Page 31 of Edge of Danger

“Give her a call,” Clinton suggested. “If you’re worried enough about her that it kept you up all night, call her.”

“It’s too early.”

“Call her anyway. You can ease your worries, and she’ll know you were thinking about her. You can’t lose.”

Strange. It was like he’d been waiting for permission. The second he knew his parents thought it would be okay for him to call, he was up from the table and going out to the living room for a little privacy.

Tessa would forgive him for waking her up, wouldn’t she?

“Where are you, bitch?”

Like he’d been slapped, Brax’s head snapped back at the sound of the snarl that greeted him.

“What, you calling to see if we found your phone? Well, we did, you sneaky—”

“Who is this?” Brax barked, cutting the man off before he could insult Tessa again.

There was silence. Then, “Who’s this?”

“I asked first. Who has this phone? Who are you? Where are you?” From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his parents entering the room. His mom held her hands over her mouth.

More silence. Then a beep to signal the call’s end.

“What was that about?” Clinton asked.

“I have no idea. But some foul-mouthed bully has Tessa’s phone.” He called the number again, but this time it rang endlessly with no answer.

Memories of Thursday night hit him from all sides.

She’d been so shaken up—maybe too shaky for her purse to have been stolen by kids.

Did this have to do with whoever had mugged her at the mall?

He ran up to his room without further explanation and went straight to the laptop he’d left on the nightstand. Tessa was driving his car while he’d borrowed Chance’s Jeep. All of their cars had GPS installed so they could track mileage as a tax deduction.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” The sight of Tessa’s erratic driving patterns from just a few short hours ago made his stomach churn. Why had she been going up and down one street after another in the downtown section? Why had she spent a solid hour doubling back over herself?

And why was the car now parked at some strip mall?

Who was she meeting?

Or, worse, who’d stolen the car? What had happened to her?

One thing was clear: Tessa was in trouble.

He pulled on his clothes and headed downstairs again, where his parents waited. “Can you keep watch over Walker for a little while? I have to find her. There’s trouble.”

“Of course. Help her,” Sheila urged.

He intended to do just that.

Chapter Twelve

Brax cursed himself the entire way to the location where Tessa had parked his car.

What had he been thinking? Had he thought at all?

It didn’t seem that way, looking at the situation through new eyes. Now that his mom had set him straight, he couldn’t believe he’d thought he was being the good guy by practically forcing Tessa out of the house for the weekend.

---