Revelations (Brighton Wolves #1) Page 5

  Finally, Gwen noticed that both Karen and Sandra were standing in the open doorway. With a heavy sigh, their mother left the room, probably to go and find their father. She couldn’t always calm him down after one of his rages, but she was better at it than anyone else. However, Sandra didn’t look too angry at their actions. She looked more remorseful than anything else. Gwen could see it in the way her eyes softened when looking at her husband, and how her shoulders slumped in defeat.

  It almost looks like guilt, Gwen realized.

  Sandra and Geoffrey stared at one another, and Gwen got the feeling they were waiting until she and Gabe left before they said anything. She tugged on Gabe’s sleeve and the two of them left the kitchen, giving them some privacy to talk about whatever had just happened. Gwen couldn’t get the look on Sandra’s face out of her mind, how much it had looked like she blamed herself.

  What is going on in this family?

  They found their mother on the couch, leaning against the back with her eyes closed and a grimace on her face. Gabe headed for the stairs, but Gwen stopped at the end of the couch, her hands trailing across the furniture while she debated what to ask her mother. Karen opened her eyes and looked over at Gwen, her features softening a bit. “I’m sorry you two had to see that,” she said, quietly.

  “What happened between Dad and Uncle Geoffrey?” Gwen asked, lingering near the end of the couch. “They hate each other, Mom. And I mean, hate. Do they care about each other at all? I can’t imagine ever hating Gabe that much, no matter what he did to me. It must have been really bad.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” she said, turning to stare at the kitchen, where Sandra and Geoffrey were talking quietly. “Nobody will tell me anything, and I just stopped asking after a certain point. All I know is that it was your father’s fault. Nobody said it, but that’s the feeling I get whenever a fight happens.” She looked at Gwen again and shook her head. “You shouldn’t be worrying about this. Whatever happened is between them, and I’m sure you’re too young to fully understand, anyways.”

  Gwen was confused. What could have happened between the two of them that was her father’s fault? What did he do that destroyed their relationship so thoroughly? It wasn’t just destroyed, it was dead and buried in the ground. There was probably no fixing their relationship if that fight was any indication, and that made things all the more perplexing to Gwen. She had meant what she said—she couldn’t ever imagine hating Gabe with such a burning passion, even if he betrayed her darkest secrets.

  Chapter Four

  Gabe motioned for her to follow him upstairs, and Gwen left the couch and living room behind, giving her mother one last worried glance. Shaking her head, she took the stairs two at a time, finding Gabe in Ginny’s bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of Ginny’s bed, facing her desk. When she saw that her laptop had been turned on and was on the login screen, she realized what Gabe wanted to do.

  Quickly she closed the door and sat down in front of her laptop. “The police may have taken Ginny’s laptop, but I can still get into her email account if I can guess the password.”

  “You might be able to guess the password, but you’ll never figure out the throwaway account she made. It could be anything, even a completely random series of numbers that have no meaning. The password won’t do you any good without the account name.” He looked around the room. “Is there anywhere she would have written it down? If it is a throwaway account, it’s probably not something she would have remembered easily. I can see her writing it down and keeping it secret somewhere so she doesn’t forget it.”

  “You start looking,” Gwen said. “I’m going to do a quick internet search and see if any other girls have gone missing in this area. The news hasn’t mentioned anything that I’ve seen, but I wanna check for myself. Now that we know she was probably out meeting someone, we might get something the police didn’t since they didn’t know what they were looking for yet.”

  Gabe started to search Ginny’s room for any signs of a good hiding place, while Gwen opened a new tab online. She started out simply, just searching for missing girls in her state. She got way too many results to ease her nerves, and she decided to narrow it down more to their general area. She searched for missing girls in their county, as well as a few in either direction, but she came up empty handed. The only thing she found was two fourteen year olds that ran away to be together, and a missing persons case from over twenty years ago, which she doubted had anything to do with Ginny’s disappearance now.

  “Nothing,” Gwen said, closing the tab in disgust. Her eyes had begun to blur the words together, and she was getting a headache from struggling to read the small print on her screen.

  “I might have found it,” Gabe said, holding up a small sheet of paper. “This was tucked away in the back of her Calculus book. It’s an email address, one that definitely isn’t her usual one. But there’s no password written down anywhere,” he said, flipping the scrap of paper over to look for what they both knew wasn’t there.

  “Give it here,” Gwen said, taking the paper from him. She rubbed her eyes, and when she opened them, she could see a little better. She typed in the email name, and then she leaned back, thinking of any possible passwords. Even if she made a completely random email, I’ll bet she made a password that was still her. What would she have picked?

  Gwen looked around the room for clues, and her eyes settled on the posters on the walls of Ginny’s room. There were a couple of different possibilities, but one of them stuck out to her more than the others. She went back to her laptop and said a quick prayer before typing in her best guess. When the account let her log in, she let out a sigh of relief. At least one thing was going right for them.

