The Year of Second Chances (A Sunnyvale Novel Book 3) (18 page)

“You didn’t mean for her to get hurt?” I spread my hands to the side, astounded. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? You kidnapped her for God’s sake.”

“I know,” he whispers, his eyes wide with horror. “But I didn’t want to do it. I just didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.” I tuck my hands under my armpits, resisting the urge to punch him.

“Not when you’re being blackmailed,” he mumbles, staring down at the floor. “It was either do this or… Well, that’s not really the point. The point is I was blackmailed into doing it. I’m sorry. I fucked up, okay.”

“You more than fucked up. You messed up her life. I can’t let you get away with that.” I pause, waiting for a response, but he remains silent. “And who’s even blackmailing you?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he says. “Or else the deal I made with them is off.”

“What deal?” I ask. When he refuses to answer, I add, “You better start talking now or else I’ll have Jules drive to the police station.”

Kyler’s head snaps up and his hand darts for the door handle. But Jules swiftly pushes the lock button. Kyler tugs on the door handle and tries to pry the door lock up, but the thing doesn’t budge. When he looks up at us in a panic, Jules shrugs.

“Child safety locks,” he explains unapologetically. “Sorry dude, but what you did was really fucked up.”

Kyler looks at me in desperation. “What’re you going to do to me?”

“That all depends on how the rest of this conversation goes,” I say calmly. “So, if I were you, I’d start talking.”

He swallows hard, removing his hand from the door handle. “These people blackmailing me… They had dirt on you… Videos of you doing illegal things… That’s why I did it.”

Shock scorches through me, but something doesn’t sit well with his whole I-was-protecting-you story. Why would he suddenly protect me when he’s usually the one trying to destroy me?

“There’s more to it than that,” I say. “So either fess up or I’ll tell Jules to start driving.”

Kyler pounds his fists against his thighs. “Fine! They knew some stuff about me that I don’t want anyone knowing. And I had to do whatever it took to keep it a secret.”

“By trying to ruin Isa?” I start to dive over the seat to beat his ass.

But Jules catches me by the arm. “Not here,” he warns. “And you need him to tell you the entire story.”

I take a collecting breath before returning my ass to the seat. “Tell me who was blackmailing you and what they were blackmailing you over.”

Kyler starts to laugh, but when Jules shifts the car into drive, he sputters, “I’ve been cheating on my exams and papers. The person found out about this and threatened to tell the dean. And if the dean finds out, they’ll kick me off the team.” He pauses, contemplating something. “She also found out I was using steroids… And if dad ever found out… not only would my football career go down the toilet, dad would kick my ass.”

I don’t know whether to pity him or strangle him. “All of this over stupid sports.” I scratch my head, at a loss for words. “You’re so fucking stupid.”

“You were once afraid of dad too,” he points out. “Don’t pretend like at one time in your life you wouldn’t have done the same thing. You know how he can get when he gets disappointed.” His tone carries an underlying meaning, and I wonder if our dad ever got as angry with Kyler as he did with me. I never thought so, but sometimes people are really good at keeping secrets.

But that doesn’t give Kyler the right to ruin Isa’s life in order to make his easier.

“I may have been afraid of dad at one point, but I’d never hurt someone else to protect my own ass.” I drag my hand down my face, unsure how to process all of this. Kyler tormented and kidnapped Isa over losing his place on the team. Because he’s afraid of our dad. “Who’s blackmailing you…? Was it Hannah?”

He doesn’t respond, but his silence tells me everything I need to know.

“You two are exactly the same,” I snap, shaking my head. “Always getting sick pleasure by hurting others.”

“I’m nothing like Hannah,” he growls, his face bright red. “You don’t get it. If I was kicked off the team, my life would be ruined.”

“You mean, like how you ruined Isa’s?” I practically climb over the seat to get in his face. “Because I’d have chosen the other route. I’d rather my life be destroyed then someone else’s.”

He grits his teeth. “You’re full of shit. You’ve never been the self-sacrificing type.”

“With Isa I am. And if you knew anything about her… How good of a person she is… How much she liked you…” I shake my head, ready to be done with this conversation. Ready to make him pay. “All those moments you spent with her—you didn’t deserve them.”

