Page 70 of Bad For A Weekend

I have strong feelings for her, and I can picture a life with her. But what stops me from saying yes is that I know it’s not right. I’m not what she needs.

“Jesus Christ, Owen.”

“There’s nothing you can say to make me feel any worse than I already do.”

“How about you’re fucking fired? Does that make it worse?”

It should. The disappointment and humiliation should drive the nail in deeper. But it doesn’t. I’m too worried about Baylor. I don’t give two shits what happens to me.

“I just need to find her,” I say lowly.

“I’m assuming you had something to do with why she ran away then? You didn’t like her dancing with someone and lost your temper?”

“Something like that.”

“What the hell am I supposed to tell her dad? Did you think about that at all? Because goddamn. He’s going to lose his mind.” He laughs humorlessly. “You really fucked me over, you know that?”

I jump to my feet. “I don’t care, Hudson. I don’t care about anything except getting her home safely. So if you could stop thinking about yourself right now, that would be great.”

“You just blew up my business!”

“Never mind. I thought you could help, but clearly, you can’t see past your own goddamn nose to realize what the real issue is.” I’m about to end the call when I hear his voice.

“Wait.” He sighs. “Shit. You’re right. Let’s find the girl and then deal with the rest.”

“Thank you.” My phone buzzes. I look at the screen and see a text message that does nothing to settle my tension. I put Hudson on speaker. “Ziggy sent a text. He said they’re fine and will be back later. As if that’ll fucking happen.”

I quickly reply, asking them to tell me where they are. The response no doubt came from Baylor. I can tell by the sass.

“They won’t tell me where they are. They said they’re being safe,” I say.

“Does she have her phone?”

I glance at the sparkly purse Sara carried out that contained all of Baylor’s things, including her phone. “No.”

“Of course not. That’d be too fucking easy since Corey gave us access to Baylor’s cell. It’ll take some time to ping Ziggy’s phone.”

“We don’t have time. Baylor could be in the back of a van right now.”

“I think we just need to wait it out a little. We’ll work on tracking Ziggy’s phone, and you just try not to fuck anything else up. Think you can do that?”

I don’t have any energy to fight. Between the ever-growing anxiety of Baylor missing and having to come clean to my brother and boss, I’m spent. I have nothing else to give.

“Fine.”

“I’ll call back when I know something.”

I hang up, my chest tight and a lump in my throat I can’t swallow down. The urge to find a dark and quiet space is strong, but I fight it. I need to be prepared for when we find her. I pray to God that when we do, she’s in one piece.

I try calling Ziggy’s phone and am immediately sent to voicemail.

“Ziggy, please call me back. I know you care about Baylor and her safety, which is how you know the best thing for her is to not be running around Tulum without protection. So please, call me back as soon as you get this.”

After hanging up, I send a succession of text messages that are left undelivered. His phone is off. With nothing left to do, I sit and stare at the wall while I wait.

Three agonizing hours pass with few updates from Hudson. Because he’s worried about his own ass—he refuses to bring Ziggy’s parents or Corey into this—his IT team has been trying to hack into Ziggy’s cell with no luck.

I’m about to go over him and dial Corey when the alarm goes off on my phone, alerting me to someone at the gate. This better be fucking her. I bring up the feed, and all at once, my heart pounds and my breaths slow. She’s back and appears to be all in one piece.

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