My steps hit the pavement with determination. I was jogging at this point. I hadn’t wanted to park right in front of Callum’s house in case I was totally off base, and Hazel hadn’t come here to confront him without me.
But my gut told me she was here. I’d tried calling her close to five hundred times after that vague text she’d sent, but her phone had been switched off. I was full-on panicking at this point.
Thankfully, Callum was not private when it came to the internet. I was able to figure out his last name from his social media, and a quick white pages search sent me straight to his current address.
West had driven us. I was shaking too hard, and he said if I got behind the wheel, we’d end up in a ditch or something.
I really hoped Hazel wasn’t here, but deep down I knew that she was.
Damnit.Why hadn’t she texted me?
I slowed down when I reached the end of his block, looking for any signs of Hazel. When I didn’t see her or her car, relief trickled through me.
“Reid?” I jerked my gaze toward the man addressing me. He looked like he worked construction or something, wearing a neon vest and bulky boots. I didn’t recognize him. West finally caught up with me, folding over to catch his breath.
“Sorry, who—” but before I could finish my question, the man tore off his beanie and recognition hit.
Jackson.
Shit. If he was here, then that meant…
My gaze whipped up and down the block. “Where’s Hazel?”
His face contorted into one of discomfort. Dread racked through me.
“Uh, well. You see….”
“What?” I demanded.
Jackson looked back down the street, not meeting my eyes. “She may or may not be currently stuck inside that house with the man who stole her cat.”
“What!?” I barked. West grabbed my arm, which was the only way I realized I had launched myself in the direction of the front steps.
“For how long?” I demanded.
“Not that long,” he added hurriedly. “We had this plan. I was going to distract him, and Hazel would sneak in and out with Vermont. But he had the attention span of a fly. I could only keep him outside for, like, two minutes before he blew me off. And Hazel didn’t have a chance to leave. This was only, like, five minutes ago, though. I was debating knocking again to give her a shot to get out.”
I nodded, trying to process the information in somewhat of a calm manner to come up with a plan. But at this point, I was half a second away from knocking on the door myself and barging inside. I didn’t give a fuck if Callum tried to stop me.
“Alright, chill, Mr. Action-hero,” West said, eyeing me up and down. He could tell exactly what was going through my mind.
“What do we do?” Jackson asked, looking to both of us. “I tried texting her, but I think she left her phone in her car.”
“We need to do something now,” I said, eyes fixed on the house, as the chaos in my mind finally began to settle into something resembling a coherent thought. “Okay, so there was no scream or scuffle, right?”
Jackson nodded.
“Good.” I let out a breath. “So Callum hasn’t discovered she’s in there yet. But she hasn’t come out, which means she might be stuck.”
“Shit,” West muttered.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I continued, Jackson hanging on my every word. “You knock on the door again, make up some bullshit excuse. Say you need his email, I don’t care. Just get him to answer. I’ll go around back and see if I can see into a window, or something.”
“What can I do?” West asked.
I glared at him, still not forgetting that he was likely the reason Hazel hadn’t wanted to talk to me in the first place. “You’ve done enough.”
He threw his hands up. “I’m sorry, okay? How many times can I say it?”
