Free An Unknown Place by Felicite Lilly

again and he pulled it out of his pocket. Whatever he saw there spooked him enough to run out of my apartment to his car without another word, leaving my door wide open.
    More than worrying about the loss of him, I was worried for him. I wanted him to be happy, not upset with that lost look on his face.
    Kellan
    Ma: Your brother was just rushed to the hospital.

CHAPTER 9
    Kellan
    My eyes were turned out the window, but I saw nothing. The lady sitting next to me was a chatty Kathy until she realized I couldn’t hold a conversation. The flight attendant came over the loudspeakers and told everyone to turn off all electronic devices. My cell phone was in my hand. I looked down at it and couldn’t bring myself to turn it off. The second I powered it off I’d lose touch with my parents and my ability to know what was going on with my brother. I stared at it like it was my life raft and I was a passenger on the Titanic. I couldn’t let it go. A flight attendant finally spotted me and came to my row.
    “Sir, you’re going to have to turn off your cell phone.”
    “Can you do it for me?”
    She looked at me like I’d lost my mind and, in that moment, I had. I was not going to turn my phone off. She took the phone carefully from my hand and turned it off.
    “Do you want me to hang on to it for the duration of the flight?” She had sympathy plastered all over her face and I could tell I must’ve looked lost. I nodded.
    If I had the phone I would turn it back on. I was always a self aware person. Flight be damned, I needed to know what was going on. I decided to get a direct flight into New York, going into JFK. It was the only one with a direct flight. I spent $1,673 on the last minute red-eye flight, but I didn’t blink. The money didn’t even register with me.
    I needed to get to my brother and, no matter the cost, I needed to get to him as quickly as possible. I had also called for a car to pick me up at the airport. I had even given the car service my arrival time as thirty minutes early so I would be sure they were ready to roll when I got there. Luckily, I only had a carry on.
    My palms were sweating and I leaned my head back, trying to calm myself down. I was in a tail spin. A panic attack was emerging. I felt the urge to scream creeping up, so I did what I always did when I thought I was going to lose it: I thought of something that made me happy.
    For the longest time, the images that made me happy had been of woman on woman action or, if I had an especially hot piece of ass at the time, just me and a woman going at it. But now my brain was filled with Mac. Mac’s eyes, her smile, her easy grace – even when she was falling down – her strength, her curves, her voice, everything about her was amazing. I hadn’t even kissed her yet and I was obsessed. I wondered what would happen when I got my mouth on her. Or how bad I would get if she let me touch her body… really touch it.
    I felt my pants get tight, and shifted to try and hide it. I was calmer, but I had a hard on. I was not a small guy so I couldn’t just turn myself and try for sleep. I untucked the button up shirt I had changed into before I got on the plane and cover up my growing want for Mac. If only covering my feelings was that easy.
    With Mac, at least toward the end, I had found it difficult to disguise how she made me feel. She frustrated the shit out of me sometimes, but I didn’t blame her for that now that I knew what had happened to her.
    I really hadn’t wanted to leave her place, but I had no choice. I knew if I’d stayed the hurt I felt when she called me just her boss would’ve festered and grown. She was frustrating, and complicated and a pain in the ass, as well as beautiful, kind-hearted, and honest. I had feelings for her, there was no doubt about it. I didn’t want to have to fire her to get her to date me – but if desperate times called for desperate measures, I would start funneling the money to Lynn so she would pay