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“Ash!” Declan called for me, but I was already out the door, dashing through the hall. “Ash, wait!”
I didn’t wait. I couldn’t wait, even though I could hardly see since the hallway’s lights were so bright. With my bare feet on the carpet, I drew myself to the elevator, needing…needing something I couldn’t name. It was only as I emerged into the night air that I realized what it was.
Peace.
I needed peace.
Chapter Eleven – Travis
It was unreasonably late—or early, depending on how you looked at it—when I got a call, which woke me from a dreamless sleep. My arm shot out from the blankets covering me, and I clumsily reached for my phone. I didn’t have a roommate to bother, but the ringtone sure as shit bothered me.
Who the hell…
My thoughts halted the moment I saw who it was. Declan. There was only one reason he would ever call me, let alone bother me in the middle of the night.
Ash.
I picked it up, slowly sitting up as I said, “What’s going on?”
“It’s Ash,” Declan said. “She woke up having a panic attack, and I tried to calm her down, but…” He trailed off, leading me to only assume where he was trying to go with this.
“But what?”
“But she’s gone. She took her skateboard and ran. She left her phone here. I don’t know what to do.” Declan sounded frantic, keying me into the fact that whatever he felt for Ash was real. He cared about her, and because he cared about her, he was calling me, to see if I could help, because he knew I felt the same.
That girl…she was going to be the death of me.
“Let me throw on some clothes, then I’ll call you back.” I hung up, heaving myself out of bed as I grabbed whatever lay on top in the dresser. A shirt and pants, shoes came next. With my key in my pocket I was out of the dorm in a minute, checking to make sure my door was locked before calling Declan back.
He answered on the first ring.
Before he could say anything, I said, “You and I are going to search the campus for her. She can’t have gone far.”
Declan muttered, “But with everything that’s happened…”
“I know,” I said. Things hadn’t been smooth and simple around here lately. “That’s why you’re going to stay on the line with me. If you see her, let me know. If you see anything else that looks fishy…”
Declan got the gist of it. “Okay, fine.” I heard the elevator ding. “Any idea where she’d go?”
I tried thinking of what Ash would do, but that was the problem with her. Ash was unpredictable. She’d obviously been through something in her past to make her like this, but what that was, I had no idea. She wasn’t like any girl I’d met before, and whereas at literally any other time I would praise her being different, right now it only made me irate.
Who the hell could predict where she’d go? I wanted to say she’d stay on campus, but even that I wasn’t sure. You’d think she’d want to stay in her dorm room whenever she could after being hit by a car, but apparently it didn’t faze her.
Ash was strong, but I knew that strength could only take her so far, only do so much. That strength just might be hiding a weakness, and I had to figure out what it was. Maybe then I’d get to the root of it all, find out why she’d flipped a switch at Declan and me in the hospital.
For now, Declan and I were on the same side.
“I don’t know,” I said once I reached the elevator. “I hope she stayed on campus.”
“And if she didn’t? If we can’t find her?” Declan’s voice grew frantic. “What if we find her, but it’s too late…if someone hit her on purpose, if they’re watching her—”
My free hand clenched into a fist at my side. “It won’t be too late.” I sounded confident, even though I truly wasn’t. If we were too late, if someone had gotten their hands on her first, then I would do what I had to do and take care of them, flex the skills I’d learned from the family.
“But if it is—” Declan just couldn’t let the depressing possibility go.
“It won’t be,” I firmly said, wishing I could hang up and end the conversation. I never had a vendetta against Declan, but he did get on my nerves sometimes. I could see why Sawyer wanted to dish it out to him. Although, his plan of revenge had been royally fucked up by one particular pink-tipped blonde.
I emerged outside, the night air crisp and cool. “I’ll check near the union. You check by your dorm and the science halls.”
