The Penalty Box - Teagan Kade Page 0,53
either a house or see a passing car.
At this point, I’d just as happily take a horse and carriage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LINNEA
I know something’s up when Nolan doesn’t show. It’s a sickening lump of coal right in the pit of my stomach.
He told me to meet him at the chocolate café on Main Street, but he never showed.
Peyton and Phoenix see me coming through the front door.
“Lover girl!” Phoenix shouts, seeing my face and his expression turning to concern. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Peyton sees it too. I’m surprised how attuned to me the brothers have become in such a short period of time. “Linnea?” he says.
I’m trying to hold it together, but that tugging, gnawing dread won’t go away. “I think Nolan’s in trouble.”
I expect a quick comeback, a joke from Phoenix, but the brothers remain stony-faced. “He’s not picking up?”
I shake my head.
“No texts?”
“Nothing. He wouldn’t stand me up like that.”
“You think Rex has something to do with it?” Peyton asks me.
I shrug. “I’m not sure.”
The two of them look at each other before springing into action.
“I’ll get the Jeep and meet you guys around front,” says Phoenix, darting off towards the back of the house.
“Come on,” says Peyton. “We’ll check all the usual spots, see if we can find him. I’m sure it’s nothing sinister.”
But simply hearing that word has me on edge.
Peyton places his hand on my shoulder. He’s looking at me with the same cerulean eyes as his brothers. “We’re going to find him. Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing. He probably stopped to buy you flowers or some shit.”
I nod because it’s all I can do, and rush with him out the front where Phoenix is waiting in a fire-engine red Jeep I haven’t seen before. It’s like these guys have Hot Wheels for cars, constantly interchanging them.
I jump in the passenger seat and Peyton climbs into the back, tapping Phoenix’s seat twice. “Let’s move.”
*
We’ve been around the Academy, up and down Main Street, the side streets, all around Crestfall asking if anyone’s seen him, but so far we’ve got nothing. It’s like he just up and vanished.
We’re driving further away from the town center, less and less infrastructure and more and more places to get lost.
“It’s been three hours,” adds Peyton from the back. “I’m going to call Dad.”
Phoenix nods his approval, as do I. I’ll try anything short of a Ouija board at this moment.
We’ve got the windows down. I can’t make out everything Peyton is saying, but I get the gist of it. He’s asking Stone to get in touch with the police, reminds him the commissioner is such a big fan of his team.
I see Peyton hang up in the rear view and look to us. “Fingers crossed the comish gets off his ass.”
Stone calls back a few minutes later, Peyton relaying to us the police are going to start searching immediately, even though it hasn’t technically been twenty-four hours.
It’s a relief, until I realize there’s no certainty it’s going to help us find him.
I swallow down a sudden wave of nausea.
Peyton’s still on the phone, covering the earpiece to tell us, “The Commissioner’s going out to see Rex personally. He’s going to talk to him, see what he can drum up.”
“Good, good,” nods Phoenix. “Let that asshole feel the long arm of the law.”
“Not exactly long when you’re talking about the commissioner. Dude looks like a T-Rex.”
Peyton realizes this isn’t the place. “Shit. Sorry.”
“No,” I tell him, trying to breathe. “It’s good. I need to take my mind off things. I’m thankful for the distraction.”
“You won’t be once Phoenix starts playing his hippie music.”
I smile, but it’s fleeting, my thoughts again turning to Nolan and running through each painful possibility.
We keep looking well into sunset, but there’s no sign of Nolan—from us or the police.
We’ve stopped to grab some hot dogs, but I wave away the offer when Peyton attempts to pass me one. “You’ve got to eat.”
That lump of coal has become a living, breathing manifestation of worry. I’ve never felt this before, so lost and panicked. I’m falling and I don’t know how to prop myself back up.
We’re looking, but with nightfall it seems futile carrying on.
“Why don’t we take you home?” Phoenix offers. “You can get some rest. We’ll keep looking.”
“I couldn’t rest if I tried.”
“Fair call,” says Peyton, but the cops are searching, the girls, plenty of Nol’s buddies from the Academy. The word’s spreading. He’s going to show up sooner or later.
Dead.
It’s the first thing to comes