Hearing him say that nearly broke me. “I’m okay,” I said hoarsely before my finger hit the button to end the call.

I sat on the edge of the bathtub, trying not to give in to my tears. All I needed was to have red puffy eyes tomorrow. It took me a few minutes to compose myself, and then I left the bathroom and slipped into bed as quietly as I could.

Jordan’s sleepy voice startled me as I pulled the covers over me. “I give you five days tops before you cave and tell him where you are.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have it so bad for that guy you call him every night just to hear his voice. You’re like an addict sneaking away for a fix. You even stole his T-shirt.” She rolled over, and her voice was slightly muffled by her pillow. “Forget what I said. I give you three days max.”

“Just because I miss him doesn’t mean I’m going to give up looking for Madeline. This is too important.”

“Maybe you can have both. Nikolas can be a little – okay, a lot – overbearing, but that’s because he just wants you to be safe. I admit he can go overboard with the whole alpha male bit, and I can definitely see how that would bug you. But you’ve both had time to cool down. I bet if you talked to him, he’d be more willing to compromise.”

I stared at the ceiling, blinking away tears. “I wish it was that simple.”

Jordan raised herself up on one elbow. “I know you’re hurting. We all do. You don’t hide it as well as you think you do.”

“I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.” I let out a shaky laugh. “Some warrior I turned out to be, huh?”

“You’re still a bit rough around the edges, but you have potential. Plus, you have excellent taste in friends.”

I wiped my eyes with the sheet. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Jordan.”

She fell back onto her pillow and yawned. “You couldn’t have stopped me if you’d tried.”

* * *

“Do you guys want to order in or go out?” Greg waved some takeout menus. “There’s a great Chinese place a block away and they deliver.”

I looked up from the email I’d just gotten from David. He and Kelvan had already located Adele’s home, and they were watching that and the club while they looked for any sign that Madeline was in the city. I was so lucky to have David on my side. There was no way I could have done this without his help.

“Chinese sounds great.”

“Works for me,” Jordan said, and the boys echoed her.

We decided what to order and Greg called it in. His cell phone rang a few minutes later, and he took it into the studio and shut the door. I watched him go, wishing I knew what was going on with him. We’d gotten here around noon, and I’d spent most of the afternoon catching up with him while the others enjoyed the big TV and stocked fridge. He still hadn’t confided in me about what was bothering him, but I saw worry cross his face a few times when he thought I wasn’t looking. He hadn’t slept well either, judging by the shadows under his eyes. Twice, when I thought he was close to opening up, his cell phone rang and he left the room to talk. Both times he came back looking like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Greg had always been so strong and nothing had ever seemed to get to him. It was hard seeing him like this.

After dinner, Greg grabbed two beers from the fridge and handed me a warm sweater. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

I followed him to a set of stairs I thought led to an attic. But they actually took us to the roof where his uncle had created a pretty little patio area lit by strings of lights. I walked to the edge of the roof and looked up at the Hollywood sign in the distance. “Wow, this is amazing.”

He stood beside me and set his beer on the ledge. “It’s nothing like home, is it?”

“You’re not kidding. Have you seen what women wear to clubs here? They’d get pneumonia if they dressed like that back home.”

He laughed, and it was the first real one I’d heard from him all day. “Sara, don’t ever change.”

“I’ll always be me, but some change is good.”

“True.” He took a long drink from his beer and leaned against the ledge, looking out at the city. “I’ll never forget the day you started at St. Patrick’s. You looked so shy when you walked in with Roland, and then at lunch you ran off two guys who were messing with Jeffrey.”

I thought back to my first day of high school. “I don’t remember seeing you that day.”

He laughed deeply. “No, you didn’t, but I saw you. Everyone saw you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. You were just different. All the other girls were trying to get the guys’ attention, but you were doing everything not to be noticed. And you talked only to Roland and Peter, ignoring the rest of us.”

I made a face. “Was I really that stuck up?”

Greg laughed again. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. You just seemed content to do your own thing. What you didn’t know is that a pretty girl ignoring a bunch of high school boys is like waving a red flag at them.”

I was glad the darkness hid my blush. “I think you might be exaggerating a bit.”

“Have you ever known me to exaggerate? I couldn’t figure out what it was about you, but I wanted to get to know you.” He gave me a sideways look. “I didn’t give a shit for anyone in that school, so it shocked the hell out of me. I can still remember your face when me and Mike sat at your table. You were reading some old book and you looked like you wanted to tell us to get lost.”