Twenty Six

Justin's worry keeps him pacing for the remainder of the twenty minutes after his team had left for Maverick's until finally the time had passed and he's able to hop into the car and rush over to the Cooper household. Knocking on the door and waiting for it to reveal George.

"I need to speak to Maverick, sir." Justin tells him.

George nods once, moving out of Justin's way before closing the front door and standing off to the side to hear the conversation.

"Where the hell is she?" Justin asks, standing in front of Maverick.

"That's none of your damn business." Maverick argues.

"The hell if it's not." Justin argues, clenching his jaw before realizing something. "You don't know, do you?"

Maverick gulps. "I do."

"Oh yeah?" Justin asks, raising his brows. "Then why do you refuse to look me in the eyes?"

"Maverick." George speaks up, giving him a look.

"It's none of his damn business."

"Whether you like it or not, I'm with your sister." Justin interrupts, making Maverick look at him. "I don't give a shit if you approve, don't approve whatever. Hadlee is the first girl in my life who I've wanted to make myself better for. I love her whether you like it or not and I'm not letting her go unless I find a reason for it to be best. It is up to me. Not you. Now, tell me what the hell is going on."

"You need to tell him, Maverick." George speaks up again, taking a step forward.

"Dad-" Maverick starts, his jaw clenching.

"Hadlee's missing."

Justin turns, looking over to see Ryan had stood up.

Maverick turns around, his eyes widened along with everyone else in the room.

"What?" Justin asks, glancing around at everyone.

"Who the fuck are you to tell him?!" Maverick yells, starting to walk over.

Justin quickly cuts in, standing protectively in front of Ryan, Chaz, Caitlin and Rebecca. "Someone who clearly cares about her wellbeing." he snaps.

"I don't fucking need you to help find her. I can do it on my own." Maverick spat.

"Oh really?" Justin asks, raising his brows before looking to George. "How long has Hadlee been missing, sir?"

"Almost five days." he responds, making Maverick give him a look of disbelief.

"I could've found her in two hours." Justin replies while glaring at Maverick.

"Bullshit." Maverick responds immediately.

"Oh really?" Justin chuckles, walking over and grabbing his keys where he had dropped them on the table. Reaching for the keychain, he looks around at everyone. "If anyone would've included me, they'd know that after the first incident, I got worried about something happening again and got Hadlee a necklace made. It's connected to this keychain. We can communicate in one way. I can ask her if she's okay, she can answer. Or she can ask for help."

"Oh great, so we can find out if she's okay or not. How the fuck is that gonna help us find her?" Maverick growls.

"It also has a tracking device. If she's not okay, I can call Charlie and get him to track down her location." Justin spat.

"Oh, shit." Damon mumbles.

Maverick stays quiet.

"Told you." George speaks up, grabbing everyone's attention as he looks directly at Maverick. "I told you to include him."

"I could've-"

"No." George erupts. "You couldn't."

The moment Justin hears George's voice, his head turns, paying attention to the words he hoped would come next.

"Justin, find my daughter."

Justin nods, taking a deep breath and pressing the button once to ask the question.

*** with Hadlee ***

As Hadlee lays on the floor, energy drained from her body along with most of her will, she takes in several deep breaths, finding it hard to breath as she has become weak. Thankfully, Alex had come in earlier in the day with some water, but it was barely enough to help with her constant thirst. She's found herself unbothered by not eating at this point, the voices of the gang members echoing through her head telling her she's too fat to need food anyway.

Her eyes are heavy and they start to droop when a light grabs her attention. Her brows furrow until she notices the light is from around her neck, realization hits her and she gasps.

How did I not think of this before? She asks herself.

The light of her necklace shines blue.

One click for green. Two for red. She tells herself.

Raising a weak hand to her neck, she grabs the necklace, pressing the crystal button twice causing the necklace to shine red. Then gulping down a dry lump in her throat, she closes her eyes, exhaustion taking over.

*** with Justin ***

"Holy shit." Tyler mumbles as Justin's keychain light turns red.

"She's not okay." Rylee gasps. "I mean we had a feeling but..."

Justin ignores them all, taking out his phone and dialing Charlie's number.

"Hello?"

"I need Hadlee's location, now." Justin spat.

"I'm five minutes away." he tells him.

"We're at the Cooper's."

"Okay, two minutes then." Charlies tells him.

Justin hangs up, not needing to say anything else. "Charlie's on his way."

Within five minutes, Charlie arrives to the house like he says he will, immediately taking the keychain and connecting it to the laptop and using the recent activity to trace the location.

"Found her." Charlie says, writing down the address."

"Great." Maverick says, snatching the paper.

"Maverick." George warns.

"I'm going." Justin says.

"Hell if you are." Maverick scoffs, leading everyone outside.

Justin's hands curl into fists as he hears the engines start up and the cars leave the driveway.

"Go." George says, looking at him. "If anyone deserves to save her it's you."

Charlie holds up a second piece of paper and Justin's keys, giving him a small grin.

Justin nods, taking the keys and putting the address into the gps as he rushes out to his car and gets inside.

Fifteen minutes later, Justin parks the car in front of everyone else's, behind trees where it's not noticeable. He then gets out of the car, immediately hearing Maverick argue with a oddly familiar voice. His brows furrow and he turns the corner, noticing an ally of theirs.

