Page 77 of Haunted Hearts

They turn and look at me.

“Something is wrong,” Kai says.

Is it Calli? What’s going on?

My vision blurs and I see Genevieve and Calli talking outside of a building. Gray brick with orange signs. They are sitting off to the side on a red bench. I can feel the cool breeze on my face. I feel a hood go over my head, darkness, and a pressure on my neck.

No. Fuck no.

“They’ve been taken!” Kai says.

“You could see it, too?” I look at him, surprised.

You’ve been watching him?

“They were at the coffee shop we passed yesterday, I know where it is.”

“Holy fuck,” Jack says, looking around at everyone. “I’ll call an Uber.”

I turn to Kai and throw him my keys. “Do you know how to ride a bike?”

“Yeah.”

We bolt out of the door and he hops on the bike, I jump behind him gripping his waist as he starts it up and revs it, and we speed off out of the parking lot and down the road.

I look at every building we pass, anticipating the gray bricks and red tables I saw in the vision. We drive for about fifteen minutes when I see it. Kai peels into the parking lot, and I see our trucks. Cops are all over the place.

Fuck.

This isn’t good. We can’t get involved, or we’ll waste time. Kai parks, and I hop off the bike. I take off my helmet and stand there for a moment. I need to come up with some kind of excuse to take our trucks without them asking any questions.

Kai steps off the bike, removing his helmet as he approaches the barista and the officers. I try to reach out to stop him when he speaks up.

“Hey! Have you guys seen two girls around here?” Goddamn it, Kai. “I filed a report a few hours ago about me and my brother’s trucks being stolen. We brought these two chicks along to go mudding and they totally scammed us.”

What the fuck is he doing?

“Sorry, sir, this is a crime scene, I’m going to need you to step back,” the officer says, putting his hand up to him.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, a text from Jack:

Where the fuck did you guys go? I sent the Uber to the fucking wrong coffee shop.

Cade: It’s the one farther down, but you can’t come here. Cops.

Jack: Fuck. All right, I’ll have it drop us off down the road.

Cade: Send me your location and we’ll come to you, hopefully.

Jack: What the fuck do you mean hopefully?

I put my phone back in my pocket as Kai tries smooth talking the officer.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to impede, but these are our trucks.” Kai gestures to the vehicles.

“These are yours?” the officer asks.

“Yes, sir. I made several attempts to contact you guys in the past couple hours.”