  She stared at the mostly bare account, her eyes straining to read the lettering on the backlit screen. Gabe gently shooed her out of the chair so he could take her place, and she gladly relinquished it to him. Her eyes hurt and her head was swimming, even though she had the brightness set as low as it would go on her laptop. She hated reading anything, especially on a computer, because the words didn’t always make sense to her. Sometimes it was a garbled mess that she was positive couldn’t actually be real words, but a second glance later told her it was. Her mind just had trouble comprehending it sometimes.

  “There’s not much here,” Gabe said, sounding more than a little disappointed. “There’s only one contact, and it’s not one I recognize. It probably belongs to whoever she met up with. I’m sure there’s plenty of deleted emails back and forth between them, but I’m not nearly skilled enough with a computer to recover them.”

  “So what now? Is this a dead end?”

  “Not necessarily,” Gabe said, leaning over her laptop keyboard. “I’m going to message whoever it is.”

  “Gabe, no! What if we get in trouble?”

  “Who cares? This might be our best chance at finding out what happened to Ginny. We might even get the name of who she was meeting.” He looked over at her. “I’m gonna do this. We have to. Now help me figure out what I should say. Keep in mind we’re not one hundred percent sure if it’s a man or a woman she met up with.”

  “Just be honest. Tell whoever it is that we’re Ginny’s cousins, and that she’s missing and we’re really worried about her. If they’re an actual friend, they might not know she’s missing and we can cross one theory off our list. If they do know she’s missing and had something to do with it, they might end up giving something away, something that will help us find her.”

  Gabe began typing away, and she did her best to keep up with what he was writing. When he looked back and noticed her struggling, he paused and began to read what he’d written out loud for her. Gwen gave his shoulder a quick squeeze in thanks, and listened as he read the entire message. It was good, better than anything she could have written. When Gabe was satisfied with it, he hovered over the send button, and Gwen gave him a gentle nudge. He clicked it, and they exited out of Ginny’s fake email account, wondering what was going to happen next.

  “I wonder if the police have gotten into her fake email yet or not,” Gwen wondered. “I doubt the small town police in this area have the resources to hack into anything, but they might have the FBI helping them. I’m not real sure. Have you seen any FBI agents around here?”

  Gabe shook his head. “We must not merit an actual response,” he said in disgust. “It doesn’t matter though. We are gonna find her, alive and unharmed. I can feel it.” He looked over at her. “Don’t give up on Ginny just yet, Gwen. She’s got lots of people out looking for her, people that care whether she comes home or not. Nobody is gonna give up on her anytime soon.”

  “I know. I just have a bad feeling,” she said, glancing out the open window nearby. “I don’t like how long she’s been gone. They say the first twenty-four hours are the most important, and we’re well past that by now. If you look at statistics of kidnappings and disappearances, her chances aren’t looking so good right now,” she said quietly, her voice cracking. “I don’t know what I’d do without her, Gabe.”

  He gave her hand a squeeze. “You’re gonna make yourself sick if you worry too much. Just trust that she knows how to take care of herself. She knows we’d never give up on her. She’ll hang on no matter what it takes.”

  Gwen nodded. “You’re right. Worrying so much isn’t going to help anything right now. There’s still plenty of time to find her. We’re making progress, and we’ll keep looking until we find her.” She glanced out the window. Dark clouds had started to roll in, and fat rain droplets splattered the window sill. She rushed to close the window, giving the woods an anxious glance. “It’s coming down really hard,” she said as the rain worsened. It pelted the roof in a relentless torrent, quickly drenching the yard.

  “Good thing I put the windows up,” Gabe muttered to himself. Gwen glanced at him, and he sighed. “I doubt the search is going to continue in this weather. I bet they’ll call it off until tomorrow morning. This sucks. I hope Ginny is someplace dry and warm and not out in this weather.” He headed for the door. “I’m gonna ask Mom if there’s any word on the search continuing or not.”

  Gwen didn’t take her eyes away from the window. She looked at the woods, her spirits sinking once again. It wasn’t even dinner time yet, and the search was already probably getting called off for the day. Several hours wasted, hours that could mean the difference between finding Ginny alive and finding her body. Her hand touched the window pane, the cool and damp feeling seeping into her skin. She rested her forehead against the window and closed her eyes, wishing more than anything that Ginny was safe and sound in her bed tonight. The two of them could stay up until dawn trading gossip and secrets just like old times.

  When Gabe came back up moments later and poked his head into the room, Gwen already knew what he was going to say. When he told her the search had been halted due to the severe weather and dangerous conditions, she sighed but didn’t say anything. She had been waiting for it, really. Nothing was going right for them at the moment—she hadn’t expected even the weather to go right. It seemed like everything was against them finding Ginny. When she tore herself away from the window, Gabe was gone, and she was alone in the room.

  Movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention, and she glanced back at the window. A small gray wolf was sitting on the front lawn, hiding just inside the tree line. It was drenched to the bone and shivering, staring at her with dark blue eyes that were so sad she felt her heart ache for the poor creature. Her fear was pushed aside for a minute, and she actually felt pity. The wolf turned away from her, limping into the trees and disappearing like a magic trick, leaving Gwen feeling conflicted.

