Settling Ashes: A New Adult/College Romance (The Ashes Series Book 2) (17 page)

Eighteen

Clay

It was impossible to climb back up the stairs inside Matchstick’s after the stampede began. When the fire alarm bells started to ring, the massive crowd trying to escape the top floor had shoved me as I fought against them to move in the opposite direction. In the end, they won, and I was forced to ride the wave of panicking people out onto the sidewalk below.

I didn’t say a word to Gillian, Drew, Tima, or Rob, I just stood there and stared at the doors. My body was completely numb. I managed to tamp down the boiling bubble of fear rolling low in my gut long enough to keep my eyes glued to the building, willing Beau to walk out of those doors with my girl.

“Clay,” Drew murmured, placing both of his hands on my shoulders, a calming gesture.

When Drew took the time to call me by my name and not “dude” or “man,” I knew something was seriously wrong.

“Don’t,” I snapped. I shook his hands off my shoulders.

He didn’t try to touch me again, just sidled up to stand next to me. I felt Rob flank my other side. But I could still hear Gillian and Tima’s sniffles from behind me, and the sound steeled my nerves. They shouldn’t be crying. Paige was going to walk out of those doors at any minute.

Then we saw tendrils of smoke begin to billow out a window near the top of the building, and my resolve cracked. I ran for the front doors.

The sound of Gillian screaming behind me—“Get him! Get him!”—didn’t slow me down at all. But the big, burly fireman standing in front of the door certainly did.

“No, son,” he said gently. “You aren’t going in there. We’ve got this.”

I backed away in horror. The building was actually on fire. Another fire. Paige was stuck inside a burning building. Again.

I fell to my knees on the sidewalk. Where was she? The doors continued to swing open; people still straggled out. I watched as a couple, a boy and a girl from the university, walked out holding on to each other tightly, coughing from the thickening smoke inside.

“He didn’t leave her,” I said quietly as I watched them.

Rob knelt next to me. “You didn’t leave Paige. You couldn’t have known this was going to happen Clay. You left her in good hands. Beau will get her out. You’ll see her in a minute.”

The knot in my stomach was growing, creeping up like vines into my chest, but I still stared at the doors.

“Not a fire,” I heard as a fireman rushed past. I rocketed to my feet and grabbed his arm.

“What?” I said urgently. “What’d you just say?”

He glanced at me, and paused in his steps. “It’s not a fire. Someone set off a bunch of smoke bombs inside the building, in the bathrooms upstairs. They were nasty, and thick, but the smoke is dissipating now. Everyone will get out safely.”

He walked away, and I sagged in relief on the sidewalk. We all watched the doors more closely as the last people were escorted out of the building by firefighters, or straggled out on their own.

When I saw them I was going to squeeze Paige and never let her go.

And then I was going to ask her to be my wife.

Beau finally exited, looking disheveled and exhausted. When his eyes met mine, I faltered. The mixture of torment and shame in his eyes nearly stopped my heart.

And Paige wasn’t with him.

I stared at him in disbelief as he walked over to us alone, his eyes searching the crowd as he did so.

“She’s not out here?” he asked loudly. “Paige? She’s not with you?”

The knot of emotion in my stomach exploded, and fury rolled out of me.

“
What?
” I roared. “What the hell are you talking about? Paige was supposed to be with you! Of
course
she’s not out here! I left her in there with
you!”

I reached him and shoved his chest, sending him to flying backward.

“We’ve been waiting to see you and Paige walk out together! Where the
fuck
is she?”

Beau stared at me in shock. “I don’t know. I don’t know! We got separated!”

He sank to his knees on the sidewalk as I had, but I didn’t have the time or the patience for his breakdown.

I stalked back up to the doors, where two policemen were now manning the door. They eyed me warily as I approached.

“Mr. Forbes,” one greeted me. “Can we help you?”

I was a familiar face around the police station.

“Yeah,” I snapped. “My girlfriend is still inside. I need to go in and look for her.”

They glanced at each other, and one of them shook his head slowly. “She’s not in there, Mr. Forbes. The firefighters just gave the all-clear. Everyone is out.”

I stared at them in disbelief, gearing up to argue. But a sharp tug on my shirt stopped me and I turned to see Gillian standing there.

“Come here,” she said urgently. “Listen to what Beau has to say.”

Beau’s eyes were bloodshot and he was still on his knees on the concrete, so I crouched down next to him.

