“And if I present with any symptoms that back that up, I will get one. Until then, we need to get on that plane and follow her.”
“Doc, we’ll be at thirty-thousand feet. You can’t get a CT scan from a plane.”
I set my hands on my hips. “Ava, we were in a plane crash, and you trekked through the jungle and then injected yourself–against my better judgement, by the way–with an untested drug. I think I can get on a plane after getting a bump on the head.”
“I just think–“
“Look, are my pupils equal and reactive?”
Ava narrowed her eyes at me, flicking on her flashlight and using it to check them. “Yeah.”
“Okay, and is my speech slurred or am I exhibiting any decline in motor skills?”
“No,” she answered.
“Well, until I do, I’m fine. You monitor me, and if I show any signs of decline, I give you full permission to haul me to a hospital. Until then, we need to follow her.”
Ava hesitated for a moment, her eyelashes fluttering, before giving me a nod. “All right. We’ll follow her. Just let me grab a few things and call the dog sitter for Gizmo.”
Before she finished her statement, I was already heading for the door. I climbed the stairs and raced to my room, grabbing a few necessities like my phone charger. I stuffed everything inside my bag, my heart hammering against my ribs and hurried from my room.
I expected to stand in the foyer, waiting for Alex and Ava, but instead, they met me at the top of the stairs.
Alex glanced at his phone. “Looks like she’s headed for Europe, but that’s a completely uneducated guess.”
I swallowed hard. Why Europe?
“Come on, let’s get to the airport and see if we can follow her,” Alex said, tossing his and Ava’s bags over his shoulder.
Ava slid her arm around me as we descended the stairs. “How are you holding up?”
“My head’s fine,” I answered.
“That’s not what I meant,” she said. “You clearly care about this woman.”
We stepped into the bright sunshine and crossed to Alex’s car. “I do care about her a lot. And I know how completely crazy that sounds, but…I fall in love fast, I guess.”
She offered me a smile that bordered on consoling as we climbed into the SUV.
“Don’t give me that look.”
“I have no such look,” she said with a grin as she slid on her seat belt.
“You do so. You’re giving me that ‘poor Kyle, he thinks he’s in love but he’s not’ look.”
Ava shook her head as Alex fired the engine. “That’s not true. If you have a connection with her, who am I to knock it. You’re an adult. Maybe love at first sight exists for you. And honestly, if it does, I hope we find her, and she feels the same way.”
The car lurched forward as we started down the driveway. “She says she does. And she was about to tell me what was going on with her when all the chaos broke out.”
My nostrils flared as I clenched my fists. If only we’d had a few minutes more, maybe I’d have a better idea of what has happening with her. Right now, we were driving in the dark, following her phone signal. If anything happened to that…
I shoved the thought from my mind. No, we’d be able to follow her signal.
We had to be able to follow her signal because if we couldn’t…
I shook my head. I couldn’t let myself go there. I couldn’t lose this connection.
My mind wandered to the next family get-together. I imagined Sierra across the table from me, her nose wrinkled. “OMG, you’re even more insane than I thought. I bet this woman paid someone to pretend to kidnap her so she could get away from you.”
