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“Nice photo, sleeping beauty,” Kodiak says, holding up his phone to show me a photo of me sleeping in the truck. “I think you’ve got a little drool there.”
“Ha ha,” I sneer, scanning the room. “You seen Carly?”
Kodiak shakes his head. “Naw, man. Not since earlier.”
Nodding, I jog up the stairs and check the room before bounding back down and heading toward the TV room. Just before I reach it, Ivy steps out and I stop.
“Hey, is Carly in there?”
She shakes her head. “No, I was just coming to check if she was out here. She went to get food and movies but that was a while ago.”
“How long?” I ask, panic slicing through me and she shrugs.
“I’m not really sure. Over an hour, at least, though.”
I start backing away from her as I pull my phone out. “Do you know what store she was going to?”
“No.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. Something isn’t right here. Carly wouldn’t just disappear on me… not anymore. Right? I dial her number again and press the phone to my ear, growing more and more agitated with each ring. When her voicemail picks up, I almost throw my phone across the room.
“What’s going on?” Smith asks.
“Carly’s gone and she’s not answering her phone.”
Sinking into one of the chairs, I rub my hand over my face and go over our exchange this morning. Things were good, we were good, so I can’t believe she would just leave but look at her track record. How many times since we got together has she ghosted on me? Ivy steps out of the hallway, looking nervous, and I shake my head. No, she would never leave her behind.
“Streak!” I yell, jumping up from the chair and marching toward the stairs. He pokes his head over the railing.
“What?”
“Track Carly’s phone. Now.”
His eyes widen and he looks like he’s going to say something before turning and running back to his office.
“Dude, calm down for a minute and tell us what’s going on,” Kodiak says, patting my shoulder and I shrug him off.
“Ivy said she left here over an hour ago to get food and now she’s not answering her phone.”
Kodiak turns to Ivy. “You sure it was an hour?”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “It could be closer to two, I’m not sure. I was near the beginning of Titanic when she left and it just ended.”
“Shit, yeah, that’s closer to two hours,” Smith says and everyone turns to look at him. How the fuck does he know how long that movie is?
“Her phone’s off,” Streak calls over the railing. “But her last location was the gas station a couple of blocks over.”
I don’t wait for anyone, running through the clubhouse and charging through the door as I head for my bike. Firing it up, I peel out of the parking lot and race toward the gas station, my heart pounding. The guys may be content to sit around and throw out theories. I’m not. I can’t explain it, but I just know something is wrong.
When I finally spot the gas station down the road, I speed up with a pit of rocks in my stomach and my heart racing. As soon as I pull into the lot, pain blooms in my chest and my heart feels like it might explode. My truck is sitting abandoned with my keys and a bag of food on the ground next to it. I jump off my bike, letting it fall to the ground with a crunch as I race over to the truck and peek inside.
“Fuck,” I hiss, stepping back and running my hands through my hair as the world blurs around me. No. This can’t be happening. I finally had everything I’ve ever wanted and it’s all gone in the blink of an eye. She’s gone.
“Kodi, drive his truck back,” Smith instructs and I turn to look at them, blinking. Smith’s truck is behind mine, doors wide open as Kodiak jogs over to me and picks my keys up off the ground. When the fuck did they get here? “Let’s get back to the clubhouse. Blaze already called Rodriguez.”
He tries to turn me in the direction of Smith’s truck but I turn away, looking up at the gas station before shaking him off and running up to the door. I jerk it open and the cashier’s head snaps up, eyes wide.
“There was a woman in here a while ago, blonde hair, gray eyes. She was driving that truck,” I say, pointing to my truck in the parking lot. He nods.
