Chapter Thirty-One

Isaac

 

I opened up the hotel room, stepping inside quietly in case Maddie was still asleep. The bed was a mess, but she was nowhere in sight. I set the coffee and the food down and pushed open the bathroom door frantically, and found it as empty as the bed.

“Maddie,” I called out, why I don’t know. It was obvious she wasn’t there.

My eyes scanned the room, stopping on the floral makeup bag that sat on the edge of the bed. I’d shoved it into my bag when Maddie forgot to pack it in hers and had no room.

I reached for my bag, frantically searching for her phone that I had hidden inside. Her wallet was still there, obviously unnoticed, but the phone, it was gone. Fuck!

My hands trembled as I ran from the room, rushing to the front desk. “Have you seen the woman I came here with?” I asked.

His eyes told me he’d seen her, even though he shook his head. “She’s not well. She has amnesia, and I was supposed to be taking her home to help jog her memory,” I explained frantically.

The man seemed to lighten on his stance of lying to me about where she may be. “She told me not to tell you,” he said.

“I don’t care what she told you; she could be in serious danger,” I roared.

“She got a cab,” he said softly.

“What company?” I demanded, ready to jump over the counter and shake the man for the information I need.

He handed me the card of the company he called. “How long ago did she leave?” I asked.

“Maybe thirty minutes,” he shrugged.

I was already dialing the number. A woman answered with a cheerful greeting. I explained to the woman that I needed to know where one of their riders had gone just thirty minutes ago. I gave her the address of where she was picked up, along with a description. I waited on hold while she checked the files and driver’s logs, and then returned with a sigh. “She was dropped at the bus station on Seventeenth.”

I hung up, quickly searching for the bus stations number. When a woman answered the number I dialed, she informed me the bus for Portland had left about ten minutes ago. Fuck!

She was headed back to Rob, the abusive asshole that made her leave Portland in the first place. She had to be so confused, so scared. What have I done? Why didn’t I just tell her the fuckin’ truth in the first place?

I dialed Elijah’s number as I walked back up to my room. “How’d it go?” he asked.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell her. She’s gone,” I sighed, opening the door to my room and walking inside. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the small bag that used to contain Rob’s phone. “She found her phone, and she’s on a bus headed to her ex now,” I sighed.

“What did she say?” he asked.

“I didn’t see her. She was gone when I got back to the room. I tracked her from the cab she took,” I explained, feeling defeated.

“Okay. Well, you’re clear to fly, right?” he questioned.

“Yes, the flight leaves this afternoon. I’ve got a couple hours,” I replied.

“Catch the flight, and I’ll meet ya there. At least you can protect her, even if you can’t convince her that you did this for her own good,” he said calmly.

My nerves were shot. I couldn’t imagine what I was going to say to her when I saw her, or how’d she react when she saw me. I knew I had to go though, at least to protect her from Rob. I’d tell her everything, admit what a selfish bastard I was for not telling her sooner, but to at least let her know that Rob is not the man she wants to be with, even if I’m not either.

I shoved everything back into my bag, checked out of the hotel, and took a cab back to the airport.

The line was horrific as I waited for my new ticket. The lady at the counter was rude, slow, and had no concern that I’d spent the night in a hotel due to a canceled flight. After five minutes, she finally handed me a ticket that was for several hours past the time I was told on my text update. “What’s this?” I asked.

Her eyes lifted from her computer, glared into mine, and she simply said “You’re ticket. The earlier flight is already booked.”

“No. I need to go now,” I pleaded to her unsympathetic expression.

“Take it or leave it, that’s all we got,” she hissed.

I knew arguing with her was going to get me nowhere, so I grabbed my bag and headed through the security area. I calculated the time in my head. The flight would leave in four hours with one layover of an hour and half. Total flying time was about an hour and a half, and Maddie’s apartment was close to an hour from the airport. That was nearly eight hours, and with the hour already gone with her on the bus, I’d be lucky to make it to her apartment before she did.

I called Elijah, explaining my delay. His flight was already booked, a straight thru, but he was going to make it there in about the same time as me. “It’s going to be fine. We’ll get there in time. He’s not going to do anything to her as soon as he sees her,” he assured me.

I wasn’t so sure. Rob knew about me, and he didn’t like me. Maddie had to delete my name from her contacts, remove any signs of friendship from her social media pages, and pretend she’d never spoken to me while we planned her getaway from the monster she’d promised to marry. He was insanely jealous, and I knew once he heard my name, and knew she’d been in Miami, she was in danger: immediate danger.

I found an empty stool in the little pub across from my gate and ordered a whiskey to calm my nerves. I scrolled through my phone, landing on Maddie’s Facebook page. Her smile warmed my heart, even just through pictures. I hated to think of her unhappy, and I knew no matter what happened tonight, no matter what she believed, she was going to be hurt. There was no doubt in my mind that she was already hurting, and that was all my fault. I tried calling her phone many times but she never answered.

“Can I get you another?” the woman behind the bar asked as she took my empty glass. I nodded, forced a half-smile, and waited as she poured me another glass.

Elijah sent me a text letting me know he was on his way, and I quickly finished my second drink, headed to the gate, and just waited.

Even though I was only a little over four hundred miles away from Portland, it felt like I was a million miles away from Maddie.