Page 19 of The Hunt
Room, empty.
Bathroom, empty.
My stomach twisted, and I raced to grab my phone from the nightstand, but it wasn’t there. Neither were any of my clothes. Nor any of my belongings. I shook my head. What the fuck is going on?
“Daph!” I shouted, hoping that she was just hiding underneath the bed. “Daphne!”
Nothing.
Then I noticed the hotel’s notepad sitting on the nightstand with the word LIAR written over and over on top of each other on the sheet, as if she was trying to bold it, so I’d know how mad she was at me.
But what had I done? And where had she gone?
Did I push too hard? Had she heard a rumor about me? About her?
“God damnit,” I growled, grabbing a towel from the bathroom. I pulled open the room door and stormed into the hallway, ignoring the sting of the cold air conditioning against my bare skin. Yes, the AC was on in the middle of damn winter!
I didn’t care if anyone saw me like this—I needed to find her.
When I reached the lobby, the front desk was empty. I rang the bell on the counter repeatedly, having no damn time to waste. Maybe she had asked for another room. She better not have fucking left in this weather.
A clerk appeared from the back, dark bags underneath her eyes. “How can I help you?”
“Did you see a girl leave here? About this tall?” I asked, motioning to my chest.
She blinked a couple times. “About thirty minutes ago.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, balling my hands into fists. “Fuck!”
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
I turned on my heel and headed for the parking lot. “No, everything is not fucking okay.”
The snow had been a half a foot fucking high when we checked into the hotel. It was probably double that now. And Daphne decided that it’d be a great time to leave?! What was going through her head?!
Wind bit my skin as I stepped out into the cold. My feet were completely bare, but I walked through the snow anyway. I held a hand out in front of me, in an attempt to see through the blizzard, and headed in the direction of Daphne’s car.
But the empty spot was covered in snow.
Bile rose in my throat. Why’d I feel so fucking sick? Maybe because this was exactly how Mom died three years ago. Maybe because this was exactly what turned Dad into the prick he had been to me for the past thirty months. Maybe because I… I loved her.
I found my car, used my bare arm to wipe away the snow on the windshield, then slipped into the freezing driver’s seat. After plunging the key into the ignition, I dropped my foot onto the accelerator and sped out of the lot.
Why would she do this? She knew the storm was dangerous. She wasn’t stupid.
But this? This was reckless as fuck. Even for her.
Still, I had to try to find her, before she got into an accident.
Or worse… before she winded up dead.
CHAPTER 13
APOLLO
