Page 97 of Laurels and Liquor

“We should call Rhett and Lydia,” Lucas rasps, barely above a whisper.

Lex shakes her head, running her fingers through her hair in agitation. I can’t feel her, but the shame on her face is obvious even without the bond. She doesn’t want to admit to failure, even if this isn’t her fault. I move from my station at the kitchen island to the sectional, gathering Lex in my arms and pulling her tight to my chest.

“They’re safe at Wickland for the night,” I say to Lucas, purring for Lex.

She doesn’t respond like an omega, but she at least melts into me, which I take as a good sign. Lucas gives me a disapproving frown, but lets it go for the moment. I don’t like keeping them in the dark either, but right now, we have nothing to tell them except Seth is in the wind. For all we know, he’s still in Brazil, and we could be raising the alarm over nothing. Lydia doesn’t need any unnecessary anxiety. So better to wait for more concrete information and plan from there.

Silence is where fear grows, and the longer no one speaks, the harder it is to push away my creeping doubts. Lucas eventually tosses the dinner we didn’t eat before coming to sit on the sectional with Lex and me, close enough for all of us to touch. Seth could be anywhere, doing anything. Increasingly unlikely scenarios play out in my mind despite my best efforts to push them aside. Rhett and Lydia are safe in the Wickland House suite, I remind myself over and over. The elevator is the only way in, and the emergency stairs out of the suite only go down two floors, and the door to them is only able to be opened from the inside. We have security around the entire perimeter of Bristol Point, and no one comes in or out without going through the guard.

Lex’s phone chimes with an incoming message, making us all jump. She fishes it out and opens the new message from Gideon, Lucas and I looking over her shoulder. My stomach drops as she opens the photo. The image is of a chaotic airport, but centered on a man wearing a baseball cap and huge sunglasses under a hoodie, which might have disguised him in an airport like Chicago, but the ensemble only makes him stand out in tropical Brazil. My brain is telling me that the silhouette is off somehow, but it’s still unmistakably Seth. Same huge shoulders, same oddly shaped legs sticking out from his cargo shorts.

Lex closes the image and pulls up Gideon’s message, which only serves to confirm my sinking suspicions.

Gideon: We pulled this off airport security. He left Brazil a day and a half ago.

“Motherfucker. Everything’s in Portuguese. I couldn’t tell where he was going,” Lucas curses darkly.

“Even if you could, who knows if he had any connecting flights,” I add morosely.

“Let me ask if Gideon has any more info,” Lex says with clipped efficiency.

She types out her message and we wait, each second ticking by feeling like a year as we all watch the three little dots appear and disappear, only to appear again seconds later. And then, at last, the news we all dreaded comes through.

Lex: Do you know what his final destination was?

Gideon: Atlanta.

Fuck.

I sit frozen even as Lex springs into motion, dialing Rhett. Seth is here, in the state. There’s not a single doubt in my mind that he’s back in the city, too. But why? What could have possibly driven him to do this? What are we going to do now?

“Rhett! Oh, thank God!” Lex shouts, making me jump. “Why didn’t—you know what, never mind. You and Lydia need to get home. Right now.”

I watch her get up and pace away, and Lucas looks up from his phone. I can’t quite hear Rhett’s response, but from the sound of his voice, it definitely seems like we woke him up.

“I got a call from Gideon, and Seth’s—well, Seth’s back. In Georgia… No, I don’t have time to explain—” Lex presses her lips together, and even I can hear the string of curse words he’s shouting loud and clear. “It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you once you and Lydia get home.”

There’s a pause as he responds, but Lex’s next words die in a gasp. At the same moment, my chest floods with ice cold panic, my entire body freezing and burning with a terror so profound that tears spring from my eyes and fall down my cheeks. I lean forward, trying to get my lungs to cooperate, but I can’t get them to inflate around the raw fear exploding in my soul. But then, just as suddenly as it came, it’s gone. Like a candle snuffed out, leaving only the bitter aftertaste of burning sugar in my throat.

“Rhett… where is Lydia,” Lex rasps, her voice hoarse.

I don’t have to hear the answer to know the truth in my bones.

Seth has Lydia.

I can’t sit still, but Lex won’t let me out of her sight now. So instead of taking to the streets to try to find her, I pace around the open space between the sitting room and the kitchen. The illusion of movement is better than doing nothing. Lucas is next to Lex, trying to calm her as best he can, but I’m afraid she’s gone over the edge at last. Caleb is on his way to meet Rhett at Wickland House, something about security footage to figure out where to go from here.

I stop at the picture window and stare out into the stormy blackness beyond. Lightning paints the trees and rolling hills behind the house, coating everything in mercury for a moment before the world is plunged back into inky black. The thunder comes a moment later, a clash of atoms in the sky loud enough to pierce through the panic.

I have to do something to find Lydia. I can’t stand not trying.

Closing my eyes as I lean forward, I let my head rest on the cool glass. The bond I share with Lydia is muted, like it is when she’s asleep, but somehow even more distant. I pull on it, but there’s no response, no little flicker of vanilla-flavored delight I’ve grown used to feeling when I reach out to her like this. I try again and again, each attempt more frantic. The fact that the bond is still there is a small comfort. If it wasn’t…

I don’t dare let myself finish that thought. We’ll find her in time. We have to.

I’m about to give up when I feel the slightest pulse along our bond, like a violinist plucking at the string. My nose fills with burnt sugar, and I try my best to control the shaking in my limbs as her fear fills my chest.

We’re coming, baby girl. Just hold on.

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