Most of the car ride was silent. The only times it wasn't was when they were planning on what to do, where to go, shit like that.
"Patrick, your nose," his teammate's voice stopped the conversation. "Your nose is bleeding, dude."
Lucas looked back at Patrick in time to see him wiping his nose.
"Well, well, well," Jason slowed the car down as something caught his attention. "What do we have here?"
He parked the car and they all got out to hear loud rock music blasting from the garage of the house they had parked in front of.
Lucas recognized the people playing the instruments as they got closer to them. They were close friends of Eddie and a part of the Hellfire Club.
The music quickly died down once they had caught their eye.
"You're a little early, fellas," the drummer said standing up and giving them a smug smirk. "Show's not till next week."
"Oh, that was music?" Patrick asked as Jason got straight to the point.
"We're looking for Eddie. He's in this band, if that's what you call this."
"What do you care?" The drummer snapped.
"That's our business," Jason responded.
The drummer looked behind him and Lucas knew he was in trouble when his eyebrows crunched up. "Lucas? What are you doing with these douchebags?"
Jason turned to him, angry. "You know these freaks, Sinclair?"
"They know my sister," Lucas tried to shrug them off. He started to hate himself seeing their disappointed and hurt faces, but he couldn't turn back now. "They tried to recruit me to their club, cult."
"Lucas, what the hell?" One of his friends looked at him in disbelief.
"We're just trying to find Eddie, man."
"Well, you have eyes, don't you? He's not here."
Jason nodded before sending a punch to the drummer's face. Jason grabbed him by the shirt, clearly ready to punch more if he needed to. "Where is he?"
"I don't know!"
"Where is he?"
"I don't know!"
Jason sent him another punch and pushed him into the drum set. Lucas tried to think of a way to stop it, but he didn't know what to do.
He watched as Jason stepped on his hand just putting enough pressure on it to hurt. "It's gonna be hard playing drums with a broken hand."
Lucas, do something! Nikki voice came from behind him.
He turned to face her and gave her a look that said he couldn't think of anything.
Send him on a chase that leads nowhere! Nikki offered an idea that sparked an entirely new plan in his mind.
"Dustin!" The drummer yelled, getting Lucas to turn back to the scene.
"What?" Jason asked.
"Dustin Henderson! He was calling around looking for Eddie. Maybe he found him!"
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, where do we find this Dustin?"
***
Nikki couldn't be happier that the plane ride was over. Between the nerves she had on the plane and the woman talking to her throughout the entire plane ride, it made sure that she was going on another one anytime soon.
Once the plane landed, it made her realize how close she was to being back with Lucas and the other's. It gave her a feeling of hope that she hadn't felt in a while. Soon she would be with them, they would take the bracelets of her wrists and they will be fine.
Right?
Leaving the airport, she quickly found an empty cab and got in back of it.
"Where would you like to go, miss?" the driver turned to face her.
"Hawkins, please."
"Any place specific?"
"No," Nikki shook her head, and couldn't help the smile starting to grow on her face. "Just Hawkins, my mind will lead me from there."
***
Breaking into Dustin's house was a lot easier than it should have been.
Lucas found this out when he told Jason and his friends that he would wait in the car as they go to see if anyone was home. But the moment they turned their backs to him, he got out of the car and went to Dustin's window, hoping he could warn them.
Dustin's window was left open so it made it easy for Lucas to jump through it with a good push off the ground. However, the landing was the most difficult part where he had to do a somersault on the bed to make sure he wouldn't break his neck.
With some tumbling and tripping on the run, he got to Dustin's radio on his desk and quickly turned it on to talk to them.
"Dustin," Lucas spoke into the speaker, slightly out of breath from his gymnastics routine. "It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin?"
"Lucas?" Dustin's static voice answered, getting him to let out a little breath of relief. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Just listen," he pleaded knowing he wouldn't have much time until the guys noticed he was missing. "Are you looking for Eddie?"
"We found him, no thanks to you."
"You found him?"
"A boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry, he's safe."
"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?"
"That's bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy."
"Then why do all the cops say he did it?"
"Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay?" Max's voice took over. "Just meet us at school. We'll explain later."
"I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down."
"What are you talking about? What bad shit?"
"Sinclair!" Jason's voice made him cringe. He turned around trying to think of a good lie but all he could say was that he would be there in a second before turning of the radio and climbing out of Dustin's room.
"What the hell were you doing?" Jason asked the second his feet hit the ground.
"I was looking for clue," Lucas said, trying to look honest.
"Clues?" Patrick repeated, turning to his friend. "What, freshman think he's Sherlock Holmes or something?"
"Yo, let's go," Jason nodded his head toward the car seeming to have forgiven Lucas for leaving them.
"I found one," Lucas said, thinking back to what Nikki said when they were with the band.
"What?" Jason asked, looking very interested in what he found out.
"A clue," Lucas explained. "I know where Eddie's hiding."