I’m two seconds away from grabbing my jacket and heading over to her apartment to check on her myself when my phone finally rings.
“Finally,”I snarl when I pick up.
“What?” He says it like it’s barely a question, clearly annoyed with me. I can’t say the feeling isn’t mutual right now.
“Where is Sydney?” I ask.
“For fuck’s sake. You have to let this go. I don’t have time to keep going over this with you,” he snaps. For a calm and collected motherfucker, he sure is snapping a lot these days.
“That’s not what this is! Just listen to me!” I take a breath, forcing myself to calm down. “She just called me. Something has her rattled, but she hung up before I could figure out what was going on.”
A pause.
“When was this?” he asks.
“Thirty minutes ago. Right around the time I startedcalling you incessantly,” I tell him. “You need to answer your fucking phone once in a while, you know that?”
Another pause, the longest of my life.
“Give me ten minutes.”
The click on the other end of the line is the only sign he’s hung up.
Fuck.Fuck.In the ten minutes it takes for him to call me back, I’ve worked myself up even more. I’ve invented at least fifty different scenarios that could have happened, ways someone could have hurt her.
I’ll kill him. If Dante hurt her, if he scared her? I’ll kill him. I’ll finish what Doc started, I’ll beat him until there’s nothing left for even the best doctors in the world to put back together, I’ll?—
I almost drop my phone when it rings in my hand, and again when I fumble with it trying to answer.
“She’s home,” Sebastian says, the second I answer. “And she’s not hurt.”
“Something scared her,” I insist. She sounded terrified. “Is there anyone else with her?”
“No. She’s alone, safe and sound.”
He’s probably right. “She’s really okay?”
“She’s fine.”
My shoulders relax. “You’re sure?”
“Ash…” Sebastian releases a frustrated breath. “I am looking at her right now. She’s in bed, sleeping. She’s fine.”
“She’s in bed?” I pause and rub the back of my neck. “And you’re watching her? That is… That is fucking creepy, bro.”
On the other end of the line, Sebastian swears. “Youwere the one who asked me to come and check on her!”
“Yeah, but like…” I run a hand through my hair. “Looking through her window while she sleeps? That’s another level.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Wait! She’s…she’s really okay?”
A long, irritated sigh, followed by a click as he hangs up the phone.
I try to take calm, steadying breaths, but I'm too amped to relax right now. I need to get out of here, get some of this energy out of my body. I grab my keys and head for the garage.
I haven’t spent nearlyenough time prepping for my upcoming fight. I’m not too worried, but with all this excess energy and adrenaline coursing through my body, it might help to get a few rounds in. When I enter the boxing gym, it’s full of people. Not exactly what I want, but beggars can’t be choosers. I set up at my favorite bag, take my shirt off, and start wrapping my hands. And as much as I want to feel the pain today, I decide against bare-knuckle boxing and pull on my gloves.
