Chapter 188
Lake:
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
I continued to growl internally. How could I have let this happen? How could I have been stupid enough to leave Jojo, Valerie and Lucian all alone when I knew that there was no way my father wasn’t going to find out we were here!
The man had eyes and ears in every part of this fucking pack! And Jojo…
My heart was racing fast. So fast that it was almost impossible for me to breathe. I sprang up from my bed and allowed my left hand rake through my hair.
He had only made mention of Lucian. I did not know what was going on with Jojo and Valerie.
“Sir? Sir, are you alright?” I heard Neil call from the phone.
I scoffed bitterly. Alright? I was a million miles away from being alright!
I continued to pace about my room, trying hard to steady my breathing pattern and arrange my thoughts. I needed to clear my head, think and plan, but the gazillion thoughts that ran through my mind all at once were not doing anything to help the situation.
“You say you saw my son? What about Jojo? And her sister? Were they taken by my father too?” I asked frantically. I could tell he could hear the panic and anger in my voice, because I could too.
“No sir. No one else came out of the car besides Lucian. I do not think they were taken along. There has been no sign of them. But alpha…”
I ended the call immediately. I flung my phone towards the bed and quickly got dressed. I threw on a pair of blue jeans and a white T-shirt. I picked up my phone from my bed and glanced through it.
There were no calls or texts from Jojo. If my father had forcefully taken the child from her, Jojo would have called to tell me. In fact, she would have called me at the mere sight of him. So why was I yet to see a text, or get a call from her?
Had he… had my father harmed her?
Molten rage coursed through my blood. Anger thrummed against my chest, and I felt my lips quiver with fear. I rushed out of my room like a mad man – which I was not far from, at all. I found my car parked outside the casino and I flung myself into it. I started the engine of the car immediately and reversed backwards.
It was a miracle I did not run into another car, or a person. I could not keep my thoughts straight. The worst of things ran through my mind. What if Jojo was tied up? Knocked unconscious? What if she had been kidnapped? Forced to flee the pack? Worse still, what it she had been killed?!
Cold washed down my spine as I considered the last thought. My father was not incapable of murder, and it was what bothered me the most. My grip on my steering wheel tightened, and it did not ease off. Not even when I had pulled the car into the garage of my condo.
I stepped out of the car and met guards sprawled on the floor. Many of them had blood stains on their shirts, and several bad bruises on their faces.
My fists rolled into balls beside me.
This was it! This was where Cole Rush crossed the line! I swore by the goddess that if he had in anyway harmed Jojo or Valerie, I would walk to the ends of the Earth to make sure that he paid for it, with his own fucking blood!
I spat on the ground and wiped my mouth with the back of my right palm. I had to go into the house to make sure that everyone was safe.
The door was open when I walked through. I stepped into the living room, and it was empty. Or so it seemed.
I was going to walk up the stairs when I heard soft sobs coming from behind one of the sofas. I paused on my tracks and started to move slowly in the direction of the sound. I could tell the voice, I knew it was Valerie crying.Owned by NôvelDrama.Org.
The sound of her stiffle sobs caused my heart to fall in my chest. Something bad had happened. And if Jojo was not with her, that meant…
“Valerie.” I stood beside her, breathless. She was seated on the ground, her back was pressed against the back of the leather sofa. She refused to look away from the floor, she refused to look up at me.
Pain slashed through my chest with sharp claws. I found myself falling to the ground. I did not bother to stop myself until I had fallen on my knees in front of her.
She still did not look up at me. She buried her jaw between her knees and wrapped her hands around herself. Tears ran down her eyes, the bottom of her eyes were swollen. It was a sign she had been crying for a long time.
I touched her right knee and swallowed hard. I swallowed my fear along with my saliva. Whatever had happened, I needed to brace myself up to face it.
Today was the day Cole Rush would see the wrath of the monster he has created, the monster he had built and engraved in me. I was done playing son, this time, I was going to be a father, a father to my own freaking son! The father he could never be.
“Valerie, what happened?”
Without looking at me, she sniffed in her tears.
“They took him. They took Lucian.” She muttered with quivering lips.
I held myself back from falling with my back on the ground. I closed my eyes and sucked in air through my nostrils.
“And Jojo?”
Valerie looked up at me this time. I could see the pain and fear in her young eyes. I felt sorry for her. It was all my fault.
I should have never left them alone.
“She hasn’t been home since she left this morning. I… she said she was…”
My eyes narrowed on her. Jojo left this morning? Where… where could she possibly have gone?
“Where did she go, Valerie?” I asked. I was visibly impatient, but the girl appeared to have difficulties giving me the fast reply I needed.
“Valerie, where did Jojo go?”
Suddenly, she burst into tears.
“She said she was going to get our mother! But she hasn’t been back! I’m so scared, uncle Lake. I’m so scared!” She moved towards me and rested her head on my chest. I felt a sense of warmth as she did so.
I wrapped my arms around her and allowed her cry on my chest.
If Jojo had really gone to see my father, it could only mean…
Shit!
I reached out for my phone in my pocket, while Valerie’s head rested on my chest.
I dialed Kenji’s number. He picked up at the first ring.
“Lake?”
“Kenji, I need your help. First of all, text Ashley and tell her to meet me at my condo, quickly. She needs to be with Valerie.” I spat out. I had barely given him time to speak.
“Be with Valerie? Lake, is everything okay?”
No. Nothing was okay. Everything was far from okay.
“I do not know, my friend. What I do know is that I might have to kill somebody. And I need you by my side when I do it.”