Kick, Punch, Dance?

Chapter 16- No

~Tess~

"I really don't want to let you go." Declan said whispered against my mouth. He was kissing me goodnight... for the eighth time. 

We left the boxing apartment about an hour ago. Some how I had managed to lose my left flip-flop in the process so I stood bear foot on my porch step, my right rubber shoe in my hand.

"I don't want to say goodbye either, but it's one in the morning. And I haven't been home since this morning." I said and tried to pull away from him. As I did so, his arms tighten around my back and pulled me closer to him. 

"That is a sucky ass reason, Tess." He pouted. No, seriously there was some serious lip-pouting action. It was so cute. 

"Declan, babe, come on. You have to let go now.  I'm sure you mother is worried about you, she hasn't seen you since yesterday." I said trying to reason with him as my feet were now leaving the ground so i could back up any farther. 

"That's getting slightly better." he said, once again putting my feet on the ground. 

"Good. Now go be with your mother and I will see you tomorrow." I said and finally broke out of his grip. But as soon as I did, I wanted to be right back in them. So I pulled him by the collar of his shirt and I brought his lips down to meet mine one last time, before I escaped into my house.  

Smiling I pushed off the back of the door and ran upstairs to my bedroom to take a shower and head to bed. 

I realized after five minutes in the house that I was alone. The note on my bedroom door from my brother saying "I'm out. Don't wait up. Be back later" was my first clue, and my second was that there were no empty beer bottles of my dads lying around. 

After scrubbing off in the shower and towel drying, I realized I was exhausted. After the whole "sex" thing, (multiple times) Declan and I just talked.

Granted we were both stark naked and completed wrapped around each other, but we talked. We talk about his life back in Chicago, we talk about my passion for dance we talk about my dad's alcohol problem that he so effectively hides from the public, and we talked about every other topic there was. 

But as soon as I put my head on my pillow I was asleep. But my exhaustion faded as rough hands grabbed by wrists and yanked me out of my sleep and I landed on the floor. 

~Declan~

"So you haven't heard anything from her today, Grace?" I asked the fiery haired girl standing behind the counter. I feel like we've had this exact conversation before, but this time I was actually worried.

This time, I could feel in my stomach that something was wrong. 

"Not since Friday when she told me she went looking for you. After that nothing. I figured she was with you." Grace said, a worried expression on her face. 

Tatum sat next to me at the bar of the diner and was playing with a napkin, and i was staring at my phone. It was around noon time and I hadn't heard anything from Tess. I was starting to get worried that she was doubting yesterday.

After everything that happened I was sure that she was just  over analyzing our relationship and what step we were on, but I didn't think she would just ignore me. 

I figured she would at least talk to me about it. I was replying everything in my head. from her showing up at the boxing rink to me taking her home in the morning, and i was so focused about it that I didn't even register that my phone was buzzing. 

"Dude, it's a text from Tess. Read it." Tatum said smacking my in the arm. I shook my head and followed his gaze to where my phone screen was in fact showing a message from Tess had arrived. 

But when I opened it, i wasn't registering what I was seeing. It was a video message, and in the video it was dark and i could faintly make out a shape. 

"What is that?" Tatum said behind me also watching. I noticed both Tatum and Grace were behind me watching in confusion. But then the last face I expected to see showed up on the screen. 

"Ah Declan. Surprised to see me? I know you are. But I figured when you did see me next time, I would make it interesting. So you see, I picked up a little something to play with." Carter said, mocking me through a screen.

He panned the camera away from his face and back toward the dark shape on the ground. He zoomed in closer and I realized it was a person. 

A sick feeling was bubbling in my stomach and my grip on my phone was becoming increasingly vice like. 

Suddenly the camera zoomed in once again and I could make out that it was a girl, her hair was matted with grime, her hands were shackled together, her skin that was being exposed from her ripped T-shirt and bed shorts was bruised if not bleeding. 

A hand reached out and moved the hair blocking her face, and I immediately recognized her lips, her cheekbones and even her closed eye lids that were concealing the most beautiful blue eyes I'd ever seen. 

"No," I breathed and my heart stopped breathing and breathing became a foreign concept. 

"Recognize her?" Carters voice teased and I did. 

"Come and get her, Heart. I'm waiting." And with that, the video ended and was about to replay it's self but I chucked the entire phone away from me. All i could feel was red hot anger.

"Oh, God Tess. What have I done?"