Page 121 of Serpentine

I’d shut it off so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed during the appointment. Yeah, that went well.

“What’s wrong? You have me on the phone now, and you’re wasting time,” I point out.

“Miles is missing, leaving you in charge, and then you were missing. Everyone is in a fucking frenzy looking for the both of you!” he rushes out, and my blood runs cold as the elevator spits me out into a packed lobby of patients waiting. The room is round, the atrium-like glass above spilling the bright sun through its panes down over us, and it feels like the sun’s heat is blazing through my body as the news hits my brain.

“What do you mean he’s missing?” My voice shakes, and I know it doesn’t reassure Blaze, but I can’t help it.

“We found his bike off Route 20, man. There’s blood and one of his boots. It looks like someone ran him off the road and dragged his body into another vehicle. That’s all I know. Didn’t you realize he didn’t come home last night?”

“No… Well, I thought he was with Aella. He was headed to check on her since she didn’t return to the clubhouse. I thought they were together. I didn’t expect him back last night.”

I feel like a fucking idiot for not realizing it. We have a connection that I thought ran deeper than blood. How did I not feel deep in my bones that something was off?

“Get back here. We have to figure out what the hell is going on!”

“Aella,” I manage.

“She’s fine. Sully is on her now.”

Even though I should have been furious that she was fine and didn’t come to my appointment, relief washes through me.

After the day I had, I need to dig in, but I can’t.

The Cobras need me.

Miles needs me.

That has to be enough to stow my bullshit for now and schedule a breakdown later. It hasn’t ever worked out for me in the past, but a man can fucking hope.

The skid marks on the asphalt are hard to swallow. Rain pelts them in heavy, battering droplets, the sound of it the only thing keeping my entire nervous system from ripping itself from the inside out. Even before I got the news about Miles, I felt like clawing my skin apart to decompress. I know I need time alone to hide away from the world and everything within it.

I also know I need her.

But I need him more. He’s been part of me since I can remember. There aren’t many memories from before. When I was but a disappointment to the man who looked much like me.

“Who do you think did this? Jackals?” Blaze asks, crouching on the rain-soaked highway to run his hand across the marks where Miles’s bike disembarked from the highway.

I clench my teeth, emotion nearly choking me to fucking death, to think about the places he could be. “I don’t know.”

“Well, whoever it is, they’re fucking dead when we find them.”

The backing up of the tow trucks sounds behind us, and Blaze and I instinctively move out of Kylo’s way as he moves in to get Miles’s bike off the side of the road.

Kylo hops out, his hood falling off his brown hair, rain soaking it almost instantly. “Man, it’s a lot worse in person. Fuck, is that blood?” Kylo treks off the road, shaking his head as he takes in everything Blaze and I have been looking at for the last twenty minutes while we waited for him to come and pick up the wrecked bike.

“Yeah, look, man, just get it cleaned up,” I order. I hate being so clipped with them, but I can’t be any other way. I’m so fucking overwhelmed I can’t focus on anything other than the spinning feeling inside my body.

My instincts are to storm to Aella’s house and demand to know where the fuck she’s been. Now that I have a reason to speak to her… I scrub my face, rain soaking my palm. I had a reason before, but I didn’t take it. It’s more than I wanted to give her space.

It was that I’m not used to having anyone want me back. It’s going to take some getting used to. I’m used to being too much for people.

“Where are you going?” Blaze asks before I even realize that I’m moving.

“I don’t fucking know. I can’t just stand here and look at that.” I don’t turn around. I’m on my borrowed bike from the shop and skidding away before anyone can reply.

I know where I’m headed but won’t barge in on her and force myself into her company. No matter how much I want to. I need to ride it out. Then, I need to focus on finding my brother. Bullshit with Aella aside.

Screaming through the rain, I throttle hard. Hard enough, I know the Devil takes a moment to look upwards from his throne to the asphalt I’m flying down.