Chapter 84: Inseparable

Daphne

I had no choice but to return with the bears and my brothers to the bed and breakfast. They had Kodi restrained, and she was sleeping it off in the bed, on top of a red, white and blue country quilt. But as soon as she was settled, I grabbed my car keys and headed for the door.

“Daphne,” Wyatt caught my arm and halted my progress.

I gave him a pointed look. “The problem is solved, Wyatt. It’s time for me to get back to my life.”

“About your roommate-”

Bella came up and laid a hand on his arm, “Let her go, Wyatt. Daphne is a big girl now.” With her eyes burning into his, it seemed he had no choice but to drop his hand from my arm.

Byron elbowed his brother aside and wrapped me up in a rib-breaking hug. “She’ll always be our baby sister, no matter how big her britches get.. You be careful out there, be safe.”

“Of course I will. I’ll be home for a visit in a couple weeks, once I catch up on everything I’ve missed.” I promised, as I pressed a kiss against his stubbly cheek. He let me go, and I gave Wyatt the same treatment. He was a silly, overprotective Alpha, but he was my brother, and I loved him.

“If you need us, we are only a phone call away,” Wyatt reminded me.

“Maybe next visit you can bring your friend home to meet us,” Bella suggested with sparkling eyes.

“Yeah, maybe,” I kissed her soft warm cheek too. “I’ll call you. I love you. Give Liam a squeeze for me.” With that, I rushed from the colonial style bed and breakfast, climbed in my own car, and headed straight for Bleakley house, which was only a couple miles down the road.

The first thing I noticed was that there was no sign of Nate’s Jeep parked outside the building. Once I parked, I pulled my backpack with my laptop off the passenger seat and walked to the front door with a feeling of dread. Something felt very, very wrong.

A few of the guys were lounging around in the living room, eating cold pizza and drinking cheap beer.

“Oi, Daphne! You’re back! Want a slice?”

“No thanks,” I called back, “Is Nate around”

“Nah, thought he was with you?”

“Not with me,” I grumbled, as I climbed the old creaking stairs to the second floor and turned down the hall to our room. I already had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, even before I pushed open the door. The room felt stale, like no one had been in there all week. Dust motes drifted in the late afternoon light that poured in through the window that divided the room. My side of the room looked undisturbed.

Nate’s side of the room was empty.

His side had always been barren, but the sleeping bag that was usually rolled up on his bunk was gone. I bent over and confirmed that his bag was gone from under the bed frame, too. The only thing that remained were the Philosophy books and the bear guidebook that he left on the shelf.

Nate was gone.

Well, I had advised him to get out of town until this bear problem was solved. I was just a little suprised that he had actually taken that advice. I thought he was too stubborn to be reasonable. I ran my hand over his desk, and my fingers came away dusty.

I went back out to the landing and called down to the boys that were watching re-runs on a streaming network. “Hey! Do any of you have Nate’s phone number?”

They looked back and forth at eachother, and then looked up at me and shook their heads. “Nah, I guess not. He wasn’t too social, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess. What about his work? Do any of you know the name of the security company he worked for?”

“He worked for a security company?”

I sighed, “Never mind, thanks,” I mumbled and went back to my room and shut the door. There had to be some way to get in touch with him. Some way to let him know that the threat had been neutralized. It was safe to come back, to resume his studies.

To resume with me.

I pulled out my phone and looked up an old contact of mine. “Hey, Rache, it’s Daphne. Oh, all good and fine. I was wondering if you could do me a favor? Could you get me a number for one of the students in the Philosophy program? Yeah, I know you aren’t supposed to give out personal information, but the dude left his books, and I just want to return them… Yeah, Nathan Straight.”

I waited, listening to her fingers clack across the keyboard. “Sorry Daph, there’s no one by that name.”

“But…are you sure?”

“I’m very sure, Daph. There’s no Nathan Straight in the philosophy program. In fact, there is no Nathan Straight enrolled at the university at all. Are you sure you got the right name?”

My fingers felt numb, as I held the phone in one hand and reached for one of the books on the shelf with the other. “I…I don’t know. Maybe I made a mistake. Thanks for checking, Rache.”

“Sure, no problem. You could take those books to the administrative offices, turn them into lost and found, maybe he’ll come claim them there.”

“Yeah, yeah that’s a good idea.”

I cracked open the cover of the first book, and saw “Property of Cole Newport” scrawled in a messy hand with a ball point pen.

I cut the call and sat heavily on the empty twin bed. Nausea roiled in my stomach and threatened to overwhelm me.

There was no Nathan Straight.