AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My first love.
My first everything.
Lying alone in our room now, I couldn’t deny how deeply I’d fallen for him. He’d worked his way under my skin like a splinter. He’d entered my bloodstream. I couldn’t get him out. I didn’t want to.
I had to find him. I had to find him, no matter what. No matter if I had to walk right into Hell itself to reach him.
I sat up, abandoning the idea of sleep. I wasn’t sleeping until I’d found him.
Dressing quickly in the dark, I headed out and called a cab. I couldn’t really afford it, but I didn’t care. We drove in the still night out of town and along the winding road that led to Cliff Point.
I had no idea where to go to find Beckett, but there was a chance his parents would know where he was. No. I wouldn’t call Colette a parent. She was a monster.
I entered the property through the side gate reserved for staff. I knew the passcode, and there was no guard on duty at this time. Waves crashed down below on the jagged rocks along the coast. Otherwise, it was quiet.
I went into the house through the kitchen, using the same passcode for keyless entry. Colette thought she was so damn smart, but she hadn’t changed the staff passcode for years.
I crept though the kitchen and into the hallway. I was going to try and see Soren. Maybe he’d know where his son would go.Was there a place that had been special to his mother?I wondered as I walked through the expansive lobby. The relentless white décor felt even more obnoxious now that I knewthe truth about the designer. Colette thought she could surround herself with white to somehow feel clean, and not like the evil predator she was? I wished I could splash red paint all over those spotless walls and trample the innocent white blooms filling every vase.
Brimming with fury, I made it to Soren’s office and knocked shortly, before pushing open the door. It wasn’t that late, just after ten. Still, the office was silent and dark, without the usual fire burning in the hearth that the patriarch of the Anderson household liked in his study.
Maybe he was upstairs? I paused at the bottom. Was it psycho to show up unannounced in Beckett’s father’s bedroom? Yes, a little. Did I care right now? Nope. I was pretty sure he didn’t own guns, so I wasn’t risking that much, only what Soren thought about me.
What about your mother’s job?
That gave me pause, but the worry wasn’t enough to stop me. I had to find out where Beckett was. I didn’t want him to be alone. I had a terrible foreboding whenever I thought of him spiraling alone. I had to find him. It was worth the risk. I headed upstairs.
A soft sound to the right pulled my attention. I’d reached Colette and Soren’s floor. They kept Beckett a whole floor above them, separate as possible. I was standing just outside Colette’s dressing room. Yes, the lady of the house had an entire dressing room with two entrances — one inside her bedroom, the other in the hall for the staff to discreetly put away her dry cleaning.
The soft sound came again. It sounded like a gasp. Oh God, what if Soren and his wife were going at it, and I walked in on them? I hesitated just beside the door. I should have called, not that theywould have answered. How could I find out where Beckett was if Soren refused to speak to me?
I slowly turned the knob and opened the door as quietly as I could. All my desperate thoughts flew out of my head when I saw them.
The man was leaning against one of the long glass-fronted doors of the walk-in closet. His shirt was unbuttoned and his tie loose around his neck. His glasses were askew. His face was twisted in an expression of pure lust as he looked down at the woman kneeling in front of him. His hand was coiled in her blonde hair harshly, his fingers turning white with pressure. Colette struggled to keep up with the man’s relentless pace. There was an air of violence that turned my stomach. Colette’s hands were brutally gripping the man’s hips, and it wasn’t clear who was being rougher, Colette or her lover.
The most shocking thing about the sight before me, I supposed, feeling numbed by the curveballs tossed at me today, was the man.
He wasn’t Soren Anderson, local billionaire businessman. Colette’s husband.
Regardless, he was familiar.
Professor Jefferies groaned deeply, and his eyes snapped closed as his head fell back. Was he finished already?
Acting on some instinct I wasn’t fully aware of, I reached into my pocket and took out my phone. I snapped a few photos of Jefferies and Colette while he was still halfway down her throat, and then a few more when he pulled her to her feet and kissed her.
“Feel better now?” Jefferies suddenly spoke.
I flinched.Crap.I could get caught here, and how would I explain my presence? Thankfully, he’d been speaking to Colette. I hadn’t been seen yet.
I hid just beside the door and tucked my phone safely away.
“A little…it’s just that Martino girl.” Colette’s voice was vicious. “She heard. I’m sure she heard everything.”
“So what? It’s his word against yours at this point. His own father never believed him…that boy has no one on his side and never did. The Martino girl? Don’t worry about her. She’s no one. No one would even notice if she dropped out of school. Her word is powerless against yours.”
Fear and hurt lanced my chest as I tiptoed back down the stairs. I didn’t need to hear anymore. I’d respected Jefferies until thirty seconds ago, so it stung to hear his dismissive opinion of me, but lingering there and getting caught wouldn’t help me. I needed to get the hell out of here and find Beckett another way.
The next evening, by the time I was due at The Dunes for my shift, I’d looked all over Hade Harbor for Beckett and come up empty. I’d checked Miller’s Pond countless times, the ice rink, everywhere that Asher and Beckett used to hang out. There was no sign of him. Had he left town? Was he lying somewhere, hurt?
