The hope in her chest slammed to the ground.
Liam pulled to a stop near them and rolled his window down. His greeting smile quickly faded as he saw Lyric’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Something is off,” Lyric said. “I can feel it in my chest. Vic isn’t here, and he’s not answering his phone.”
Liam looked over at his house being delivered, and then back to Lyric. “Get in.”
“I’m coming too,” Destiny said and jogged for the back door of Liam’s truck. “I can help.”
“I’ll make sure the house is all good,” Delta offered. “Keep me in the loop. Let me know when you find him.”
Lyric had barely buckled in before Liam peeled off and took off down the road.
“Destiny, ask Bridger if he’s seen him,” Liam said low as he maneuvered his truck down the winding road.
“I’m already texting the entire Pack. Does anyone know where his jobsite is this week?”
“Tabian does maybe.”
“I’ll call him.” Destiny held the phone up to her ear. “Hey, T, where is Vic’s jobsite this week?” She paused, staring out the window. “He didn’t tell you anything about it? Okay, do you have their number? Yes. No, everything is probably fine, he’s just not answering his phone, and he wasn’t here for the house being delivered. Would Dodger know?” She paused while Tabian talked. Destiny looked down at her phone and her eyes went wide. “Hey Tabian? Let me call you back. Dodger just sent an address in the loop. Yep. Bye.” She leaned forward over the console and set her phone in the cupholder. Immediately it started telling Liam to take a right at the main road. She’d connected the address Dodger sent her to the maps function.
“He told Dodger where his jobsite is?” Liam asked. “I haven’t seen them hang out at all lately.”
“Apparently they have each other on some location sharing app.”
“Well, that’s weird.”
“To be fair, all of y’all are weird,” Lyric murmured.
Liam snorted.
Okay. Okay! Vic was in town. From the directions on Destiny’s phone, he was right in the middle of a busy area and would be surrounded by humans. Eden’s Pack wouldn’t try anything in public. That was forbidden. Vic’s phone was probably just in his tool bag or something, and he was going to come back to it with a million messages and voicemails and wonder why everyone was freaking out. No big deal.
But the uneasy sensation in her chest didn’t ease up, no matter how much she tried to convince herself everything was fine.
When Liam pulled to a stop in front of commercial building on Boardman Avenue, Lyric instantly knew something was wrong.
There were a dozen people waiting out front, talking in loose groups, and looking around with troubled expressions on their faces.
Lyric shoved the door open and slid out of the truck, then ran toward the crowd. A whiff of something stopped her in her tracks right in the middle of the street though. In horror, she looked down at the huge puddle of dark red on the asphalt. It was wet, fresh blood.
“It’s not his,” Destiny whispered, squeezing her hand, but her tone was uncertain.
Chills rippled up Lyric’s spine as she scanned the street. She could smell Vic, but she could smell something more as well. Cian.
Liam was talking to the crowd by the building. One of them disappeared inside and brought out a work bag and a phone,then handed it all to Liam. Vic’s phone. Shit. He wasn’t here. Only his phone was.
“Load up,” Liam said, his eyes flashing with anger.
“Where are we going?” Lyric asked.
“The police station.”
Horror filled Lyric. “What’s he doing there?”
Destiny was already climbing into the back of the truck and was on the phone with what sounded like non-emergency police, from the questions she was asking about Vic.
Lyric felt numb as Liam pulled away. She couldn’t take her eyes from the blood stain in the street. It was so much. Someone had been really badly hurt.