“I’m confused,” I said slowly and carefully, like I was speaking to a child. “I left Paige inside with you. The fire alarm goes off, and you…lose her? Leave her? What happened up there?”

He stared miserably at me, but there was a hint of anger in his eyes, too.

“I would. Never. Leave. Her.” He spit the words like something disgusting from his mouth. “Never. You know that about me, even if you know nothing else.”

He stared at me, daring me to disagree with him.

I didn’t. I just waited.

“You need to know something. I noticed that Paige was wasted right before the place went crazy. Like, she was totally drunk off her ass.”

I shook my head, not comprehending. “No, she wasn’t. She only had one drink.”

“That’s what she told me, but from the way she was acting, that’s impossible. Unless…”

We stared at each other, coming to the realization at the same time.

“Gill!” I said quickly, and she kneeled down next to me.

“What?”

“Where did Paige get that pink drink?”

“Um,” Gillian scrunched up her lips to one side. “I’m not sure.”

“
Think
, Gillian! Did she get it from the bar?” I reached out and gripped Gillian’s shoulders with my hands firmly.

Drew grunted behind me, but I ignored him. Gillian’s brown eyes stared into mine, wide with confusion.

“N-no,” she stammered. “Not from the bar. Someone gave it to her. They were handing out samples or something.”

I groaned. “No, no, no. Oh, God.”

“What are you thinking?” Rob asked quickly.

“I’m thinking that someone drugged Paige right under our noses, and then they executed a really convenient distraction, and now she’s gone!”

I stood up, tilted my head back until I was staring at the stars, and I roared.

~**~

I stood on the sidewalk, still outside of Matchstick’s now being questioned by the police.

“Again, Mr. Forbes,” a uniformed officer was saying. “Tell us how you know your girlfriend was drugged?”

I sighed, frustration getting close to boiling over inside of me.

“I have told you this a million times. Are we going to be done soon, so I can get out of here and start
looking
for her?”

“Would you even know where to start looking?” the officer said pointedly.

I shook my head angrily. I didn’t know where to start looking. But I had already called my dad, who was attempting to get Dechlan to set up an immediate meeting with the contact he’d told us about. I was expecting a call at any moment with the when and where.

“We know she was drugged because of the way she was acting before everything went down,” I answered with a keyed up sigh.

“And,” Beau added, “We know someone has been after her for awhile because of all of the attacks she’s endured recently.”

“Which she neglected to report?”

“She neglected to report it because she knew you all would just assume it was me,” I said through my teeth.

The officer nodded absently, looking down at his tablet. “Right.”

They grilled us for about fifteen minutes longer, and then finally let us go. They instructed us to stay close to home, in case they had more questions. They also told us that they wouldn’t be able to begin looking for Paige until she had been missing for at least forty-eight hours.

Drew held back my arms just as I was reeling back to punch the officer who spouted those words.

My phone rang, and I grabbed it out of my pocket, answering with a renewed purpose.

“Hello.”

“Son, the meeting is set. Meet us at the All-Star motel off of Exit one-oh-nine in thirty minutes.”

I hung up the phone and relayed the information about what I was doing to the others.

“I’m coming with you,” Beau said determinedly.

“We all will,” Gillian stated.

I shook my head. “No, you guys can’t. This person is obviously sticking close to the woodwork for a reason. We might scare them off if we all go rolling in there like some kind of army G-force.”

Beau stepped up to me, his chest touching mine.

“I said I’m coming,” he said, refusing to back down. “I’m the one who lost her, man. I have to help find her. I have to.”

I stared at him silently, assessing him and the situation. Exit one-oh-nine was a bit of a haul, and I needed to get going if I was going to make the meeting on time.

“Okay,” I finally agreed.

I looked at my friends. “Just Beau for this. I’ll keep you guys updated.”

Gillian reached forward and grabbed my jacket, fisting her hands in the front of it.

“You find my best friend,” she said with tears brimming her lashes. “Find her, and bring her home to us. Okay?”

She sniffled, and I nodded. “I will always find her.”

Nineteen

Paige

“What’d you ever do to me?” she repeated incredulously.

I just stared at her, still in shock. This was not the woman I worked with in Dr. Schilling’s office. She glared at me like she wished I were already dead. Her blond hair was slicked back under a knitted cap, and the all-black outfit was seriously emitting a “I am capable of a large amount of bad-assery” vibe.

“You’ve stolen the man I love,” she said softly. “Why else would one woman condemn another?”

“You love Clay?” I asked loudly, my mouth dropping open.

