Page 109 of Pack Fever

The call back from the hotel comes moments later, and Jasper has his phone on speaker.

“Sir, my colleague at our cafe just advised me that he spoke with Reed. He then witnessed them both rushing frantically to the parking area of the hotel about an hour ago. They haven’t been seen since. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”

“No, that’s fine. Thanks.”

Then he hangs up.

“Why would they rush?” I blurt. My mind races, piecing together fragments of possibilities of where they were hurrying to, but nothing makes sense in my head.

But Jasper’s frantically tapping away on his phone.

“What did you find?” I ask, my grip on the steering wheel tightening as we weave through traffic, the urgency to get back to the hotel gnawing at me.

Jasper doesn’t glance up from his phone, his fingers flying over the screen. “New photos are popping up on social media of Reed and Danica in the hotel cafe lobby. Someone spotted them this morning, and now the media’s buzzing, asking if she’s your mystery girl,” he explains with frustration in his words.

My blood runs cold. “Fuck! What if Nexus sees that and spots her?” The thought of Danica caught by them, taken, sends a wave of dread through me.

“This is so fucked! Something bad’s happened to them,” he says with panic in his voice. “What if Nexus took them after seeing those photos from the hotel?”

My throat goes dry, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. Jasper’s back to tapping on his phone. My guess is he’s trying to track them down, to piece together their whereabouts from any other sightings mentioned online.

Desperation claws at me as I’m desperate for answers, for any sign of hope.

As I navigate the congested city streets, my patience wears thin. Each stop and start chipping away at my frayed nerves. The traffic has slowed to a crawl, a field of brake lights stretching out before us. I attempt to cut through, my knee bouncing with barely contained anxiety, desperate to find any gap in the traffic that might get us moving faster.

“Fucking rubberneckers,” Jasper growls beside me. “They need to watch the road, not every fucking accident that happens.”

His comment barely registers as my focus narrows on the road ahead, on finding a way through this snarl of cars. But as we inch closer to the accident, the sight grabs my attention. Police lights flash around a car that strikes a chord of dread in me.

It’s a black sports car, banged up and isolated in the opposite lane. My heart stutters—the car is identical to the one Reed hired for our stay in the city. A cold wave of fear washes over me, my blood turning to ice as Jasper gasps beside me.

Without a second thought, Jasper flings open his door and sprints toward the accident site, his urgency thumping similar to the one inside me. Thoughts of Reed and Danica, of what might have happened to them, race through my mind, each more horrifying than the last.

I slam the car into park, the handbrake cranked to its limit, and I’m out in an instant, my feet carrying me faster than I thought possible. The clusterfuck of traffic, the blare of horns, and the shouts of frustration fade into the background as I weave through the cars, my only focus on the wrecked vehicle and the scene unfolding around it.

Catching up to Jasper, I find him speaking with a thin police officer with a mustache, his body language tense. Jasper’s questions are rapid. My heart pounds in my throat, a drumbeat of fear as I wait for any word, any sign that might tell us what happened.

It’s a weight that threatens to crush me, leaving me struggling for breath.

“Are they your friends?” the cop asks firmly.

“Yes. What happened here? Where are they?” I reply, my voice strained.

It’s only when the officer glances at me that he seems to recognize me, his eyes widening as a flicker of reality passes over his face of who’s standing in front of him. For a moment, he appears almost starstruck, but he quickly regains his composure with a cough.

“We arrived on the scene to find the car smashed up and abandoned.”

“And the driver? The passenger?” Jasper interjects, demanding answers. “These are our friends, our family.”

The cop hesitates, his expression tight. “We don’t have any information on who’s responsible yet, but I will need you both to answer some questions about your friends.”

“Of course,” Jasper responds while I’m tensing up.

“Come on, man, please,” I plead, reaching out to touch his arm. “Just tell us what happened here. What do you know?”

The cop’s demeanor softens slightly, though conflict plays in his expression. Leaning in, he lowers his voice.

“Look, all I can say is what witnesses reported. They crashed into an SUV that jutted out right into their path. Then, the male driver and female passenger were dragged out by hooded men and thrown into the SUV before driving away. It happened in a matter of seconds, in broad daylight.”

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