"This is what you get, Maverick. You deserve to learn a lesson." Keegan Holt's voice rings out.

There are a couple gasps from behind him followed by one whispering into his ear.

"Justin, we weren't expecting you." Keegan says, his eyes falling on him.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Maverick mumbles.

"Are you holding Hadlee Cooper?" Justin speaks up, standing in front of everyone now.

"I think we can all agree it's a fair way to teach Maverick a lesson about staying in his own category." Keegan spat.

Taking three steps forward, Justin finds himself on the porch as he knocks Keegan to his knees.

Keegan looks up in surprise.

"Whether or not Maverick deserves to be put in his place, it is beyond wrong for it to be done in this manner." Justin tells him, his jaw locked. "Not to mention you've kidnapped the queen."

His eyes widen. "You're d-dating her?"

"And you fucked up." Justin states, putting his gun to Keegan's forehead and not hesitating to pull the trigger.

"No!" a few scream before the tension rises and multiple of his members lunge forward at Justin's.

Meanwhile, two of Keegan's members take a few steps back, catching Justin's attention.

After knocking down the man the lunges towards him, Justin jogs back up the steps to the porch and enters the house, facing the two members who coward away from the scene.

"You're not fighting to avenge Keegan." he states, curious as to why seeing as the other members seemed all too dedicated.

"We were never on Keegan's side with this mission sir." one speaks up, standing tall. "We knew who Miss. Cooper was to you and wouldn't agree to it."

"We tried our best to help her when we could." the other informs him. "We were about to sneak her food and water on a couple occasions. Unfortunately no more than two or three times."

Justin gulps. "You know where she is?"

They both nod.

Justin sighs. "This gang is no longer an ally. You are being recruited over to us."

They both nod, relieved.

"Here are the keys to my car. She knows which it is but it's hidden behind the trees rather than out in the open. Take the keys to her and tell her to drive home. Make her drink two full water bottles before she leaves. Then you are to come out and help us with the battle against your old gang. Understood?"

"Yes sir." they both nod.

"Go."

Ben grabs the keys from Justin gently and they both run off towards where Hadlee is being kept while Justin returns outside, having a feeling that he made the right decision to ally the two of them.

Inside, the two guys rush to Hadlee's room after grabbing the bottles of water they were told to take, unlocking the door and opening it to reveal her.

"Hadlee." Alex starts, walking over and helping her sit up.

"What are you guys doing?" she asks, furrowing her brows.

"Here." Ben says, handing her the water. "Drink both of these."

She does quickly, appreciating the liquid running down her dry throat.

"Okay, now come on." Alex says, helping her up and to the back door of the house.

"What's going on?"

"Justin and the gang are here." Alex informs her.

Ben nods, holding out Justin's keys. "Justin told us to give you these. He wants you to go to his car on the tree line. It's hidden so no one will see you. If you go that way," he says, pointing to the left. "It'll take you through the trees and directly to the car from what he described."

"He wants you to go home. We'll all be there as soon as we can."

"Wait, you guys too?" she asks.

They nod.

"There's a blow up out front but Justin saw us uninvolved and we explained that we had been helping you so he recruited us." Alex grins.

"Good. I'll see you both soon." she says weakly.

They nod once again.

"Now go." Ben says, gently pushing her.

Hadlee follows what Justin told them to tell her, going through the trees and finding his car on the other side. Climbing into it, she starts it up and in the front yard, Justin's head turns as he hears the car start, noticing Alex and Ben joining the others in helping as the engine of the car fades away.

Nodding to himself, Justin continues to fight, now knowing Hadlee is safely gone.

*** with Hadlee ***

Pulling up to the house, Hadlee parks the car and climbs out, stiffly making her way to the front door and pushing it open as she stares at the floor.

"Hadlee!" Annabell gasps, rushing over and hugging her.

"Hadlee, thank God." George says, hugging her as well.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

She nods. "Yeah, um, I'm just gonna go- go shower."

They both nod, noticing something's really wrong but not wanting to point it out.

On the other side of the room, Ryan, Caitlin, Chaz and Rebecca all sit unnoticed, watching as their friend is in a complete daze.

Hadlee walks upstairs slowly, closing her bedroom door and walking into her bathroom. Turning on the water and undressing from her dirty clothing, she pushes it to the side and observes herself in the mirror, her stomach smaller although all she can see is the fat that's been burned into her mind, bruises on her skin and a few cuts here and there.

After looking for what seemed like forever, she shakes her head and climbs into the steaming shower, letting the water cover her. She stands for a few moments, letting the water attempt to undo the knots in her muscles before scrubbing her skin over and over again, desperate to give the filth and memories away from her, all while the voices echo in her head over and over again.

***

helloooo everyone!

I can't believe I'm saying this but the first book is actually COMING TO AN END!

there are THREE chapters left to the first book of the Becoming Queen Series! How CRAZY is that!?!

I'm actually kind of sad that the first book is coming to an end but I'm also SO SO excited to move forward and start the second book. It's going to be amazing and I'm just so excited.

anywaysss, thank you all so much for reading this weeks chapter! Don't forget to tune in next Tuesday for the Chapter 27!

much love,

shan:)