All sorts of visions of the two of them together flitted through my mind, but I shook them off. Clay was mine, and had been since we met. This bitch was crazy.

She coughed a harsh bark of a laugh. “Not Clay. Robert.”

I wrinkled my forehead, utterly befuddled. “Robert?”

She sighed as if my confusion annoyed her.  “What, you call him Dr. Schilling even when you’re making love to him?”

I gaped at her, wondering if she was joking. “You’re not for real?
Dr. Schilling?”

She merely stared.

“First of all, I work for him. Second of all, you
love
him?”

She came closer, standing about fifteen feet away from the bed I’d just vacated.

“Don’t play dumb. He adores you. He’d do anything for you, including making me get rid of that girl who was threatening you.”

My blood slowed in my veins, chilling at her words. “Are you telling me…you’re the one who killed Hannah? At Dr. Schilling’s request?”

She nodded grimly, uncrossing her arms and stepping closer. “And I did a good job, too, didn’t I? I mean…I could care less that some girl was giving you a hard time. But your precious Professor”—she glared hatefully at me—“ was having none of that.”

She leaned to the side, putting her weight on one leg, shifting her feet from side to side.

“Krista,” I said slowly. “I never wanted him to do that. You have to believe me. I don’t want Dr. Schilling. I am totally in love with my boyfriend. You know, Clay Forbes? The one I bring into the office all the time? So you can have him, okay?”

I doubted that being rational with her would solve all my problems. She wasn’t trying to hide her identity from me. She was spilling her guts freely, which meant only one thing.

She planned to murder me down here in this storm cellar.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? If I just let you leave here so you could run to the love of MY life and tell him what I’ve done?”

“He doesn’t already know?”

“Of course not,” she spat. “I told you he loves you, didn’t I? He never would have agreed to this.”

“So…” I dragged out the word, thinking quickly. “He would be really upset with you if something happened to me, wouldn’t he? He’d never forgive you then. And you’d never get him to love you.”

“Bull,” she disagreed with a wave of her hand. “As long as you’re out of my way, I can get him to do anything. I just need you gone, so he can
see
me again.”

Her eyes left me to scan the room. I was afraid to ask what she was looking for. She spun in a slow circle, and as she did so, I noticed the glint of metal in the waistband of her dark pants.

My head swirled, and I sank back down on the bed.

Krista was bat-shit crazy, and she had a gun.

Oh, God
.

“I won’t tell him,” I said, swallowing thickly. I licked my lips repeatedly; they kept going completely dry. “I swear I won’t. I don’t want to have anything to do with him, Krista. I told you, I love Clay.”

Her eyes shot back to me. “Save it. You’re not getting out of here. I just have to figure out what to do with you.”

“You’re not going to kill me?” I asked hopefully.

“No, I am,” she said, her tone cheerful. “Soon. They’re going to be looking for you when they find out the building wasn’t actually on fire. Dammit! I should have just set a real fire.”

“What?” I asked, bewildered. “Matchstick’s? Wait. It’s not on fire, is it?”

I panicked, thinking of my friends.

“No,” she said sullenly. “My mistake.”

I puffed a breath of relief.

“I’m hungry,” I lied. “Aren’t you going to feed me?”

She stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

Like I was the crazy one.

“Didn’t you hear me say that I was going to kill you? Why would I feed you?”

“Listen,” I said, trying to act as a voice of reason for her. “If you keep me alive, you could show Dr. Schilling the error of his ways. He can see how much you’d actually do for him. Tell him you were just trying to get me away from my horrible boyfriend.”

She stared at me suspiciously. “That’s not bad.”

My hopes soared.

She shook her head dismissively. “But he’ll never go for that. He” —She was interrupted by a pounding on the cellar trapdoor.

“Krista? KRISTA! Open this door right now! I know you’re in there!”

Dr. Schilling! Krista and I stared at each other, the shock I felt mirroring on her face. I considered screaming, but then I remembered the gun in her waistband. And being rescued by Dr. Schilling didn’t seem like it would be much better than being stuck down here with Krista.

“Oh, great,” she said to herself. “I guess we’ll have to let him join the party.”

She walked up the stairs and unlocked the door. It flew open and Dr. Schilling emerged on the stairs, yelling the whole way.

“I heard what happened at that bar last night!” he roared. “And now Paige is missing. What have you…?”

His voice trailed off when he saw me, his eyes going wide. He whirled to face Krista.

Last night. That meant I’d been here a day. It felt like far longer.

“You
kidnapped
her?” he said in horror.

