I hear a thud, likely the phone falling, and I'm on high alert, leaping from bed as I throw my clothes back on. This is serious, this isn't just Kai being lazy. I reach for my work phone, because he called mypersonalcell, and dial Roger, who is never far away.
He picks up on ring one.
"Where did you drop Kai off and when?" I snap, yanking on my shoes with one hand as I yank my sweater on with the other.
"He dismissed me after I dropped him at the club," he says simply, "two hours ago."
Meaning whoever slipped him something either did it in the club, when he wasn't looking, or waited until after, when they arrived wherever they're at now. Likely his home. "Head to theclub and see if he's still there. I just got a disturbing call—I think he's in trouble."
Roger hangs up after promising to meet me at Kai's house if he doesn't find him at the club, and then I bring up thewhere's my phoneapp I installed on his phone, just in case I needed to find him fast. I know there's no guarantee he's with his phone, but it's worth a shot.
It's not at any club that I know of. And it's also not at his home. Instead, it's reading somewhere between his place . . . and mine.
Did he walk here? Or try to?
"Shit, shit shit shit," I mutter, sprinting out my front door, careful to make sure it closes behind me as I panic in earnest now. My eyes are glued to my phone, to the location app that tells me when I'm getting closer to his last pinged coordinates. "What the hell are you doing there, you idiot?"
He's about ten or twelve blocks away from me, and in a seedy ass part of town. I'll be surprised if someone doesn't rob him while he's out cold, if he's out cold. With my luck, someone will stab him, and that'll be the end of my gainful employment with kNight Ent.
I don't—it's got nothing to do with how much I seem to like his attitude these days, or understand his reasoning behind how he acts, or how he's been smiling at me lately in ways he doesn't with anyone else. I'll read into that later.
Right now, I have one goal—find him, as soon as possible, and make sure he's okay.
Please let him be okay.
chapter fourteen
Kai
It's black.Everything is dark. I'm not sure where I'm at, or what time it is. All I know is someone's calling my name.
"Kai? Kai! Oh my god, Kai?—"
Head . . . hurts. Why the fuck does my head feel like it's splitting in two?
I know I didn't drink that much at the club. Why the hell do I feel like I'm swimming in my brain? Or that my brain's swimming? What the hell are words anymore?
It occurs to me that the air here smells like stale piss and motor oil, two scents that are not only putrid and unappealing, but don't belong in the air. I reach up to cover my nose to hide it from the offensive stench, but realize belatedly that there's something blocking my way.
It's the ground.
I'm lying on the fucking ground.
No wonder it reeks down here. I'm not standing, I'm not sitting, not even leaning. No, I'm facedown on the fucking concrete, in who knows what alley, my face no doubt soaking up piss and oil and dirt and all the other nasty things down here into my beautiful skin?—
". . . up," I groan, "need up." I'm not even sure if she's close enough to hear me or not. I just know that voice I hear is Denali. Ithasto be. Nobody else knows I'm out here. I had Roger drop me off at the club and insisted I'd get a cab home. With— "where's Pri-Priscilla?"
Someone's hands lift me up, and I realize they can't possibly be Denali's; they're too meaty. But I can still hear her close by, maybe on her phone? She's talking to someone.
"Yes, I understand this is a sensitive situation. That's why I called you. For direction."
I try to open my eyes, because it's taken me until just now to realize they're closed, but they're not cooperating. A pathetic whine echoes out around us, and it takes a moment before it registers to me that it came from my mouth.
"Hey there, boss," says a disembodied voice that I assume belongs to the hands helping me sit upright. My head spins, and I groan when my back hits something hard. I think it's a wall. Things are still . . . fuzzy. Concerningly so. "Take it nice and slow."
Iamtaking it slow. There's no other option for me, because my limbs aren't cooperating like I want them to. I don't understand what's going on, why I can't even think straight enough to form a coherent sentence, but?—
"I think he was drugged. He called my personal line, and henever does that.He's blacked out in an alley, about halfway between the club he stopped at tonight and my own personal residence." A soft sigh reaches my ears; Denali is getting closer. I reach for her, or at least, IthinkI do. I don't know if my arms are cooperating or not. Everything is still dark. "Hey, Kai, can you hear me?"
