Locke Down

Chapter 31

Locke's POV

"Hey beautiful." I answer the phone as Laurel's name pops up.

"Locke." Her voice is shaken and I immediately on high alert.

"Where are you?" I ask as I jump up from my seat.

"Locke, we can't find him." She begins to cry and I start running out the door.

"Find who? Baby tell me where you are."

"Kline, we can't find him."

We? Who is we?

"Who is with you? Tell me where you're at."

She finally reveals her location and I curse at how far away she is. Even at a dead run it'll still take me 20 mins.

My nerves are shot once I finally reach her and realize the 'we' includes the one and only Dex. My anger spikes at the fact that he's always involved when something bad is happening.

"Dex." I growl but she puts a hand on my arm.

"I called him to help, Locke. This isn't his fault."

"You called him before me?" I ask.

"I knew you'd be mad and wouldn't let me come out to search. I didn't know what else to do Locke, I'm scared something happened happened to him." She tries to explain.

"So you were planning on not telling me any of this?" I try to keep cool, but I'm hurt.

Hurt that I wasn't the first person she turned to for help and she probably wasn't planning on telling me any of this. I try not to get angry, but she can't keep hiding things from me. We can't build our relationship if we don't have any trust.

She looks at me guilty, confirming that she was hoping I wouldn't find out about any of this.

"Let's just find him and talk about this later." I say angrily.

We search well into the night with no signs of Kline anywhere. Laurel is on the verge of a mental breakdown and I have to practically force her back to the castle so get some sleep.

"I have 10 men out there searching for him. He's going to turn up love, I promise."

"How can you promise something you're not even sure about?" She sniffs and more tears roll down her face. "I should be out there looking for him, he'd be out there if it was me."

"We're doing our best. We can go back out first thing in the morning." I wrap my arms around her to comfort her and I finally feel her relax against me.

It's obvious she's exhausted just judging by the fact that she fell asleep within minutes. She was still asleep by the time I woke up in the morning, and as much as I wanted to leave her be and let her rest, I know she'd be mad at me for leaving without her.

"Hey." I shake her gently and she slowly opens her eyes. "I'm going to go back out and search."

She blinks a few times before sitting up and looking around.

"Let me take a shower real fast and come with you."

I nod and wait for her to shower and dress before we head out to continue looking. No one saw any signs of him during the night and I'm starting to dread what Laurel might do if we don't end up finding him soon. The fact that this place is practically a maze doesn't help us out any in searching for him either.

It would be easier if the land was flat and barren, but the tall rocks are scattered in groups, making it impossible to see more than 20 yards in front of you. Even if you climb on top of one, the closeness of each cluster limits the amount of ground you can actually see.