“Don’t be so high and mighty,” she said flippantly. “You’re the one who had me kill a girl. Kidnapping was easy after that.”

He fidgeted, his eyes darting in my direction. “Krista, I…I never told you to kidnap Paige! Release her immediately!”

She smiled lovingly at him. “I can’t. I need to save you from yourself, Robert.  She’ll be the death of you. You don’t think clearly where she’s concerned. So I’m doing you a favor.”

His mouth opened wide, and he glanced at me. “Paige. I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”

“Don’t answer that!” Krista screamed shrilly, running over to stand between “Robert” and I.

“You’re still only worried about
her
,” she spat. “I’ve done everything for you. Everything! And this is how you repay me? You said we’d be together!”

Angry tears streamed down her face. “Was that a lie?”

“Listen,” he began, crooning to her sweetly, all the while backing toward me. “I do care about you, Krista. I do. And we can be together. But you have to let Paige go first.”

Krista let out a bloodcurdling scream and yanked the gun out of her waistband. She rushed at Dr. Schilling, who raised his hands in defense. As he lowered his head, she reached up with the gun. He wasn’t expecting that, and she was able to clock him against the side of the head with the butt. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Krista turned to me, where I was staring down at Dr. Schilling in horror.

“Now, back to figuring out what I’ll do with you.”

She walked back toward the staircase, as if she hadn’t just knocked a man out cold with a gun, and climbed the steps.

Clay

I knocked on the door of the motel room. My father had texted me the room number, and Beau and I had arrived with no time to spare. The door swung open, and Dechlan swept us into the room.

“Sit,” he ordered.

Seated around a small wooden table in the corner of the room were my father and a young student I didn’t recognize.

“Let’s get this started,” I said gruffly. “My girlfriend has been kidnapped. I don’t even know”—I chocked on the words—“if she’s still alive. I need you to talk, and I need you to talk now.”

The boy clearly knew who I was. He licked his lips nervously and stammered his answer.

“I know who was responsible for your…other…girlfriend.”

“Hannah? She wasn’t my girlfriend,” I snapped.

Beau placed a hand on my arm, and I stared at him. “Be cool. Stay focused, man.”

I looked back at the boy. “What do you know?”

He cleared his throat. “I, uh, work for a psychology professor in the same department as Paige. One day, I had to make a delivery to Dr. Schilling.”

He paused, and I had to force myself to stop my hand from reaching over and grabbing his collar.

“And?”

“And, uh, he and his secretary were in his office talking about offing your, uh, ex-girlfriend for Paige.”

I sat back in my chair in stunned silence.

Dechlan stepped in. “You’re telling us that this professor, Paige’s boss, had his secretary kill Hannah? For Paige?”

The boy nodded. “I’d seen them together before. He always seemed kind of creepy about Paige. I think he wanted to protect her from that other girl. But if Paige didn’t return the feelings…”

I closed my eyes and finished his sentence. “Then he might end up doing the same to her.”

I slammed my fist down on the table and stood, pacing the room.

Dammit!
I’d known that professor wasn’t right. I’d known it, deep in my gut, and yet I’d let Paige continue to work there.

“Wait a minute,” Beau said, looking from me to the boy. “So, if this professor, like, loves Paige or something…that means he has her. He probably wants to talk her into loving him back or something. He wouldn’t kill her.”

“Not right away, anyway,” Dechlan murmured.

I jerked my head in his direction. He shook his head sympathetically.

“Are you willing to tell what you’ve told us to the police?” he said quickly to the boy.

The boy sighed and nodded. “Yeah.”

My father stood, and came over to grab my shoulders. “You’re cleared, Clay. You’re cleared of this.”

I shook him off. “I don’t give a damn.”

I looked at the boy again. “How can we find out where this secretary and the professor live? One of them has her.”

He smiled, although his face was grim. “I was afraid you were going to ask that. We can get them out of their files in the offices where Paige and I work. But we’ll have to use my key to get in after hours, and that’s a major rule violation.”

I glared at him. “If you think I’m worried about rules right now…”

“Okay, okay,” he said quickly, holding up his hands. “I’ll take you, then. Meet me around back of the office building. And try to stay inconspicuous.”

He looked at me, doubtful I would be able to pull off innocuous.

When Beau and I were sitting in the Land Rover, seat belts buckled, I looked over at him desperately. “When we get these addresses, how are we supposed to know which to try first?”

“We go with our gut,” he said, standing. “And we hope to God we’re right.”