Page 140 of Rear View
“Get out,” I told him.
Taking the harness, he looped it over his chest. “No.”
“I ain’t draggin’ you into this one, man. I cost you enough, now get the hell out!”
“Fuck you!” His pissed-as-hell glare fixed on me and he shoved my shoulder hard. “You didn’t cost me shit, X. I knew what I signed up for.” He stabbed a hand toward Earl’s office. “Everyone in that room did. We took a gamble and got unlucky. But we were all in on the game. I know you think you’re alone, but you’re not. Never have been. I love you, man. You’re my goddamn brother. I’m here and I ain’t going nowhere.” He shoved my shoulder again. “Now drive the fucking car.”
My chest twisted. I wanted to say something, let him know what his friendship meant. Tell him I loved himtoo. That he’d been just as much a brother to me as Fallon, but the only word that came out was, “Dick.”
He clipped himself in and stared straight ahead. “Let’s go get your girl.”
I chucked him my phone. “Watch her location. Tell me if it changes.”
A sharp nod.
Dropping the e-brake, I popped it into gear. When I hit the gas, the tires torqued, then squealed. Drifting the ass end around, I punched it outta there and aimed us for the city.
My ribs were so locked, my lungs hurt, ’cause that piece of shit was doing Christ knew what to my girl. Mine. She was fuckin’ mine. He couldn’t have her. I’d cut every piece of him off that’d ever touched her.
Slowly.
The sound of the engine echoed off the buildings around us as we flew through the industrial quarter, aiming for the highway. Every head in the vicinity turned our way as I whipped between cars, weaving in and outta oncoming traffic.
“Text from Miles,” Alec said. “He’s saying he can’t reach Zoya either and the cops told him to hang tight for now. They’re telling him Ryah’s probably just busy doing something else.” His brows furrowed low. “Useless shits.”
Course they did. I slammed a hand down over the wheel and cursed before I asked, “She moved at all?”
He shook his head. “No.”
Was that good? Or not?
Alec cursed.
“What?”
“Another text from Miles.” His voice went grim when he read it. “News is saying a security guard at U of Ewas found dead by some dean and that someone else was transported to hospital.”
I gripped that wheel harder to keep myself from keeling over. Dead. FUCKIN’ DEAD! “Who’s the second person?”
Alec fired a message back and my heart stopped workin’. Time stood goddamn still. “He’s on the phone with Mrs. Nolan. Zoya’s mom just called her. It was Zoya.”
Christ!I tore a hand through my hair. Answers. I needed answers. “Did Zoya tell ’em anything?”
He typed a response, then waited. “She was unconscious when they brought her in. She’s in surgery now.”
Bile burned the back of my throat, and I fought to keep it down.
Alec’s hand landed on my shoulder. “We’ll find Ryah, man. She’ll be alright.”
We’ll find her.I replayed it on repeat in my head.We’ll find her. We’ll find her. We’ll find her.
He sat back. “We’re coming up on it.” He tipped his head forward. “Next right, onto Shirley Street.”
The tires screeched as I drifted through the corner. When I straightened out, I punched the gas, hit the clutch and upshifted.
The twenty-minute drive was the longest of my goddamn life, and my stomach hardened when we closed in. A bunch of shops sat back from the road, all closed. Snowbanks were piled high around the strip mall lot, but with the university being out, there wasn’t a car in sight. Or a goddamn person.
“We’re here,” Alec said. “App says it’s thirty feet east of us.”
