My hand shakes as I wait for her location to update.
“She’s at home,” I state, finally seeing her little blue dot not where I was expecting it to be.
“Let’s go then, bro. You got this here?” Nico asks Theo, Alex, and Daemon before taking off toward the stairs.
“You fucking know it. Those cunts aren’t walking out of this place until they’ve squealed everything they know.”
“You should stay,” I say to Nico, assuming that all of us turning up at Joanne’s door is going to be total overkill when we find the two of them drinking tea and eating cookies. But even as I think that, something deep inside me knows it’s not going to be the case.
“Fuck off. You need me, I’m there, bro.” He reaches for me and messes up my hair as we race toward the garage.
I have my car unlocked before we even get there, and the second my arse hits the seat, I’m spinning it out of the space and gunning it across town.
“Watch her tracker,” I bark, throwing my phone at Nico.
“This hasn’t updated in over ten minutes,” he points out, making my stomach knot with worry.
“Maybe the battery died,” I offer, needing some kind of lie to convince myself that everything’s going to be okay.
We’re two minutes out when my phone rings through the speakers.
“You got her?” I bark as Stella’s call connects.
“No one is answering the door.”
“She’s there, her phone is there.”
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone here.”
“Shit. Shit.” I slam my palms down on the wheel before taking the final turn up their street. “We’re pulling up now.”
I abandon my car in the middle of the road with the engine still running.
Racing toward the front door, I hammer my fists down on the dark wood.
“JODIE?” I bellow. “JODIE? JOANNE?”
But there’s nothing.
“Look in the window,” I demand.
Nico rushes over but Seb just stares at me, compassion filling his eyes.
“I have, man. There’s no one in there.”
“B-but… her car is there. Her phone is here. She has to be. JODIE?” I scream, trying again, desperate for her to open the goddamn door and prove to me that I’m overreacting.
“What the hell are you—”
Stella doesn’t get to finish her question as I back away from the door a few steps before I run full pelt at it in the hope it’ll give.
It doesn’t so much as creak under my weight. My shoulder, on the other fucking hand, screams in pain.
“A little fucking help?” I ask, looking at Seb and Nico, who are wearing matching frowns.
“We’re not gonna—”
My palms collide with Nico’s chest before he can continue that argument. He stumbles back in shock, but he soon comes back at me, more than ready to be my punching bag if I need it.