“Lewis,” someone shouted through the door. I jumped awake from my half-asleep state. “Breakfast is ready. Hurry up. I wanna leave soon,” Henry added.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. “All right, I’m up.” It was six in the morning. The last time I had looked at the clock that morning, it was 4:23. My eyes stung from having hardly any sleep, and I felt drained. I needed food and a couple energy drinks. Stretching my aching limbs, I took one last look at Summer’s picture and prepared for yet another day wondering where she was.
My stomach was tied in knots. I was nervous to speak to Hart. I almost didn’t want to know. It would make it too real. Mum and Dawn were the only people in the kitchen when I came down for breakfast. I sat at the table and forced down a few bits of toast. It was no use, though; I felt too sick to eat.
“I’ll take a couple cereal bars,” I said, dropping my half-eaten toast back on the plate. Everything tasted like shit now anyway.
Dawn frowned. “Make sure you do.” The circles under her eyes had darkened. I don’t think she slept much either. I often heard her walking around in the early hours of the morning.
“Where are you going today?” Mum asked.
“Back to town and then maybe farther toward the city. I don’t really know yet.”
“Ready, Lewis?” Henry asked, leaning against the kitchen doorframe.
I got up, eager to go. “Yeah.”
Dawn nodded and swiped a tear from her face. “Keep in touch and be careful.”
“We will, Mum,” Henry replied. “See you later.” I walked ahead of Henry and got in my car.
“So…plan?” I asked. “I guess we should plan something, although I just want to go and beat the shit out of him.”
He scratched his jaw and frowned. “Err, no. You got any ideas?”
“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “We’re just going to have to get there and see how well the police are watching him.”
“Yeah. We are doing the right thing, aren’t we?”
“For Sum, yeah. You think we could sneak into his house?”
“Maybe. We’d make shit robbers,” he said, laughing humorlessly.
“I feel like I’m in a movie.”
“Vin Diesel’s gonna burst round the corner in some souped-up sports car and start shooting at us.”
Six months ago, I would have driven like a dick and Henry would have pretended to shoot things out the windows. I would love to go back to being an idiot.
***
The closer we got to his house, the angrier I became. I felt rage coursing through my veins. We parked the car along the road so he wouldn’t see from his house and watched. “I don’t see the police,” Henry said, looking up and down the road.
“That’s the whole point, Henry,” I muttered dryly. I shook my head and looked back at his house. He was there. I clenched my jaw and felt every muscle in my body tense. He stood outside, picking up a newspaper from his doorstep. I had planned to keep calm, but seeing him made my blood boil. I just wanted to rip his fucking head off. Adrenaline pumped through my body, and I jumped out of the car.
In that moment, I didn’t think about trying to stay calm and get him to confess. The man that took Summer from me was just feet away, and I was going to kill him. Even the threat of prison wasn’t enough to stop me. I didn’t care.
He looked up and saw me as I ran toward him. His hands shot up, telling me to back off. Not fucking likely. I lunged forward, grabbed his shirt, and punched him as hard as I could in the jaw. The satisfaction of hearing his jaw crack lasted only a second. He still had Summer.
“Where is she?” I shouted and drew my arm back to punch him again. I couldn’t think straight. I wanted answers, someone to tell me where she was and what happened, and someone to pay. I wanted someone to pay. “Tell me where she is.” I punched his face again and his lip split open. I couldn’t even put into words how much I hated him.
“I don’t know. I haven’t done anything, I swear!” he shouted back and shoved me back away from him.
“I swear to God if you don’t tell me where she is…” I growled and gasped as I was suddenly grabbed from behind and slammed to the ground. I expected it to be Henry, but when I looked over my shoulder, I saw it was some police officer. I didn’t care that I was about to be arrested. I only cared that they stopped me too soon.
The officer read me my rights and clamped handcuffs on my wrists tight. “I swear to you, Lewis, I haven’t done anything to Summer,” Hart protested.
“Don’t you fucking say her name. Just tell me where she is. Tell me where she is.”