ENDGAME | STEVE HARRINGTON

( CHAPTER SIX )

( CHAPTER SIX )

"Dusty, baby, are you sure she's not in your room?" Claudia asks brokenheartedly after coming inside the door. They got Claudia to believe that Mews was missing.

Hailey's heart pounded nervously, her heart squeezing for her now-dead cat. Hailey looked over at Dustin who pretends to be on the phone in the lounge.

Dustin holds up a finger towards his Mum, letting her know that he's 'on the phone'. "Uh-huh," Dustin mumbles. "Thank you so much, Mr. McCorkle. Thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver. All right, this was great. Thank you, all right. Have a good one. Bye-bye, now. All right. You, too."

Dustin had put the phone down and turned Claudia who looked at him anxiously. "All right, great news." He lied.

"They found her?" Claudia questioned, her voice cracking.

"No," Dustin answered. "But they saw her wandering around Loch Nora."

Claudia lets out a cry. "How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" Claudia takes a step closer to her son.

"I don't know," Dustin lied again. He hated lying, but he had to do this to protect her. "Lost, I guess. But they're gonna look for her. And Hailey and I will stay here, just in case they call again. And you're gonna help look, yeah?" Claudia nods, smiling through the tears. She hugged Dustin tightly. "Give me a hug, give me a hug. Go get her. You're gonna go find her."

"Okay," Claudia sniffled out, letting go of Dustin and she took a glance at her daughter, smiling at her too.

"We can find her," Dustin tells her with a thumbs up.

"We can find her." Claudia nods, grabbing her purse from the kitchen table.

"I love you," Dustin blows her a kiss.

"I love you guys," Claudia sniffles as she opened the door. With that, Claudia leaves and Dustin turns to Hailey sharply.

Dustin's smile falters. "We need a plan to capture Dart," Dustin hurriedly said. They stand around, thinking of ideas and then Hailey remembered that they had a basement.

"The basement," she mumbled before running outside and going to the back. She opened up two doors that lead down the basement. "Perfect."

"Hey, I would like to know what you're planning!" Dustin yelled after her as she runs back inside, he huffs and followed her. She leads them into a cubed. She flicks the lights on. She retrieves an arm full of items and throws them to Dustin. "What the hell is this?"

"You need to pad up with protection," she tells him.

"So do you!" Dustin barked back and she shakes her head.

"I'm fine," she stressed out the word fine. "Go change. Go." She points to the bathroom and he groaned before walking in.

She couldn't help but smile when he came out, in his protective gear. He used a lot of sports equipment. He wore pads and a helmet with a hocket stick. "Don't laugh."

"I'm not laughing!" She defended. "I'm not laughing." She quickly went into the kitchen and Dustin followed in behind her, grumbling to himself. She grabbed a bunch of baloney slices. "We are gonna lure Dart out to the basement and hide in the shed."

Dustin doesn't say anything and just stands there with a sour expression. She smiled again, she couldn't take Dustin seriously. "Stop laughing!"

"I'm not laughing!" She quietly giggled and begins to lead a trail of baloney slices towards the basement. She then quickly ran into her room and grabbed the nailed bat she had kept for occasions.