Page 76 of Ruthless Reign

“Try calling Becca.”

Kate blinked, her chest rising and falling more rapidly as she shakily took out her phone.

She shook her head after a minute with the phone pressed to her ear.

So she wasn’t only ignoring my calls. I’d managed to slip my still functioning sim into a gift shop burner at the hospital, so she knew damn well it was me calling.

But she was ignoring Kate, too.

“Try Toby.”

She did, her lower lip quivering as she hung up and shook her head again. “Hardin, what’s going on?”

I felt the tremble in my chest that always preceded a stutter and steeled myself against it, tightening my core. “I don’t know yet.”

Quick, short sentences.

“They could be together.”

Breathe.

“Don’t go home. Stay here until you hear from m-m-me.”

Shit.

I turned on my heel before I could see her expression and left. The glass shattered under my hands as I shoved the door too hard on my way out. My boots crunched over the broken glass, and I was back in the car and driving before the driver’s side door could fully shut.

They could be together.

Talking through shit. That was what friends did, right?

It could be anything. They could be fine.

Then why did it feel like a lie?

Why did it feel like someone shoved my heart into a meat grinder and filled my stomach with heavy lead?

It took way less time than it should’ve to pull up outside the apartment building, right behind the Crows’ fucking Rover. I nudged its bumper before I could come to a full stop.

I pulled my gun, checking the inside of the vehicle, but not seeing anything out of the ordinary. My phone rang and I checked my six before answering it.

“Did you take my fucking truck?”

Dad’s heated voice met my ears.

“Where are you, Hardin? I gave orders. No one was to be on the streets alone and that fucking included you.”

“Becca stole the Crow’s car and left Thorn Valley in the middle of the night.”

Silence.

“Where—”

“I just found the Rover outside her apartment. No sign of her, yet.”

“I’m sending backup.”

The line went dead, and I tucked the old flip phone into my back pocket, scanning the alley entrance for any sign of life before pushing into the building.

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