Chapter 33 - Will

    All I felt was panic as I stared at the note once again. Don't bother looking for your precious girlfriend, you'll never find her. I clutched the note to my chest, dry heaving as I felt a panic attack wash over me. I had just gotten her, I couldn't lose her already. I promised myself they'd only hurt her over my dead body, and I meant that. I wasn't a fighter, not by a long shot, but I'd get shot if it meant saving Analise. I widened my eyes as that thought hit me, and I knew I couldn't deny it anymore.

I'm in love with Analise Loughty.

All of us were currently corralled at Analise and Drew's house; Mallory, Toby, Justin, Drew and I. We had similar notes, delivered in different ways; mine was attached to a brick thrown through my living room window, which would be so fun to explain to my mom when she saw it. Justin, Toby and Mallory's notes were worded the same as mine except in place of the word girlfriend was the word friend.

Justin got his note by walking to his car, because it was tucked between the windshield and the wipers. Toby and Mallory were together when they got their note, and it was delivered by a knock on the door. It was perched on the doorstep, leaning against a flowerpot. They all called me to see which friend the note was talking about, and when I told them about my note they pretty quickly figured it out.

I called Drew and Alisha as soon as I called Analise five times with no answer, and they rushed home. Drew's note was similar to ours except with the word sister, but at the bottom read the words 'P.S. Revenge is best served sweet'

Alisha and Bella were back at her parents house. They'd arrived with Drew, but Bella was crying when she noticed Analise gone, complaining that she was promised a Peppa Pig marathon. It broke everyone's heart to see her so distraught, so Alisha brought her back to her parents house and opted to stay with her to calm her down. I knew Analise and Bella had gotten close over the past week, and it hurt that Bella was so upset about her disappearance. She was only four; she didn't understand that Annie was taken, just that she was gone.

Since I was clued in from Analise that someone may be after her, I explained it to Justin, Mallory, and Toby on the way here. Now, it was three hours later and we were still trying to figure out how to find her. When we all got here, before Drew and Alisha, we noticed the door was ajar and the living room was a mess, showing signs of an obvious struggle. The glass table lamp usually perched on the side table was shattered and the lampshade was across the room. The tall lamp in the corner, which usually stood taller than me, was strewn across one of the arm chairs. The pillows that normally sit nicely on the couch were across the room, there were pots and pans around the kitchen and living room, glass shattered all over; it was obvious Analise gave them hell. That's my girl. 

There was blood on the carpet and I couldn't look at it without getting nauseous, only hoping it wasn't hers. We noticed the TV still on the football game I'd heard her complaining about before we hung up. Her phone was on the couch, face up like she was just about to use it, and Drew's note was placed next to it. That was the thing we couldn't figure out; the person who took her couldn't have been the one to deliver our notes, so how did they do it? We all got our notes at around the same time.

"She what!?" Drew exclaimed angrily after I'd finished explaining Analise's involvement in the gang. I'd have to take her repercussions later, the first thing on my mind was finding her and if it could help, I had to tell him. "I'm going to kill her."

"If they don't get to her first," Justin mumbled, earning a hard glare from everyone in the room. "What?"

A series of knocks on the door made a jolt of hope run through me, but it was squashed as I saw a guy at the door. Drew pulled him into a handshake hug, and he introduced himself to all of us as Quincy. He and Drew spoke in hushed whispers for a minute before approaching all of us.

"Is anyone gonna call the cops?" Mallory asked to no one in particular as she chewed on her fingernails nervously. "I mean, what are we gonna do? The police have a whole database at their arsenal."

"Oh yeah, that's smart Mal," Drew mumbled sarcastically. "Hi, my name's Andrew Loughty, my sister Analise Loughty is missing and we're both gang members and it's most likely the enemy gang who took her."

"Well, why not?"

"Because they'll go to jail, Mal," Justin piped up, rolling his eyes.

"How are we gonna find her?" Toby asked.

"I'm going to go to my old gang's headquarters, that's how," Drew informed him, sitting on the arm of the couch. He looked at all of us individually before landing on me. "No one's coming. The enemies we're up against are ruthless and you guys can and will be collateral damage if they feel like getting trigger happy."

"I'm coming," I piped up immediately. The rest of our friends chorused an agreement.

"No one but me and Quincy are going," he told us with a tone of finality.

"Yes we are," I argued, crossing my arms. "You're going to need all the help you can get."

"We don't even know where Ana is, guys," Quincy spoke up, shaking his head. "She's not at their headquarters, our gang's been there. They took her to a new location."

