Blissfully Numb. (Book 4)

Chapter 8

Theo

"THEO! THEO!"

Alfie was screaming my name from the living room and my blood ran cold. I knew it, this is what we had been waiting for but who?

"What's happened?" I asked walking into the room, my body shaking. Leya-Jess was on the floor playing with her teddy bears, looking at us her eyes wide. She was so perceptive and could always tell when something was wrong with us.

"He took her. He's taken Emily!" Alfie's eyes filled with tears. "You don't think he will hurt her do you, we don't have anything to give him Theo?!"

"Are you sure?" I whispered willing it not to be true. "Emily, really?"

"She climbed out of her bedroom window, we've all been too hard on her she's fifteen! Dom said he called this Jorge boy and after his parents made him, he admitted that Emily had been round to watch a movie but she left hours ago. No one has heard from her since but when they took her route home they found her mobile on the side of the road."

"Oh god." I pulled at my hair, pacing the room. "If he so much as touches one hair on her head, I will kill him! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Theo I hate to say this but he only took Emily because Leya-Jess is too young, too small to be left alone. He has clearly been waiting for someone to trip up. What will he do with her, he's your brother....will he kill her?"

"NO!..I... I don't know Alfie. How can I say no when he killed my parents? I don't know him, I don't know what he's been through in prison, and I don't know what he wants, why he's come here at all? I know about as much as you do, I only found out thirty minutes before you!"

"I know, I'm sorry." He said quietly. "But Emily... What are we going to do? The police haven't found him so far, how is that when he's never been here before? He should have tripped up, he should have never been allowed in the damn country."

We had been through this so many times, so many repeats of the same story. To Charlie, to Dom, to Elliot, to Lucas, to Helen and Darren. Even Alfie had asked me what the Sheriff had told me at least ten times. I was all storied out but I understood where they were coming from, they were all scared. We had kids now, we had a life. A life that Colin could take away at any moment. You see when the Sheriff came for me that day it wasn't because I had another parking ticket. It was to tell me that my brother had been released from prison 3 years prior for good behaviour but had missed his last parole meeting. The British Parole board had wanted me to know just in case Colin came looking for me.

They had me on some teleconference. I asked them how Colin even knew I was in America and they told me because he had been released on good behaviour and had constantly spoken about making amends, the information that I had left for America straight after the incident was given to him willingly. I was incandescent with rage, they had no right! They told me in hindsight they should have warned me or asked my permission before releasing that, after all I had been a minor at the time. They apologised but that didn't change anything. Colin was in America I just knew it. He had come for what he believed belonged to him, but my parents didn't have much. The money from the house went on my college funds and the rest was only enough for some therapy sessions to get me through what HE had done to me! I owed him nothing!

Emily...Emily. My darling niece. I loved my family, I loved my daughter, but Emily made me stronger. When I felt like the past was coming back to haunt me there she was this little beacon of light, this fierce little girl who had turned into a woman before my eyes. To think that I might be the cause of this, to think I might have led to her.... NO! I won't think about this, he wouldn't dare hurt her. Not Emily. Not Emily.

A loud banging woke me from my misery and I heard Alfie get up to answer the door and Charlie demand to know where I was. I walked back to the living room carrying Leya-Jess, cowardly maybe, but I knew Charlie was upset and my words wouldn't be enough right now. Leya-Jess was enough to stop him so I could talk to him, get across to him.

"Where is my daughter Theo?" He cried. Tears were streaming down his face. I looked between him Dom and Alfie looking for someone to say 'Hey Theo we know this wasn't you but please help' but all could see was anger and fear.

"Charlie. Domingo. Alfie. Please just one moment." I walked away with Leya-Jess and took her to her room. I placed her in her bed and told her to play with her toys for a bit then I walked back to my family.

"WELL?!" Charlie demanded.

"Charlie..." I almost pleaded, hurt by the accusation in his tone. "You and Elliot are more like my brothers than Colin will ever be! I told you as soon as I found out, I swear I told you all the minute the sheriff told me. I didn't know he was here, I don't know how long he has been here. I..."

Alfie came to me then and wrapped his arm around me. Domingo halfheartedly smiled at me through his tears. Charlie just shook, his body letting go of the full tears he had been holding in.

"I am so sorry, I brought this on us all. He is my brot-"

"No Theo I am sorry. We all knew he was here, we should have trusted Emily with the truth instead of treating her like a child. Maybe then she would have just asked to see Jorge instead of sneaking out. I don't care how this happened I just want her back" He sobbed.

Another knock on the door. This time it was Elliot followed by the county sheriff. He said that they hadn't found Colin but he had made Emily call Helen with his demands. He wanted to see me, he didn't want to hurt Emily but he wasn't prepared to go back to prison so she was his leverage. The idiot hoped to get away with this, walk away with no punishment?

"What does he want from me?" I asked.

"We don't know, the usual I suspect- money." The sheriff replied.

"We don't have any money." Alfie moaned.

"I am going to find her ok, I am going to make sure he knows that if he hurts her there is nothing for him but pain." It was a stupid thing to say but I didn't give them a chance to respond. I walked past them and out the door. I went back to where all of the happy memories began, to the park where I told my husband that I wanted him. I needed to breathe, I needed to clear my head.

How was I going to find her and Colin? Why would he come this far for money he must know twenty years later I don't have? I had to believe that he wouldn't hurt her, he was sober now or so they say. He wasn't going to hurt a child?

Right?