CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I keep my cell turned off during the entire trip back to D.C. Tons of voicemails from Estelle and “911!” texts from Mario, but I ignore all of them. I don’t have the energy to deal with anyone right now. God, I wish Bud were here. He always knew how to make sense out of any situation. There’s nothing I’d rather do right now than take my gun and blow off some steam in the field he took me to that day.
I’m so devastated that I don’t even know how to begin to describe it. It’s even worse than how I felt after Bud died. The kind of “broken” that won’t be mended by anything except time. The type that takes years to resurface in therapy.
Betrayal upon betrayal upon betrayal. It’s worse than I could ever have imagined, worse than anything I ever experienced with Jet. Because I have no control of it. At least with Jet, at some point I was able to eventually get up and leave. But here... it’s like everyone around me is full of lies and secrets. At least Jet was upfront about his hatred for me. I knew what I was facing. Now I don’t.
Is there anyone left who I can trust? Estelle? Yeah, maybe. But who knows what secrets she’s keeping from me? Let’s be real. She’s got a few more years on her than anyone else in my life, so she’s as likely as the rest of them to be a liar, too.
I want to tear off my clothes off and jump into the ocean. I feel like I’m suffocating, like the sun is pushing down against me, grinding my face into the dirt until I can’t breathe.
* * *
When I get back home, the front door is wide open, and I hear shouts coming from the living room. I dash inside and see Mario standing over Estelle, who’s cowering on the couch and clutching Bud’s pillow to protect herself.
“Why isn’t he answering?!” he yells at the top of his lungs. His eyes are red and he looks ready to kill someone.
“Whoa! What’s going on here?” I shout.
Estelle is in tears. “Gavin!”
Mario shoves me against the wall and wedges his fist against my throat.
“Who the hell are you?” he shrieks. “What do they want from you? Tell me now before I beat it out of you!”
I wheeze, but I can’t say anything.
“Why did they take him? They said it was you—that you knew why!”
“Who?” I manage to gasp. “Who did they take?”
“You know who!” He jabs his hand so hard against my neck that the room starts spinning. Just as I lose consciousness, I hear him scream, “They took Edwin!”
Oh my God. Naima and Axel. They’ve kidnapped Edwin.
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KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR PART II: THE PEACE HUNTER
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ARTHUR J GONZALEZ
THE PHOTO TRAVELER is young adult author Arthur J. Gonzalez's first novel. Arthur was born and raised in Miami surrounded by his loud Cuban family. He graduated from the University of Florida, where he acquired his coffee obsession and his chocolate hoarding antics. He's the proud father of one baby girl, Sookie—his miniature schnoodle dog. Arthur is a self-professed goofball who spends 98% of his life laughing. He's now working on his second novel.
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THE PHOTO TRAVELER (THE PHOTO TRAVELER SERIES - BOOK 1)
Ficção AdolescenteSeventeen-year-old Gavin Hillstone is resigned to being miserable for the rest of his life. Left alone in the world after his parents died in a fire when he was four, he was placed in foster care, which for him meant ending up in an abusive home wi...
