59. Grady
GRADY
I haul ass back to Football Frat, breaking the speed limit and even running a red light. It’s late, the streets are basically empty, and if Nolan does in fact have a traffic camera in that particular intersection, then I’ll pay the fucking fine.
All I care about is getting back and confirming with my own eyes something I know in my gut is true.
Parking haphazardly by the curb, I jump out and run across the front lawn. I don’t know why I didn’t park in the driveway; my brain obviously thought the curb would be quicker.
Bolting up the stairs two at a time, I shoulder the front door open and don’t bother greeting anybody.
“Grady!” Zander calls to me from the living room, and I hear footsteps behind me, but I don’t stop moving until I’m standing in the doorway of the room Blake has been occupying.
It’s empty.
All her stuff is gone .
I gaze down at her unmade bed, the only evidence that she was even in here this morning.
Shit.
Slumping back against the doorframe, I try to figure out what the fuck happened and why the hell she left without even saying goodbye.
“Come on,” Zander softly coaxes me out of the doorway. “We’re all downstairs.”
“Why’d she go?” I frown at him. “ Where’d she go?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Following my friend back downstairs, my mind starts racing to think logically, to problem-solve this so I can fucking find her!
She left the hospital.
Did she walk back to Football Frat or catch an Uber?
Her phone is obviously off if it’s not even ringing before going to voicemail. Or maybe the battery’s dead, which means maybe she couldn’t catch an Uber and she’s still walking home from the hospital. At this time of night. Fuck!
What was she wearing?
I think back and picture a massive hoodie. Maybe yoga pants.
Is she warm enough?
It might be spring, but the temperatures can still fluctuate. At night it can get down to thirty degrees at this time of year. Her skinny little body can’t handle that temperature. Not in a hoodie and yoga pants. She needs a jacket. A beanie.
My heart starts racing until I hear Zander’s voice cut through the noise in my chaotic brain.
“She’s taken Wily’s truck. At least that’s what we’re assuming.” Zander turns at the bottom of the steps. “It’s not in the driveway and his keys are gone, so she must have left with it.”
“Did anyone hear her go?”
Zander gives a pained frown, scratching the back of his head. “Nah. The only people here were Wily and Satch. They’ve been in his room all evening and were potentially… preoccupied… when she left.” He raises his eyebrows, and I feel sick.
She was sneaking out while they were getting it on.
Sneaking out while I was trying to deal with this Teah situation.
Fuck!
What was she thinking?
Why didn’t she wait for me?
I step into the living room. Wily’s assembled the troops, and everyone is there, even Sienna, who has a baby monitor clutched in her hand and a worried look on her face.
She’s in her pajamas, Elmo’s red face grinning at me from the material around her legs.
She’s sporting a massive Nolan U hoodie, which must belong to Zander.
Next to her is Nylah, who is anxiously watching Wily as he talks to his parents on speakerphone.
“I can’t believe this,” his mother frets. “Why would she just leave without saying anything to anyone?”
“She’s probably catching a red-eye back to Chicago,” his father mumbles, and Wily stifles a groan while Mrs. Wilson balks.
“After everything she told us last night? Of course she’s not going back there! She better not be,” Mrs. Wilson growls. “If I ever get my hands on that Cleo girl, I’m going to ring her neck! ”
Oh wow. She told them. She told them everything.
Is that why she freaked out and left?
When did she call them?
“Can’t you track her phone or something?” Mr. Wilson barks, clearly rattled.
Wrenching the phone out of my back pocket, I pull up the Find My app, which I set up after the liquor store incident, and try to do just that, but she’s not showing up anywhere.
Because her phone’s off, dumbass.
Dammit!
Where the fuck is she?
“I’m sure she’s fine, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.
” Zander is trying to bring a little calm into this clusterfuck, but I don’t think it’s going to work.
Something is wrong. I can feel it in my gut.
“She’s probably driving down to Denver as we speak.
That’s why we’re calling, just to make sure she got there safely.
” He shares a worried frown with Wily, who looks about ready to break the phone in his hand.
His fear is palpable, and it’s hard not to feed off it.
Blake has obviously never done this kind of thing before, and after everything that’s gone down in the last few days…
Shit, please be okay, baby. Please!
“But she’s not here!” Mrs. Wilson wails. “Where is she, David?”
“I don’t know.” He sounds pretty cut up. “We should have tried harder to talk to her today. We shouldn’t have given her space. We should have driven up there and seen her. Dammit! I’m coming up. ”
“No, Dad. We need you to stay in case she shows up.” Wily clenches his jaw. “Please, just stay put, okay?”
After an awkward beat, his father finally huffs in consent. “Fine. We’ll wait. But you keep us posted, okay? After everything she told us yesterday, who knows what she might get up to.” He sounds rattled and pissed off, and I can’t help glaring at the phone as Wily says goodbye and hangs up.
As soon as he drops the device on the couch, he spins to bark at me. “Why’d she take off? What the fuck did you do? She was at the hospital, and then she just disappears? What the hell happened!”
“I don’t know!” I raise my hands to shut him up and stop him stalking toward me. He’s limping, and Satch is trying to pass him his crutch, but we seriously don’t have time for this shit!
“What happened at the hospital?” He glares at me.
“I. Don’t. Know,” I repeat emphatically.
“I was dealing with Teah’s parents and her boyfriend, who security had to drag out of the hospital, and when I turned to check on Blake, she wasn’t there.
I assumed she’d gone to the bathroom. Teah’s mom wanted me to go sit with Teah for a minute, and I did.
We talked, and then I left. I was expecting Blake to be waiting for me, but she wasn’t.
I don’t know why, okay?” My voice starts to pitch.
“All I do know is that we have to find her, and I don’t have time to stand here arguing with you!
” Pulling the keys out of my pocket, I turn for the front door.
“I’m going out to look for her. You can beat on me later. ”
Zander steps in front of Wily before he can reach me. “He’s right, man. Just calm down. None of this is helping Blake. ”
I glance over my shoulder in time to see Wily’s shoulders slump.
Shit, he looks destroyed right now.
“We need to split up and start searching around any places we think she might go. Any guesses?” Zander asks.
“The library,” Wily mutters at the same time I grumble, “A party.”
His eyes snap to mine, and shit, the gutted confusion on his face says it all. Yet again, it’s occurring to him how much his sister has changed. How much he doesn’t know her. And it’s brutal.
“I’m sorry, man,” I mumble, feeling his pain. “But you need to put whatever hurt you’re feeling aside, because we have to find her.” My voice cracks and I blink, wrestling with this onslaught of emotion I was not expecting.
If something’s happened to her…
If she’s wasted at a party or someone’s doing something to her…
My imagination tortures me, blurring my vision for a second.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I look back at her brother and rasp, “I need to find her.”
His eyebrows rise for a brief second, like he’s surprised by the intense emotion I’m battling, but doesn’t he get it?
I care about Blake.
She’s my… cosmic match.
My chest spasms and I rush out the front door. I can’t go losing her now. Not when I’ve just figured it out.