Page 24 of Tess, Property of Blaze

Blaze

Iwalk out the garage, leaving Tracker to his thoughts about what I’ve asked him to do. I feel shit as it is, I don’t need to see Tracker’s disappointment in me any longer. What’s done is done, and that’s it.

He said to give him a day—a whole fucking day. I know it doesn’t seem long to wait, but I need to know, the suspense is killing me. And if Tracker comes back with nothing, then I’m gonna tell Tess once and for all that if she doesn’t want me as her man and husband, then it ain’t gonna work. If I can’t have all of her, then I can’t have her at all. Even though it would kill me to, I have to let her go. Love just isn’t gonna be enough anymore, I want her forever.

My phone rings just as I light up a smoke, so I place it in my mouth, letting it hang at the edge of my lips while I pull the phone out of my back pocket. I answer when I see Luisa’s name flash up.

“Hey, darlin’.”

“Blaze!” she says, panic filling her voice.

I remove my cigarette with my spare hand and blow out smoke. “Yeah, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

“It’s Tess.”

A chill runs through me, terrible thoughts about what Lu is calling about immediately coming to my mind. I take a deep breath to calm myself; it could be nothing. “What about her, Lu?”

“Is…. Is she with you?”

“With me?” I ask, looking around the parking lot of the compound. I see her car here, but it’s been here all day; she went in Lu’s car. “Didn’t you drive?”

“I did… but….”

I take another deep breath, trying to fight down the rising feeling of panic. “Lu, calm the fuck down and just tell me what’s happening.”

“Well… she has just vanished, Blaze!”

Throwing my cigarette on the ground, I stride quickly over to my bike and straddle it, my gut churning now. “Tell me everything,” I growl down the phone, already fishing in my pocket for my keys.

I hear her sniffle then, “We were having coffee in town, then she said she needed to go to the bathroom. A while passed so I went to see if she was okay, but the door was locked. So I spoke to her through the closed door, and she said she wasn’t feeling well but would be out in a second.”

“Where are you now?” I growl.

“I’m in my car, in front of the cafe.”

“What’s the name of the café?” I stab the key for my bike into the ignition but hold off starting her up, needing to hear Lu clearly so I don’t miss a single important detail.

“Give me a sec,” she says, then, “It’s… um, Lorenzo’s, on Seymour Street.”

“So what happened after she said she’ll be out?” I close my eyes, trying to stay calm and listen.

“Well, I left her and went to sit back down. A few minutes passed, so I went back, and the door was unlocked, but then I noticed she wasn’t in there anymore. I panicked then because I didn’t see her leave, and she would have told me if she was, and I tried to call her and she didn’t answer….”

“What do you mean?” I ask, getting impatient now. I hear what Lu’s saying but it doesn’t make any fucking sense.

“She’s not in the bathroom, she’s not inside the café, she just left without telling me.”

“Hold up, she just left without saying a word?” That’s not something Tess would do, especially to a friend.

“Yeah, odd, right?”

“Yeah, fuckin’ odd. Did you try and call her?”

“Yes, I already told you that, but it went straight to voicemail.”

“Try again!” I demand, rubbing the back of my neck. “Sorry, Lu. Didn’t mean to yell.” Frustration and worry are rolling off me now, I need to calm the fuck down.

“It’s okay, you’re worried,” Lu says, and I can hear worry in her voice as well, which was not helping.

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