He cracked his neck, but it did nothing to remove the tension in his bones.
The clock on the wall ticked away the time until Romeo had to get up and remove the battery before he smashed it into a million pieces.
He relied on his phone, prodding the screen every time it went dark.
His texts and calls had gone unanswered.
Which was extremely unlike Chad.
They had tracking on each other’s phones, and Romeo stared through narrowed eyes at the last location Chad’s phone had pinged.It was a house he didn’t recognize, before the dual carriageway that led into the city and Josh’s place.
Either Chad had stopped on his way back for some reason, or, far more sinisterly, he’d stopped on the way there and Romeo hadn’t known.
“Or he might not have stopped at all,” Romeo groaned.
Phone networks weren’t the most reliable, and that house’s location might just happen to be the last place Chad’s phone got a signal.Chad wasn’t replying to texts or calls because he was driving.It made perfect logical sense, yet Romeo’s nape prickled in warning.
Something wasn’t right.
Romeo snatched his phone off the table and tried Chad again.
He bounced his leg, expecting it to ring, but instead there was a message from the network provider that said the number could not be contacted at that time.
Romeo’s anxiety skyrocketed, and he pushed to his feet.
He strolled out of the room, checking the location of Chad’s phone again only to trip at the lack of one.The white dot, Chad’s pulsating initials inside of it, had gone.
“What the fuck,” Romeo muttered, shutting Mercutio in the kitchen.
He whined, but Romeo ignored him, snatching the keys for their secret car and the set for the outhouse double doors.
He rushed outside, but halfway across the concrete to get to the outhouse, Romeo’s phone buzzed, and he stopped dead.An unknown number flashed on the screen.That explained it, Romeo thought, Chad had broken down, his phone had just died but he’d borrowed someone else’s so he could call Romeo.
“Chad?”he asked, hating the spike of fear that penetrated his voice.
There was a beat of silence, and then a hesitant, “No, this isn’t Chad.My name’s Josh, I’m friends with Chad.”
Romeo pressed his lips in a firm line.The alarm bells were near deafening, but he just about managed to hear Josh.
“We’ve met once before, at a club, we were wearing masks—that’s not important right now—”
“How did you get my number?”
“Chad gave it to me a while ago in case anything ...happened to him.”
Romeo’s breath shook.“And has it?”
He knew, as the words left his lips, he knew.
That gut feeling, the sense of unease.
Romeo’s vision wavered.He crouched before he dropped, bracing one hand on the ground.
“Yes,” Josh said quietly.“Frank, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s ...there’s been an ...incident.Chad’s been taken to St Johns.”
Romeo panted a few breaths at the concrete.
“Is...”Romeo swallowed.He didn’t think he could get the words out.“Is he still alive?”
