So Rare (Boys of South Chapel #3)

1. Levi

Chapter 1

Levi

NOW

“She’s running.”

Greedy chokes on the words like it’s painful to speak them.

With his hands balled into fists, he presses them into the sides of his skull. “She’s fucking running.” The words are more despondent this time.

Kabir scowls down at his phone, still focused on the radar he claims shows him where Hunter is. If he’s right, then she’s just a dot—a little pink dot, traveling across a screen.

“She’s moving far too quickly to be running , Garrett.”

My best friend bristles at the scolding, at the flippant, cool nature of Kabir’s delivery. Why the hell is the Brit so calm about all this?

“You know what I fucking mean.” Greedy turns on his heel, and I hold my breath, bracing for impact. Preparing for him to leave, just like he’s accusing Hunter of doing.

But he doesn’t exit the room.

Late morning sunshine streams in through the windows, causing channels of light to illuminate every blemish and cranny in the wood floors. Tiny specks of dust dance in the glow.

Greedy marches across the room, sending the particles spiraling. “This is what she does.” His tone is sharp, accusatory as he pivots and retraces his steps. “This is what she always fucking does.”

Doubt tugs at my gut. Is he right? Did Hunter run? Honestly, I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around what the hell is going on, but my instincts are telling me he’s wrong.

Would she really take off without saying a word to any of us?

Would she really leave without telling me?

I thought I knew her better than that. Thought that the connection that’s developed over the last few days meant something to her. But she isn’t here—that we know for sure. According to Kabir, she’s hundreds of miles away. But how? And why?

Why would she leave us?

Why would she leave me ?

Pain lances through my chest at the thought. What if Greedy’s right?

My chest tightens, making it impossible to do anything more than take shallow breaths. The idea that Hunter would leave—could leave—after all we’ve been through?

No. She said she would come with me to meet with my mom this weekend.

She fucking promised.

“What’s the math here?” Kabir mutters to himself. “I don’t recall the exact conversions. Levi. Bring me your phone.”

Without a second thought, I follow his command, unlocking my phone and handing it over. He pulls up the calculator app, opens it, and starts inputting numbers at a rapid pace.

“She’s traveled more than six hundred kilometers so far.”

“The speed limit is seventy miles per hour on that highway, at least through North Carolina,” I offer.

Kabir gapes, first at me, then at the calculations. Holding the phone out to me, then to Greedy, he shakes his head in disbelief.

“That would mean she’s been gone for more than five hours. You had to have just put her back in bed,” he says to Greedy in an even tone, merely stating a fact.

G doesn’t take it that way.

His chest heaves as he glares at Kabir. “I don’t even know what fucking time that was.” With another spin, he goes back to pacing, his frustration rolling off him in waves.

“What do you mean, you put her back to bed?” There’s a disconnect here. I’m out of the loop. I slept like the dead after the fourway Spence coordinated last night. I didn’t even notice when any of them got out of bed. And from the sound of it, I’m the only one who was actually asleep.

I survey Greedy, then Kabir, silently pleading for one of them to fill in some of these goddamn blanks.

With a sigh, Kabir puts me out of my misery. “Hunter woke during the night. I was in the living area working. We talked, the two of us. She informed me she started her period and was in a bit of pain. Eventually, she fell asleep on the couch. Garrett came down a while later—”

“Wait.” Greedy comes to an abrupt stop in the middle of the room.

Kabir snaps his mouth closed, his brow furrowed at the interruption.

“We can determine when I took her back upstairs if I look at my call log,” Greedy rushes to explain. “I woke up because my phone was buzzing. It was my dad. I came downstairs to talk to him.”

Greedy pops his phone out of his pocket and scrolls. “3:43 a.m.”

My gut sinks. What the hell? Why would Dr. Ferguson be calling at that hour?

“You talked to your dad in the middle of the night?” I scratch the back of my neck, clearly missing a lot of details here. None of this makes sense.

Nodding, Greedy studies his phone screen, as if searching it for more answers.

“He called to tell me Magnolia was freaking out. She was worried about Hunter. Said she couldn’t get through to her.”

“You took Hunter upstairs shortly after that call,” Kabir offers. “Probably around four, then?”

Greedy nods, his lips pressed together, his eyes still on his device.

“It’s nearly eleven now”—he holds out his arm, glancing at the faceplate of the massive gold watch encircling his wrist—“and we assume she’s been traveling for over five hours. That means she left less than an hour after you took her back upstairs.”

Greedy lets out a frustrated growl. “That doesn’t make sense. She was out cold when I tucked her in.” A myriad of doubt, anger, and shame cross his expression in the two seconds it takes him to blink. Then his face goes hard. “Unless she was faking it.”

I don’t let that idea take root.

I can’t. There has to be a logical explanation. Turning to Kabir, I start with the simplest question. “Where were you once they went back upstairs?”

“I had an interview this morning, which I took out on the balcony so as not to disturb anyone.”

“Who schedules an interview at four a.m.?” Greedy bites out.

I wondered the same thing—but in that tone, it’s clear G is just jonesing for a fight.

“It’s not four a.m. everywhere in the world at the same time, Garrett.”

Rather than retort, Greedy turns on his heel and paces away from us once more.

“Wait,” I reason. “G, is your car still here?”

Fury rises up and emanates off Greedy as he pulls open the door to the Juliet balcony and sticks his head outside. “My Denali’s in the driveway. She must have called a rideshare or a taxi.”

Sighing, I will myself not to feed into his anxious fervor. Every time we rule out one possibility, he just jumps to the next ludicrous conclusion that enters his mind. I haven’t come up with a single logical explanation to counter his theory that she willingly left, but I’m still trying to stay calm and levelheaded.

For his sake and Hunter’s.

“You’re wrong.” Kabir is back to looking at the phone as if it possesses all the answers. “There are no ride share apps on this device, nor has any Wi-Fi or data been used in the last several hours. She didn’t call a car.” Then, more to himself than us, he mutters, “I just don’t understand why she wouldn’t take her phone.”

“Hold up,” I say. “If she doesn’t have her phone, how are you tracking her?”

A flash of panic appears on Kabir’s face, followed by a hint of shame. But he schools his expression quickly and maintains eye contact. “I implanted a small tracking device under her skin while she was with me in London.”

Stomach dropping, I blink at Greedy. The horror and confusion I feel mar his expression, too.

“The actual fuck?” Greedy grits out. “You put a tracking device on her? Like, inside her body?”

Kabir hits Greedy with an unamused glare. “I did. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. When you wake up in the middle of the night to an empty bed and find the love of your life sitting in a dark office, muttering about the ideal angle with which to pull a bookshelf onto herself, you go to any means necessary to ensure you always know her whereabouts.”

I gulp past the dread churning in my gut.

Hunter said things were bad when she was in London—that she was really low and that she struggled with her mental health. But hearing the specifics of what she faced… fucking hell.

Greedy’s face twists, this time in pain rather than anger.

“Do you think she tried to hurt herself again?” he asks, desperately looking to me, then over to Kabir.

Spence shakes his head, chin held high. “She’s been doing so well. Even this morning…” He trails off, looking from his phone to Hunter’s. “Hmm.” The hum is soft, almost inaudible. “Could she have taken her other phone?”

I regard Greedy again and find him looking just as dumbfounded as I feel.

What other phone?