Like us.
“Come on,” I said, trying gently to tug the bottle out of his hands. “We gotta make sure she’s okay.”
“Youcan make sure she’s okay,” he muttered, once again raising the bottle to his lips. “She could be lying in a ditch somewhere for all I give a fuck.”
My heart stuttered to a stop. No. She couldn’t be. My horror must have shown on my face, because Cole softened for a second. “I’m sure she’s fine, Tris.”
“Then why didn’t she go to any of her classes today? She never misses class.Ever.”
“Because she’s holed up and licking her wounds,” he snapped. “Sound familiar?”
“I’m going to check on her.”
Cole saluted me with the bottle. “Have fun with that.” And then he slammed his door in my face.
Fuck.
A minute later, the door opened again, as I was pulling on my winter clothes to drive to Eva’s in my unheated Jeep.
“You can’t drive that piece of shit in the winter.” Cole’s voice was slurred but determined. He stumbled past me, pulling on his coat with the care of the very drunk trying to appear sober.
His keys jangled as he fumbled for them, the sound grating against my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Without thinking, I snatched them from his fingers.
“Get in the fucking car.”
Thirty minutes later,we were outside Eva’s door, shivering as snow fell around us.
Nobody answered when we knocked.
Cole peered in the windows, trying to see beyond the drawn curtains. “Fuck this weather, and fuck sobriety,” he groaned. “Where the fuck is she?”
I tried to call again. No answer.
“Let’s wait,” I said finally, and we retreated to his sports car, snow blowing around us. “At a minimum, her father should know how to get ahold of her when he gets back.”
As midnight came and went, worry shot through me.
She could be anywhere.
She could be hurt.
She could be dead, and it would be our fault.
“Something isn’t right,” Cole muttered. “Fuck!” He climbed out of the car. “I’ll be back.”
He leaned against the trunk of his sports car, running his fingers through his blond hair, stressed out of his fucking mind. He might not have forgiven Eva, but he sure as fuck was worried about her.
Despite everything—the betrayal, the drinking, the cruel words—Cole was out here in a blizzard because the thought of Eva being hurt was killing him. Hope flickered in my chest, fragile as a candle flame.
Maybe we could fix this. Maybe we could?—
Cole knocked on my window, startling me from thoughts I had no right to think. I rolled it down, snow immediately stinging my face.
“The hotel said she checked out yesterday morning. I couldn’t find a direct bus route online. So how the fuck did she get home?” He was already scrolling on his phone. “She definitely didn’t take a rideshare. That’s hundreds of dollars. Maybe she took a cab to New York, and a train from there?”
He climbed back into the car and slumped into his seat as his fingers flew over the touchscreen.
He slammed his palm into the frame of the car, frustration tensing every hard line of his body. “Where the fuck is she?”
