Fearless

Chapter 39

She had her hands and feet tied together and there was tape over her mouth. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she was staring directly at the camera.

She was alone in the photo and it was taken just outside this safe room to stop us from figuring out their current location and my heart just broke.

"I should have done something." I choked out. "I should have come to find her. I could have stopped them-"

"What?" Dad asked quietly, snatching the photo from my hand.

"Carter you can't blame yourself. You did the right thing. If you hadn't then they could have got you too." Mom said, her voice breaking slightly as she pulled me into a tight hug.

As she hugged me, I looked over her shoulder at Dad who was holding the picture tightly, his face completely neutral.

As I looked at his speechless expression, I spotted something on the back of the picture.

"Wait, Dad, there's something written on the back." I said, pointing at the paper as he quickly flipped it over.

"It says 'An eye for an eye'." he said in practically a whisper.

That statement was the calm before the storm as I watched my father throw the picture to the ground and punch the wall of the safe room, with a scream full of anger and need for vengeance.

I'd never seen my father this angry before. It scared me. But I was a lot more worried for the people on the other side of this rather than myself.

"Reed!" Mom yelled, going over to him and grabbing the fist which he just threw into the wall to check if he was injured. "Punching holes into the wall isn't going to get Sky back. We need to get our head in the game and go and find her."

"What does that mean? An eye for an eye? What have you guys done? Who's got her?" I rambled, begging for an explanation.

"W-we don't know." Mom stammered.

"What do you mean you don't know? You must know who hates you that much to do this!" I said, my voice beginning to crack.

"We aren't exactly model citizens Carter. A lot of people hate us for a lot of reasons. That's just a part of the job." Dad explained angrily, although I knew it wasn't aimed at me.

"Well what are we going to do?" I said. "We need to find her! Look at that picture, they're going to hurt her!"

By this point, I wasn't making myself, or my parents, feel any better. In fact, I was only making it worse.

But it infuriated me that they didn't seem to have any idea who would do this. If we didn't figure it out soon enough then Sky could've died for all we knew!

"It'll be fine. We will find her Carter, don't worry. We just need to go to the base and figure this out." Mom said as I pocketed the photo and the three of us rushed out of the house to the car.

As we left through the front door, I could see bodies scattered across the grounds of the house. It was mortifying.

But that only made me worry more about my sister.

~

By the time we'd arrived, everyone else was already gathered at the base, worried out of their minds for both me and Sky.

Little did they know that she'd gone.

"Oh my god, here they are, are you okay sweetheart?" Ivy said rushing over to me and placing her hands on my cheeks to check over me with a concerned expression.

"No, I'm not okay." I said, taking her hands gently off my face.

"Cyrus I need that CCTV footage, India track the vehicles and Tris I need the briefing of the grounds check." Dad ordered in fury.

"What's going on? What happened?" Blade asked seriously.

Before anyone could explain, Lucas chimed in.

"Where's Sky?" he asked, the realisation slowly kicking in as he stood up.

"They took her." I said simply, trying not to completely flip out and break down as I looked directly into his eyes, and the two of us shared two completely different types of pain.

"What?" Leanne gasped in horror in time with Ryan and Jamie doing the same, as Nick put his arm around Leanne's shoulder.

"T-took her? What do you mean? Who would do that? Why would they- Where is she?" Lucas asked, his voice raising in upset.

"Carter, I need that picture. Ethan, Zach, I need you to analyse this." Dad directed, ignoring the conversation occurring behind him.

I slowly took the picture out of my pocket, purposely turning it away from Lucas so he wouldn't see it and handed it to my Dad.

"Carter, what is that?" he asked me, swallowing the lump in his throat.

I just looked at the ground, not wanting to tell him but unsure of what to say instead.

He then began walking towards the table that my Dad had placed the photo on to see what it was. I quickly blocked his path, holding his arms to his side to stop him.

"Lucas, don't." I said.

"Why not? Tell me what it is. It clearly has something to do with Sky." he demanded.

"Trust me when I say that you do not want to see that photo, okay?" I said, trying to be calm as the image of my sister being abused flashed through my mind for the hundredth time and caused physical pain in my chest.

"Let me see it Carter. Tell me what's going on!" he said, raising his voice at me and beginning to get angry.

"Lucas, come on, I think you need some fresh air." Ivy said, walking over and putting an arm on his shoulder.

"I don't need fresh air, Mom, I need Sky." he said, turning to her.

"I know, honey, just come with me. You need to try and calm down." she said, grabbing his arm and guiding him out of the room.

"Who the hell could be doing this?" Mom cried.

"Oh my god, I think I got something!" India suddenly called out as both of my parents rushed over to her in a heartbeat.

"What is it?" Dad demanded.

"I got a registration plate from the CCTV on Lloyd Street. Here's a screenshot of the car." she said, typing rapidly into the computer system.

"India, I love you!" Mom exclaimed.

"Okay, now we just need to track the registration plate. Cyrus, have you got anything?" Dad asked.

"It's stolen. We can't track it." he sighed.

"Damn it!" Dad shouted, slamming his fist violently on the table.

"Oh my god." Nick began, staring at the screen in front of us.

"What is it?" I asked him, furrowing my brows.

"I recognise that car."