Page 6 of The Alpha

“There, you see? You should have made them look harder.” He went to his dining room table and sat. “Raina’s probably with him right now. They seem pretty thick; you know what I mean?” He winked.

“Yeah, I know.” She sat at the table with him. “You’re right, I should call the hospital and have them track Halden down. They must be together.”

He eyed her. “Tell me you won’t be disappointed if them twos don’t come back here.”

She stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Only that after this, they’re gonna wanna head home. See their own doctors.”

“Oh,” she said wide-eyed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I just don’t want you to be too disappointed if they leave right away.”

Pari’s heart sank. “They wouldn’t do that. Not without saying goodbye.”

“You sure?”

“They’d call or something.”

He nodded and gave her a smile. “That’s good. Now go ahead, call the hospital, and see what you can find out. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.”

She nodded back. “Okay. I’ll do that.” Pari pulled her phone out again and made the call.

3

Pari sat in front of her bedroom window on her wooden bench and stared numbly at the buildings in the distance. She wiped her nose as the first tear fell. Again. She’d spent the last two days searching for Raina and Halden, calling every hospital in New York. None of them had any record of a Halden Kolbeck. When she called the original hospital at Uncle Al’s advice, and asked if they could find Halden, the woman on the phone at least confirmed he’d been moved to another hospital. But didn’t say which one.

So, Pari started a frantic search, then searched some more. She thought she might go out of her mind making so many phone calls. Pari even got Uncle Al and Uncle Leo to help.

The three came up with nothing.

Pari jumped when a car peeled out in the street below and pulled her legs up and hugged them. Her chest felt empty, and her heart ached. She’d lost her new friends in a blink of an eye. Would she ever see them again?

She turned her head and rested it on her knees. What troubled her the most was the fact neither Raina nor Haldencalled to tell her where they were or if they were okay. She wanted to help; didn’t they know that?

Pari changed positions again, her chin on her knees, and stared straight ahead. She let the tears well up, slide down her cheeks, and didn’t care. She hurt, and part of her felt as if this was somehow her fault. But what tore her heart out was the fact she could do nothing about it.

How could she help Raina and Halden when she had no idea where they were or how to find them? If Raina was discharged, then where in the world was she?

She squeezed her eyes shut as more tears fell. She hated feeling helpless, but she hated the hollow feeling in her chest even more. She didn’t understand it and wasn’t going to try. The only thing she could think of was, Dr. Merrill was right. She’d been so lonely after Ariel and Todd moved to California that she needed to make some new friends.

But when it came down to it, she was shy and socially awkward and got stressed out trying to talk to people. Raina and Halden were different somehow. In a way they seemed as lost as she was most of the time.

Pari wiped her eyes, blew her nose on a paper towel and left the bench. She might as well go to bed. She had to open tomorrow, and Uncle Al wanted her to clean and polish some new pieces he bought at an estate sale he went to yesterday. She didn’t even know what the pieces were.

Twenty minutes later Pari lay in bed, her throat still thick with emotion, and hoped she could sleep. She’d been so wound up trying to find Raina and Halden, she’d slept fitfully the last couple of nights and hadn’t eaten much either.

She’d gone through Raina and Halden’s things after work today, looking for any clue that would tell her where they might have gone. But there was nothing. Then again, she might not recognize something as being a clue even if it was one.

“Dang it!” Pari tossed back the covers, got out of bed, and paced before the window. She stopped near the bench, sinking to her knees, as fresh tears fell. “What is wrong with me?” She hugged herself as her shoulders shook with silent sobs. “I didn’t even know them that long.”

She let herself cry it out. Whatever this was would have to stop eventually, right?

And it did, after about an hour. Pari was so exhausted she lay on the carpet, too tired to crawl back into bed.

When she woke up to the sound of her alarm going off, she didn’t know where she was for a moment. Then she remembered her marathon pity party and climbed to her feet.

She shut off the alarm and looked out the window for a moment or two, her mind a blank. She supposed she needed the emotional release last night and wasn’t going to berate herself for having a good cry. This was more than Raina and Halden’s disappearance. This was Jeffrey, his group of bullying friends, her lack of confidence she tried to cover up and so many other things. She was a train wreck of a person and knew it.

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