Page 31 of Petals of Blue: Part Two
Now, knowing all that I know, I would bet my life that she was starving and resorted to stealing just so she could eat.
Has she eaten recently?
The sun is setting on our fourth day and fifth night without Blue. Is she even alive?
"We have to keep going," I mutter, the previousthought really settling in. Sounds come roaring back in the form of crickets and heavy breathing.Me, my heavy breaths. "We have to keep going!"
Surrounding me are Roman, Declan, Felix, Levi, and Kevin. There's a variety of frowns, shuffling feet, worried glances, and a few nods.Are we split on this?
"Jared, the sun is setting," Roman reminds me, "and the next place is an hour away in the opposite direction from home."
"Then I'll fucking drive! We can't stop. You all can sleep in the car. Levi and Kevin can stop to get more flashlights. I don't care, but I'm going!" My chest aches with the ferocity of my beating heart.
Felix steps forward, hands raised like he's trying to soothe a raging beast. The dying flowerbed behind me probably doesn't help the visual of my body language.
"Don't tell me I'm wrong, Felix," I growl, standing my ground.
He shakes his head, making me bristle, but what he says confuses me a little. "I won't. Can you tell me why weneedto go to the next one tonight?"
What a dumb question. "Because Blue is still out there somewhere! What the fuck?"
Shaking his head again, Felix takes another step toward me. He balls his fist and taps his chest with it. "No, Jared. Where is the sudden panickedneedcoming from? What's going on?"
Annoyance is a hard emotion to control sometimes, especially under duress. His questions are slowing us down. "This is ridiculous. We need to go."
I'm ready to shove my hands down his pocket andsteal the keys to the fucking car. Yet, he stops me with another question. "This is important. What are youfeeling?"
"What the hell does it matter what I'm feeling?! Our woman is out there. She needs us! This is fucking stupid. Give me the keys."
"Jared—"
"GIVE ME THE KEYS!"
There are those damn crickets again, and my heaving breaths are louder as they juststareat me. I'm about three seconds from throwing down with Felix when Declan blurts out, "Urgency! He's feeling urgency."
"Obviously," I snap. "It feels like we're running out of time. She needs us right fucking now. We can't go home."
I'm going to get a BB gun and pellet all the crickets if I have to listen to them for one more goddamn second. Thankfully, Roman speaks up, sounding contemplative. "I feel it too."
"Shit," Felix curses and sprints back to the car.
"The fuck?!" I huff and follow as fast as I can. Declan runs beside me, our shoulders almost brushing with each stretch of our legs. "What was that about?"
I feel my friend glance at me. "He's trusting your intuition. This urgency..." he takes a deep breath, "is telling you something about Blue. You feel like we're running out of time? Then we're going to fucking run to beat it."
Realization dawns on me. The itchiness under my skin to find her has quadrupled in the past fortyminutes. My instincts are screaming at me to fucking hurry. We're close. Once we decided Blue wasn't at this last garden, my emotions wrapped themselves into a tizzy—one I didn't know how to comb through.
Felix saw the frazzle that was my mind and reactions. Declan untangled it for me and voiced it. Then Roman agreed he also felt that urgency building.
We're stronger together.
Diving into the passenger seat, I grip theoh shithandle and bellow, "GO!"
Twenty-Four
BLUE
Life, destiny, fate, whatever it may be, laughs in my face. It's a cruel sound but a common one for me. Probably the worst thing I have ever fucking heard in my entire life. So horrible, I can't help but cry out and shoot back into my body. I shudder at the out-of-body experience I just had.
