Her phone just hit something. The ground.
That’s when the adrenaline kicks in.
I don’t think. I bolt down the hall, halfway to the front door, and push every student roaming around the school out of my way. I can hear the struggle down the line. Someone’s fighting her.
“Winter, answer me!” I yell again even though I know the chances of her replying are near inexistent.
A groan of pain every guy knows reaches my ear. She just kicked him in the nuts. That’s my girl.
“You fucking bitch,” the guy—who’s going to get a slow and very painful death later—hisses.
“Hurry up!”
He’s not alone. There’s a girl with him. I leap out onto the parking lot and barely have time to see a van taking off at full speed. She’s in there.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I pick her shattered phone off the ground. I need to follow them but how? I didn’t bring my car. I had a cab drop me off earlier. I knew I’d be drinking.
“Did you bring condoms?” a girl giggles as she and a guy I recognize walk out of the school. They have no idea what atrocity just happened here. They don’t know that the girl I love just got taken… again. I recognize them. There’s Jackson Miller, a dorky, nerdy guy I used to be paired with in science, and Tina Jones, a cheerleader. They’re walking to his car. My guess is he’s about to lose his V card.
Sorry, bro, not happening tonight.
I run to him. “Give me your keys.”
The poor guy’s gaze fills up with fear. He hands me his car keys with a shaking hand. Everybody here really is creeped out by me. I mean… everybody except Winter. I ask him which car it is, and he points to a red Honda. The next second, I’m exiting the parking lot in a loud growl and driving down the road a lot faster than the law allows me to. I used to be such an idiot when it came to speeding, but I stopped when I fell for her.
I guess meeting Winter Kingston was like finding something to stay alive for.
I can’t believe how lucky I am when I see the back of the van from afar. I have to be smart about this. They can’t know that I’m following them. Winter’s phone starts to ring shortly after.
Kendrick is calling.
I put the call on speaker. “Kendrick, for once in your life, you actually have good timing.” I take an unexpected right turn, trying to keep up with the rattling white van speeding down the street.
“Haze? What’s going on? I can’t find Winter. Are you with her?”
He’s about to lose his shit. There it goes.
“She’s
been taken.”
He proceeds to let out the loudest “What?” I’ve ever heard.
“I was on the phone with her when it happened. I heard everything. I’m following them right now. I need backup. I’ll use Winter’s phone to share my location with you.” I speak so fast I’m impressed he understood any of it. He agrees, and I hang up, my eyes fixated on the car.
I try to keep a good distance between us, but the traffic is terrible and I’m afraid I’ll lose them if I don’t drive up their asses. I can’t help but think that the timing was too convenient. Circumstances got me away from her exactly when they needed her alone. What if Trev’s pathetic speech wasn’t a coincidence? What if he was distracting me while his allies got to her? It wouldn’t surprise me.
What if, after he told me about the guys’ plan to get rid of Winter, they wanted to put his loyalty to the test by forcing him to betray me? This is so like Ryan.
They were right. In the street fighting community, love is weakness. It’s the deadliest weapon of all. And taking my girl is probably their way of punishing me for choosing her over the fights. But I would do it again. In a heartbeat. In the blink of an eye.
I would always choose her.
After a while, the van hops onto dirt roads—that I know Tanner used to take for shady transactions back in his drug-selling days—and distances itself from society. These roads are small, deserted. I turn off my headlights so that they don’t notice me following them, but I’m not quick enough. They’re onto me.
They start taking unexpected turns, speeding down the dark streets ahead of us. I eventually lose them and completely panic. I’ve been in this area before. There is only one place where they could be taking her. So I slam on the gas…