Read Settling Ashes: A New Adult/College Romance (The Ashes Series Book 2) for Free Online

headquarters. We all piled out of my car.
    “I think you guys should let me go in alone,” Gill said.
    “What? Hell no.” Drew shook his head firmly. “We all go.”
    It actually sounded like a good plan to me, and I was about to say as much to Drew when Gillian interrupted me. No surprise there.
    “Why? It’s not like there’s anything dangerous in there. Just a bunch of men who--” she unbuttoned the top two buttons on her fitted button-down shirt--“who would be more easily persuaded by a woman.”
    “Gill!” Drew exclaimed.
    I glanced from Gillian to him. His eyes were bugging. I didn’t know why he was so horrified. Gillian was a very capable girl.
    “What? Don’t you agree with me, Clay?”
    She narrowed her eyes at me, and it was crystal-clear that I’d better agree with her in this instance.
    “Yes,” I said quickly. “We’ll be right out here if you need us.”
    “Dude!” Drew gasped, looking scandalized.
    “She’ll be fine, Drew.”
    He leaned against the car, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He shook his head of shaggy brown hair agitatedly.
    “Five minutes, that’s all you get. Then I’m coming in after you,” he told her.
    “Fine. That’s all I need.” She turned and walked confidently up the sidewalk to the glass double doors, her heels clicking on the concrete as she went.
    Drew glared at me the entire time we waited, which was approximately five minutes and thirty-eight seconds. When Gillian appeared again, he breathed a sigh of visible relief.
    “What’s your deal?” I asked him curiously. It was no secret the two didn’t get along. Like, at all.
    “It’s nothing,” he muttered.
    Gillian approached the passenger side of the car, holding an index card.
    “What’s that?” I asked her as she opened her door.
    “Address,” she answered smugly.
    I hopped in the car, and we were off again as she plugged the address into her GPS app.
    When we pulled up to the complex, I sat back and breathed deeply.
    “This is it,” I said low and determined. “This is Paige. She’s here. I’m going to be able to talk to her. Finally.”
    “Well, what are you waiting for?” Gillian screeched.
    I got out of the car, with Gill and Drew close on my heels.
    The entire walk up to the second floor to the apartment where Paige had been staying for the past month, my thoughts were swirling hazily in my brain.
    Would she shut the door in my face? Would she listen to me? Who was this Beau to her now? A month was a long time, and Paige was hurt. What if he had taken my place? He wanted to. I didn’t even know the guy, and I knew that much. You couldn’t spend time around Paige and not want her. She was utterly loveable. And terror washed through me as I approached the door to knock.
    I raised my fist when the adjacent door suddenly opened and a woman in her thirties walked out, scrolling through a cell phone screen.
    “Hello,” she said cautiously, looking at the three of us. “Can I help you?”
    “Uh,” I hedged. “We’re actually looking for the guy who lives in this apartment. Do you know him?”
    “Beau? Yeah I know him. Nice guy. Why you looking for him?”
    Gillian piped up. “Because my friend has been staying here with him and we need to talk to her. I went to high school with Beau.”
    The woman visibly relaxed at Gillian’s admission. Her shoulders, which were previously tense, lowered and her eyes softened.
    “Oh, okay,” she said. “Well, Beau’s off on Mondays, but I’ll tell you right now they aren’t here. Beau didn’t say anything before they left, but I saw him loading the girl’s suitcase into his truck before they pulled out.”
    My heart clenched in my chest, and I stared at the woman.
    “What do you mean, he loaded up her suitcase? Where the hell were they going?”
    “No clue,” the woman answered, shaking her head. “A trip, maybe? I doubt it, though. Beau’s pretty serious about his job. I doubt he’d just take off. So maybe he was just