“Where is Riley?” My knuckles go white as I grip onto the doorframe because my vision has started to swim. “Please tell me she’s inside.”
Ronan’s eyes flick between me and the carnage laid bare before us, but his answering silence has me doubling over and emptying the contents of my stomach into a nearby plant pot.
“Ronan.”
He shakes his head. “She was outside; she… God, Kieran, I don’t know?—”
Suddenly, he’s moving, sprinting back through the house.
I follow behind him, and we split at the stairs, with Ronan taking the rooms on the right and me taking the left.
Inside our bedroom, I find the bed empty, and Riley’s phone is still charging on the nightstand.
I tap the screen and see countless unanswered messages from Lucy, Oscar, and Ciara. I dart into the bathroom, wondering if maybe she decided to take a bath, but it’s completely empty, and yet her robe is missing off the back of the door.
“Ronan?” I call out.
We meet at the top of the stairs and for half a breath, our eyes lock, but we both know the truth.
Riley’s not in the house.
“I’m going to check outside again.” I sprint back downstairs, and Ronan follows close behind me.
We each take a corner of the patio, but I know in my gut that Riley isn’t out here.
“Where the hell?—”
A door opens, and Ciara appears, her hair a mess and her robe hanging awkwardly over her bump as she approaches.
“What the hell is going on?” She looks between the two of us. “Where is Riley?”
Her eyes sweep over the lawn, and then her hand flies to her belly as she sways on her feet.
For a terrifying second, I think she’s going to fall, but then Ronan is at her side, wrapping an arm around her waist to keep her steady.
“I need you to go back inside. Now.”
Anything that can spike Ciara’s blood pressure isn’t good for her or the babies. She should be in bed, resting, not standing in the middle of a murder scene.
“No,” she chokes. “W-what… Riley?—”
“Ciara.” I take her by the elbow. “You do exactly what Ronan says. You need to keep those babies safe.”
My own child, on the other hand, is missing, and for all I know could already be dead along with Riley.
Ciara must read the thought on my face as she grabs my hand.
“Don’t.” She sobs as tears stream down her cheeks. “Don’t think like that, Kieran.”
“Get her inside,” I order Ronan. “I’m going to check the cameras.”
Tears stream down Ciara’s face, but I can’t look at her because in this moment, she represents everything that I might have lost.
My hands start to shake at the thought, and I can’t seem to stop them because the steadiness I trained into myself is gone, and all that’s left is dread.
I suck a breath and force my feet to move. I head along the length of the property, looking up at each of the cameras along the roofline, but each one of them has been shattered.
“Fuck.”
