Pick up your goddamn phone!
I still couldn’t track her, and she wasn’t answering my calls or my texts, and—
My phone rang, startling me so badly I nearly dropped my mug. I set it on the nearest table and hit the “accept call” button before I’d truly processed that it wasn’t my sister calling.
“Charley?” Titus said into my ear.
“Oh, thank god.” I’d called him twice too, but it was past two in the morning. “He has Davey.” I marched across the bar again and shoved my way through the swinging doors into the kitchen, desperately trying to calm my racing pulse. To arrest the tide of unbidden worst-case-scenarios threatening to wash me out into a sea of paralyzing grief.
I could not afford to be sidelined by fear. This was the time for clear thought and decisive action: the kind of crisis I’d spent the past year and a half preparing for. I just hadn’t expected it to involve my sister.
“Who has Davey?” The slight creak of bedsprings whispered over the line, along with the rustle of fabric as he got out of bed.
“Cam Senet. We found where he lives—”
“Ifound it,” Bishop called from out front, and Austin cleared his throat, scolding him without a word.
“—but he wasn’t there. There’s a possibility that wejustmissed him—that he knew we were there—but I’m not sure yet. Either way, her bag was in his living room.”
And I took it.
I shouldn’t have—if he goes back and sees it missing, he’ll know someone was there—but I couldn’t leave her things in that monster’s house. It felt like I’d be abandoning what little I had left of her.
“She wasthere, Titus. He had her. He still has her. Iknowhe does, because she would not have left her laptop behind.”
“Were her keys in the bag?”
“Yes, but her car wasn’t there. Neither was her phone, but obviously she’s not answering.”
“Okay.” Titus sighed, and I could hear his footsteps moving softly through his massive house. He was awake and fully with me. “Let’s assume for the time being that he has it. That he’s seeing your texts. Don’t say anything to her that would clue him in.”
“I haven’t. Obviously, he can tell I’m worried that she’s not answering her phone, but that’s it.”
“Is there anything in your previous texts to her that we should worry about?”
“No. I don’t generally discuss zone business with my sister, and never via text.” As per policy for non-Pride employees.
“Good.” A soft click echoed over the line, and I heard the sharp hiss of his expensive and fully automatic espresso machine. “What do you need?”
“More hands. Eyes and ears.” I paced back into the front of the bar. “We need someone watching his place twenty-four/seven until we find him, and we may need to canvass the whole damn town. Assuming he’s even in town. Tucker’s doing his best to track him down, but we’re all working on very little sleep.”
Practically a chronic deficit.
Tucker waved off my worry on his behalf.
“Well, I won’t tell you to sleep, because I know you won’t do it. But I will send you all the help I can spare.” Titus paused. “Do you want Vance?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation on my part. “Yes, send Vance. But don’t tell him why until he gets here. I don’t want him to get himself killed speeding.”
“He already knows, and he’s on the way,” Tucker said without looking up from his screen. “I texted him half an hour ago.”
I glanced at him from across the room with a sigh. “Did you hear that?” I said into my phone.
“Of course.” Titus sounded irritated, but probably not because of Tucker’s text. He felt he should know—understandably—about any sudden traffic into and out of his zone. “I’ll make some calls and send anyone else I can spare.”
“Titus, we’re going to need Spencer.” I didn’t bother spelling out for him why we would need a triage nurse, because I was sure he understood my gravest fear.
“He’ll be on the road in less than an hour.”
