Storm by Aria Ray

Chapter Twenty-Five

Storm

Zoe looked like she was losing her mind. When she returned to the room and started talking fast, I couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. The others couldn’t either, so I grabbed her hand and led her back outside.

“You need to calm the fuck down, woman. Take a deep breath and start from the beginning. Did you say that your stepsister stole the ransom money from your dad’s house?”

Zoe rubbed a hand over her face and took a deep breath like I suggested. Her cheeks were flushed, and pure rage stood in her eyes.

“Yes. She stole the money. She is in a house in Austin right now.”

“Why the fuck would she do that?” It still didn’t make any sense to me.

Zoe shook her head and looked away, into the distance. The anger in her eyes was replaced by something else…regret, maybe?

“Jackie is a bitch. She’s the one who called the house and spoke to my mom directly. She’s the one who broke the news about Dad’s other family. And it wasn’t because she was concerned for us and wanted us to know the truth about how Dad had been deceiving us all these years. She did it because she enjoyed the way it ripped us all apart. She was laughing on the phone while Mom sobbed.”

Zoe’s eyes filled with angry tears, and I reached for her. She fell into my arms, and I stroked her hair.

“I should have believed Dad when he said they were doing it for the money. He said he knew they didn’t want him to be a part of their family. They just wanted his money. Maybe she looked at this as the best opportunity for that.”

It sounded fucked up, but plausible. She put her hand in her pocket and pulled her phone out, keeping her cheek pressed to my chest.

“It’s a text from Dad,” she said and read it quickly. Then she looked up at me with her nostrils flared. “He sent me her address. He said I’m free to do what I want with the information; he doesn’t care what happens to Jackie.”

I knew what she was going to say, but I waited to hear the words.

“Storm, will you take me to her house? I want to see that bitch. I need to ask her a few questions.”

“I’ll call Grit, and we can go there right now,” I replied.

∞∞∞

Zoe and I arrived at the address, while Grit was on his way.

It looked unoccupied. Weeds were literally growing out of the cracks on the walls outside.

Zoe looked at me and shook her head.

“I know she’s in there,” she snapped.

Before I could even step out of the car, Zoe had already jumped out and was making her way up the porch steps to the door. She jiggled the handle as I rushed up the steps behind her.

“It’s locked!” she gasped, turning to me. “From the inside.”

“Stand back,” I commanded. She must have seen my determination because she didn’t argue.

I punched through the glass with my fist.

“Storm! You’ve cut your hand!” she hissed from beside me. I was already turning the inside handle.

The door opened, screeching our presence to everyone.

We heard music playing inside the house the moment we stepped inside. This had probably masked the sounds of us breaking in. Zoe moved forward in the direction of the music, but I held her back.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Zoe. You need to follow my lead,” I whispered to her.

She opened her mouth like she was about to say something but stopped when we heard footsteps. Before either of us could react, a woman stepped out of the hallway. She stopped in her tracks, in the middle of humming a tune.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, taken aback. Her eyes flitted from Zoe and then to me. All she needed was to take one look at me, and she knew she was in trouble.

“Storm!” Zoe yelled as the woman turned on her heels and tried to run to the only window in the room. I grabbed her before she could go anywhere near it.

She screamed, wiggling and thrashing her arms about until I pinned them to her back. There was no way she was escaping me. I pulled a chord out of my back pocket and tied up her wrists. Then I pushed her to the wall and stepped back.

“Don’t even think about taking one single step away from that wall. You’re not going anywhere,” I growled.

Zoe was standing behind me and I didn’t need to look at her to know she felt.