Silence fills the car.

“Let’s go, Jules. I’m ready to get this over with so we can move on to Hannah.” I sit down in the seat.

“And where are we going?” He tries to sound tough but fails miserably.

“Somewhere.” I stare ahead as Jules backs out of the parking space.

“If you do anything to me, you’ll regret it.” His tone carries a warning.

“That shit used to work on me, but not anymore.” I glance over my shoulder at him and smirk. “I’m not afraid of you anymore.”

“And what about Isa?” he asks in a rushed panic. “I’m supposed to be meeting her tonight. How do you think she’s going to feel about getting stood up… Does she know I’m the one…” He can’t even finish.

“No, I didn’t tell her because I knew it would only hurt her more,” I say, fuming mad. “But just an FYI, she was going to break up with you tonight.”

“She was going to break up with me?” He sounds genuinely upset, which pisses me off even more.

“I don’t really think she thought of it as breaking up,” I add. “Since you two were never actually going out. Which is a good thing since you were playing her the entire time.”

“I wasn’t playing her!” he shouts, punching the back of my seat. “I really did like her so stop fucking saying that!”

“Which makes it even worse.” I reel around. “How can you like someone and do something like this to them?”

“I had to.” His voice wobbles, his breaths coming out sharp and erratic.

I almost pity him.

Almost.

“Whatever.” I rake my fingers through my hair. “Say whatever you need to say to make yourself feel better about helping Hannah torture Isa.”

He works to steady his breathing. “It wasn’t just Hannah’s prank. Lynn was in on it too.”

His words are like a punch to the gut, knocking the oxygen out of my lungs. “What?”

Kyler shrugs as he slumps back in the seat. “Lynn put this whole thing in motion. She was actually the one who showed up at our house with an envelope full of proof that you’d been stealing cars and doing drugs and that I’d been cheating. When I asked her what she wanted from me to keep quiet, she said we’d be in touch. Hannah was the one who passed along a lot of the messages and who took the videos of you doing all that bad shit, but I know Lynn was the one who put the plan together.”

I grip the edge of the seat, feeling as if I’m tumbling into the abyss. “Why’d she do it? Just to mess with Isa?”

“At first I thought so, but with the whole kidnapping thing…” He sucks in an uneven breath. “And trying to get a hold of the flash drive… She wanted something on it.”

“How did she even find out about the flash drive,” I choke out.

Guilt floods Kyler’s eyes. “I found out about it.” He massages the back of his neck tensely. “My friend Wes knows a guy who works with that friend of yours—Big Doug. And one night we were out drinking with Wes, and he mentioned he was helping Big Doug dig up some information for Hannah’s little sister. When he told us it was about the case, Hannah told her mom. She had me search for it in Isa’s grandma’s car and in her apartment, but when I couldn’t find it, she came up with the whole kidnapping, ransom plan… I don’t know why she wanted it so badly, though. ”

I blink, wondering if I heard him wrong. “You have a friend who’s friends with Big Doug?”

He nods, wiping his damp forehead with the back of his hand. “His family does business with him sometimes.”

I don’t know who this guy is, but I don’t really give a shit at the moment. All I care about is why Lynn would want the flash drive. And why go through all this trouble to get it? I think about what information was on it and a knot winds inside my gut. Maybe Lynn just wanted to see how the case was going. Or maybe she wanted to know if she was a suspect, which she is.

I dig my phone out of my pocket and dial Isa’s number. When it goes straight to voicemail, I lose my shit.

“Isa, if you get this message, call me ASAP. Lynn’s the one who was behind kidnapping you.” I hang up and turn to Jules. “Change of plans. We’re going to Isa’s house right now.”

Chapter 20

Isa

“So, you and Kai are getting pretty hot and heavy, like really, really fast,” Indigo teases me as I drive toward my house.

“I know.” I sigh. “I don’t know what’s going on with me. I’m usually shy about these things, but it’s like I have no self-control.”

“It’s called being in love.” She beams at me like a cartoon character about to break out into a song. 

My lips part to tell her I’m not sure if I’m in love yet, but the words won’t leave my lips.

