Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Fuck…fuck!” Jude shouted. “Did you call Trey?”
“Tyson did. He’s at school. He swears he has no idea where he went.”
“I’ll call everyone,” Rush said from behind Jude. “We’ll all meet at the condo and then spread out to look for him.” I looked up at him, trying to silently thank him. I had to admit, things had felt slightly stilted between Rush and me for a while. I was sure it came from me, from jealousy over how Jude had felt about him. When I gave him a smile, he paused a moment, then nodded and returned it, as if he knew I was saying I was sorry and that I loved Jude, and Rush was telling me it was okay.
I gave my attention back to Jude. Hooking my finger under his chin, I turned his head so he looked at me. “We’ll find him. I promise you we’ll find him.”
“You can’t promise me that, but even if we do, then what? There’s a reason he ran…or…”
I didn’t want to consider the or and what it could have meant, so I focused on thinking he ran. I hated that he was right, but first things first. We had to find him, and then we could deal with the rest of it. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s go.”
Jude left his car and climbed into the truck with me. We went back to the condo, where officers were still speaking with his mom. They wanted to talk to Jude too, to know the last time he saw Theo or spoke to him, and if he had any ideas where Theo could have gone.
My hold on Jude’s hand tightened when they asked about our friendship with him.
“He just needed someone to talk to,” Jude told them, “and I understood what he was going through. Most of the time, we just hung out around here. We’ve taken him to a few movies, meals, then the holiday party at the LGBTQ center,” Jude told them.
“What?” his mom asked with a frown.
Oh fuck. He hadn’t told her where we went that night?
“He said he told you where we were going. I talked to you that night before we left,” Jude replied. But we never said where we were going, and she had rushed off after a phone call, likely how Theo knew she would.
She stood there for a moment, making my pulse thud harder and my stomach drop further. Then…then she looked at us with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t know. He never told me… Why was he afraid to tell me? Doesn’t he know I’ll always love him?”
“It’s not that simple,” I said.
She wiped at her eyes and straightened her back. “None of that matters. I just… I want my boy back.”
And fuck, that helped. Maybe things could be better with Theo and his mom after this. Maybe she would spend more time with her son.
When I looked up, the cavalry was arriving—Sawyer and Carter. Jace, Dax, Beau, Ash, Keegan, Owen, Linc, Rush, Tyson, Trey, Mama K, and Ray. All of them there to help us bring Theo home.
We split up into groups to search for him. They’d tried to use the signal to locate his cell phone, but for some reason, it didn’t work.
We spent hours looking for him. Jude rarely spoke the whole time. His anger and worry rolled off him in heavy waves, and I didn’t know how to fix it, didn’t know how to help.
Fuck, Theo had to be okay. What if he wasn’t okay?
As the sun dipped behind the horizon and it started getting darker, the worry set deeper into my bones.
“Shit. I have an idea,” Jude said out of the blue.
We were in Willow Brook Park when he started to jog. I didn’t ask where we were going; it didn’t matter. Wherever he led, I would follow.
When we got to the Fever Falls Art Gallery, this little light clicked on inside me. “Good thinking,” I said as we went in.
It was a large gallery. I was surprised at the size, having never been there. The walls were all white, with paintings, sculptures, and other art the only splashes of color.
We rounded a corner, and a familiar beanie came into view. Theo had his back to us, his skateboard under his arm, as he stared up at a display.
“Theo!” Jude yelled. The boy started and turned around just as Jude pulled him into his arms. “Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of me! Don’t ever do something like this again. You can come to us. Don’t you know you can always come to us?”
Theo looked at me over Jude’s shoulder, his brows pinched together in confusion. “What do you mean?” he asked when Jude let him go.
“We have half the town out looking for you! Your mom said your bed hadn’t been slept in. Your phone is off. We were worried sick.”