Waste My Time by Kelsey Clayton

There area lot of things you're prepared for when growing up. Like how to be a decent person, given you have the right upbringing, or how you're supposed to get a job after you're done with schooling. All parents seem to have the same hopes and dreams for their kid—to grow up, find a good job and a good partner, and settle down to have a family. One thing my parents failed to do, though, is teach me how to put together this fucking crib.

The instructions are in another language, and the pictures must be backward because none of the holes are where they say they are. Not only do I have to make something out of these pieces of wood, but I have to make sure it's sturdy enough for my son to sleep in.

Baylor sleeps soundly next to me as I struggle with the directions, tossing them down for the thousandth time today. As I drop the tiny little tool they give you, which is bullshit in itself by the way, he lifts his head to look at me.

“What am I going to do, boy?” I ask him.

He stares back at me like I'm crazy, and I sigh.

Kennedy deserves the perfect fucking nursery, and I'm going to give it to her. Even if it means losing my mind while putting all this shit together.

I'M FINALLY SLIDING THE last drawer into the changing table when Amelia comes in. She looks around in complete awe as she takes in the state of our former guest room. There have been a few people who have slept in here over the last couple years, Amelia and Tessa being two of them. But this, with a crib and changing table and other baby decor, is the most right it's ever felt.

“You did all this?” she asks me.

I nod. “Baylor wasn't much help.”

She chuckles and bends down to pet the puppy that's now getting too big to be called such. “It looks great, E. Does Kennedy completely love it?”

“She hasn't seen it yet,” I answer. “I just finished it. I was going to surprise her with it tonight.”

Her brows furrow as she tilts her head to the side. “Two surprises in one day? You're really stepping up your game. What was the first one?”

I tilt my head and frown. “What do you mean? What first one?”

“The text,” she clarifies, as if I should know what she's talking about. “I was there when she got it. The one that said for her to meet you at the lake.”

“What fucking text, Amelia?” Panic starts to course through me as I grab my phone and try to call Kennedy. “I never sent her a text, and I sure as shit never told her to meet me at the lake.”

“Oh my God,” my sister gasps.

As she freaks out, I listen to the ringing in my ear and wait for Kennedy to answer, mentally willing her to pick up the damn phone. When it goes to voicemail, I try again.

Still nothing.

“What the fuck did it say?” I question urgently.

She's shaking as she starts to cry. “It came from your number. It said to meet you at the lake and that you had a surprise for her.”

“Fuck!”

“E, this was at least six hours ago,” she says, and my whole body goes still.

Zayn comes into the room and sees the state of us. “What's going on?”

I go to open my mouth but nothing will come out. No words. No sounds. Nothing. Kennedy is out there somewhere, and I can't fucking move. I can't even breathe without a pain shooting through my chest.

“K-Kennedy is in trouble,” Amelia says through her tears. “We don't know where she is.”

Z holds Amelia in his arms but his eyes meet mine, and we're both thinking the same thing. Finally, the hold on me releases and I jump into action, grabbing my sister's arms.

“How did you find out where Zayn was when he left to go fight Blade?” I ask her.

She swallows. “I tracked his phone through iCloud, but I knew his password.”

Not even paying attention to the last part, I rush to my room and grab my computer. It comes to life as soon as I open it and I rush to the iCloud website. Kennedy's email is easy enough, it's the same thing for everything. But her password, however, is a challenge.

My fingers move a mile a minute as I try to put in anything I can think of, but it's all coming back invalid. Soon, it's going to lock me out. But as I go to type in my last attempt, Amelia comes running in.

“Try your name and the baby's due date,” she says. “The due date is her phone password, but you haven't named the baby yet.”

I take a deep breath and give it a shot.

Success!

As the dashboard opens, I sigh in relief. Amelia comes to sit next to me as I open up the Find My Phone app. At least with it ringing when I called, that means it's still on.

It takes a second for the location to load, but when it does, I don't recognize the address.

“Do you know where that is?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “She can't be there. She wouldn't.”

What?”Mila, where is this place?”

Dread flows through me as I see the look on her face. “It's Alec's house.”