“I knew it.” She grins proudly. Then she flips down the visor to check her makeup. “Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. How’d your very first break up go?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’m not doing it until tonight. But I have a feeling Kyler won’t be too upset.”

She gives me a sidelong glance. “How do you figure that?”

“Because I’m pretty sure he was with Hannah the last time we talked on the phone.”

“That little asshat. I knew I didn’t like him. I knew—” Her phone rings, cutting her off.

“It’s my dad,” she grimaces before putting the phone up to her ear. “What do you want?”

The rest of the drive becomes incredibly awkward as she argues with her dad about her mom being in rehab, something her dad isn’t thrilled about, mostly because he has to pay for her treatment. Listening to the conversation makes me realize I’m not the only one with a shitty dad.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go inside with you?” Indigo whispers to me as I pull into the driveway of the house I grew up in.

“I’ll be fine. This’ll take me like two seconds.” I open the door to get out. “Finish talking to your dad.”

“Thanks. But if you need me to help you carry your stuff out then just holler.”

I nod then climb out of the car and walk up the driveway, noting the garage is open and empty.

Guess he was telling the truth. They really are gone.

I relax at that realization and bounce up the stairs to the back door. When I step inside, my heart plummets as old memories surface.

So much bad stuff happened here.

I walk around through the house. Every single room is empty, except for one—mine. All of my stuff has been cleared out except for the bed frame and the mattress.

That’s odd
, I think.
Why would they leave my bed for me to take? And where the hell are my boxes?

Then I notice the ropes tied around the poles of the headboard, as if someone was recently secured there. My confusion soars to undiluted terror and every part of me screams
run
!  I start to spin around when a heavy object smacks me over the top of my head.

I see stars everywhere. Bright lights. My ears sing as I collapse to the floor. Then darkness smothers me.

***

My eyes roll open, and my eyeballs burn as my gaze skims the empty bedroom. I half expect to see someone standing in the shadows, but nothing appears out of the ordinary. Although a few slight changes have been made since I blacked out; the curtains have been drawn, the lights are off, and music is playing downstairs. Plus, I swear I smell the faintest scent of… gasoline?

“What the hell is going on?” I reach up to touch my pulsating head, and that’s when I feel the rough ropes cutting into my wrists and ankles. Panic blasts through me, and I start to jerk my arms and legs. “No. No. No. No!” Tears stream out of my eyes as the ropes rub my skin raw, refusing to loosen.

“Try all you want, they won’t loosen.”

My head snaps toward the doorway. Lynn is leaning against the doorframe, wearing a peach dress and pearls and leather gloves. Her makeup and hair are done perfectly, but the wicked smile on her face looks all sorts of wrong, warped.

Evil.

I think about the unknown caller, the flyers, the kidnapping. Kai thought a guy was behind the kidnapping and texts. He must have been wrong. It had to be Lynn. But why? And what is she going to do to me?

“Let me go!” I scream at the top of my lungs until I run out of breath. “
Please
.”

When her feet remain glued to the carpet, I jerk on the ropes until my flesh splits open. Warm drops of blood drip down my wrists. I scream again. Scream until my lungs feel like they’re about to combust.

“Scream all you want, but no one’s going to hear you over the music.” Her gaze drops to the blood on my wrists and a sickening grin twists at her lips. “You know, I used to hate the sight of blood. I couldn’t even look at it without throwing up.” She straightens her stance and ambles into the room, each one of her footsteps calculated and measured. “But when you see your own son bleeding to death, that all changes. That sickened feeling is overridden by a desperation to make the bleeding stop.” She stops at the foot of the bed, rests her hands on the footboard, and I notice she has something shiny and silver in her hand. “I tried to save him—I really did. But sometimes you can do everything right and still fail.”

I’m not sure where she’s going with this, but I can’t stop staring at her hand. What is she holding? A small knife? Is she going to kill me…

No, Lynn may not like me, but she’s not a killer.

But then I think of the list and how her name was on it.

“You killed your own son,” I whisper in horror. Potent adrenaline courses through my veins, making me lightheaded and woozy. Well, either that or the bang over the head gave me a concussion. “How could you do that?”