and punished me.”

“By punishing you, do you mean he beat the shit out of you?” Judge asks, his nostrils flaring in anger.

He nods. “He knew I’d kept that phone, and said I was a traitor. He said…” A sob rips from his throat, and like a tidal wave of emotion, he breaks down. “Please,” he cries. “He has my sister. He said the only way he will keep the men away is if I bring him more girls. I never meant to hurt Hayden. I just wanted to keep my sister safe.”

I frown at Wyatt, confused.

Luckily, Judge seems to get it. “So you’re saying your uncle has your sister? That he promised to keep her out of danger as long as you keep bringing him girls?”

The kid nods.

“And when he saw you with the phone and Hash over there, he figured you for a traitor?”

The kid nods again. “He punished me. I was unconscious in the alley behind the store until the nighttime. And when I went home, my house was on fire.”

“Do you think your uncle set that fire?” Judge asks.

“Yes. He must have moved the girls. I don’t know where they are, and my sister…”

“Okay,” Judge says, trying to soothe the crying