Shot In The Dark [Book 1]

4.1 - Series Of Events

"How do you even- oh god." Luke places his hand on his forehead in a stressed manner. "Okay, it's okay, it's okay."

"I feel like you're trying to reassure yourself more than me." I grab the duffle bag and walk to the kitchen, turning the light on and setting it onto the island. "When we were there, I found these."

I pull the book and the file out of the bag and place them onto the island, sliding them to Luke. "He was watching my every move. The file has all of our information."

"Our?!" Luke grabs the file and opens it. "This has stuff about all of us, including our families."

"Yeah, he was a sick and twisted man. I don't know what to do." I shake my head, pulling my gloves off of my hands.

"I'll go wake Calum up and ask him what to do." Luke sets the file down and I furrow my eyebrows, causing him to speak again. "Calum knows more about this than any of us, trust me."

I roll my eyes as he leaves the room and look at Ashton as he opens his mouth to speak.

"You have to-"

"I'm not telling Koleton until he asks." I stop him from finishing his sentence. "He already has enough on his plate."

"Oh yeah, like what? Being in love with-"

Before he can finish his sentence, quick stomps can be heard coming from the stairwell as if a stampede is coming through the house.

"Where is she?!" An exhausted-looking Calum runs into the kitchen frantically before his eyes land on me. "Oh my- are you okay? Come here."

He pulls me into a tight hug that's full of worry, and another emotion I can't recognize.

"Where is she?" I hear a female voice say and it causes my heart to sink. Not this bitch again.

We pull away from the hug and I look at the door way to see Hailey standing next to Luke. She looks at me and gives me a small smile.

I move past Calum calmly, all of them watching me as I approach her. I reel my fist back and nearly hit her dead in the jaw until I stop myself.

"Hailey, I'm sure you're a great person and in another life we would be amazing friends, but right now I need you to leave." I grab her arm and push her out of the house. "Have a good night."

I walk back into the kitchen and see Calum nervously biting his cheek.

"She wasn't in his room." Luke quickly reassures me. "She sleeps in the guest bedroom. I told Calum about everything when she was in the bathroom without me knowing, and the bathroom is next to Cal's room so she heard him run out of his room."

"I believe you, but right now we need to find out how to solve this situation." I whisper, feeling a bit at peace with his reassurance.

They all nod as they look around at each other and down at the island as Ashton speaks up. "Where do we start?"

———

We have been standing around the island all night, trying to piece everything together.

All the way from the source that my father was receiving the information to the reason he wanted it in the first place.

We nearly have it all put together when someone knocks on the door loudly. My eyes widen as we all begin to panic, rushing to shove everything back into the duffle bag.

"I'll go get the door." Luke hurriedly whispers. "You guys go act natural."

Ashton, Calum and I run into the living room as Luke tosses the duffle bag into the hall closet on his way to the door.