I headed toward the bedroom door.
“Hold on, bro,” Teddy said. “Let me call the cops and we’ll go at the same time.”
“Tell them to hurry. It sounds like the guy who rushed into her house the other day. I took him out with one punch. He’s not going to be a problem. I’m going.”
“He’s got dozens of people with him. Some of them had bats.”
“I don’t care. She means more to me than anything else in the world.”
“Okay,” Teddy said.
“There’s not enough time. I’m afraid they’re going to hurt her.”
“You go scout it out, and we’ll meet you there,” Brian said. “We got this, bro.”
Did Brian just call me bro?
“Alright,” I said. “But if the cops don’t show up, I’m going to get her myself.”
“We’ll be there,” Teddy said.
I left the house and ran toward the park north of campus. With each step, my love for her grew even deeper. If something happened to her, I would be devastated, crushed, no longer able to function in society. Nothing was going to happen.
* * *
After running the long way around, I carefully made my way into the group of trees at the edge of the park. They were nowhere in sight as I crept forward, keeping hidden from view.
Was Teddy wrong? Maybe the app…
I spotted them building a fire in the burn pit a few hundred yards away. An RV was parked in the grass. Loud music blared out of it.
Where was she? D
ammit!
My anger and frustration grew as I watched them. My phone rang, startling me.
“Shit,” I mumbled.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey, Austin. It’s me. The cops are on their way. We’re coming too, with Trey. Where you at?”
“Trying to hide,” I snapped. “I should have turned my phone off. You have the map of where they are, right?”
“Yeah, but where are you?”
“I’m in the trees on the north side of the park. They’re a hundred yards away, maybe more. I’ll meet you guys in the north parking lot, okay?”
“Yeah, we’re on our way.”
I ended the call and turned my phone off. After watching another few seconds and not seeing any sign of Jocelyn, I walked to the parking lot to meet up with Teddy, Brian and Trey.
“Where are the police?”
“On their way,” Trey said.
“I’m not standing around here waiting on them. I think she’s in the RV, I don’t like that I can’t see her.” Or what’s happening to her, I thought grimly.