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I barely paid attention to the movie, couldn’t even tell you what it was we ended up watching. When the end credits rolled, Jesse was a dead weight against me, sound asleep. Looking over at Ally, I saw that she was the same, curled up against Gabe, her head on his shoulder, her hand loosely clasped in his.
I’d never felt like such an intruder before. What the fuck was I doing? I had no place here, inserting myself right into the middle of my brother’s family. Time to go. “Do you want me to put Jesse to bed?” I whispered to Gabe, seeing as how he seemed a bit stuck.
“What’s that?” Ally asked, suddenly opening her eyes and giving me a fuzzy look.
“Nah, I’ve got him.” Gabe kissed the top of Ally’s head and shifted her off him so he could come get his son and carry him to bed.
“You want some tea?” Ally asked after Gabe had gone, getting to her feet and pulling her cardigan tightly around her.
“Nah, I think I’ll head off.”
“You sure? You don’t have to leave yet.”
That was incredibly sweet of her to say, but I really did. It wasn’t fair on them. “It’s fine. Thanks for dinner and tell Gabe I said good night. I’ll see myself out.”
She came with me to the door anyway, giving my arm an affectionate rub after I’d put my coat on. Then she surprised me by putting her arms around me, squeezing me tight for a long moment before pulling away. “Same time next week?”
“Good night,” I replied.
She frowned at my non-answer, but let me go. Sitting in my truck, I picked up my phone and stared at it, fighting the urge to call Emma. Or even just send her a text to see how she was. But that would be dumb. Let. Her. Go. Dude. When my phone pinged, the sound impossibly loud in the quiet of my truck, I almost dropped it in surprise.
A text from Emma. My heart leapt. Then I frowned. A map? With a pin? I expanded the image. A restaurant in New Bern. Really? She was on a date and decided to rub it in? What the actual fuck, Emma? My frown deepened when the next text came through.
Emma:drggd
What was that supposed to mean? Dr. Good? Dragged? Or drug—
I was already turning the key in the ignition before I could even finish the thought. Was she really saying she was at a restaurant in New Bern and someone had drugged her? I stared at the screen, waiting for another message, some sort of clarification. Nothing.
A sickening image formed in my mind of Emma being attacked, and adrenaline flooded my system. If she in fact hadn’t been drugged, and I was about to crash her date or whatever it was she was doing, that would be super awkward, but I’d rather deal with that than hear tomorrow that someone assaulted her.
Jake:On my way
I screamed out of the drive with skidding tires, my heart pounding, my mind racing. It was a thirty-minute drive to New Bern. If Emma really had been drugged, whatever was going to happen could easily have happened by the time I got there. If I sped the whole way, I could do it in fifteen minutes. Still too long. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! I slammed my hand against the steering wheel, squirming in my seat in agitation.
Knowing I was panicking too much to think clearly, I lowered the window, trying to suck in air, to clear my head.
Once I’d pulled out of Esperance, the road ahead was long and straight, right up until the turn off to New Bern. I slowed down just enough to bring up a number on my phone, cursed under my breath while I waited for it to connect. It seemed to take forever. Finally. “Hey, Ted, it’s Jake. You on duty tonight?”
“Yeah, bud. What’s up?”
“I’ve just got a weird text from Emma. She’s at some place called Diana’s Bar & Grill and I think maybe she’s been drugged.”
“What the fuck, man?”
“Right? I’m hoping not, but I’m heading there now. Is there any chance you can drop in? If you’re in the area?”
“Sure, we can swing by in the cruiser and check it out.”
“Thanks, man. If it is what I think it is, you’re gonna wanna get there before me. Otherwise, you’ll be arresting me for murder.”
“Settle down, we’ve already turned around and are heading there now.”
“Thanks, Ted.”
It paid to have friends in law enforcement, I guess. Ted was the father of an old friend from high school who was on the baseball team with me. He often hosted barbecues for the team at his place. I’d never been more grateful than right now that I knew him and had his number.
I was still ten minutes away. How fast did I dare to push it? Tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, I tried to keep the agonizing images at bay, but they were flicking through my mind mercilessly, making me push down on the accelerator as the acid churned in my gut. Not fast enough. Fuck. I’d have another accident if I wasn’t careful, and what good would I be to Emma then? And Ted was on his way. So I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to ease off the pedal. I was still speeding, but at least I was less likely to end in a mangled wreck.