"Well, we better get searching then."

"No one but us," Drew insisted.

I looked him dead in his eyes. "I love that girl, and I'm going to make sure she's safe, whether you agree or not. Our friends are coming with us if they want to. If we get hurt, it's our fault, but we're going." Justin, Mallory and Toby voiced their agreements once more, letting us know they knew the risk they were taking.

His eyes widened when I said the word love, but he nodded and sighed in defeat. He looked tired, and I felt so bad he was going through this. I knew from Annie that they were pretty much all each other had, and I knew he was going through a lot of stress right now.

"No offense," Quincy started, looking around. "But where are her actual friends? You know, Tommy, Raelynn and Colin?"

"They haven't been friends for a couple weeks," Drew explained to him with a frown. "These guys have been better friends to her than those three ever were. Must have been a while since you talked to Lise."

A little while later we decided to lay our notes down on the carpet and compare handwriting, noticing that they were all the same. The way the person made every letter was the exact same, but Toby, the perceptive one of our group, noticed something. "Hold on a minute," he murmured, picking up a note in each hand and looking closer.

"What is it?" Drew asked, scooting forward and trying to peer over Toby's shoulder. He frowned when he saw nothing different from the last time he looked and sat back.

"Someone hand me a flashlight," Toby called noncommittally and Mal was the first to offer up her phone with the flashlight on. He turned the light towards the papers, squinting at them and looking up. "Someone at school wrote these letters."

"How do you know that?" Justin inquired, shock taking over his face.

"Look closely at the paper," Toby murmured, showing all of us individually before stopping on me. I looked closely and immediately saw what he was talking about. "Our school mascot is faded in the background of it."

Justin grabbed his backpack, shuffling through it before pulling out the familiar school issued notebook. He pulled it out, ripping a piece of paper from it and putting it next to one of the notes. We all got closer, seeing the pieces of paper were exact matches. "Whoa," Drew gasped, widening his eyes. Then he shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense. I know the enemy gang took her, they've been after her since we took Nev's sister."

"Who's Nev?" Justin questioned, earning a sharp glare from everyone in the room. "Sorry," he mumbled to himself.

"Nev's in the enemy gang," Quincy explained. "We were tasked with kidnapping his sister, just to prove a point about territory. Analise heard him tell our bosses, including Drew, that he was going to get revenge by going after her. It has to be them."

"Analise was there for that job?!" Drew roared, anger taking over his features.

"Then how would they get a notebook from our school?" Toby asked, ignoring Drew and shrugging his shoulders. "It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe they went to the school?" Mallory offered.

Drew shook his head. "They're close to my age, and we never got these notebooks."

"Maybe they borrowed a younger gang members notebook," Justin told him, earning a sharp glare from everyone once again. "Jeez, sorry," he mumbled sadly.

"How are you guys so sure the enemy gang took her?" Toby asked Quincy and Drew.

"Did you see Drew's note?" Quincy rhetorically questioned like Toby asked a stupid question. "It mentions revenge."

"The gang isn't the only one who would want revenge! Analise has a lot of enemies at school," Mal piped up and Justin nodded his agreement.

Drew shook his head sadly. "This goes further than petty high school drama, Mal. Someone took the time to plan this out, they were obviously watching my house, and all of you. In fact, they were watching so much, they knew who Lise was dating, who she was friends with; they knew exactly when to strike."

"But someone at school would know all that too," Mallory replied, shaking her head. "Everyone at school knows Will and Ana are together. Everyone knows we're her friends."

"Was there forced entry?" Toby questioned, and I nibbled on my bottom lip awaiting Drew's answer.

Drew shook his head. "They walked right in. I'm assuming Lise left the door unlocked since the gunshots have settled down recently, but that was probably their plan. They probably got their guys to back off our area so Lise would get a false sense of security."

"Or it was someone she knew," Mal pointed out, further defending her stance on it being a peer. "If someone she knew came to the door and she saw them, she'd open the door."

"Happy Thanksgiving," Justin murmured sarcastically, earning a hard glare from all of us once more. He held his hands up in defense, "Okay, okay, shutting up."

"You okay Will?" Toby asked me, and I realized I'd been silent for a few minutes. I was just listening, trying to piece things together in my head. It didn't make sense, why were the notes written on paper from someone in our school if it was the enemy gang that did it? I considered the fact that maybe Justin had a point, maybe they did borrow a notebook from one of their younger gang members, but that didn't really make sense.

Where are you Analise? I thought sadly as we continued brainstorming, trying to figure out where to go from here. We'll find you, Annie.