Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,72

years he was going to have me, and Tom, my douche bag agent, wanted to know when he could start making money off of me.

I wanted them both to fuck themselves.

I’d lived and breathed football my whole life, but right now…I couldn’t have cared less about anything to do with it.

My heart and mind were with a green-eyed beauty taking her English literature exam. I wondered how mad she would get if I appeared in her class before it was over. I was supposed to go to practice after this, but fuck that. Until this thing with my sociopath of a brother was figured out, everything else but Everly would have to wait.

A fist beat on the door just then, and Kyle popped his head in before Coach could tell him to come in.

“Jackson, I need to talk to you. Now,” he told me anxiously.

“Kyle, we’re in a meeting right now—” Coach tried to say, but I was already out of my seat and jogging towards Kyle. There were only two reasons why he would come find me right now since he knew I was in this meeting—Caiden or Everly.

“Parker,” Coach called after me, but I was already in the hallway, the office door closing behind me, not bothering to explain myself.

“Kasey saw Caiden take Everly,” Kyle said with no preamble. “She was in the English building, about to walk outside, when Caiden grabbed Everly and put some kind of cloth on her face that made her pass out. She ran and told a professor, but he didn’t seem too concerned. She called me because I’d told her you and Everly were together, and I had her call the police, but fuck man, this is bad.”

She was gone. The thought crippled my brain, even when I should’ve been absorbed in getting as much information about what Kasey, Kyle’s girlfriend, saw. Bile rose, burning my esophagus with the truth.

Caiden had her.

There was an aching emptiness in my heart. Tentacles of fear strangled the life out of me one breath at a time. I had never known its full strength before now, not even after the accident. Every memory with Everly became a blurred slide clicking into place, the vibrancy bled dry in comparison to the bright terror of this moment. I was paralyzed by my failure to protect her.

“Jackson, stay with me,” I faintly heard Kyle say frantically. Kyle knew about my bipolar, he knew that I would be worthless in helping Everly if I fell into an episode. I could feel it creeping in, and I began to take deep breaths, trying to get ahold of myself. I couldn’t control it, but I’d do everything I could to try.

Kyle put a hand to my shoulder. I hung my head, running a hand along the headache forming beneath it.

“Do you have any idea where he would have taken her?” Kyle asked.

I shook my head, shrugging his hand off and beginning to jog down the hallway and through the exit so I could get to my truck.

“You said the police were called?” I yelled out behind me.

“Yeah, but I don’t know if they’re taking it seriously or not.”

I swore, just betting they weren’t. As soon as Kasey had mentioned Caiden’s name, they’d probably stopped listening.

Fucking Caiden. I would kill him with my bare hands when I got ahold of him.

The fear came back, replacing the anger. Terror surfaced in my ragged pulse because I was afraid no matter how hard I looked, she wouldn’t come back to me. Caiden’s mind was so far beyond my comprehension at this point, I felt helpless to stop him.

Just then my phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out, hoping it was something about Everly.

It was. Caiden had texted me.

Everly was sitting on a gray leather couch, her eyes a dark void as she stared at the camera. I could see that he’d bound her legs together.

Caiden had accompanied the picture with, My girlfriend sends her best.

Not thinking, I responded with Fuck you before throwing my phone in the passenger seat of my truck and beating my hands against my steering wheel in a fury.

Once I’d gotten at least a little ahold of myself, I grabbed my phone and turned on my truck, driving around desperately while I called as many people as possible, begging them if they knew anything about where Caiden would be.

Hours passed, and no one had seen him. I’d called the police station, and they’d asked if it had been twenty-four