Handcuffed

Chapter 16

Jordan POV

As I heard footsteps approaching, I tried to quietly hide. Unfortunately, there weren't many places to hide. Not thinking properly, I dived into a bush as quietly as possible, which wasn't that quiet. The footsteps stopped for a second before two voices started whispering to one another, one sounded older than the other, both males.

"Did you hear that?" The younger one said. The older man didn't answer, I couldn't what they were doing, did they find me?

"Keep your voice down, we're close," The older male's voice sounded more raspy and rough, not in a good way. I felt chills go down my spine when I heard it.

I wanted to peak out of the bush to see if they were any closer or if I could see their silhouettes and escape with any description of who they were. Thinking about the situation, I decided against it.

I heard their footsteps approaching the bush I was hiding in. I could feel my heart rate start to pick up, I could hear it, was that how they knew where I was? Could they hear my heart?

The snapping of a stick on my left snapped me out of my thoughts, "Jesus Christ! Can't you be quiet for like 2 minutes?" The older man scolded.
"Sorry, I can't see a damn thing," The younger one snapped back, "How are we even supposed to find it if we can't see two feet in front of us?"

I could hear the older man sigh and pictured him rolling his eyes, "We aren't actually trying to find it, we are trying to show Travis and his little gangle of friends that they can't mess with us without there being consequences."

There was a minute of silence, neither of them seemed to be moving anymore. Did I breathe to loud? Did they hear me? What are they going to do? What do they want? What happened with them and Travis?

"Ohhh," The younger one whispered, "Wait, so why are we looking fo-"

Suddenly there was another set of footsteps, not even bothering to be quiet, followed by shouting.

I heard the two men start running away, still trying to conceal their footsteps. As they were leaving, I could only think that the footsteps running towards where I'm hiding, is probably able of doing way more damage than the bickering men.

Suddenly the footsteps stop to my right, I hold my breath, hoping that they couldn't see me. I could hear them panting, I wanted to look and see what they looked like, but I knew that if I moved, my hiding spot would be given away. All I could do was wait.

"Damnit," Their voice sounded familiar, but without looking at their face I probably won't recognize who they are, "How far could she have gone? I swear to God if anything happened to her, I will never forgive myself."

I heard them approach a tree nearby, probably a few feet away and heard the crunching of dry leaves and twigs, I'm guessing they sat down.

"I shouldn't have left her with Alex, I should've known that he would say something to offend her," Wait, they know Alex? "Kells should've listened to me just this once instead of holding me back from 'ruining their moment'. Bullshit, she just didn't want to be alone with Joe or Travis."

Wait, they know the gang? Come on brain, think of who this voice belongs to!

"Let's just hope that she didn't get caught by them," Okay, I'm really debating whether or not I should just step out and reveal my hiding spot, I mean, they sound familiar, they know the gang and Alex.

Against any actual logic in me, I start to stand up and try to locate the tree that is being used as a backrest. As I'm looking around—which is very difficult since it's pretty late and dark out—I try not to move my feet and make more noise, just in case this person is a threat. At first I'm confused as to why the person hasn't seen me yet, but when I turn around I understand why. I see a hunched over figure shaking while leaning against the trunk of a tree. I slowly lift my foot off the ground to approach the figure, but as soon as I move, a twig snaps under the foot that remained on the ground. I see the figure's head shoot up and look directly at me, our eyes meet and I'm filled with relief as I recognize the hazel eyes that meet mine. Blake.

"Jordan? Is that you?" He sounds so desperate and I see his silhouette stumble as he rushes to get up, "Please tell me that I'm not going crazy and that you're really here."

I start to approach him, slowly to make sure I don't trip, as he runs towards me, tripping a bit over roots and branches, but we eventually meet in the middle at first he doesn't move. It was as if he was making sure I wasn't fake, I could see his eyes start to water as they shimmered in the dim moonlight. He slowly reaches his hands out to cup my cheeks, his eyes traveling around my face—to see if I was injured I'm guessing. After about a minute or two of Blake just looking, he lets out a sigh of relief and starts laughing and crying at the same time, he pulls me close to his chest and snuggles his face into the area between my neck and shoulder. I could feel his shoulders shake as he laughs and sobs.

"Thank god, I thought you were-I didn't-we didn't—," Blake cut himself off with his sobs, I start rubbing his back. I don't know how well my left "hand" felt since it wasn't really there.

"It's okay Blake, I'm okay. You found me and we can head back and talk with everyone," I say as I pull back from Blake's chest, but he's still holding my arms gently. He nods and grabs my right hand softly as we walk back towards the house.

After about 5-ish minutes of walking, I asked Blake if the others were at the house or not.

"They should be there or on their way back, I messaged them that I found you and we're on our way back," He replied, looking at me through the corner of his eyes. After another minute Blake asked me a question.

"Did anything happen to you while you were out there?"

I thought about if I should tell him about the two guys or not, I don't want anything to happen to him or the others just because I assumed the worst of the situation. They could've been talking about a different Travis, it's not that uncommon. I weighed my options and replied, "No, just a few squirrels that scared me a bit."

Blake looked a bit unconvinced but didn't asked any further questions. The rest of the walk was filled with silence.

As we approached the house, I could see the light illuminating from it. Relief washed over me as we walked into the living room, my limbs were being surrounded by warmth. Then I was being surrounded by everyone, asking where I was, what happened—even Jake was talking and asking questions. I tried to wave off their worries by saying that I overreacted to something and that I was fine now.

They all shared worried glances at me and each other, Kells decided to speak up, "Jordan, you would tell us if anything happened right?"

I looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "Of course, why wouldn't I?"

Everyone looked at Travis now, he sighed and stepped forward as a piece of paper was pulled from his pocket, "Alex found this in your room when you first went missing."

He handed me the letter, as I finished reading it I pieced a few things together. Those two guys were probably working for "GP". I couldn't help but ask, "Who's GP?"

Everyone's eyes fled to Alex, who was standing a bit away as though he wanted to be here but also didn't. He looked down slightly as he mumbled, "Apparently he's my dad."

Wait, what?