Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 129881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
And if that wasn’t bad enough, Felix’s dad is claiming the drugs in the house aren’t his.
Tears flood my eyes as I scream against my hands, and I don’t know what to do now or where to look, and I’m wishing I wouldn’t have listened to my brother back at that house, because if I was high right now, none of this would matter to me.
I wouldn’t feel a fucking thing.
But I’m sober and it matters more than anything because he matters more than anything. No point in denying it.
And I feel so fucking much right now, it’s crushing me.
“What do we do?” I ask, wiping my forearm across my eyes. “I don’t know what to do. I, he—Felix isn’t just my friend. He’s more than that. I care about him.”
“Yeah. I was picking up on that.” CJ sighs. “I’ll lecture you about that later. Just know it’s coming.”
“Whatever.”
Like it would matter. There’s no going back now.
“Is there anyone else Felix would go to? What about his other friends?”
“I only know about Dean.”
“His dad stole his car… I’m guessing Felix wouldn’t have walked somewhere. His house was miles away from anything.” CJ leans to the side and pulls out his phone. “Maybe he got picked up.”
“Who are you calling?” I ask.
“Riley.” He frowns at me. “Look. It’s probably a dead-end. But if his dad did hurt him, Felix might’ve hitched a ride to the hospital.”
Breath lodges in my throat.
Riley is a nurse. She works at the main hospital in Ruxton, and I know my brother might be right—there’s a 50/50 chance Felix is fine and he isn’t there, but fuck, what if he is?
I stare at CJ as he brings the phone up to his ear. “Put it on speaker.”
He doesn’t listen to me.
“Darlin’,” he says into the phone. “Can you do me a favor? Can you check the ER and let me know if Felix showed up sometime today? Yeah. No, we don’t know for sure. We’re just ruling it out. No last name.” CJ looks over at me. “She’s checking.”.
I crack my knuckles and wait.
“Why is it taking so long?” I ask, when it probably hasn’t even been two minutes.
“She works in a different department. She had to walk down there.”
“Maybe it’s bad. It might be bad and she’s trying to figure out how to tell us.”
“It’s a big hospital, Jake. And she’s not even supposed to be looking for this information to give to us. This violates some major privacy shit, so give her a break. We’ll find him.”
How? my mind whispers.
“Ben and Luke are out looking too. I gave them a description of Felix.”
I’m surprised to hear that.
And shit. I kind of feel bad now for getting on them like I did.
Kind of.
That punk ass Luke has it coming.
Besides, if the cops find him first, they’ll question Felix about the drugs. That’s all they’ll care about and that shouldn’t happen. I don’t give a fuck about procedure. I’m not a cop.
“Yeah, darlin’, I’m here.”
CJ locks eyes with me, listening to Riley while I strain to listen for anything. I can’t really hear shit. Why the fuck didn’t he just switch it to speakerphone?
“What?” I ask. “What is she saying?”
He subtly shakes his head. “He’s not there.”
I collapse back against the seat, and it’s so fucking strange feeling relief when I really shouldn’t be feeling it at all. Not yet.
“All right,” CJ continues into the phone. “Yeah, if you could. I will. Love you too.”
“He hasn’t shown up at all?” I ask.
“No. But if he does, Riley will call me.”
“Okay. What now? What should we do?”
CJ puts his phone away. “Honestly? I think we should go back to the house and wait.”
“His house?”
“No. Mine.”
“What the fuck good will that do?”
“He knows where you live, Jake. Maybe that’s where he’ll turn up. Hell, he could be there looking for you right now. And unless you can think of somewhere else to go, I think that’s where you need to be.”
CJ pulls away from the tattoo shop and heads in the direction of his house, and I let him. I don’t argue with my brother. Maybe he’s right.
I need him to be.
NEW PLAN: FUCK IT.
JAKE
FELIX ISN’T WAITING for us at the house.
And yeah, you guessed it. I am losing my fucking mind.
Ben and Luke check in with my brother two hours after we get home. They haven’t seen any sign of Felix around Ruxton, but they’ll keep patrolling.
Riley calls an hour after that. Felix still hasn’t turned up at the hospital.
CJ tells me the only thing we can do is wait.
Like I need a reminder of how fucking useless I feel.
To keep myself from going completely off the fucking rails, I tackle a goddamn pie recipe from scratch, something I’ve never done before, and even though it seems stupid and completely asinine to be measuring ingredients and rolling out dough and doing anything besides looking for Felix, I need something complicated to keep myself busy.