Page 70 of The Fate Of Us

I slipped out of his hold before I could change my mind.

I stumbled back into the reception area, finding that smile I’d lost, and searched forAsher. I found him where he’d left me, with a glass of water in his hand, and a glass of wine in the other. His eyes softened when I saw him, waltzing over to me with a knowing smile on his face.

“Get lost?” he asked, a smirk creeping onto his face like he’d watched the wholething with Nate take place.

“Something like that,” I smiled, before taking the glass of wine from his grasp.

Chapter twenty-one

Nate

Phonecallsat3:00AM were never a good thing.

Neither were phone calls at any time of the day, to be honest. And making them? Thethought alone could trigger a panic attack.

But the ones during the middle of the night spiked that already present panic coursingthrough my veins. And instead of having one meaning, suddenly there were a dozen scenarios that had possessed it.

I turned over to the bedside cabinet, internally kicking myself for not dimming thebrightness of my phone before sleep captured me. That panic lodged in my throat when my eyes came into focus, my heart ready to burst out of my chest when I read the name on the screen.

Firefly.

My sleepy fingers dragged across the screen, the rest of my room clouded by thenight. I put the call on speaker before calling her name. “Addy?”

“Ooh… ummm…” she slurred, sweat coating my forearm as I swiped it across my head. “I don’t…know… whereee,”

Her voice and the time told me all I needed to know, and before I could adjust myeyes to the darkness, I was scrambling out of bed, ignoring the ache in my settled bones as I searched for whatever clothes I could find.

“Addy, stay where you are. Do you know where you are?” I found a hoodie andpulled it over my head, one that wasn’t appropriate for the nighttime heat, but I couldn’t care less. “Tell me what you see around you.” I urged, slipping on some jeans and sneakers, before bolting for the front door, car keys in hand.

“Barrr…” she drawled, my heart aching.

“A bar?” I asked, now in the hallway and jamming the elevator button, as though hitting it faster would make the doors glide open quicker. “Was it the bar at the after-party? Or somewhere else?”

“Soho… I thinks,” The ding of the elevator broke up her words, her murmurs echoing as I rushed inside.

It took its sweet time getting me down to the garage, but once thosesteel doors slid open, I shot off into a run, sprinting to my car and climbing inside. “Addy, sweetheart, stay on the phone, okay?”

“Mmhmm,” was all the confirmation she gave me, but it was enough.

“Okay, can you see a street sign? What street are you on?” I asked, my phone on theseat next to me as I rode through the streets, nothing but the dim lights from building windows and adrenalin to guide me.

“Spring… I think… it says spring.”

I let out a hushed groan, as I took a left. “That’s a long street, Addy, what other signscan you see?”

She didn’t answer. All that came through was the muffled laughter of the peoplearound her.

“Addy?” I asked again, groaning as a red light came into view.

“Mulberryyy… oops.” What sounded like her phone hitting the ground burst through the speakers, before a soft grunt followed it. “Why isn't the ground… comfy,”

The mental image of her crouched on the sidewalk made me break the local speedlimit. The only good thing about her calling at this hour was the clear roads, meaning I could speed around corners and not worry too much about traffic, making the seconds until I found her that much smaller.

“Stay on the phone, Add's, I’m nearly there.”

Another red light has me braking, mysweaty palms slamming the steering wheel.The jitters I was all too familiar with started crawling down my spine, the thum of myheartbeat pounding in my neck, my jaw ticking.

It’s not too long before I turn onto Spring, a few mumbles come from my phonebeside me. The panic coating my heart had solidified, knowing its only cure to melting would be the sight of Addy safe in the front seat of my car.

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