35. Adam
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Adam
Something was wrong.
I woke up to a silence that wasn’t right, an emptiness that clawed at my chest before I even opened my eyes.
The storm had passed, leaving the world outside unnervingly still. But it wasn’t the weather that made my gut twist.
There was just something wrong, and I needed to figure out what it was.
I sat up fast, heart hammering, my eyes scanning the room. I didn’t even know exactly what I was looking for, but it wasn’t there.
My pulse spiked, a rush of panic surging through me as I shoved the covers back and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
The house was too quiet.
The kind of quiet that settled in after something had already gone wrong.
I pushed to my feet, my chest tight as I strode toward the door.
When I stepped into the kitchen, I froze.
Kai stood by the counter, his face pale, his knuckles white from the way he clenched a crumpled piece of paper.
My gut twisted.
“What’s wrong?” My voice came out rough, uneven.
Kai didn’t answer right away. His throat bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes flicking up to meet mine, dark with a pain that made my breath catch.
He held out the note with a shaking hand.
I took it, fingers already numb before I even looked down.
And then I saw it.
I’m sorry. I can’t do this. Please don’t look for me.
The air punched out of my lungs.
“No,” I rasped.
Kai’s jaw was tight, his expression carefully locked down, but I could see it in his eyes. He was barely holding it together.
“She’s gone,” he said quietly.
Before I could even process what I was feeling—anger, fear, disbelief—footsteps pounded down the hall.
Samuel’s voice cut through the heavy silence. “What the hell is going on?”
He strode into the kitchen, his hair a mess, his shirt rumpled, like he’d just woken up.
His sharp gaze flicked between me and Kai, his brows furrowing at the tension suffocating the room.
No one spoke.
I was still gripping the note, the words burning into my skin, into my brain, into my goddamn heart.
Samuel’s gaze dropped to the paper in my hand.
“What is that?” he demanded.
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t force the words past the knot in my throat.
Kai's voice was tight when he finally spoke. “It’s from Sadie.”
Samuel went still.
I could see the moment the weight of it hit him, the way his jaw locked, the way his chest rose and fell too quickly.
He didn’t ask. He just held out his hand, and I handed him the note.
I watched as his eyes scanned the words.
His entire body tensed.
Then he crumpled the note in his fist and slammed it onto the counter.
“Bullshit,” he bit out. “She wouldn’t just leave.”
His voice was hard, angry… but underneath it, I heard the same thing I felt.
Panic.
“She did,” Kai said, his voice hoarse.
Samuel shook his head, his hands braced on the counter like he needed to physically hold himself together.
“No. No, something’s wrong. She wouldn’t just…” He exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair. “She wouldn’t just fucking leave.”
But she had.
And we had to find her.
I didn’t know what the hell to do.
My hands curled into fists at my sides, my heart still hammering like it was trying to break free from my ribs. My brain couldn’t catch up, couldn’t process the fact that Sadie was gone.
That she’d walked out that door in the middle of the night, alone, and none of us had even stirred.
“We have to find her,” Kai murmured.
“Yeah,” Samuel said, still braced against the counter. He took a breath, trying to steady himself. “Yeah, we do.”
But how?
I doubt she went to Hayley, not after leaving that note.
She could be anywhere. The roads were still slick from the storm, and she hadn’t taken the damn truck… had she? My mind raced through possibilities, none of them good.
“Did she… did she say anything last night?” I asked, desperate for something, anything that could help.
Kai shook his head. “No. She was sleeping when I came.” His throat bobbed. “I should have known.”
“No,” Samuel said, his voice sharp, cutting through Kai’s guilt. “This isn’t on us. Something spooked her.”
And then, like a switch flipping, his entire demeanor shifted, focus narrowing, body going rigid like he was already moving toward a plan.
“We need Asher,” he said.
Kai blinked. “Asher Wolfe?”
Samuel nodded, already pulling out his phone. “He’s good with tech. If she has her phone on her, he might be able to find it.”
Hope flared in my chest, desperate and reckless.
Kai scrubbed a hand over his face. “Will he even be awake this early?”
Samuel barely waited for the call to connect before barking, “Get up. We need you.”
I could faintly hear Asher’s groggy voice on the other end. “…The fuck?”
“Sadie’s gone,” Samuel said.
A beat of silence.
Then, Asher’s tone sharpened instantly. “Where are you?”
Samuel glanced at me and Kai. “The house.”
“Give me ten minutes,” Asher said.
The line went dead.
Ten minutes later, the front door slammed open so hard it rattled the hinges.
“Alright, you panic-stricken bastards, where’s the fire?”
Asher Wolfe strolled in like he owned the place, wearing sweatpants, a hoodie that definitely wasn’t his, and an energy that somehow managed to be both chaotic and focused. His dark hair was an unholy mess, like he’d either just rolled out of bed or had been up all night doing something wild.
Knowing Asher, it could be either.
Samuel didn’t even look up from where he was hunched over the counter, jaw tight, phone still clutched in his hand. “We need to know where Sadie is. This whole thing… it’s really worrying.”
Asher’s grin vanished. His sharp brown eyes flicked between us, taking in the tension, the barely contained panic that none of us were bothering to hide.
“Okay,” he said, more serious now. “Tell me everything.”
Kai handed him the note. Asher scanned it, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“Well, this is dramatically vague.” He dropped it back on the counter and cracked his knuckles. “Alright, let’s find her. Who’s got her phone details?”
Samuel already had it pulled up. “Can you track her?”
Asher snorted. “Can I track her? Please .”
He took the phone and flopped onto the couch, legs stretched out like he had all the time in the damn world. His fingers flew over the screen, and for a moment, there was only the sound of rapid typing.
Then, he muttered, “Come on, Sadie, tell me you didn’t turn off your location…”
Silence.
Then a beep.
“There you are,” Asher murmured, eyes flashing with victory. He flipped the phone around so we could see the blinking dot on the screen. “Motel off Route Six. About two miles out.”
Relief and fear hit me in equal measure. She hadn’t gone far. But she was still gone.
Samuel was already moving. “Let’s go.”