The Little Life

Chapter Thirty Eight

A few days after Jack had arrived home from New York, the police came to the house to speak with us. Luckily I had finally started speaking again so when they asked me questions, Jack didn't have to answer for me anymore.

The police had found Annabelle in a wooded area outside of New York City. She was alive but badly hurt and malnourished. She had no information about Tasha, however, because the two were never kept together nor had they ever spoken. She was able to somewhat identify the man and unfortunately, the description she gave matched Leo.

Now the hunt was on to find Leo. The detective from New York came up with the idea to create a false story about Jack and his businesses. It was going to air this morning around 9am. The news story was going to say Jack had shut down his clubs for good and was planning to move back home to North Carolina after his girlfriends best friend had been kidnapped. Although untrue, Jack decided to shut down his clubs for a few days while they tried to lure Leo out of hiding.

Nobody understood why Leo was doing this. He was successful as well, considering he was a family lawyer in New York City. That's pretty damn successful. After the phone call stating he wanted Jack to fail, nobody had seen or heard from him. Tasha's phone hadn't been used since the brief ping earlier in the month, and police felt like they were running out of time. Jack and his parents assured police and everyone else Tasha would be alive; Leo wasn't capable of killing anybody.

Today Jack was holding a press conference to hopefully reach his brother somehow. He was going to say Leo won, and he had failed. He was supposed to go into detail about how he shut his businesses down because the lack of work during this whole debacle made him go bankrupt. The police said this should appease Leo enough to release Tasha or at least get in contact with him.

It was around 7:30 in the morning and we were getting dressed for the press conference.

"But why do I have to go?" I whined.

Jack sighed as he tied his tie, "Because I want you there with me. You make me less nervous"

"I don't wanna stand in front of a camera. He doesn't care about me anyway. He just wants you" I said as I plopped down on the couch.

"Sweetheart can we please just do this? Stop fighting and finish getting ready. Please. For me."

I groaned, "Fine. But we're getting Crackle Barrel after"

"It's Crack-er Barrel" Jack called out after I left the living room to finish getting ready.

Thirty minutes later we arrived at the police station. There were camera crews and reporters standing outside the front of the building behind a barricade, waiting for Jack to make his appearance. As we stepped out of the car and got closer, I stood behind Jack holding onto his suit jacket. He looked down at me and smiled, trying to show me it was okay. He spoke with the detective handling Tasha's case for a few minutes before we walked to the podium that was placed outside.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," the detective said, "thank you all for coming. With me I have Jack Hudson and his girlfriend Calysta Hawthorne here to speak on the Clayborne case. Mr.Hudson"

"Thank you Detective Barrat. My name is Jack Hudson. I am Leo Hudson's brother and Calysta is Tashas best friend" he said and I inched closer to him. "We wanted to come out here and speak with you all today, and let everyone know that Leo won. My clubs are being shut down for good and I have gone bankrupt. I have lost everything I've worked so hard for, and it was all because of Leo Hudson. I am nothing now, and I will be returning to my hometown to live with my family, leaving everything behind"

As he spoke, a few people in the crowd gasped and whispered, unaware this whole ploy was a rouse. After we finished speaking and Detective Barrat took back over, the crowd erupted with questions about Leo and the case. Most people wanted to know how they came to the conclusion that it was Leo, if his whereabouts were known, how Annabelle was doing, etc. After we concluded the conference and most people have left except for a few stragglers concluding their news segments, we went inside the station to talk to the people handling Tasha's case.

"Any word from Leo yet?" Someone asked Jack as we walked in.

"No, not yet. But I'm sure he won't reach out this soon after it's over"

We stayed at the police station for about an hour before we drove to Cracker Barrel. Luckily the wait wasn't very long, because I was starving. As we waited to be seated I browsed around the store. I stopped in my tracks when I noticed giant jawbreakers.

"Can I please get one of these?!" I asked Jack as I gave him my best puppy dog eyes.

"Do you know how much sugar is in those? Think again, little one"

"But I said please" I pouted.

He laughed, "Saying please doesn't equate to automatically getting your way"

"But why not"

Just as he was about to answer, our name was called over the speakers. "Put it down. Time to eat" he said as he grabbed my hand and walked me to the table behind the waitress.

We were seated and I grabbed a breakfast menu to look over, even though I already knew what I wanted. Jack did the same and a few minutes later our waitress came to the table to take our orders and get us drinks. I got a hot chocolate even though it was July and Jack got his regular plain black coffee. After we ordered and she took our menus, we decided to play the peg game. I ended the first round with 3 left, while Jack had four.

While we were eating and playing the game, everything felt like it was back to normal. I had almost forgotten that my best friend was missing and my boyfriends brother was the kidnapper.