Today's Heartache (Peterick)

Part 16: Nice Day for a White Wedding

A/N: graphic death warning

💐perla💐

Pete's POV:

The empty streets were slick with the downfall of rain. Each stop light I came across was green. There was this urgency boiling in my stomach, making my mind race. My fingernails dug into the leather of the steering wheel. The gas pedal was pressed all the way down with the ball of my foot, and the buildings and objects rushed by me.

The speed only increased by the second until everything in front of me had become a blur. There was a person in the road up ahead, just standing there with their arms outstretched as if they were waiting for me to hit them head on. I couldn't stop the car. My foot was glued to the pedal. Then at the very last moment I saw him.

His blank face flashed before my eyes, and I jerked awake in the quiet space of my truck. It was daylight. The sun had risen just above the horizon and shined onto me. I sighed and threw my head on the wheel like the action was going to cure my raging headache. The call from last night had been so disturbing I had stressed myself out over it until I fell asleep sometime past midnight. It didn't make sense to me.

I'd heard him, though, crying my name. It had to be him. I needed it to be him. Not only did it leave me feeling puzzled, but I didn't know what to do with the information he'd given me. Were they in Vegas or planning on going?

The reasons for either weren't coming to me. I had the number saved in my contacts but didn't dare try to phone it back. I'd thought about what my options were. The police were out of the question. They'd only send Patrick back to the hospital if they got involved.

I scrolled through my saved numbers and stared at the names. A soft rumble tore my attention away from my phone as Luna walked into my lap, butting her head up against my stomach.

"Hey, beautiful," I greeted her.
She kneaded her paws into my thigh, meowing a second later.
"We'll find him. I promise."

I came across something saved as M with no picture. With further evaluation, I remembered it to be Mikey's number. In the time I had gotten to know him, I had discovered he was very tech-savvy. He had told me once that he wanted to go to back to college to study technology in further depth to build upon his skills. I wondered then if he could help me find the location of the phone that called me. It wasn't like we weren't on good terms.

Mikey and I had ended things fairly easily, and I even thought we had become good friends from the experience, so I pressed the call icon.
"Hey, Pete. What's up?" he answered.

"Hi. I came across your contact and just thought I'd check up."
"That's nice of you. I've been doing fine. I'm in school now, still married. How about you?"

"I'm not doing too well. I...something came up recently."

"Oh no. What happened?"

"My friend- he was abducted by some crazy guy at a gas station, and I got a call from a number and heard screaming. I think it was him trying to tell me where they were or where they were going."

"Jesus Christ. That's horrible. Do you need some help?"
"Yes, actually. I remember you were good with hacking and everything. Could you do anything with a cellphone number?"

"I think so. Wait. There could be a way to track the phone, but it's going to be difficult. I can get some help, though. I've got some friends from class who are super smart about this type of stuff. Where are you at?"

"California. It was where he was taken."
"Really? I'm living in L.A. right now. Do you think if I gave you my address you could come over?"

"Yeah, man. Shoot it out to me."
Mikey's place was two hours away, and the whole drive over I was hoping he'd be able to help me find Patrick. It was a house sat on the edge of a mountain, overlooking the city. It was quite impressive knowing Mikey lived here when the last time I saw him he was staying in a hotel room. He came to the door in some pajama pants and a muscle shirt with his dark hair smoothed back.