Adopted By Michael Clifford {Book 1}

24- Messages

Luke's POV

It'd been almost two weeks since Maya went missing. She'd been confirmed as kidnapped. It was all over the news and in magazines. We were all taking it pretty hard, but Michael was the worst. He'd barely gotten any sleep. He was constantly looking for her and threw himself into music when he wasn't.

Today we had an interview that none of us wanted to go to. We just waited around until we had to go. I didn't even bother with my hair, so I wore a snapback.

"We're here with 5 Seconds of Summer!" the interviewer said.

This was going to be a long thirty minutes.

Michael's POV

"So, you guys have recently come back from tour. How was it?" 

"It was a lot of fun getting to see all our fans and doing what we love, but nothing beats being home with your family," Ashton said.

"Speaking of family, there's been a lot going around about Maya. Would you like to clarify that?"

"Maya was kidnapped the night we came home from the tour. She disappeared at a restaurant. We've been searching for her. If you see her, or think you did, go to the nearest police station and report it. Please. I need to find my daughter," I said directly into the camera. 

*~*

I was checking my Twitter in the car on the way home when got a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hello, Michael.

Michael: Who r u and what do u want?

Unknown: I want something you have and you want your daughter.

M: U have my daughter?!! Give her back.

Unknown: Not until I get what I want.

M: What is that?

Unknown: Luke and Ashton.

M: Why?

Unknown: They got into some trouble with me. They're going to pay.

I yelled at the driver to go to the police station. I jumped out of the car and ran inside when we got there. I found an officer working on our case and showed them the messages.

"What's going on?" Luke asked.

"You and Ashton have some explaining to do."

Ashton's POV

I started to panic when I realized who was texting Michael. They didn't need to know. I didn't want them to.

"Ashton, we have to tell them," Luke whispered.

"No, we don't," I insisted.

"Yes, we do. They need to know."

"Fine," I grumbled. We all sat down in the main office, and I started the story.

"Luke and I used to know this guy named Dave. This was a little while before we formed the band. We used to do jobs for him. Smuggle drugs, steal from stores and people's houses. He would push us around all the time and we got sick of it. We started doing things to get him in trouble with the police and work against him. He's crazy. He has voices in his head that tell him to do it. That's why he killed Maya's parents and all those other people."

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Michael asked.

"We thought you would kick us out of the band. It was our dream. We didn't want to disappoint you guys or cause problems," I said.

Calum was about to say something, but Nick ran in. He held up his phone, making me believe the same thing that happened to Michael happened to him.

"Someone keeps texting me. It's him. It's the one who took Maya," he said.

The police took his phone and ran scans through the database, hacking into the system.

"We found them. They're in a house on the other side of the city," said the officer.

"Let's go," Michael said and jumped up.

I stood up and pushed him back down.

"Are you crazy? We can't go in there without a plan," I said.

"Then let's make one," Luke said.

"I want to help," Nick said.

"No. It's too dangerous," Michael said.

"Michael, this is Maya we're talking about. I'm going to help find her whether you like it or not."

"Alright. Let's go save her."