No words were shared. They weren’t needed.

Jordan moved to pick up my bag and vest.

Cross walked toward me and looked me over, then handed me my phone.

After that, we filed out of there, moving through a large crowd of everyone in the lobby. I didn’t look at the booth where my dad had been sitting. I didn’t know why, maybe I didn’t want to see if he’d left anything, or if there was still blood there. A big fucking boulder sat in my stomach and lodged up just underneath my rib cage. It wasn’t moving, and I was already detesting the feeling of it and the reasons it was there.

We got outside and all of us headed for Jordan’s truck.

He got behind the wheel. Cross and I jumped in the back, just like in high school, just like last year.

God.

That felt like a world away—when, in reality, it’d only been a few months. Half a year, to be exact.

Jordan slid open his window. “Where to?”

I nodded to Cross. “Call my brother. Find out where he thinks my dad might be staying.”

Cross had automatically shifted, pulling his phone out, but he paused at the end of my statement. “You sure about that?”

I was more sure about that than anything else.

He read my face and nodded. “Okay.” Then he began dialing, hitting it on speaker.

A second later, Channing answered, “You got Bren?”

“I do.”

Silence.

From Channing, “She’s sitting right there?”

Cross’ hand curled tighter around the phone. “She is.”

I couldn’t imagine what was going through my brother’s head, but his tone came back sounding bleak. “And she’s going after him?”

“We are.”

Channing made an audible grunt. “Fine. Shit. I’m going to regret this, but fine. I’m assuming you’re calling because you guys want to know where he is?”

CROSS

Bren took the phone from me. “Where is he?”

I flinched, hearing how gravelly that came out. There were threads of pain interlaced with agony, and that had everything in me in pain. I felt a fine slit being cut down the middle of my chest, with hands digging in to further pull it aside, exposing my organs.

“Damn, Bren.”

Channing heard it, too.