So Rare (Boys of South Chapel #3)

4. Levi

Chapter 4

Levi

Agitation prods at me like a poker stoking a fire. I’m burning with rage, with the need to do something , and yet here we sit.

We’re still at the cabin. Still sitting around, waiting. Still not making any moves to get our girl.

“We could have driven back to South Chapel by now,” I offer up to no one in particular.

It’s true. We’ve been immobilized by doubt, waiting for nearly three hours for Dr. Ferguson to send us the information he promised. For all we know, he’s still at the damn hospital.

“We could have,” Greedy placates. “But then we would have had to backtrack and drive north again. We’d be farther away from Hunter when the information from my dad came through.”

He’s right. But sitting around doing nothing feels awful.

This is the same discussion we’ve been having all afternoon. We waffle between staying and going. We consider splitting up or just jumping in the truck and heading north. We may not know where Hunter is and why, but we have a general idea thanks to Kabir’s tracker.

We’ve tried Magnolia’s phone at least a dozen times, but it goes straight to voicemail.

I reached out to Kendrick Taylor. The message has gone unread, but that’s to be expected. Joey said they were heading out of town and mentioned they may be somewhere remote, without good cell service.

Fucking hell. Like Greedy, I momentarily entertained the idea that Hunter ran. Now, though, it hurts to even consider that I doubted her. Daisy had no reason to run. No reason to leave without telling us. And she sure as shit had no reason to go anywhere with Magnolia.

I’m not usually a pessimist, but every facet of this situation adds a layer to my already growing unease. Something’s really wrong.

Greedy’s gripping the edges of the kitchen counter, blankly looking at the food we barely touched. He made lunch, but none of us has much of an appetite.

“I could take the truck,” I suggest half-heartedly. “Then you guys could call for a car service once you hear from your dad.”

“And where are you gonna go, Leev?” He straightens, his knuckles white and his mossy-green eyes wild.

He’s right. We have no fucking idea where Hunter is, and driving aimlessly won’t help.

According to Kabir’s tracking device, she’s in a rural area in upstate New York. Though that aligns with what Dr. Ferguson remembered from the note, we still don’t know the name of the facility or if that’s really where they’re going. We don’t know how she got there. How she got out of the house without any of us hearing. If she even wants to be there…

“I don’t know,” I admit, tugging on the ends of my hair once again.

Standing around and waiting like this makes me feel so fucking helpless.

“Got her,” Kabir announces triumphantly from where he’s set up at the kitchen table with a laptop, a tablet, and his phone. It’s the first time he’s spoken in over an hour.

In unison, G and I hustle to his side and peer over each shoulder.

On the laptop screen is some sort of grid. It’s mostly green, with hints of brown scattered throughout. An overhead image of a forest, maybe?

“I combined satellite data and imagery to triangulate the location of the tracker. Based on my calculations, she’s here.”

I hold my breath as he zooms in, but when he stabs a ringed finger against his laptop screen, I deflate.

There’s nothing there.

There are treetops, what might be a grassy meadow, and maybe the makings of some sort of path or river. It’s very clearly the middle of nowhere.

“What are we looking at?”

“This.” With the swipe of a finger, the image disappears and is replaced with a browser window with a website loaded.

Empire Forest Retreat and Spa: New York’s premier holistic psychedelic sanctuary.

“The fuck?” Greedy murmurs.

Confusion swirls in my mind as I take in the fancy web page. “What the hell is that?”

“It appears to be some sort of rustic overnight med spa.” Kabir clicks through pages. “Botox with Bears. Ketamine Along the Cliffs. It’s nothing more than a carefully crafted marketing ploy designed to separate middle-aged women from their money.”

“Sounds exactly like the kind of place Magnolia would enjoy,” Greedy mumbles.

“Despite the inability to get a clear view of the area, I am fairly certain this is where she is.”

“Okay.” Straightening, I clap, ready to get the fuck out of here. I clasp Greedy on the shoulder and squeeze. “Let’s go.”

Kabir shakes his head subtly. Greedy blows out a frustrated breath.

