“There are three hundred people here,” he said, but his tone was already shifting from reassurance to strategy. “She’s probably just socializing somewhere.”
Probably. But that cold feeling was spreading through my chest like spilled ice water.
“I’ll take the east side,” Ryker said, his lawyer brain already cataloging exit points.
“West side,” Jace confirmed.
I was already moving toward the dance floor, that chill now racing through my bloodstream. When I reached Scarlett and Faith, still laughing and twirling, their smiles died the second they saw my face.
“Where’s Dakota?” The question cut through their joy like an axe.
“What?” Faith’s brow furrowed.
“Dakota,” I snapped, crueler than I meant to be. “Did she tell you where she was going?”
The girls exchanged a look that made my stomach drop.
“She said she was going to the ladies’ room.”
Fuck.
My heart was hammering now, beating with copper and fear.
I spun around, and suddenly, the entire reception had shifted. The warm golden lighting felt harsh and glaring. Thelaughter around me turned warped and distant, like hearing sound underwater, and every face in the crowd looked wrong. Too many strangers, too many people I didn’t know or trust.
This beautiful fairy-tale wedding had just crashed into black and white with a record screech.
“What’s going on?” Blake appeared at my elbow, abandoning his bride mid-dance.
“Dakota.” I was moving through the crowd now, pushing past guests with growing desperation. “I can’t find Dakota anywhere.”
He fell into step beside me. “When did you last see her?”
“Five minutes ago. Maybe ten?” I ran a hand through my hair. How had I not been watching her? “She was at the bar with the girls.” I found Jace near the exit, his face grim. “Any luck?”
“Nothing. Tried calling her. Straight to voicemail.”
The fear was a living thing now, clawing its way up my throat.
“Ryker?” I called out as he approached.
“Nothing,” he said, but his lawyer’s mask had slipped. I could see the worry etched in the lines around his eyes. “She’s not anywhere in the venue, as far as I can tell. Even checked the bridal suite.”
“… not anywhere in the venue.”
The words hit me like a sword to my sternum. All our friends had gathered around me now: Scarlett, Faith gripping Blake’s arm, Tessa looking between us with growing alarm. Everyone was trying to keep their voices calm, their expressions hopeful.
But none of us could say out loud what I knew with sick certainty in the pit of my stomach.
Dakota wasn’t lost in the crowd.
Dakota was gone.
“Call the police,” I said, my voice barely recognizable. “Call them now.”
56
DAKOTA
