Both Kaj and Mads jerked their heads back to the living room, to the coffee table, where Noah’s phone was ringing and vibrating.
Kaj frowned and strode toward that side of the open space. “What the fuck…” he gritted under his breath as he saw a note with Noah’s handwriting beside the device.
I’ll come back as soon as I can.
I love you. N.
Kaj’s stomach bottomed out.
“Mads…” He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath through his nose, crumpling the piece of paper in his hand before turning around to face him. “Where’s Noah?”
“Again, how should I know?” Mads bit back, but the snarkiness in his voice faltered as he averted his gaze.
Kaj glared at him. “I’m not going to ask you again. Where is he?”
“I don’t fucking know!”
In a heartbeat, Kaj had crossed the room and was fisting the collar of Mads’s T-shirt as he shoved him back against the fridge. The spatula Mads was holding clattered on the counter. Magnets scattered all over the floor. The pan on the stove sizzled louder, filling the thick silence between them.
There was so much noise in Kaj’s head.
“What the fuck?” Mads wrapped his hands around Kaj’s wrist. “I have no idea where he went.”
“But you know something.”
“I don’t.”
Kaj clenched his jaw, pressing Mads harder against the fridge. “Don’t test my fucking patience,” he growled. “You know I don’t have much of it.”
“What are you going to do? Hit me? I’m used to that shit, so you’re gonna have to try harder.”
Kaj had never hit Mads. Those words should have registered, should have made him pause. But his blood was boiling, roaring in his ears as every muscle in his body tensed with panic and fear.
“Just tell me what you fucking know.”
“I don’t know shit!” Mads barked, glaring at Kaj in a way he had never seen before as he tried in vain to free himself from his grip. “He just called me at fucking six in the morning and told me to come over and keep you busy. I told him I’d come over when my boyfriend left for work, and here I am. Noah left like half an hour ago.”
Kaj’s heart slammed against his ribs. “And you didn’t ask him why or where he was going?”
“Of course I did! But he was being fucking evasive and all he said was that he had something to do.‘I’m going to put an end to this.’What did you want me to do?”
Kaj’s breath hitched as everything clicked into place.
The way Noah’s mood suddenly shifted yesterday. The way he didn’t seem to be present after receiving whatever Jesper had sent. Maybe he’d overdone it and threatened Trine? What if he’d shown up there and sent him some sort of creepy photos? It was one of the things that had worried him the most since the beginning, that this creep would target her to hurt him.
No. That can’t be.Kaj frowned. Noah would have told him and they’d have immediately gone to her house.
It had to be something directed at his persona.
Or maybe… something related to Kaj.
Shit.
“What is it?” Mads asked as Kaj let go of him.
“I-I…”
Kaj fumbled with his phone, hands trembling as he scrolled through his contacts until he found Mikkel’s name. If he knew Noah’s PIN to unlock his phone, he could check what had rattled him so badly. But he didn’t, and he also didn’t have his fucking thumb, so this was all he could think to do.
