“Get this locked down,” someone else says. “No one in or out. We need—”
I move.
While they focus forward, I slip back through the service corridor, silent, controlled, using the noise they are making to cover my exit. I don't rush. I don't hesitate. I move like I was never here.
By the time they realize what they are looking at, I'm already gone.
I step outside into the cold air and keep walking until I reach the car.
My hands are steady when I open the door, but the moment I sit behind the wheel, the adrenaline starts to shake loose inside my chest.
I pull away from the building and drive.
I don't remember leaving the city. I remember the road. Headlights cutting through darkness. My hands locked on the wheel while mile after mile stretches out in front of me.
Eventually the traffic disappears and the buildings thin out.
The world begins to feel abandoned.
I pull into the empty lot of a closed gas station and shut off the engine.
For a moment I just sit there, breathing.
I reach into my pocket and pull out my burner phone. It's clean, and no one has the number. Not Brooke, not Beau, not Travis, and nothing ties it back to them.
My hands still shake as I dial Brooke first. It rings once, then twice, then a third time before the call drops with no answer.
I hang up and dial again, faster this time, like that will change something.
It doesn't.
I switch to Beau, but the call rings out and ends without an answer. I stare at the screen for a beat before tapping Travis’s number.
It rings once before he picks up.
“Travis,” I cut in, my voice sharp and tight. “Where is Brooke?”
There is a pause.
“Seth, where are you?” Travis asks, his words coming fast now. “You ran out in the middle of the night. We’ve been trying to—”
“Where is Brooke?” I repeat, louder this time. “She’s not answering her phone.”
I hear him exhale.
“They left.”
My chest drops.
“They left?” My grip tightens around the phone. “Where the fuck did they go?”
“They went to look for Grant.”
My stomach twists.
“At the gala? I’m here right now. He’s not here.”
“They didn’t go to the gala,” Travis sighs.
