The next few hours were the worst of Brad's life, for no other reason than he felt like something was about to happen, and he wouldn’t be there to stop it.
“Something's happening back there, Ethan, I can feel it.”
“Nothing's happening. They're watching over her. Now relax, because you're making me nervous.”
“How am I supposed to relax?” Brad’s body was twitching.
“Cubby told me before I left Howling, that he’d heard it was definitely Brian’s sister who was helping him terrorize Macy. Apparently, the cops interviewed her and she broke down and confessed.”
That just made Brad angrier. Why would anyone want to hurt someone as sweet as Macy? It didn’t make sense.
“She may have confessed, but I bet she’s the one helping him now he’s escaped.”
“True, but they’ll be watching her if he tries to make contact.”
Brad called when Uncle Mitch's jet was in the air, and spoke with Cubby, who told him they were trying to locate Brian, but there had been no sightings of him in the area at this stage.
“No sightings is good, right?”
“In my book,” Ethan agreed. He was lying down across from Brad, long legs crossed at the ankles, eyes closed.
Macy wasn't picking up, so he rang Annabelle next.
“I need to speak to Macy, Annabelle, is she there with you?”
“She is but making a big fuss out of the fact that we're watching over her.”
“Put her on,” Brad said.
“Hello?” She sounded normal, sounded like the woman he'd left in Howling, and he felt the spring that was coiled tight in his chest release. Macy was safe, and would stay that way until he got there.
“Macy, honey, it's Brad.”
“I know, Annabelle told me.”
“Okay, good.” His palms felt sweaty all of a sudden. “You need to stay with people until I get there, baby. I don't want you and Billy alone until Brian is found.”
“You don’t need to come back here, Brad. I can take care of myself.”
Her voice wasn’t exactly welcoming, and he couldn’t blame her for that.
“It's the way it's going to be, so get used to it.”
“You don’t get to tell me—”
“Just shut up and listen, okay? I need to tell you something.”
She huffed out a breath but didn't speak again.
“First off I need to clear up a few things, and while the phone's not the ideal way to do it, I need to say this now.”
“Why?”
“Will you just listen, please.”
She huffed out another breath.
“And they say romance is dead,” his brother drawled.
