Page 127 of Hard Hitter
Quinn had called Charlie first, then Amira, forgetting that she was on her honeymoon. Then he called Jett who had told him that Rae had left his place only a couple of hours earlier. When Jett said that she’d left with the plan to go straight to the hotel, the panic started. Quinnwoke Zoey up, who was staying just a few rooms down from him, and told her what was going on. Once she’d dressed they’d set off for Trojan Horse, waiting in the upstairs apartment while Jett and Chris closed the bar down. Chris had hung out for a few hours but had to get home before Victoria left for work in the morning.
“Where haven’t we checked? Is there anyone else we could call?” Quinn asked, impatiently tapping his phone into his hand. “Alexis at the PT office said she’d already planned to have today off, she’s obviously not at her parents’ house, we already checked her house. Amira’s not even home, so I can’t imagine why she’d be there. Camille doesn’t know where she is…” He let out another frustrated groan. “Who else? Who haven’t we thought to contact yet?”
He felt like it was silly to ask who might know where she was. If she was with someone she knew or somewhere safe, he was sure she would have contacted him, responded to the texts he’d sent, or called. It was eleven o’clock in the morning, about twelve hours since the last person had seen her.
“I can make some calls and get it out there that she hasn’t been seen in twelve hours,” Zoey offered. Quinn’s publicist had all the connections to make this news available everywhere. “I know it might be a mess and will completely backfire my attempt to tamp down the publicity, but if it gets us some tips as to where she is, I think it’s worth it.”
Quinn nodded. “Yeah, make whatever calls you can. If she is in danger for some reason, it’s best to get the news out faster.”
Zoey took her phone out of her bag and stood up. Placing a comforting hand on Quinn’s arm, she consoled him, “I’m sure she’s okay, Quinn. We’ll find her. I’m sure there’s some kind of explanation.”
He ran his hand through his hair and scrubbed his hands down his face. “I have to do something. I have to be out there looking or asking around,something. I can’t just sit here and wait for her to show up.”
“So let’s check her friend’s place,” Zoey said. “I know you said they’re not home, but maybe something happened and they got home early? Maybe there was an emergency or...I don’t know. But it’s better thansitting around here, right? And maybe while we’re out we’ll think of new places to look.”
Jett was staring at a spot on his coffee table, bouncing his leg up and down anxiously. Having been the last one to see her, he felt bad about not doing more to make sure she got to the hotel safely. Not that there was anything he could have done or that he could have predicted that something would’ve gone wrong. He looked up at Quinn, seemingly interested at the prospect of having something to do. Jett got up and grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter.
“Jett, there’s nothing else you could’ve done,” Quinn reassured him when his usually boisterous and talkative friend still didn’t speak. “At least you had the sense to walk her down to her car.”
On the way down the stairs to Jett’s truck, Quinn’s phone buzzed. He paused halfway out the door into the alley to pull it out of his pocket. He gasped and swiped hastily to answer, holding a hand up to pause Jett and Zoey. “Hey, Charlie, is she home?”
“No, not yet, but I got a text from her saying that she’s okay.” Charlie’s voice was only slightly less worried than the last time they spoke. “I called her right away and her phone is ringing now, but she still didn’t answer.”
Quinn sighed, frustrated. “Well that’s something at least. I’ll try calling again. I wonder why she didn’t text me…” He pulled the phone from his ear to check that he hadn’t missed anything. Both Jett and Zoey looked hopefully at him. “Did she say anything else?”
“Just that she was sorry for making us freak out, she’s okay, and she would explain later,” Charlie replied. “A little cryptic, but I’ll take it. I’m going to stay here and hope she turns up.”
“We were just about to go check Brody and Amira’s place,” said Quinn. “Do you think it would be best to just stay put? I’m going crazy just sitting around.”
“She does have a spare key to their house,” Charlie said thoughtfully. “I still don’t know why she’d hide out there. You didn’t do something to piss her off, did you?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Quinn said, brushing a hand through his hair again as he tried to recall anything he could’ve done. She wouldn’t get that upset because he’d taken too long to text her. Jett said she’d seemed concerned that he hadn’t contacted her yet when she’d shown up at his place, but was otherwise in a good mood when she left for the hotel.
“I didn’t figure,” Charlie sighed, “but it was worth checking. Last year when she found out about, ya know, that scumbag sneaking around on her, she disappeared, turned her phone off, and basically refused to talk to or see anyone for a while.”
Furrowing his brow, he thought hard about if there was anything he might have done or said that would have upset her. Had an article come out about him like the one about her and Emerson? She would have known better than to believe it, though. Had she simply decided that being with him wasn’t worth all the trouble after all? Maybe one ofhiscrazed fans had seen the article and attacked her. Seriously, there were some nut jobs out there.
Though he couldn’t think of anything he’d done recently, he suddenly felt like it was the best explanation. Or at least one he could deal with. It was better than the alternatives. Quinn remembered how impossible it was to talk to her after graduation. He’d shown up at her house the next day and she had simply refused to see him. She wouldn’t come down to talk, wouldn’t answer his texts or phone calls.
He had sent Chris and Jett over to try to talk for him, and they had also been unsuccessful, and explained that she wouldn’t even respond to anything that had to do with him. If they talked about sports, she’d respond as if nothing was wrong. If they asked about getting ready for college, she was fine. But the second they’d mentioned Quinn, she was practically ready to kick them out. And then she’d gone to visit her dad’s family in Canada for two weeks, then to France. By the time she finally agreed to see him, he was a week away from moving to Arizona.
“I’ll think on it,” Quinn said into the phone. “Thanks, Charlie. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
“I’ll do the same,” Charlie said before ending the call.
Shoving his phone back into his pocket, he continued out the door and gave Jett and Zoey a quick run-down of his conversation with Charlie. Once in the truck, Jett driving, Zoey in the middle, and Quinn in the passenger seat, he asked, “You’re sure Rae wasn’t pissed about me not messaging her?”
“No, she was worried,” Jett replied. “Plus, there’s a big difference between catching your cheating dickbag of a fiancé and forgetting to send a text.”
“Yeah, that’s sort of what I thought,” said Quinn, staring out the passenger window. “I can’t imagine Rae getting mad at me now and not coming to talk to me about it. She might talk to Amira first, but...I can’t think of anything that I’ve done. She wasn’t mad before I left.”
They continued their drive and Quinn went over every detail he could possibly remember from the previous evening. Everything he and Rae had said or done. He found himself regretting how much time he’d spent on the phone with Mitch and Zoey and the coach and every other person who had called yesterday. Maybe there was something going on that he hadn’t noticed because he’d been too busy.
Turning into the large suburban neighborhood where the Kalahans lived, Quinn sat up eagerly in the front seat, eyes open for the sight of Rae or Charlie’s new Beamer. Brody and Amira’s house was toward the end of the winding street, before turning off into a new subdivision.
Quinn breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the black Beamer parked in the driveway in front of the two-story craftsman. Already unbuckling his seatbelt, he was ready to hop out of the truck before Jett had come to a complete stop. He raced up to the front porch just as the door was opening and Rae stepped outside. His breath was even more relieved as he took in the sight of her- completely unharmed. Her hair was damp and tousled, as if she’d just taken a shower and briefly towel-dried it, and he wanted to pull her in and inhale her fresh scent and never let go.
But when she stopped to look at him, she looked surprised, and then...hurt.
