Page 70 of Accidentally Forever
Tonight however, wasn’t about them. It was about new steps.
I was finally going to ask Aria to move in with me. She practically had already, and I hadn’t liked leaving her at her place. Not that I didn’t love the cottage style house that the Montgomerys built twenty years ago. The construction company continued to keep it up to date with everything, and it was a beautiful home.
But I wanted her in my bed every night.
I wanted to wake up with her nestled in my arms, or dancing without panties on in my kitchen. I didn’t like her having to meet me at the restaurant because she wanted her car at my place. I wanted it to be our place.
Hopefully she wouldn’t fight me on it. Though, I never knew with Aria. Then again, fighting was what we did best. Because the making up had its perks.
I looked at my phone to see if she had responded to my latest text, but she hadn’t. When I looked around the parking lot, I frowned. Her car wasn’t there. I looked around the large truck beside me and realized it wasn’t parked on the street either. Weird. Maybe she’d hit traffic.
I pressed her name on my phone, and it rang a few times before being put through to voicemail. But ithadn’t rang enough to do that naturally, meaning she had pushed me to voicemail.
“What the hell?” I continued to pace and called again. Same thing. I texted, no answer. I quickly called Daisy, worry starting to sink in.
“Hey there. I thought you were going to be on your date.”
“Have you heard from Aria?”
She must have heard the tension in my tone, because she didn’t crack a joke. “No. We texted a few times when she was getting ready, but I thought she would be on her way to you by now. Is she not there?”
“She’s not answering her phone, nor has she texted me back. I have a bad feeling.”
“Was her phone ringing at all?” Daisy asked, and I heard the clicking of keys, telling me she was probably at her desk, her laptop at hand.
“Yes. So I don’t think it’s off.”
“Okay, that’s good. It’s probably nothing. She’s probably just in traffic. Let me check.”
“You can track all of us?”
“Of course we can. With the normal apps and our own apps. We’ve all become hyper aware of things with recent events.”
I nodded, not wanting to think about exactly what had happened to Aria’s family members and my friendsover the past years. There were too many hospital visits, too many stress factors.
“Her phone is on Huntington Bridge. That’s weird as it’s not in between the house and the restaurant you were going to. Were you still going to Parmigiano?”
I was already running back to my car as she spoke. “Call the cops. Do something. Anything. I’m on my way to the bridge now.”
“I’ll do that, and I’m calling the team. It’s probably nothing, Crew.” I heard the doubt in her voice, even as she was trying to reassure me. It wasn’t working.
“Travis attacked us today. And somebody broke into my house already. If it wasn’t Travis, it was someone else. Somebody that wanted to hurt us. I don’t have a good feeling.”
“You’re not trained for this, Crew. We are on our way. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Then get there before me,” I snapped before ending the call and trying to call Aria again. No answer. Another chink in my heart and nerves.
I knew I was probably breaking a few traffic laws as I drove the few miles to the Huntington Bridge. But I didn’t care. I needed to get to her. I knew Daisy would handle everything else, that’s what she was good at, what she trained for. I just needed to get Aria.
Maybe it was just her phone, maybe it was a bad connection. Maybe it was nothing. But I didn’t think so.
I shouldn’t have left her alone.
Huntington Bridge was a small metal bridge over the river that bisected the edge of the suburb. It wasn’t too tall, so during high precipitation times, people did jump off it for recreation. But there were signs plastered everywhere that you weren’t supposed to. People had no idea what was beneath the surface. There could be logs, sharp rocks, or the river could be shallower there than in some other places.
However, the bridge was one of Aria’s favorite places to sit and take photos when she needed to clear her head. There were countless angles, backdrops, and people that could create stories for her so she could focus on what she needed to for her next project. We’d been there recently so I had an idea of how high the water was, but it still made me fucking nervous.
Hell, I drew Huntington Bridge countless times because I sat next to Aria as she worked. We had almost gone there today instead of our hike.
