We sped through small towns in the dead of night, Saint driving almost as fast as he had been on the freeway, though his controlled driving style made it easy to ignore the speed. We’d taken his car because it was the biggest, but Saint was also the world’s worst backseat driver so it was the only way me or Kyan could stand to be in a car with him anyway. Luckily, because Saint was a control freak, he kept two cars on campus because he liked to be prepared for ‘whatever situation might arise’ and he also kept the batteries charged up and the tanks full of gas at all times.
Sometimes his OCD drove me insane, other times, I had to admit it came in damn handy. So as we sped ever north towards the markers on the GPS which pinpointed Tatum and Monroe’s location, we were cocooned in the luxury Maserati Levante which Kyan had mocked him for tirelessly when he’d bought it. And in all fairness, it had seemed like an odd choice of car for a teenager to drive an SUV with its slick black paint job and red leather interior like a fucking CEO, but that smug little look on his face when he’d explained it would suit us for long journeys had certainly been proven correct. I’d called shotgun and claimed the front seat, but I honestly couldn’t imagine how Kyan would have ever even fitted into the back of any of our sports cars, let alone stayed cramped up back there for almost three hours.
Getting past the security guards had been painfully easy too. Saint just handed over a wedge of cash which probably came close to their yearly salary and they looked the other way instantly. I just hoped none of the other entitled little fuckers in the school got the same idea and put our isolated safe zone at risk.
“That’s it,” Kyan snapped from the back seat, leaning forward between the seats to start fiddling with the screen on the dash to change the music. “I can’t take any more of this intense classical shit, it sounds like we’re on our way to destroy the fucking Death Star or take down Voldemort or compete on The Apprentice. If I have to listen to any more of it then I’m gonna take my bat to the motherfucking speakers back here.”
“It’s called mood music, asshole,” Saint bit back, but he didn’t bother to stop Kyan as he searched for the music he wanted.
“Yeah, well I don’t want to be in the mood to destroy planets or battle it out in a goddamn boardroom.”
“Let me guess, you want to listen to music that reminds us all of sweaty bars and bathroom brawls?” Saint drawled.
“And fucking hot girls like an animal,” Kyan added with a smirk just as Old Town Road – Remix by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus started up and I smirked as I joined Kyan in singing along, putting as much gravel in our voices as we could while Saint tried not to smirk and failed.
I cranked the volume and for a few minutes we pretended we weren’t out on a hunt. Or maybe it was just another way of keeping ourselves pumped for it.
“Don’t you think we should concentrate on what we’re doing?” Saint growled as the song ended and I started searching for something else while Kyan kept trying to bat my hand aside and search too.
“I’m all up for raging out when we get there,” I said with a huff of frustration. “But we’ve literally been driving for fucking hours. I’m going out of my mind here and I need a fucking piss.”
“Well tie a knot in it,” Saint growled. “Because I’m not stopping until we find them and figure out what the fuck they’re up to. Check the GPS again.”
I snatched his phone from the dash and looked at the markers more closely, frowning as I realised we’d gained on them, then zooming in.
“Shit,” I breathed, staring at the two stationary dots as the markers for the three of us closed in on them. “They’ve stopped.”
“Where are they?” Saint demanded and I frowned as I tried to find any kind of landmark on the map where they were, but there was nothing.
“They’re… in the middle of the fucking woods,” I said and Kyan grabbed the cellphone from my hands, using the end of his baseball bat to push me away from him as I tried to snatch it back.
“Blake’s right,” he said like it needed confirmation and I tutted irritably as I shoved his stupid bat away from me and snatched the phone again.
“Well, if they’re out in the deep, dark forest then that’s where we’re going too,” Saint said in a low voice which was almost lost to the heavy purr of the engine.
“And what if they really have run off? If they have no intention of coming back with us?” I asked, because so far we’d been so caught up in the hunt that we hadn’t discussed many theories about what the fuck they were up to out here. But it had to be something important.
If Tatum had been alone I would have been sure she was running from us, but with Monroe in the mix I couldn’t figure out what the fuck was happening. I mean, maybe they’d just gone on a run out for some supplies they really wanted and couldn’t get delivered. Was there a Twinkie shortage back at school? The most frustrating thing was that I had no fucking idea. But I needed to understand. Because the idea of her just running from us without even saying goodbye cut into me even deeper than
