Page 80 of Her Wicked Knights
Tripp purses his lips together, thoughtful.
It's unfounded, sure. Whit gathers us like his little henchmen and then strolls in late with his music playing acting like he's walking out to a wrestling match or something, but something about this feels different. He's later than usual.
I slip my phone into my hand and navigate to the text thread that she included Tripp, Rev, and I in together.
How's girls day? Ready for some male company yet?
I send the message, but pretty much as soon as I do, a little triangle symbol pops up, saying my message couldn't be delivered.
"What?" Tripp asks, his eyes narrowing on me as I stare at the message, trying to figure out what went wrong. Instead ofanswering, I switch over to Marley's name and fire off a simple text.
How's it going?
When the message comes back undeliverable again, I hit dial and press the speakerphone, letting it ring through the echoey church just once before it makes a chiming sort of sound, followed by a robotic voice.
"The person you're trying to reach is no longer available."
"No longer available?" Tripp shakes his head and pulls out his phone, presumably to try himself.
I switch to the map, expecting to see the little icon of her positioned on the road we all live on. But when I open it and zoom in, she's not there. And when I zoom out, she's not on the map at all... nowhere.
"What the fuck?"
"Call Hadley." Rev suggests, as Tripp hangs up the phone, shaking his head, too. He calls while I go to the user list and look for Marley's profile, but her location isn't being shared, and her page seems to no longer exist.
Hadley's phone, at least, rings. But that's all it does. It rings and rings, and then it goes to voicemail.
"Call Whit." I tell Mark, looking up so that he knows the instructions are for him. If there's anyone he'll answer for, it will be his own flesh and blood, surely.
To my surprise, Mark doesn't argue. He just pulls out his phone and taps around for a minute before putting the phone to his ear. After a moment, he shakes his head. "Nothing."
"His location isn't on." I say. "Did his phone ring or is his disconnected too?"
"Disconnected." Mark shakes his head. "That makes no sense. He just texted us an hour ago."
"He took her."
"No..." Tripp shakes his head. "She wouldn't have gone anywhere with him. She doesn't even know him, really?"
I scrub a hand over my face, trying to think clearly for a moment. All my thoughts are screaming in my head, and none of them as loudly as the revelation that he fucking took her. There's no way it's a coincidence that her phone is suddenly disconnected at the same time his is. He took Marley for himself, and she's gone. But as I look out at the others, I realize there's someone else missing.
"Where's Jake?"
Nick cranes his head, like he expects that if he just looks, Jake will appear. But now that it's crossed my mind, I realize I haven't seen him at all. And it would have been pretty obvious if he was here, considering that I beat him to a fucking pulp yesterday. It's very possible he's not here because he can't open his eyes from all the swelling, but if there's a chance he did anything to her, I have to consider it.
"I'll fucking kill him..." Rev warns, suddenly not so scared of killing anymore. "If he hurt her..."
Tripp's already calling him. I expect his phone, too, will go to voicemail or say disconnected. Instead, he answers on the fourth ring, his voice thick with confusion and what I imagine is pain.
"Where's Marley?"
"What?" Jake asks, and then he's silent for a moment as he waits for us to answer his question.
"Marley." I snap. "Where the fuck is she? What did you do to her?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since..." He breaks off, and I watch Tripp's fingers curl white around the phone he's holding out between us, "I tried texting to apologize, but she hasn't answered."
A text apology.