  *****

  Gwen walked down the darkened road, shivering and pulling her sweater tighter around her. Even though it was the middle of the summer, she felt chilled to the bone, like she would never be warm again. Wispy fog rolled over the road from the woods, clinging to her skin and clothes and obscuring the road beneath her feet. She shuffled nervously, looking around to get her bearings. She had no idea where she was, but she knew she shouldn’t have been there. It wasn’t safe.

  A branch snapped nearby, and Gwen whirled, dropping her bag. Her heart hammered in her chest and she had a lump in her throat that made it impossible to scream. Her eyes searched the trees on either side of the road, but the fog blocked her vision, making it impossible to tell if she was alone and imagining things, or if there was something out there…watching her every move.

  She listened, but the silence of the woods was too overwhelming. Goosebumps broke out over her skin and she shivered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, trying to bring some warmth back to her body. It was the middle of summer and yet she was shivering and her teeth were chattering so badly her jaw was starting to ache. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew something was very wrong.

  She stopped as the sound of rustling reached her ears. It was coming from behind her, on the opposite side of the road, from just within the woods. A cold sweat broke out over her forehead and a shiver went up her spine, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and look. She knew now that she wasn’t alone out in the night, and more importantly, she knew she was going to die. She could feel it in her soul—a crushing, overwhelming ache in her chest that told her this was it. Her final moments.

  When the growling started, she became paralyzed, fear rooting her to the spot. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ease her fears. When she finally found the strength to turn around, her eyes met a pair of dark brown colored ones that had a scream building in the back of her throat. Before she could open her mouth, the wolf was on her, knocking her to the ground and sinking his fangs into her, tearing away chunks of flesh while she screamed and flailed and tried her hardest to fight the monster off.

  Gwen’s eyes snapped open as she sat bolt upright in bed, a scream lodged in the back of her throat, just like in the dream. Frantically she scrambled around the darkened room for a weapon she could use to defend herself. Her hands clenched a thick book, and she violently swung it around her bed. As the fog from her dream lifted, Gwen felt herself begin to calm down. Her room came into focus and she realized she wasn’t out near the woods—she was safe and sound in her bed.

  Her heart pounded in her chest like the beat of a drum, and she leaned back against her pillow, gasping for air. It was all so real, she thought, placing her hand on her chest. It was rising and falling rapidly, but it began to slow down as the minutes wore on. Her eyes roamed over the ceiling above her bed, and she refused to let her eyes slide over to the window on the other side of the room like they so desperately wanted to. She wanted to stare out that window and reassure herself there was nothing for her to worry about.

  But she was terrified of what she might find staring back at her through the darkness.

  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d seen a wolf outside of her window, and she figured it wouldn’t be the last. Geoffrey had told her the wolves in this area were notorious for being overly aggressive, and it seemed like he was right. They had no problems coming up to people in the woods or walking onto someone’s property like they owned the place. There was no telling how bold they might become while she was in Brighton.

  When her breathing finally slowed and her chest felt like it was no longer going to explode, she glanced over at the alarm clock on Ginny’s dresser and realized it was nearly time to get up for the day. It looks like I won’t be getting anymore sleep today. Not that it would have been possible anyways after a nightmare like that…

  She forced herself to get out of bed and shower, hoping to sneak in and out of the bathroom before anyone else was up. She knew Gabe and her mother would hog all of the hot water if she didn’t. Luckily, it appeared she was the only one up at the moment and she had the bathroom to herself. She lingered under the hot water, trying to wash the cold sweat from her skin. Finally, she jumped out and dried off, dressing for the day in shorts and a t-shirt. Before going to bed last night, Gabe had told her the police called to inform them they were no longer allowed to search the woods after what happened with the wolf.

  Gwen had been outraged, but even if she couldn’t help look for her cousin, she could still do something useful with her time. She had called Tiffany and asked her to have brunch, partly because the two of them used to be good friends and she thought they should stick together at a time like this, but mostly because she wanted to see if any of Tiffany’s story or attitude changed. She didn’t suspect Ginny’s best friend had anything to do with her disappearance, but she knew that sometimes it was one of the most unlikely suspects.

  She headed downstairs and found her aunt Sandra at the stove cooking sausage links and pancakes. Gwen sat in a chair and stared at the far wall, trying not to dwell on the nightmare she’d had. Even after a relaxing shower, she could still feel the sticky, cold sweat on her skin, clinging to her just like the remnants of her nightmare. She tried her best to shake it off, but even by the time her family joined her for breakfast, she was still visibly shaken. Even though she tried her best to hide it, she knew Gabe could tell that something was bothering her from the moment he sat down, even though he looked tired and unhappy.

  “What’s with you?” he asked, tearing into a stack of pancakes while Gwen’s food sat untouched.

  “I had a nightmare last night, a really bad one,” she admitted, looking down at her plate. She fiddled with her thumbs, wondering how much she should admit. “In it, I was eaten alive by a wolf out in the woods. It all felt so real to me. And it doesn’t help that there’s always a wolf outside my window, watching me and the house.” She glanced up and noticed that everyone at the table had frozen. Her father looked like he’d just seen a ghost. Even Gabe looked up from his food long enough to notice the shift in attitude at the table.