Free Wild Night is Calling by J.A. Konrath Page A

if we got separated?”

    “I was…hoping you’d just want to come to my place.”

    If Zach hadn’t seemed as surprised as she was by Josh’s sudden exit, she would have to wonder if splitting up was their strategy all along. She had to admit that under different circumstances, she might have gone for the idea. Zach was cute; great smile, blondish hair just a little too long. She’d gotten a jitter in her chest the moment she’d met him. The kind of jitter she wanted to hold onto, to explore where it could go. And she and Hannah had decided they were going to be wild, hadn’t they? Spontaneous. To celebrate.

    Some celebration. Caitlin had no idea where her best friend was, and Hannah was alone with a strange guy…

    Alone with a strange guy.

    Oh, God.

    Now Caitlin didn’t want to go anywhere. Not to Zach’s. Not to a party. Not anywhere except home, with Hannah belted into the passenger seat beside her.

    Her fingers closed over the phone. She pulled it out and called up Hannah’s number, trying to keep her eyes on the road.

    The phone rang three times before going to voice mail. “Why aren’t you answering?” Caitlin’s voice sounded as panicked and choked as she felt. “You guys turned off too fast for me to follow, and Zach says he doesn’t know where you’re going. Call me back right away.” She ended the call and tossed the phone back into her purse.

    “I’m sorry this happened, Caitlin. Really, I am. I guess I just wasn’t thinking.”

    “Sorry doesn’t help.”

    “No, it doesn’t. We need to find your friend.”

    She glanced at the side of his face, and for a second, what Hannah and she had done crashed down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. Wild? Spontaneous? More like profoundly stupid. And she wasn’t sure that she could get them out of it this time. At least not on her own. “Are you serious about the we ?”

    “Of course. Don’t you think I feel bad about this?” He stared straight ahead, the green glow of the dash highlighting the line of his jaw.

    A strong jaw. A hero’s jaw, that’s what it was. At least she needed him to be a hero tonight. “What are you thinking?”

    “That I shouldn’t have drunk so many beers.”

    She wished none of them had. Especially Hannah. Especially her. Sure, Caitlin hadn’t had as much to drink, since she was driving. But obviously it had been too much; otherwise, she’d never have let Hannah get in the car with Josh. No matter how good looking he was or how spontaneous they’d decided to be tonight, it hadn’t been worth the risk. Even if Caitlin fixed this mistake, after all Hannah had been through, this might be too much for her.

    Jesus, what could be going through Hannah’s head right now? Did she know Caitlin had lost her?

    Please, please, please let it be okay.

    “Take the next exit.” Zach’s voice rang with conviction, taking charge.

    Caitlin wanted to trust him. Wanted to be able to rely on his help to find her friend. She took a deep breath and zoomed down the off ramp. “You thought of something?”

    “He talked about work. A place in Lake Hubbard.”

    Caitlin recognized the name of the small, southeastern Wisconsin burg she’d visited once as a kid. “You think he lives there?”

    “It’s a start.”

    A start. The name of a town. And the scary thing was that she felt relieved they had something, anything. That she and Hannah, after all this, just might come out of this mess okay.

    “What does Josh do?” she asked.

    “He’s a mechanic or something. As I said, we’re not that tight. We just started hanging.”

    “Is he…okay?”

    “Yeah. He’s cool.”

    “I mean, do you think he’ll try anything with Hannah?”

    Zach was silent.

    “Zach…?”

    “I said, he’s cool. But I saw him shove a girl once. It was no big deal, really. She was acting like a bitch. But he knocked her down.”

    Caitlin jumped on the highway heading for Janesville. Miles spun under tires. Summer wind