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I try to tune him out the best I can. I don’t know if I can handle hearing it again. Hearing it makes it real. Hearing it reminds me of the hell she’s going through because of me.
Horror and anger paint Lya’s face as Rush lays it out for her. She’s disgusted by Zayan’s acts. She’s pissed that Tara never told her. She’s terrified for her friend.
As she should be.
“W-Why would she keep that from me? I’m her best friend. We tell each other everything. She could’ve trusted me.” Her voice is barely a whisper and her demeanor has done a complete one-eighty from when she stormed into my house. She’s going through everything I’m feeling. If she would’ve known, she would’ve done something to stop Zayan, just like I would have. “Why?” she murmurs to herself.
“She wanted to tell you but was embarrassed that she stayed with him so long after everything he did to her. She didn’t want you to think any differently of her or that she was weak,” Rush explains.
“I would never think that.” Lya shakes her head. “But how did you know? Why would she tell you instead of me?”
“It’s nothing against you, Lya. Zayan showed up at Star of India one day and she freaked out. I kind of forced her hand and made her tell me everything so I could protect her. She begged me not to say anything and I didn’t want to break her trust.” I’m ninety percent sure he’s lying right now to make Lya feel better. I’ve seen the way Tara looks at Rush; she trusts him, and cares about him a lot, just like he cares about her. I could bet my whole bank account on her willingly opening up to him. Rush is one of those people you can tell anything to and he won’t judge you. He’s one of the most open-minded and understanding people I know.
Lya spins around until she finds the nearest wall and leans her palms against it, hanging her head. “Fuck,” she curses, her breathing heavy as her body shakes uncontrollably. I'm not sure whether it’s with fear, anger, or both, but she needs time to take it all in. “No, no, no.” We all stand there quietly while Lya processes, waiting for someone to make the next move. Lya slowly straightens up and turns toward us, her hazel eyes locked on mine. “Did you know when you left her with him? Did you fucking do this to her to punish her?” She’s looking at me with absolute fury. Fury, that is stealing all the air in the room, suffocating me.
My stomach drops as my pulse picks up because I know my answer doesn’t mean shit to anyone in this room. It doesn’t change anything. “No, I didn’t. I found out later that night.”
“After she fucking begged you not to leave, don’t forget that part,” Reilly croaks, angrily pushing my shoulders. I can’t look at him because I’m sure it would shatter what's left of my cold heart at the look on his face.
“Reilly…” I don’t know what else to say. I can’t make this better with my words. This is how it’s going to be between us until Tara is back. Hell, it may never go back to the way it was.
“Just shut the fuck up and take a step back for once in your life,” Reilly yells before turning to Lya. “You have to help us find her. Please. I’ll do anything, but please help us. We need all the help we can get.” Lya’s expression softens just a little at Reilly’s despair. Even she cracks under his devastation.
She nods slightly, looking between Reilly, Rush, and me. When her eyes land on me, she looks purely disgusted with me and looks back at the other two before speaking, “Of course. She’s my best friend, I’d do anything for her.”
Reilly stumbles toward Lya and pulls her into a tight hug, forcing a pained grunt to escape her lips. “Okay, enough of that. You can let me go now,” she wheezes.
“Sorry,” Reilly murmurs, sloppily making his way to stand by Rush. Reilly trips over his own feet, snatching onto Rush’s bicep to keep himself from falling. Rush helps him stand then lets him go like he just got burnt.
Whatever the hell that was, has to wait until after we get our girl back.
Our?Fuck, I don’t even know. Based on how Rush is acting, it sure does seem like it’s anour.
“Why didn’t you call me as soon as you found out?” Lya’s voice breaks through my thoughts.
“We had other things on our minds,” I growl, earning me three angry glares. “I was focused on finding her and him. I let myself get distracted by that, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“How do we find her? We’ve searched everywhere we could think of. We even have the Snakes out looking for her, but we’ve come up short so far.”
Lya hums as she tries to think of anything that could help find Tara. We’re all on pins and needles as we wait for her to be our savior. It’s a lot of pressure to put on one person, but it’s the best we’ve got right now. We’re all out of ideas, so I hope she has something locked away in that intelligent head of hers. No one says a word until Lya snaps her fingers and hisses, “Tracker!”
Rush shakes his head. “We didn’t get one put on her. I take the blame for that one.” His chocolate eyes are glued to the floor like he’s too ashamed to look at any of us.
“No,” Lya’s eyes light up. “She has a tracker. It’s embedded under her skin. I put it there.”
“What?” the three of us guys say in unison.
A tracker? Why the fuck would she put a tracker in Tara? Does Tara know about this? That seems strange, but it’s a fucking godsend right now. She’s had a fucking tracker this entire time and we could’ve saved a lot of essential time if we had been thinking about the one person who could save Tara.
“It’s a long fucking story, one we don’t have time for right now and one she can explain in more detail when she gets back,” she huffs. “Long story short, my sister’s husband had a stalker who came after both Tara and I. Since that happened, we each decided to put trackers in ourselves in case anything bad happened again. However, we made a pact to only check it in an emergency so we aren’t invading each other’s privacy,” she says calmly, like it’s an everyday occurrence to have a tracker planted inside you. I guess in this world you never know. Shit, I wanted to put a tracker on her phone, so I guess it’s not that crazy to think.
She continues to stare at me yet all I can think about is how we could have had her back by now if we would’ve thought of Lya in the first place.
Another fucking mistake I made.
Something I’m clearly good at when it comes to Tara.
I should’ve told her.
