Page 84 of Fear of Love
“Goodnight, Blondie,” Landon whispered, his hand coming up to softly trace my cheek.
“Goodnight,” I whispered back, eyes getting heavier by the second. His fingertips kept their path as they traced up to my eyebrows and down my nose. Sleep threatened to pull me under, each blink feeling harder and harder.
“Please don’t leave.” I was barely conscious of the words leaving my mouth. “Everyone always leaves.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Blondie,” was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.
24
LANDON
People always leave.
Lydia’s words rang in my head as I leaned against the counter nursing a cup of coffee. It was only a few minutes after eight in the morning, but after no sleep, I decided to hit the gym early this morning, hoping to clear my head.
Last night was a roller coaster.
Seven hours before…
“Well, shit,” Trevor swore, lying back on Bryton’s couch as he shook his head.
“Of course they made it to the playoffs.” Bryton tipped back the last of his beer.
“We beat them last year. It won’t be any different this time.” Wyatt shrugged, not at all concerned. One reason why he was such a good captain—nothing fazed him when it came tohockey. Not a two-hundred- pound man barreling toward him on the ice and not our rivals making the playoffs.
“At least you won’t have to play them for awhile. Unless they get knocked out,” I said. They all nodded in agreement.
“Think the girls will be home soon?” Bryton asked a few minutes later, glancing back at his phone. It was nearing one in the morning, which seemed a bit late for them to be out. Everyone, me included, tried not to bother them on their girl’s night, but every few minutes, one of us had our phones out checking to see if they called or texted.
“It is a bit late.” Trevor frowned.
Lydia wasn’t my… Well, I wasn’t sure what to call us, but I still felt anxious about her being out so late. She could take care of herself, but that didn’t stop my worrying. The worry I was currently trying to hide so the guys wouldn’t notice.
“Maybe I should text Jo,” Wyatt went to say, only for his phone to start ringing. If I wasn’t worried about Lydia, I would have laughed at how fast Trevor and Bryton sat up. Wyatt wasted no time in answering.
“Hello?” The way his expression darkened, I had a feeling it wasn’t Josie on the other side. “I see. We’ll be there shortly.”
“What is it?” Trevor moved to sit on the edge of the couch. Wyatt looked at all of us with a clenched jaw.
“The girls got arrested.”
I sat there, letting the news sink in for a moment before jumping to my feet along with the others. What the hell happened for them to get arrested? Like hell I was going to let Lydia stay in a jail cell any longer than she had to.
In a matter of seconds, we were all out the door, headed for our cars. I didn’t care if my reaction came out of left field to the guys. My concern for Lydia outweighed keeping whatever we were a secret.
Wyatt led us out of Bryton’s neighborhood and toward the police station the girls were at.
Worry and anger bled into each other as I drove. The girls were supposed to be at a simple bachelorette party and instead ended up in jail? The thought of something happening to Lydia made my chest tight. I needed to see with my own eyes that she was okay.
It felt like hours before we pulled into the police station’s parking lot. It was empty, but it was one o’clock in the morning, so that wasn’t a surprise. I barely turned my truck off before I jumped out, stalking toward the front doors of the police station, the guys right beside me.
Their shoulders tight with tension, a look in their eyes that screamed a promise to hurt anyone who touched their women. Pretty sure everyone could feel the tension coming off of us as we stepped through the doors.
“If you aren’t here to report a crime, then you’ll need to come back tomorrow,” the man at the front desk said in a bored tone, eyes on his computer not bothering to look up. The bright lights made my eyes twitch, and I had to squeeze my hand into fist so I wouldn’t say something rude to the guy.
Wyatt was the first one to speak. “We aren’t here to report a crime.”
“Then…” The younger officer finally looked up, only to freeze in place. I watched as his eyes bounced from Wyatt to Trevor to Bryton to me, and then back. “You’re… You’re Wyatt Boone, Trevor Hall, and Bryton Young.”
