“It wouldn’t matter if she were in another country or standing right next to me. That doesn’t change the way I feel about her,” I say pointing to the center of my chest. “You are going to find someone someday who is right for you. I’m sorry if this hurts you, but you need to find a way to get rid of your tunnel vision and realize that person is not me.”
She huffs louder than I thought possible and stomps her foot like a child, turning toward the sidewalk behind her and then turning back to me again. She scratches her arm and stumbles over a small rock that made its way onto the porch.
Her expression turns vacant like the words I just spoke to her have already evaporated from her memory.
I narrow my eyes and lean toward her. “Are you high right now?”
“What do you care?”
I watch as she turns and stumbles over to her car. As she slams the door shut and takes off down the driveway, I walk over to Gage’s truck where he stands with Tripp and Heston. Blythe is leaning her forearms on the passenger door where the windowis rolled down looking devastated. I ruffle her hair to make her smile. It doesn’t work, but it was worth a try. In her defense, I don’t feel like smiling right now either.
“Any ideas?” Heston asks.
I nod. “I’m going to follow Emma. Be ready to meet me somewhere if shit hits the fan.”
Ikept my distance the best that I could. She was driving so fast, though, that I had no choice but to match her speed to keep up. I knew immediately by the direction that she was headed that she wasn’t intending to drive to her house in town.
I realized my mistake in blowing my cover by driving too fast behind her when she slowed suddenly and took a sharp U-turn right before getting on the highway.
“Shit,” I mumble.
Her driving is erratic as she turns back toward Westridge. Swerving, braking, speeding, nearly taking out a mailbox or two. That’s when I remember Mesa’s destroyed property and a lightbulb goes off in my head.
I continue to try and follow Emma but carefully scroll through my recent calls at the same time, finally finding Justin’s contact and tapping on his number.
“Hey, I was just about to call you,” he answers.
“Why? Did you find something?”
“No,” he sighs. “Figured something out on those tracks though. They don’t match Savannah’s vehicle, any of the police cruisers, or anyone else’s car that’s been here to help in the search. We’ve got the treads in the database and should be able to match them if we get a suspect though.”
I clear my throat and stare at the speeding vehicle in front of me.
“Okay. I have a bad feeling about Emma. She showed up totally blitzed while you were talking with some other officers at the house earlier and I followed her out toward the highway when she left. I think she noticed me following her and she turned us back toward Westridge. How fast can you make it into town to catch up with us and pull her over?”
There’s a pause on the line and my fingers curl around the steering wheel, squeezing until I can’t feel them anymore.
“I can’t pull someone over or do anything else for that matter based on a bad feeling, Warren. You know that. Some protocols have to be followed.”
“Savannah could be right under your nose and you’d have no idea!” I yell. I’m not actually angry at him, I know that. But I’m frustrated, scared, and at my wit’s end. “Wait around if you want,” I grit out. “I’ll find her myself.”
“I know it’s hard, but you have to be patient with these things?—”
He tried to convince me to dial it down a notch, but I’d already hung up on him and sent a text in the group chat. The Police Department might be willing to take their time to avoid a bad outcome, but my friends don’t typically take the risks involved into account like most normal people. We’ve never turned down a fight if it meant helping each other.
34
WARREN
Ithought Emma might run off the road a few times as I followed her home. The back end of her car slid back and forth on the dirt roads, she never used a blinker when she turned, and it’s a wonder she didn’t hurt anyone as we drove through her neighborhood once we finally made it to town.
When she stormed out of her car, she looked around before walking inside her house. It was clear that she’d noticed someone following her when she was headed toward the highway, but I kept a better distance after that hoping she’d think she lost me. I parked my truck at the end of the street several houses down from hers.
The lights flicker on in her kitchen and she doesn’t waste any time before storming toward a console table and grabbing a glass vase to throw it against the wall. I wince when it crashes and falls to the ground in pieces.
Should I have seen this coming? I’d known since day one that she liked me more than I liked her. The real red flags though should have been the drugs and the jealousy. I don’t know what made her obsession grow, but she hung on to it for dear life and hasn’t been able to let it go.
I blow out a breath as a familiar vehicle pulls slowly behind mine and parks. One by one, Gage, Heston, and Tripp all step out. My boots hit the pavement and I close the door to my truck.
