Page 147 of Here and Now
No couch. No dishes. No tables or chairs.
It’s like she was never even here.
“I’m sorry, man,” Doug says from behind me. “I know you said this was possible, but I didn’t think she’d leave like this.”
I can’t speak. My head is spinning, and all the fucking conversations play like a loop in my mind. The way she laid with me, telling me she loved me. How she looked at me after we’d made love. The self-defense lessons and how she seemed like she was trying because she wanted to stay and fight.
I shake my head. “No. There’s no way she just left like this.”
He comes around, looking at the empty house. “I’m not sure what else this could mean. It’s all gone.”
I walk through the rest of the house, looking in Kai’s room, then the bathroom, hers, out to the backyard, where the fucking tree in a pot sits.
I call her phone again, but it goes to voicemail.
“Penelope,” I say, my voice cracking, the pain of her name slicing through my heart. “I don’t know where you are or why you left. I don’t know if it’s because you got scared and we were moving too fast or you’re in trouble. Just know that I’m not giving up. You may have broken your promise, but I’m not breaking mine.”
I clench my jaw tight, wanting to scream and fight the fucking world, and at the same time, not being able to deny the truth.
Penny left.
She’s gone. Kai is gone.
Everything is fucking gone.
And my heart feels like it’s been ripped from my fucking chest.
I go back to the school, watch the rest of the game, don’t give one shit about the score, and after the crowds file out without a goddamn war, I’m ready for my own.
Doug is watching me carefully, probably worried that I’m going to fly off the handle, but instead of anger and frustration, which I definitely felt when I got to the game, now I’m just strategizing.
How do I find someone who doesn’t want to be found?
Someone who has an entire group of people who do nothing but hide her?
Hell, I don’t even know what her real name is.
Fuck.
All I know is that her brother is in Virginia Beach and works for a security company.
I need to make calls and find out how to reach Quinn. I need to gather what intel I can find and go from there.
“I see your mind working,” Doug says.
“I’m going to find her.”
He opens his mouth to say something and then closes it. I wait, knowing Doug can’t keep quiet for too long, and then he sighs. “I’ll do whatever you need.”
“I need to find her brother.”
Doug nods. “Okay, and how do you want to do that? All you know is his name and that he’s in Virginia Beach.”
“I know.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan?”
I turn and glare at him. “I don’t know.”