I throw the computer off my lap and go to rush out the door when Zayn stops me. “Do you know for sure she didn't go there on her own? Because if she did, you can't go in there all chivalrous and heroic. It's breaking and entering.”

Amelia puts a hand on my arm. “I saw her today. She was thinking about you, not Alec. She wouldn't go there on her own free will.”

That's enough for both Zayn and me as all three of us book it down the stairs and out the front door.

I just hope we're not too late.

PULLING UP TO THEhouse, the whole street is covered in blue and red lights. Cops and the SWAT team flood the area, and my brows furrow.

“The cops are here?” I ask, feeling my entire world start to crumble.

Zayn sighs. “I called them before we left.”

It's a relief, but it still manages to piss me off, because they're still standing outside and Kennedy is nowhere to be seen. “What the fuck did you do that for?”

“Because the Donovans have a horrible tendency to be idiotically heroic,” he says bluntly.

And okay, maybe he's not wrong. Amelia got stabbed trying to save him, and he's right. If the cops weren't here, I'd be rushing right inside that house without a second thought. But the idea that I can't go in and find my girl irks me to no extent.

We get out of the car and try to get up to the house, but an officer stops us at where it's taped off.

“You guys can't go in there,” he tells us. “This is an active crime scene.”

I'm ready to deck the guy and run past him, but thankfully, Zayn stops me. “I know. I'm the one that called it in.”

“Where's Kennedy?” I ask urgently. “The girl who was in there. Where is she?”

His shoulders sag. “She's still in there.”

“What?” I shout.

“A hostage situation is a touchy one,” he explains. “We can't just run in there or someone could get hurt. His roommates confirmed he owns a gun, so we need to do this by the book. But we have our most skilled negotiators working on it.”

His words are meant to soothe me, but they do the opposite.

She's in there.

With Alec.

And Alec has a gun.

Everything in me gives out and I drop to my knees, feeling more helpless than I ever have in my life, even more than when I watched as the life slipped from Tessa's eyes.

I can't fucking lose her. I can’t lose them.

ALL OUR FRIENDS STARTto show up as I sit on the sidewalk. Amelia, Tye, and Paige all comfort each other while the guys keep their eyes on me. No one tries to talk to me. They all know there is nothing that can be said. At least, until Tessa shows up. She gives Amelia a sad smile as she comes right over to me and sits down.

“E,” she sighs. “It's going to be okay.”

I shake my head. “You don't know that.”

“No, I don't,” she answers honestly. “But I'm going to believe that. Kennedy is strong and fearless. You really think that girl is going to let someone like Alec hurt her or the baby?”

She's trying to help, that much is obvious. And I know she means well. There was a point in time when her words would have helped. They would've calmed me down and made me relax. But not now.

Not when it comes to Kennedy.

To our baby.

“You don't know her like I do,” I tell her. “She's strong but fragile, all at the same time. And these fucking cops aren't doing shit. She's in there, alone with him, and they're doing nothing!”

Over the last hour that we've been here, the fucker has looked out the window three times, and they've got him on the phone once. He knows we're out here. He knows we're worried. And I wouldn't put it past him to take himself and her both out in some forced Romeo and Juliet ending.

I get up and start pacing back and forth, making Tess stand with me.

“Don't,” she says. “I know what you're thinking, and I'm telling you. Don't do it.”

Turning to look at her, I huff. “There was a time I would have listened to you. You're one of my best friends, and you know that. But when it comes to her, I won't listen to anyone.”

Her eyes widen. “Zayn!”

But it's too late. I take off running, under the caution tape and dodging the cops at the door as I slip inside, hearing Z scream ”Idiotically heroic!” behind me.

The house is quiet. If I didn't know better, I would think no one is home. Everything is perfectly in place, like they had a normal day before his roommates went to school and he went to kidnap the love of my life.

I don't need to scour the downstairs to know they're not down here. All the police attention has been on the upstairs window. They're up there.

Sheis up there.

As quietly as I can, I creep up the steps and keep my back against the wall. When I reach the top step, Kennedy's voice meets my ears, and I damn near faint with relief, because she's still alive.