Before I can question their lack of enthusiasm, Kabir rises to his feet and turns to me. “We have no idea what we’re walking into, champ. We can’t just show up without a plan.”

“Why the fuck not?” Hands balled at my sides, I take a step toward him. “Hunter’s there. You know she is. She doesn’t have her meds, and she’s with her mother, possibly against her will .”

“Fuck.” Greedy smashes his fist into the table.

I jolt forward, quickly covering his hand with mine to prevent him from hurting himself or any more electronics. He’s already cracked the screen of his phone today. Thankfully, the device isn’t broken, considering we’re still waiting for that confirmation text from Dr. Ferguson.

He shrugs off my touch, then meets my gaze with a pitiful, apologetic grimace. “I hate to say it, but I agree with Spence.”

I guffaw. There’s no way I’m hearing him correctly.

“You don’t want to get her back?” At a fucking loss, I look from one man to the other.

“Leev…” Greedy pleads.

“ No ,” I bark back. Fuck it. He wants us to, what, keep waiting around? Stay here and send out some thoughts and prayers that Hunter returns on her own?

He’s not even acknowledging the heart of the issue: None of us are convinced Hunter left the cabin willingly. There’s no way they’re on some innocent mother-daughter trip.

Greedy sucks in a breath, then squares his shoulders. “Based on what my dad said about the way Magnolia was acting, her behavior could be unpredictable. We don’t know what we’re walking into here.”

“Precisely,” Kabir adds.

“I say we wait for the official word from my dad,” Greedy says, “and then we make a plan. We can try to contact the facility, and we can keep trying Magnolia’s phone.”

“We’ve waited around long enough.” My heart’s hammering out of my chest at this point, anguish and adrenaline warring for dominance. How is it possible they’re so unaffected? Why are they acting so calm?

I fold my arms over my chest and stand to my full height, regarding them both.

“I say we start driving north at the very least.”

Greedy’s jaw ticks as he considers. Then he turns to Kabir. “What do you think?”

What the fuck? G is siding with Kabir? Deferring to him? Two days ago, he hated the guy. Now it feels like my best friend and my… the, uh, guy I’m into, I guess, are ganging up on me.

Kabir studies Greedy, then me, his expression even and measured. He looks at the laptop screen for another long moment. Then, finally, he says, “I agree that sitting here does no good.”

Relief floods my system. Finally.

“Perhaps if you drive, Garrett, I can work in the back seat, and we can come up with a plan while closing in on the location.”

Kabir hasn’t even finished making the suggestion before Greedy’s eagerly nodding.

“Cool?” he asks me.

A renewed sense of purpose fuels me in a rush, like I just completed the perfect shallow cross and dove past the goal line. “Yeah. That works.”

Greedy continues to watch me, and I see it there, too. He’s still on edge like I am. Over the last few hours, though, we’ve found some semblance of balance and solace with one another. When he’s frustrated, I have the ability to calm him. When I’m about to lose it, he’s right there, assuring me it’ll be okay.

“I’ll button up the house and pack food. Leev, can you pack my stuff?”

“Sure.” I’m already running through a mental list of clean clothes I have with me, thankful we’ve kept up with laundry here. “How far away is this place anyway?” I ask Kabir.

He picks up a tablet, taps the screen a few times, then grimaces.

“Approximately thirteen hours from our current location.”

“God dammit,” I curse under my breath.

“Hey.” Greedy drapes an arm over my shoulders. “We’ll get there. We just gotta be smart about this. We’ll leave within the hour.”

I swallow past the dread that clogs my throat every time I think about Hunter.

I hate that she’s not here. That there are so many unknowns. She was in my arms just last night, for fuck’s sake.

Head hanging, I give it a shake. “I just need to know she’s okay.”

“I know, man. Me, too.” He turns so he’s facing me, his Adam’s apple bobbing. Then, with a long exhale, he nods and leaves the kitchen.

It isn’t lost on me that G doesn’t try to assure me that she’s okay.

He can’t.

He and I both know there’s a chance she isn’t.

Kabir slams his laptop shut and starts to pack up his workstation in earnest.

It looks like the urgency that’s been percolating in my gut for hours has finally reached them, too.