“Did you see who took her?” Alex asked, concern etched into every line of his face.
“No. She…she was afraid, she wanted me to stay with her. And then…she kissed me. And while we were kissing, someone knocked me out.”
Ava’s hand went automatically to the back of my head. “You were knocked out? Doc, we need to get you to the hospital to have that checked.”
I bounced out of my seat, shaking my head and making myself dizzy. “No. No way. I’m fine. We need to find her.”
“Yeah, I’ve got the phone tracking right now.”
My features pinched. “She must be so scared.”
“We’ll find her,” Ava promised.
Alex stared at his phone, his features crinkling. “Yeah, it may take some doing, though.”
My stomach plummeted, my lips parting. “What? Why? Is it not working?”
“No, it’s working.” Alex tugged one corner of his lips back. “But she’s moving fast.”
“Where?” I asked, my voice breathless as I tried to peer over the top of his phone. “Are they already out of the Hamptons? Are they heading to New York? South? Where?”
“Yeah,” Alex said with a bob of his head. “She’s out of the Hamptons, all right. Moving at like…”
He tapped a few times on his phone. “Five hundred miles per hour.”
“She’s on a plane,” Ava answered as the massive number settled over me.
My stomach plummeted again as lightheadedness swept over me. I sank onto the armchair, covering my face in my hands. Someone–probably the people she was running from–had taken Nattie, and now they had her on a plane heading to who knows where.
Bile crept up my throat as the idea that I’d never see her again tormented me.
What if this was it? What if I never got the chance to tell her how I felt, or hear what she was about to say before it all fellapart? The thought of never seeing her again was like a weight on my chest, crushing me with every breath.
“Can you pull up flight plans?” Ava asked Alex.
I uncovered my face, snapping my gaze to him. “Is that possible?”
Alex plopped into his seat on the couch, grabbing his laptop. “I’ll try, but if these people aren’t exactly playing by the rules, they may have filed a bogus plan or skipped it entirely. It’ll take a few minutes because I have no idea who this plane belongs to or even where it originated.”
“It had to come from the private airstrip,” Ava said. “It hasn’t been that long that they could drive to another and already be that far.”
My stomach clenched as she said the words “that far.” Knowing Nattie was already so far from me made my physically ill. And knowing she was probably terrified compounded that. I was supposed to protect her, and I failed.
Even my father had managed to protect Julia more or less. But I’d fallen down on the job on day one.
I shook my head as Alex slammed his laptop closed. “Nothing. But I’m calling my pilot. We’ll get the jet fueled and ready to follow them.”
I leapt from my seat, my eyes wide. “Really?”
“Really,” Alex said. “Pack a few things, we’re going after your girl.”
“Oh, yes, thank you.” I pressed my hands together, grateful for my friends wanting to take action to help me find her.
“Wait, wait,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “You have a head injury. I’m not sure you should be getting on a plane.”
I balled my fingers into fists, my jaw tightening. “Look, Ava…I’m a doctor, okay? I can monitor my own symptoms. I’m under way more stress worrying about Nattie than I am from this head injury, okay?”
“How do we know that? You need a CT scan.”
