At some point Eli had gone outside to check Jenna's vehicle - see if it was locked or if she'd left her purse or phone, since she wasn't answering. He came back inside, wearing a grim expression and holding up Jenna's handbag.
"I found this on the curb by the mailbox. There are blood droplets on it and the grass."
Fuck. That tingle in the back of his neck was now a voice screaming in his ear to find Jenna. Now. Something was wrong. He didn't know what yet, but clearly, she wouldn't walk away from her purse willingly and leave it on the side of the road. And Michelle? How did she fit into this? Was that blood Jenna or her sister's? Or both?
"We need to make sure Hedgcock is still locked up," Knox stated. "We also need to try and get a BOLO out on Michelle's vehicle. Anita, do you know where Tom is?"
"He should be at the office," she replied, her brows pulled together. Her cheeks were red and she was becoming agitated. "Are my girls in danger? Do we need to call the police? I thought they had him behind bars."
"That's what we thought," Knox said grimly. He needed to find Jenna, and he didn't have a clue as to where to start. "Did Michelle say where she was going?"
"Home...I think." Anita's eyes widened, and she reached for her phone on the end table. "About a year ago, Michelle and Lori said that I needed more security for the house. They had one of those doorbell cameras installed. It can see the street where the cars were parked. I can see the video on my phone but I don't think I've tried to since that first day."
Knox said a silent thank you for modern technology. It had saved his ass more than a few times.
"We're going to need to see that footage, Anita."
Eli's phone beeped and he checked the screen. "That's a text from Logan. They tracked Michelle's phone back to her house. That's where she - or it - is now."
"Then that's where we're going, just as soon as we see what happened."
Somehow Tom and Brett were connected. And now Michelle and Jenna weren't where they were supposed to be, plus there was blood.
He had to get to Jenna. Right now.
30
Groggy and disoriented, Jenna pried her eyelids apart and blinked against the lamp shining in her eyes. Her head hurt like a bitch, the pounding at her temple relentless. She lifted a hand and touched the wound gingerly. Wincing, she muttered an expletive under her breath as her fingertips came away red and sticky. Even the pillow she'd been lying on had spots of blood on it.
Dragging herself into a sitting position, her gaze ran around the room as she fought to shake the brain fog away. She was in the guest bedroom back at Tom and Michelle's, lying on a bed all alone. That realization, however, raised more questions than it answered.
How did she get here?
Why was she here?
And the biggest one - why the fuck had her own sister hit her in the head with a fucking tire iron?
What in the hell was going on? None of this made any sense. Had Michelle lost her mind? Had the stress of the situation gotten to her and she'd snapped somehow? She and Michelle had never so much as yelled at each other, and now her sister had tried to kill her.
There were more questions but she first needed to tell Knox where she was. He had to be worried if he hadn't heard from her by now. Looking around the room, she didn't see her purse or phone.
Maybe I dropped it when Michelle hit me? And that leads to the question again...Why did my own sister hit me? The world doesn't make sense right now.
Head pounding, she slid off the bed and walked quietly to the bedroom door, turning the knob and peeking out. She could hear loud, angry voices and she recognized them immediately - Michelle and Tom. They were arguing, another rare occurrence. Jenna couldn't remember the last time that had happened. The two siblings barely used a harsh tone with each other. The Waters’ family didn’t argue or raise their voices.
Everything was topsy-turvy and Jenna didn't quite understand what was going on in her world. But one thing was clear; her intuition was telling her that she needed to tread carefully here. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage so loudly she was sure her brother and sister could clearly hear it over their heated disagreement. Her muddled brain was finally beginning to function again and it was telling her to be suspicious. Tom might have known Brett through a history club and now Michelle had become violent. Her heart kept saying one thing, but her head was saying something far different.
Quietly, Jenna crept to the end of the hallway, not wanting Tom or Michelle to hear her moving upstairs. She knelt down and leaned against the wall, listening in to their argument.
"I can't fucking believe you could be so stupid," Tom yelled, his anger clear in his tone. "You stupid, stupid cunt. You've ruined everything. Now I'm going to have to fix it all."
"It's only a matter of time of time before that boyfriend figures it all out," Michelle screamed back. “He's already figured out that you’re connected to Brett. He'll figure it all out and then we'll both go to jail."
Jail?
Jenna's heart dropped to her stomach, the bile rising in her throat. Clearly, Tom and Michelle were somehow mixed up in some bad situation. And Lori? How did