“What are you going to do?” she asks him, fear lacing her tone.

He groans. “Stop asking me that! God, you were never this annoying before!”

“Alec, just let me go. I'll tell them it was all a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?”

“Yes. It'll be okay, I promise.”

A loud bang sounds, like he threw something and it shattered. “Your father was right. You always were a shit liar!”

She starts to sob. “No. I'm not lying.”

“Stop fucking lying to me!” he screams.

The sound of a slap echoes into the hallway, and I instantly take a step before stopping myself, but it's too late. The floorboard creaks under my foot, alerting him of my presence.

“Who's there?” he growls.

I try to stay completely still, to make him think he heard something, but then he cocks the gun.

“Show yourself or I'll put a bullet in her brain!”

It’s more a promise than a threat, so I do the only thing I can do: I raise my hands in the air and turn the corner into the room. The sight of Kennedy tied to a chair, with blood still leaking from a cut on her lip, threatens to break me on the spot. She tries to maintain her composure, not wanting to piss Alec off even more, but I can see the desperation in her eyes.

Alec grunts as he looks at me. “Of course it's you. How fucking fitting.”

“Put the gun down, Alec,” I demand quietly.

He shakes his head. “This is all because of you!” Lifting the gun, he points it at me. “You're the fucking problem here.”

I nod. “Okay. Then take me. You can do whatever you want to me. I'm no one. A deadbeat with a former drug problem. No one will miss me.”

A smirk makes its way on his face. “You're damn right they wouldn't. They'd be better off.”

“They would,” I agree. “But killing her, that's double homicide. You'd end up spending the rest of your life in prison, and you still wouldn't get the girl. Just take me and let her go.”

Keeping the gun still on me, which is exactly where I want it, he runs his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Don't you get it? I can never let her go. That's the issue here. My heart won't ever let her go.”

He's a deranged psychopath, but this is the one thing he's said that I can understand. Kennedy has this thing about her. It draws you in and keeps your attention on her. And if I hadn't taken her for granted when I had her, I would've realized how lucky I was. But I sure as hell do now, and there isn't a single part of me that plans on letting this piece of shit take her from me.

“I get that,” I tell him. “She's perfect.”

Kennedy starts to cry as she keeps her head bowed, but she's smart enough to not say anything. Any words that could come out of her mouth right now would only enrage Alec more.

“She is, and you stole her from me!” he shouts.

I keep my hands held in front of me. “I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I didn't mean to stand in the way, I promise.”

A dark laugh starts to echo out of him as he looks at Kennedy. “You chose this bitch over me? Look at him, cowering to me like a goddamn pussy.”

When she won't look at me, keeping her eyes closed instead, it pisses him off.

“I said look at him!” he roars.

She shakes in fear at his tone and finally looks at me. The helplessness in her gaze matches the one in mine. I won't lie, we're both scared. But while she's afraid for me, my only thought is her and the baby.

I nod slowly, trying to silently tell her that it will be okay, but after not listening to him the first time, he now has his gun pointed at her.

In a move that defines idiotically heroic, I grab a trophy from the dresser. It does exactly what I intend it to and pulls Alec's attention off of Kennedy and onto me, only when he points the gun, he fires it. Kennedy screams but the bullet misses, going into the wooden dresser instead, and Alec is momentarily caught off guard. He looks down at the gun as I take the base of the trophy and slam it into his head. He slumps to the ground with the gun falling from his hand, out cold.

Grabbing the blade from the desk, I make quick work of cutting the ropes that hold Kennedy to the chair. She sobs hysterically as I lift her up and wrap my arms around her.

“Are you okay?” I ask. “Can you walk?”

She nods. “I'm okay, I think.”

“Okay, let's get the fuck out of here.”

I push her ahead of me as we both start to run out, but as I watch her bolt down the steps and out the door, I stop. The sound of Alec groaning grabs my attention, letting me know he's waking up, and still alive.

Instead of following Kennedy out like I should, I turn around and go back into the room without a morsel of the fear I had before.

She's safe.