Chapter 28
Icareened into the drive, spitting pebbles in all directions.
Please still be there.
I begged to—I didn’t know, the universe, if there was a God, anything out there.
That brilliant, determined woman still had to be where I left her.
My heart raced in a way it hadn’t in so long. Fear coated my tongue with a nasty film.
I hadn’t even put the car in park, and Elias was already out. After grabbing the keys, I tossed them onto the seat and bolted after Elias. When I reached him, he exited the kitchen and started deeper into the house.
“She’s not fucking here,” he snarled.
We reached her bedroom, passing the open doors. There was no sign of her anywhere. Even worse? I couldn’t catch even a hint of her scent, which made me want to crawl out of my skin.
We both reached her bedroom, where Sinclair was snoring on her bed.
I shoved past Elias to shake Sinclair. He groaned, his head flopping back. Sinclair was the lightest sleeper I knew, but waking him now was harder than pulling teeth.
“Bloody fuck,” he roared, shoving me with enough force that I staggered back.
Sinclair rolled to his feet, chest heaving, and the crumbled bed sheets, an indent on the side of his face. As he blinked, he swept his attention around, the confusion on his face flitting to alarm.
“Where is she?”
“She’s gone.” I pulled my phone out and showed him the footage of Demi banging on our door, like a woman possessed.
“What the—” Awareness spiked through his gaze. “Where is she?”
“We don’t fucking know because she somehow took the cameras out. This is the last we have.” I tucked my phone into my pocket. I had an inkling of how she’d turned it off. “Where’s your phone?”
He patted his sweats and strode out of her room, heading toward his. I stayed on his ass and watched the tension spike in his shoulders. Elias still hadn’t said anything, and that surprised me more than anything. Sinclair grabbed the phone from the end of the bed.
“You fucking fool. This is why you need a passcode.” I’d been nagging him about it, but he never listened.
Sinclair rubbed the top of his buzz cut. “I shouldn’t have fallen asleep,” Sinclair repeated. “I was with her most of the time. I just passed out and—and—” He jerked his hand down his face.
“You were supposed to watch her,” Elias gritted out.
He erupted in a flurry of anger, going toward Sinclair aggressively.
Sinclair didn’t puff up as usual; he kept blinking and shaking his head.
He was genuinely distraught in a way I only remembered seeing him like when he arrived on Jennifer’s doorstep.
My childhood was a blurred mess, but Sinclair’s shell-shocked expression remained seared in my memory.
“Fucking irresponsible, as always, Sinclair,” he spat. Sinclair took his words, guilt spearing through our Pack bond.
Elias was still laying into him, but Sinclair did and said nothing. I dragged my fingers through my hair. This wasn’t going to accomplish anything. It wouldn’t magically bring her back. An ache throbbed in my throat, and it kept building.
“That’s rich, coming from you.” My words lashed through the room. Elias whirled on me. “I blame you.”
Elias jerked, a gasp leaving him.
“If you hadn’t—” I gritted my teeth, knowing I was wrong. He wasn’t the only one at fault. It was all of us.
He leaned against the wall, limp, not looking at anything.
“I blame myself too,” Elias finally admitted, a bitter curl to his lips.
“We can’t fight,” I exhaled in a gust. “She obviously spoke to Demi.” I quieted, pissed that the meddlesome Omega hadn’t gotten the clue. We’d made it pretty fucking obvious we wanted nothing to do with her.
“I’ll call her—”
My cell phone buzzed, and I tensed, slowly lifting it. I kept up-to-date on the news, and the notification that flashed across my screen rocked my existence.
Killer Omega Now in Custody.
“She turned herself in.” I didn’t recognize my own voice.
“She wouldn’t.” Elias’ tone lashed with the force of a whip. He kept rubbing his chest. The distance from her would affect him the most with his half-bond.
My voice rasped with emotion. “She wanted to get away from us, and I think she took the option to make that happen.”
I hadn’t looked at them; instead, I navigated the site to get to the article, pulling it up in seconds, and turned the screen toward them.
“No,” Sinclair croaked, shoulders jerking straight.
The article stated she was being held at the downtown detention center.
“I’ll call our attorney.”
“I’ll start the car,” Sinclair announced as he pulled the drawers out and selected clothes.
My mind raced as I looked at my phone screen. We’d get her out on bail, then figure out how to clear her name. I paused, squeezing the phone and meeting Elias’ stunned gaze.
“If we can’t get her off the charges?” Doubt thickened in my throat.
“We’ll flee with her,” Elias stated, his eyes hard ice chips. It was the most focused I’d seen him, despite his drawn expression.
His words comforted me.
We were on the same page then.