Page 1 of Chasing Hope

Chapter 1

Matteo

ELLINGTON

dude answer your goddamn phone

MATTEO

aren’t you meant to be on a plane?

ELLINGTON

you can answer texts but not pick up a call???

MATTEO

you know I don’t do phone calls

ELLINGTON

WTF???

dude just pick up the phone

MATTEO

no

most calls can be summarized in a text

ELLINGTON

not this call

stop being a dick and answer

Myphone buzzes across my desk for the tenth time in the past five minutes, and the flow I was feeling while working on a recent code is now officially long gone.

Reluctantly, my thumb swipes across the screen as I spin in my office chair and try not to sigh as I answer. “Yes?”

“Dude, we need to work on your phone mannerisms.”

“My mannerisms are just fine.”

Caleb Ellington, my best friend and pain in my ass, scoffs over the line. “We’ll continue this lesson another time. Right now, I need a favor.”

The sudden hitch of his breath at the end of that statement has me sitting up straighter, my attention diverting from the twin monitors on my desk.

“What’s wrong? Is everything all right?”

Caleb should be on a flight to Greece right now, his annual galivanting trip he takes during off-season to blow off steam. He’s been talking nonstop about the islands he’s going to hop around; the stories he brought back from Ibiza last year made my eyes bulge out of my head. God only knows what trouble he’s in.

I was hoping I wouldn’t get a bail-me-out-of-jail call until he at least landed in the country, though.

The heavy sigh Caleb lets out has my heart skipping a beat, but then it plummets as he whispers, “No, it’s Evie.”

I’m standing before he finishes the sentence. “Where is she? Is she all right? Is she hurt?”