Page 131 of Mad Love

I sighed and shook my head. “I have no idea anymore.”

Tyler perked up. “Want me to hack the L.A. courts and have your annulment papers disappear?”

I gaped at her. “You can do that?”

“I can try,” she said, frowning as she considered the challenge.

Chase sighed, exasperated. “Please, Tillie. No hacking unless it’s vital to our survival.”

She glared at him. “Don’t call me that.”

“What?” He shot her an innocent look. “Tillie?”

With a growl, she launched herself at him. He caught her wrists easily and stood, swinging her around so she landed in the seat he’d been occupying. The chair rocked back on two legs as he laughed at her trying to get up.

“Would you two—” The ringing of my phone cut me off, and I scrambled to answer it. My fingers shook as I swiped the green button without looking at the ID. “Ryan?”

Silence filled the line.

I frowned and glanced down at the phone, but the number was listed as private. I put it back to my ear. “Ry?”

A soft whimper sent chills skittering down my spine. “Maddie?” The voice broke into a ragged sob and then a howl of pain.

I shoved to my feet, shaking. “Bex!”

Chase and Tyler were instantly on their feet, eyes wide.

“Bex, honey,” I tried, my mind spiraling to the worst-case scenario. Her mom was dead. “What happened? Is your mom—”

Another sharp, almost desperate scream rang through the line, etching itself into my bones and nearly making me drop the phone. Then silence deadened the line.

I glanced at the phone in my hand, confused and scared, to see the call had ended, but a message was waiting for me.

“What happened?” Chase demanded, coming to my side and putting a hand on my shoulder. I was sure he meant it to be comforting, but I flinched away, my skin feeling like a raw, open wound that I didn’t want him touching.

“I don’t know,” I muttered, shaking my head as I opened the message.

The sound of my gasp ripped through the room a second before the phone slipped from my fingers. My world went fuzzy, sounds rolling together into a buzz that simply didn’t make sense. I didn’t feel Chase grab my fingers, or register Tyler asking me what was wrong.

My knees folded and I collapsed onto the couch as the screen of the phone stared up at me.

The picture of Bex was recent; I recognized the clothes as what she’d been wearing when she’d left less than two hours earlier. But the blood on her lips and the swollen eyes were new. Tied to a chair, she hung limp with her head slumped sideways, like she’d given up.

Or was unconscious.

Fear curdled in my stomach like sour milk on a swelteringly hot summer day. Nausea rolled through me, and I thought I’d pass out.

Chase’s fingers dug into my shoulders as he shook me, hard enough to click my teeth together. “Maddie!”

I could only look at the phone as the screen dimmed and then lit up with a new, incoming call.

This time, the screen displayed the name I needed to see as much as I needed my next breath.

I knocked Chase’s hands off me and dove for the phone, my voice cracking. “Ryan?”

“Are you safe?” he demanded, worry apparent in his voice.

“I…” My throat closed with emotion until all that could slip free was a sob.

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