“I am going to fucking fly. I swear. But you’re too upset to drive. I’m not letting something happen to you.”

I was wasting time arguing. I let out a frustrated groan and ran around to the passenger side. “Fine. Get in. Drive,” I called out opening the door and flinging myself inside. Rathe was quick like he had promised. He was zooming out of there and down the street that was still thankfully empty.

“This isn’t like her,” I said.

“Heath said that, too. But you both need to take deep breaths. Calm down and think about where she could be. Do you want to go to where she works and see if there is someone there or maybe her car. She may have gone out with friends and gotten drunk. Passed out.”

Those scenarios were very likely and if I had been in a full blown freak out, I would have kissed him for giving me something so reasonable to hope for. I was imagining her being abducted, raped, dead on the side of a road somewhere. I liked his theories better. Going to the mall where the store she worked at was located meant I could track her from there.

I needed to do that alone though. Dang it. I needed Rathe not to be so protective of me. He didn’t need to protect me. He didn’t know that and it was sweet that he wanted me safe. I couldn’t be mad at him for wanting to keep me safe. He thought driving me was helpful. I should be mad at Heath for not calling his sister last night and telling her where he was. He’d have realized then she wasn’t answering.

“Uh, yeah, why don’t you drop me at the mall and I’ll go inside. The coffee shop will be open. I can see if anyone has seen her. See if her car is there. You can go to the apartment and get Heath. He’s upset, too. He doesn’t need to drive.” That was the best excuse I could think of to get him to leave me there on my own.

He frowned at me. “Heath’s a big boy. He can drive himself. I’m not leaving you there alone.”

Crap. Okay, a new plan. I had to do this the harder way. I wouldn’t be able to stand outside her store at the mall and cast the locating spell that would lead me to her. Not if he was going to be right there watching me.

The restroom. The one close to her store. She’d have used it yesterday. I can go in there and do the spell.

We were pulling up to the mall. Rathe had broken all the road rules to get us there this fast. “Where would she have parked?” he asked. I pointed to the right side of the food court entrance.