I swept the entire suite, holding my breath, and finally came to the conclusion that he’d taken off. I grabbed my phone and dialed our head of security.
“Noah left our room,” I explained to Mike. “I’m not sure where he is. Can you send someone to sweep the main floors? I’ll check this one.”
“Roger that. Do you want us to send someone to help you?”
“No, I’ve got it.”
Wrong. Bad idea. For once in my life, I had to admit I needed help. I didn’t give a damn about my pride when it came to my kid’s safety.
“Actually, yeah, can you send someone to sweep up here as well? And check the security footage for me too.”
I hung up and sprinted out of the room trying to ignore the nightmare scenarios in my brain.
The biggest? Overboard.
My stomach seized at the thought.
I speed walked down the hallway, trying to keep from sounding frantic as I asked the passengers I jogged by if they’d seen an adorable towheaded boy. I didn’t want to get folks upset if there was no need. We were fine.
But every “no” made my heart pound harder.
Maybe he’d decided to go to the Kids’ Club by himself? That would definitely be the best-case scenario. I started charging in that direction, so caught up imagining all of the things that could go wrong that I careened right into the one person I didn’t want to see.
“Nina.”
I could tell she was winding up to make a crack about my clumsiness, but she stopped abruptly after scanning my face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I glanced beyond her. “Noah’s missing.”
She shifted into work mode. “Last place you saw him?”
“Our suite, about ten minutes ago.”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
Nina was half the hallway away from me by the time I finally shook out of my stupor.
“Kids’ Club first. I haven’t been in there in thirty minutes,” she said as she walked briskly.
I didn’t say anything as I followed along.
“Don’t worry, he’s okay,” she assured me. She reached back to give my arm a squeeze, barely breaking stride. “He’s a smart kid.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear.
We arrived at the doors that led into the Kids’ Club and Nina yanked it open.
“Noah, you in here?” she called out in the deserted space. “Noah?”
She covered the room quickly, going to all of the places I assumed he liked to hang out. The suspended rattan chair, the bench under one of the portholes, the nook beneath the faux tree.
“Let’s move on,” I said. “Though I have no idea where to go next.”
“The snack deck,” Nina said with a confident nod. “We did a field trip there yesterday, and he went nuts for Chef’s homemade Pop-Tarts.”
“Okay.”
