“Eva.”
I groaned and blindly swatted at the hand that was shaking me awake.
“Wake up!”
“Go away,” I growled as I turned away.
A sharp tug on my hair, made my eyes snap open. I blinked at the figure hovering a few inches above me. My eyes narrowed at Ariana.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered.
I slapped her hand away and sat up. Leaning over, I flicked on the lamp before I turned back to her. Ariana was still dressed in the clothes she had worn earlier but her hair was messy and her shirt wrinkled. My irritation faded into concern as I took in her pale, sweaty skin and trembling body.
“What is it?” I asked, instantly on alert. “Is—”
“Lucas isn’t back yet.”
I blinked at her. “You woke me to tell me that? Are you—?”
Ariana grabbed my shoulders and shook me slightly. “He’s in trouble.”
The desperation and anxiety in her voice made me pause. She wouldn’t have come to me if it wasn’t serious. A wave of fear hit me when I considered the possibility of Oliver having captured Lucas, but I instantly shook it aside. Lucas could handle himself and if Oliver was here then he would’ve already made plans to get Ariana away. Her safety was his main concern; I had noticed when we were running after the Hunters found us.
“He said he was going home to let his stepfather know that he was okay and then drop in at work, but he promised that he would come back.” She sucked in a breath. “I know that something happened. I can feel it.”
I stared at her silently for a moment before I threw the sheets back and moved over to the edge of the bed. Reaching up, I pushed the hair from my face and then stood.
“I’ll ask Grayson to drive us over to his house,” I told her. “What time is it?”
Ariana shrugged, and took a step back as I moved forward. Switching off the lamp, I grabbed her hand and led her out of the room and down the hall. The first thing we should do was to wake Dad or Granddad but I had a feeling that neither of them would drive us around to search for Lucas.
A knock on Grayson’s door went unanswered. I hesitated a moment before I opened the door and peeked inside. The bedroom was dark and clearly empty. Changing direction, we headed downstairs towards his office but found it empty as well.
Frowning, I tried the kitchen and then the living room.
“I can’t wait until he shows up,” Ariana whispered.
“We can’t just leave without telling anybody!”
“Why not?” She clutched my hand tightly as she glanced over her shoulder in the direction we came from. “W-we can search through Grayson’s office for his address. He’s an Alpha so he would have records of every—”
“Not all Alphas are like Dad,” I told my sister.
I bit my lip as I tried to talk myself out of doing what I was about to do. There were so many things that could go wrong if we left the house without informing anybody, and I knew that if Lucas was truly in trouble we would need Grayson’s help. If it came to that then we would have to explain why we snuck out in the middle of the night with Oliver still out there.
But he could be in trouble. Lucas might need your help.
Forcing the voice aside, I huffed and then told my sister something I wish I hadn’t. “I know where he lives.”
***
Hotwiring a car was not as easy as Lucas made it look, but luckily for us Grayson had left his car keys in the car. I actually feared for a moment that somebody was going to storm out of the house and stop us, and maybe a part of me hoped that it happened, but nobody did.
For some reason I was not as excited to sneak out as I would’ve been in different circumstances. My fingers clenched around the steering wheel as we drove through the dark streets. The clock on the dash showed me that it was nearing midnight.
My eyes darted over to a fidgeting Ariana in the seat next to me. She played with the hem of her shirt as she stared out of the window. I was still dressed in my pyjamas since Ariana didn’t give me a chance to change clothes.
When Grayson drove over to Lucas’s house, I had paid extra attention, but things looked different at night. After taking a few wrongs turns, we finally pulled up in front of his house.
Unlike the surrounding houses, the house was bright with lights.
The click of the seatbelt made my eyes snap to Ariana. “What are you doing?” I grabbed her arm to stop her from sliding out of the car. “You can’t just walk up to the front door.”
“Why not?” she asked as she twisted her arm to free it. “It’s clear that they aren’t asleep.”
Muttering a curse under my breath, I got out and ran around the car to catch up with her. Ariana’s steps slowed when she reached the porch. The courage she had seemed to have disappeared.
Ariana sucked in a shaky breath and blew it out as she climbed the steps and stopped by the door. She raised her hand but then paused again. I was just about to march up the steps and do what she couldn’t when she surprised me by ringing the doorbell.
We waited, and waited.
“Knock on the door,” I ordered. “The bell could be broken.”
She glanced at me over her shoulder before she followed the order.
Ariana jerked in fright when the door was suddenly jerked open.
The light behind the man blocked him from view but I recognized his voice. “What do you want?”
“H-Hi,” Ariana croaked as she took a small step back. “W-we’re looking for Lucas. I—“
“He’s not home,” Samuel interrupted. “Get lost and don’t fucking come back.”
What a lying bastard he was. Something about this just wasn’t right. Samuel had been rude when Grayson talked to him too so it wasn’t really his behaviour that was bothering me. Lucas’s scent clung to the man under the strong stench of beer and smoke.
I climbed the steps and pressed my ear to the door. Ariana’s lips parted, but I held up a finger to silence her.
“What the fuck are you staring at?” Samuel’s muffled voice came from inside.
My brows dipped into a frown. Had he lied just to get us to leave? But why would he do that?
“Eva,” Ariana whispered. “He—”
“He’s lying,” I interrupted as I stepped back.
“I know, but we can’t really do anything about it, can we?” Ariana turned and walked away.
I hesitated a moment before I followed her. However, half way down the path, I paused and turned back to stare up at the house. It wasn’t really a surprise to find Samuel watching through the window.
“Eva!”
An old house like this would be easy to break into. There might be an alarm but I sincerely doubt it. Smirking, I held up my hand and flipped him off before I climbed into the car.
All he had to do was think that we were leaving.
Starting the car, I pulled away and drove down the street. Ariana was silent next to me but I knew that her mind was already searching for places where Lucas could possibly be.
A glance down at the clock told me that not a lot of time had passed. We might even make it back home before they realized that we were gone.
I slowed the car as I circled back to the house. Instead of parking in front of it again, I parked across the street a few houses down.
“W-what are you doing?” Ari croaked.
“You said it yourself, he’s lying,” I leaned over to search through the glove box but came up with nothing useful. “We’re going to check if Lucas is really there.”
She blinked at me. “You’re going to get us into trouble.”
“Seriously?” I growled. “What happened to finding Lucas because he’s in danger?”
“I still want to find him but I’m not going to break in his house!” she hissed. “What if he calls the police?”
“He won’t because we won’t get caught.” I unlocked my door and opened it, but paused before I climbed out. “You can stay here if you want, but I’m going back there to make sure that he’s not in there.”
I didn’t wait for her to reply. Closing the car door softly, I glanced around before I hurried across the street toward the house. I made sure to stay in the dark as much as possible. Instead of going back up to the front door when I reached the house, I slipped around the back like Grayson had done.
The hand that took hold of my shirt made me smile. Ariana wasn’t a pussy after all.