Diesel: Where the hell are you? Mom said you’ve been gone all day and no one’s seen or heard from you.
Diesel: I swear to God, Kat. This has got to stop. She needs you. What part of she’s sick don’t you get?
Diesel: Kat, come on. I’m sorry, okay. I was pissed but now I’m getting worried. It’s been hours…
Diesel: Sis, I love you. I’m not mad, okay. I just want to know you’re okay and not lying in a ditch somewhere.
Quickly, I text him back, making up some excuse about my battery dying.
Diesel: We’ll talk about this tomorrow. I know it’s hard on you, Kat. It’s hard on all of us but I need you to hold it together, okay? Do I even want to know where you’ve been all day?
Kat: Probably best not to ask questions you won’t like the answer to.
Diesel: Sometimes I think it would be easier if you got with someone from the club. At least then I’d have someone to keep an eye on you.
Kat: You don’t mean that.
Hope sparks in my chest as Ryder’s face flashes in my mind. But it’s quickly dashed when his reply comes through.
Diesel: Of course I don’t. Ain’t no one in the club good enough for you, Katrina.
Kat: Don’t worry, big brother. None of your biker friends could handle me anyway.
Diesel: Not cool, sis. Not fucking cool.
Kat: I’m heading home imminently. You can call off the search party.
Diesel: Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Just what I don’t want or need.
A lecture from my brother about my destructive behavior. As if I don’t already know that this isn’t healthy.
That I’m walking a one way street to more heartache and devastation.
But I can’t help it.
I don’t know how to stop.
6
STYX
When my phone starts ringing in my pocket for what must be the fifth time in ten minutes, I excuse myself from doorman duty and slip around the corner of Envy to see what’s going on.
The sight of D’s name staring back up at me makes my heart turn to stone in my chest.
“Fuck. What have you done, Kat?” I mutter to myself, swiping my screen to call him back. But before I get a chance, it rings in my hand.
“D, what’s going—”
“Have you seen Kat?”
“What? No. I’m at work, D. I—”
“So she’s not there drinking?”
“Not that I know of, but I’m out on the door and—”