Chapter 16

Jakob

After giving it another day, I started to panic. The morning after she came home all done up, with loads of shopping bags, Helga left before I could confront her again. On Monday they said she was taking a vacation at work. I tried to ignore the feeling of wrongness, but when I finally cornered Helga, her answer didn't quell my fears.

"Yes, I know Hansel hasn't been posting anything online." Helga rolled her eyes at me and buffed her manicured red nails as if bored. "They are working off the grid. There's no service."

"Hansel would never agree to that," I growled, balling my hands into fists where they were pressed into the front door frame. No woman had ever made me want to punch them in the face, but Helga did. "And Rhett would want to be able to contact me."

"Oh, you think that highly of you two fooling around? Pfft," Helga scoffed and used my distraction to slip under my arm. "He was happy to get out from under you."

A moment of hesitation gripped me. I had been coming on strong, having Rhett stay the night and practically kidnapping him for the week before.

No, that wasn't right. Rhett had been more than happy to have an excuse to be away from his stepmother. If anything, I was letting him use me. Happily.

"You're lying about something," I called after Helga as she opened her new sports car. "I'm going to figure it out."

"You do that," Helga replied dismissively, sliding into the seat and closing the door in my face.

Watching her go, I kept myself from kicking the shiny chrome bumper or screaming at the dust she left in her wake.

Work passed by slowly, despite my taking out the frustration with my axe, and I left early after skipping lunch. I had phone calls to make.

My first call was to Hansel's school, but students really did have the week off. You'd think they would be more concerned about a missing student, but the lady I spoke with said the students didn't come on campus during the break and they were unwilling to check if he was studying off campus. Next up, I tried the police.

They refused to send a detective, telling me a fifteen-year-old was more likely to be a runaway. Despite my pointing out the teenager in question rarely went an hour without a social media presence and it had been over a day. I got hung up on when I said I wasn't their parent or family member.

The day was waning and my gut tightened with fear. I could feel deep in my bones that something was off. I fell asleep after hours of tossing and turning, waking at every sound.

Tuesday morning brought a cloudy day and still nothing from Hansel online. It was the longest I'd gone without being around Rhett since before his father passed, and I felt like I was going through withdrawals.

Helga's car was missing, but my phone pinged with a text and it registered as being from her.

Helga: How dare you call Hansel's school! And THE POLICE!?! This is none of your damn business. I'll be talking with Mr. Holzhauer about this!

Fuck. The thing I'd feared she would do was happening. Deciding to beat her to the punch, I typed up an email and sent it to our boss myself. If Helga was going to pretend everything was fine and take a vacation, I would be taking the week off, too.

Mine would be to the woods to see if she tried her drugging-and-abandonment trick again.

Looking up maps and packing a bag to hike the nearest trails, I set out with enough to keep me going for at least a few days. A sleeping bag in my truck or on the ground wasn't ideal, but my mind kept dredging up scenarios with Rhett cold and alone, shivering in a dark forest.

No. I wouldn't mind my own business.

Rhett was my business.

Helga could pretend like she was driving a new car and skipping out on work as if that matched with needing the brothers to work a full week to pay debts, but I wasn't an idiot.

If Hansel and Rhett weren't lost, and were actually working to pay for their father's expenses, I might come off like I was…

But I'd rather look like a fool than sit on my hands doing nothing.